Transcendent Right View

Right view con­form­ing to tran­scen­dence stems from wise reflec­tion, which plays an essen­tial role. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the behav­iour of unawak­ened per­sons is dic­tat­ed by val­ues instilled by soci­ety, for exam­ple to abstain from spe­cif­ic kinds of bad behav­iour and to per­form spe­cif­ic kinds of good actions, accord­ing to mod­el teach­ings, instruc­tions, trans­mis­sions, and edicts. When­ev­er unawak­ened per­sons do not fall under the sway of such social­ly instilled val­ues, they fall sub­ject to crav­ing (taṇhā), which today is referred to as ‘emo­tions.’ Wise reflec­tion helps to free a per­son from the influ­ence of social val­ues and from the enslave­ment by men­tal defile­ment, and it engen­ders a free­dom of behav­iour guid­ed by wis­dom. In sum, when a per­son thinks or acts with­out the pres­ence of wise reflec­tion, if he does not suc­cumb to exter­nal social val­ues then he falls under the pow­er of his own crav­ing. When one pos­sess­es tran­scen­dent right view, how­ev­er, one is tru­ly lib­er­at­ed from the influ­ence and pow­er of society.

From chap­ter 19 of Bud­dhad­ham­ma, on the path fac­tors of wis­dom, by Ven­er­a­ble Phra Payutto