[MD] Plain and Simple

[Marsha Valkyr]

Re:  Right


"The fourth truth of the Buddha-dharma, also known as the eightfold path, offers us a realization and a practice for bringing about the cessation of duhkha.

"This is not a path we can take to get from point A to point B.  Its peculiar nature is that the moment we step on it, the entire path is realized at once.  Still, with each step we take we can deepen our understanding.

"The eight aspects of this path are _right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation._  

"We'll preview each of these in a moment, but first let's consider the world "right."  The word the Buddha actually used was samma.  Samma is usually translated as "right" --- but not "right" as opposed to "wrong," or "bad" or "evil."  Normally, the moment we say "right," we've already implied "wrong."  We've implied dualism.

"For those unfamiliar with the term as it's being used here, dualism simply refers to the world of left and right, dark and light, good and bad, pure and impure.  It's the psychological backdrop for our everyday world of chasing after some things and running away from others,  the world in which if you differ from me, then there's something wrong with you.

"Obviously, this isn't what the Buddha meant by samma.  The term suggests something far more subtle.  It's better that we understand right as "this is appropriate," "this works," "this is in sync with Reality."  Right, on the eightfold path, doesn't mean right versus wrong so much as it means _seeing_ versus _not seeing._  It refer to being in touch with Reality as opposed to being deluded by our own prejudices, thoughts, and beliefs.  Samma refers to Wholeness rather than fragmentation.

"Thus, when I use the word "right" in the chapters to come, I intend it to refer to what is conducive to awakening, rather than something that can be compared against something wrong.

---

"The first aspect of the eightfold path is right view.  According to the Buddha, to hold onto any particular view is to freeze Reality, to try to encapsulate the world into thought.  To take a view is like taking a snapshot---you've frozen the scene right there.

"Once we hold a view, it's not long before our view will buck up against other views.  After that, the people holding the various views will file off into separate camps.  And then we start to go after each other.

"What the Buddha meant by right view isn't like this at all.  The view of a buddha isn't an ordinary, frozen view.

---

"There are those who argue that the Buddha didn't have any view whatsoever, but this is not correct.  What the Buddha meant by right view is not being caught by a particular view. It's not being caught by ideas, concepts, beliefs, opinions.

"The view of a buddha is of how things actually are---which, in light of the constant flux and flow of the world, is no one way in particular.  After all, how can things be a particular way if they are in constant motion?  How can a hard-and-fast view of a world that is never hard or fast possibly be accurate?

"It's not the particulars of the world that provide us with right view, but the world itself, as an ever-dynamic Whole.  Right view is Wholesome---that is, it's of the Whole.  It's all inclusive.  It leaves nothing out.  Such a view, by definition, does not go to war with any other view.  In fact, it cannot.  Since it's already of the dynamic world as a Whole, we can't conceive of anything that opposes it."

    (Hagen, Steve, 'Buddhism: Plain and Simple,' Tuttle Co., Inc., p.53-55)




Warm and Light Solstice Blessings to All.



Marsha








  
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