A presentation this evening used Stephen Batchelor’s translation of the four noble truths and he translates sammādiṭṭhi as appropriate seeing. It seems that Stephen has a problem with right view as it intimates (by implication in the definition of the words and explicitly in commentaries), that one must subscribe to a specific viewpoint or belief in order to join the Buddhist community. I think one could successfully argue that I must accept the basic ideas around suffering, the cause of suffering and the way to end suffering in order to embrace the eightfold path and follow it to liberation; but, to blindly accept a dogma on faith is not in keeping with the teaching of the Buddha. Thus, I am sympathetic to Stephen’s position. Yet, I found myself wondering what exactly appropriate seeing meant and found the phrase just doesn’t work for me.
So, I have pondered a bit and decided what sammādiṭṭhi means for me is that I must be open to the possibility that four noble truths are true, perhaps even to accept them on faith as a working hypothesis, and I must be open minded enough to recognize the truth of my own experiences while following the eightfold path. Thus, I decided that right mindedness is a translation that works for me. I can hear the Buddha teaching: “What, monks, is right mindedness? Open-mindedness is right mindedness, oh monks. Being open to the truth of suffering, to the truth of the source of suffering, to the truth of the cessation of suffering – this is right mindedness. Believing not in the pronouncements of a guru but examining one’s own experience and being open to see the truth that is revealed by this investigation – this is right mindedness. And what is wrong mindedness? Wrong mindedness, oh monks, is narrow-minded belief in the dogma of this or that guru, in this or that view, such that one fails to investigate – this is wrong mindedness. Being close-minded to the truth revealed in one’s own investigation – this is wrong mindedness.”
Of course, along the way I had to go look at what the suttas say about sammādiṭṭhi and found the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta. Hmmm. So, tell me again what about this implied a need to blindly believe in a dogma? After all, if I don’t believe in the four noble truths, what am I doing here anyway? Then I noticed that the Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta includes a discussion of rebirth, which is a notion that Stephen is completely unable to accept. Perhaps Stephen is a bit of an existentialist and appropriate seeing is his way of saying “I believe only in what I can experience, even in the somewhat metaphysical world of meditation, and I cannot experience rebirth and reject the notion that I must believe in rebirth.”
Well, I know that my perspective changes as I practice and experience and learn; but, for now, I really like right mindedness. It creates images for me that inspire me down the path. May I be open to investigation. May I be open to seeing. May I know a calm mind, a compassionate heart, the peace of equanimity and the liberating experience of absolute truth.
