The Eighth Lesson

Note On Terminology: The word so often translated "Right" has several problems that are avoided by the term 'High' which is used here.

The Pali word is sammā. sa = one amma = nursing, mothering. I will leave to the imagination how the real meaning comes to be summit (in the US we have a mountain range named by the French that will help you figure that one out.).

The closest we could come to "right" understanding it this way is "consummate." But 'high' is better for this reason: the state to be attained throughout the Magga is that of detachment. 'Right' is a concept fraught with attachments. It is right and all else is wrong, whereas in the Magga it is High and all else is lower or contrary, and even that is relative to the goal.

A thing with two sides like 'Right' and 'Wrong' cannot be abandoned — those in the "wrong" will never let go because they do not believe they are in the wrong, those 'in the right' are hanging on to those in the wrong for their understanding of their own stance. On the other hand, if you will imagine yourself with the ability to soar, reaching the summit is a place from which complete detachment is attainable.

Furthermore, while there might be some justification for the use of the word 'right' (shy of it's moralistic overtones) if one attributes its derivation to sama = even = straight = upright = right (and there is your progression from a carpenters term to a moralists term) (and certainly the two words are closely related), there is absolutely no justification for using 'Wrong' as it's opposite (which is the problem with 'Right' that makes me want to use another word — very high moral behavior can be seen from the Buddhist view as miccha. Miccha in no way comes to 'Wrong', it means 'opposite,' or 'contrary' and there is even some justification for the term I prefer, 'low' in the meaning of mi = small, miniscule, 'Wee.' Even a contrary way of behaving can be the right way to behave, depending on the view held. (... the right way to kill a man ...) whereas high behavior, if followed, leads one ever upward from whatever starting point he may occupy.

What many are calling the 'Noble Eightfold Path', the 'Ariya Atthangika Magga,' I call the Aristocratic Multi-dimensional HighWay.

Ariya = is most closely related to English "Aristocratic". So 'Noble' is ok, but it is awkward to use this term to describe one who has attained the goal: Arahatta; or for one who is a student of the Ariya. If we understand the reference is to a genuine sort of aristocracy, an aristocracy of the mind, then we can state the goal as becoming an Aristocrat.

Atthangika: Attha = eight, for sure, but also "unlimited," [turn the 8 on it's side].

Originally the Aristocrats only counted up to three. For heavy duty counting, they had accountants who could count up to a nahutam (1 with 28 zeros).

All the numbers up past three began their life as meaning "a whole bunch," and that is the case with eight.

This is important when we read the suttas and find that a good number of times the eightfold path has ten folds (adding High Knowledge and High Freedom — I use High Vision and High Detachment — to the usual eight).

Studying the Magga further reveals that each of the folds, or dimensions, is a complete path to detachment in and of itself, and, further, digging into the sub definitions of each of the terms, one will find that there are a limitless number of loopings back, such as is most clearly seen here in the Satipatthana, which ends with the Eightfold Path which includes Sati, (or the state arrived at by the practice of 'satipatthana,' 'the setting-up of memory') and so forth.

Thus we are best guided by at least knowing the meaning of 'eightfold' to be 'multi' or 'limitless'.

Angika = angled, dimensioned, as in the arm bent at the elbow, the leg bent at the knee, or a 'crooked' thumb or bent finger, or the limb of a tree — which angles off the trunk (kkhandha).

Note On Terminology:

What some are calling 'action,' and the rest call 'livelihood,' is here called "works."

'Kammanta' is, like most of the other important Pali words, really a manta, a magic charm that when repeated and studied reveals its inner meanings as well as it's mula: it's root. The roots here are kamma = karma or making, as in weaving and in doing deeds; manta = magic charms, or, 'works'; and kammanta = commerce, or, work. Thus my multi dimensional "Works."

At the first level we do not need to debate the meaning of 'Kammmanta', it is spelled out for us in the many suttas that give the Magga in detail.