For the Serpent

“The reason, IMO, that translators still translate Sammâ as "right" is that they still believe the Eightfold path is not transcendent; that it is a path of morality like the Ten Commandments.”


Sadly, you could not be more right. Right view does mean Seeing the Truth, directly as you experience reality. Dependent origination is very important to realize and understand. But, “right view” is not merely a philosophical framework, like having the right viewpoint about life. It is an actual seeing of truth either directly in the experience of Highest Truth, or in the case of the eightfold path, seeing the transcendent truth while living in the context of your physical life.

If people were able to see beyond the fallacy that it is quite erroneously to give a morality interpretation to everything the Buddha said, and exemplifies very little understanding of the transcendent truth. I suspect that unfortunately many beginning Buddhist’s introduction into Buddhism is like the blind leading the blind.

On the other hand, obviously, “feel good Buddhism” is what people want. And certainly it is a lot easier to just adopt a new philosophy about life, agree to follow a few simple rules, and that’s all there is to it, Enlightenment. Nothing messy like having to deal with an ultimately unknowable transcendent reality. Just reduce everything to philosophical relativisms.

But, were they to experience the Ultimate Reality directly, the Truth would illuminate the void of their lives with meaning, freedom, transcendent beauty and limitless knowledge.