The Living Computer
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C06356
“What is worldly right view?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
To explain worldly right view (lokiya-sammā-diṭṭhi), it’s easier to explain both the worldly and the transcendent levels together.
To put it most simply, worldly right view is the view or understanding where there is still self. There is still self, but this understanding knows how to deal with the self in the best possible way for Nibbāna. So in worldly right understanding there still is some self, but it can be dealt with in the best possible way for making progress towards Nibbāna. This is the kind of right view that is called ‘sāsava,’ which means ‘still mixed up with the āsavas.’ The āsavas are the eruptions of defilements, the outflows of defilements. As long as these still exist, there will be attachment and defilement. So this is the worldly right view; it’s still mixed up with the āsavas.
Transcendent right view (lokuttara-sammā-diṭṭhi) – the right understanding that is above and beyond the world – is the thorough, complete, total understanding that everything is not-self, that there is no person, no individual, no heaven, no hell. This is the mind that is above all the worldly kinds of values and meanings. No worldly value or meaning has any influence or power over this mind, so it’s described as anāsava, without āsavas. This is the right view that is without āsavas, that has nothing to do with the āsavas. So there’re these two kinds of right view. To study them together is much easier and you’ll make better progress, so we mentioned them both together: worldly right understanding that is mixed up with the āsavas, where there’s still self; and then the transcendent right understanding that is without āsavas, where everything is understood to be not-self. To put it practically, worldly right understanding is for the sake of living in the world in the best possible way, without any problems, and transcendent right understanding is for being above the world. Worldly right understanding lets you live in the world without problems, and transcendent right understanding frees one totally from the world – one is beyond the world in all respects.
To make it even more simple, we can talk about the kind of peacefulness which is not ultimate, the peace which is not yet ultimate, which is still relative to this world, so relative peacefulness. And then there is the peacefulness which is ultimate, which is beyond the world, which isn’t relative or related to anything – it’s totally free, totally peaceful. Worldly right understanding allows us to live peacefully in the world with relative peacefulness, and transcendent right understanding allows us to experience, to discover ultimate peacefulness, or the non-relative peacefulness.
(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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