Mundane and Supramundane Right View

Directly perceiving the workings of karma and rebirth were very much involved in the Buddha’s awakening. They were also a major element in the Buddha’s explanation of right view, the first part of the noble eightfold path. However, there are two different types of right view, and only the first deals with karma and rebirth. There is mundane right view dealing with the unfolding of conditions pertaining to karma and rebirth; but beyond that is the supramundane right view that comes from awakening to the unconditioned.

“Therein, monks, right view comes first. And how does right view come first? One understands wrong view as wrong view and right view as right view: this is one’s right view.

“And what, monks, is wrong view? ‘There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed; no fruit or result of good and bad actions; no this world, no other world; no mother, no father; no beings who are reborn spontaneously; no good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have realized for themselves by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world.’ This is wrong view.

“And what, monks, is right view? Right view, I say, is twofold: there is right view that is affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening on the side of attachment; and there is right view that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path.

“And what monks, is right view that is affected by the taints, partaking of merit, ripening on the side of attachment? ‘There is what is given and what is offered and what is sacrificed; there is fruit and result of good and bad actions; there is this world and the other world; there is mother and father; there are beings who are reborn spontaneously; there are in the world good and virtuous recluses and brahmins who have realized for themselves by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world.’ This is right view affected by taints, partaking of merit, ripening on the side of attachment.

“And what, monks, is right view that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path? The wisdom, the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the investigation-of-states enlightenment factor, the path factor of right view in one whose mind is noble, whose mind is taintless, who possesses the noble path and is developing the noble path: this is right view that is noble, taintless, supramundane, a factor of the path.

“One makes an effort to abandon wrong view and to enter upon right view: this is one right effort. Mindfully one abandons wrong view, mindfully one enters upon and abides in right view: this is one’s right mindfulness. Thus these three states run and circle around right view, that is right view, right effort, and right mindfulness.” (MN 117: 4-9, see Middle Length Discourse of the Buddha, pp. 934-935)

The description of wrong view and the two types of right view in this discourse are rather cryptic. In order to understand them, let’s break down the different elements of right and wrong view in the mundane sense. There are six statements that are negated in wrong view and affirmed in mundane right view. Here is what they mean:

(1) The statement “there is what is given and what is offered and what is sacrificed,” refers to the conviction that it is meritorious to be generous, especially when it promotes the general welfare, supports the virtuous or is in the service of wholesome spiritual cultivation. “There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed” refers to the denial that generosity, offerings, and sacrifices generate any karmic merit that will someday come to fruition.

(2) The statement, “there is fruit and result of good and bad actions,” refers to the conviction that actions have consequences that can even have repercussions beyond this present lifetime. In recognition of this we should take responsibility for our actions. This is a very straightforward assertion of karma, or the law of cause and effect insofar as moral action is concerned. “No fruit or result of good and bad actions” is a denial of the law of karma, a denial that there will necessarily be consequences reflective of the moral quality of our intentional actions.

(3) The statement, “there is this world and the other world,” refers to the conviction that there is an afterlife, that there are other worlds such as the heavens and hells wherein beings can be reborn after they die. “No this world, no other world” is a nihilistic denial of the reality and importance of this life and the afterlife.

(4) The statement “there is mother and father,” means that we acknowledge our parents with gratitude and respect, for at the very least they brought us into the world and were an important part of our formative process. If we cannot even feel grateful for that, for whatever reasons, at the very least we should recognize the causal links that constantly bring our parents and ourselves together until they are resolved. “No mother, no father” is a denial that parents should receive any special care or consideration.

(5) The statement, “there are beings who are reborn spontaneously,” refers to the conviction that there are forms of existence which do not undergo the physical process of birth, infancy and childhood, especially those in the myriad heavens and hells of the Vedic cosmology. “No beings who are reborn spontaneously” is a denial that there are any such beings as the spontaneously generated beings who inhabit the heavens and hells.

(6) The statement, “there are in the world good and virtuous recluses and brahmins who have realized for themselves by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world,” refers to the conviction that there are wise and virtuous people who have directly observed the workings of karma and rebirth by attaining recall of their own past lives and the divine eye that enables them to see the past lives and rebirths of other sentient beings. “No good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have realized for themselves by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world” is the denial that there could be such people or such direct knowledge of karma and rebirth. Note that the good and virtuous recluses and brahmins are not buddhas or arhats, but simply those who have attained the first two types of true knowledge, which is enough for direct knowledge of karma and rebirth, but not sufficient for enlightenment and the total freedom from the taints that comes with the third type of true knowledge and is synonymous with supramundane right view.

None of these things can be proven, except perhaps through the direct knowledge provided by meditation and even that can be doubted as mere subjective delusion. However, these were beliefs which were the foundation for the morality and ethics of the society in which Shakyamuni Buddha was living. The law of karma and its ability to operate from one lifetime to another was especially important, as noted above, because it was the one that gave force to the other beliefs. The Buddha and those of his contemporaries who also accepted that there is a law of karma and a cycle of rebirth insisted that we are indeed held accountable for our actions for better or worse and that morality is not just a human invention but the recognition of the very structure of life itself.

Note that while the mundane right view pertaining to the workings of karma is better than wrong view and guides the accumulation of merit that leads to rebirth in better circumstances, it is still tainted by self-interest and attachment to the perpetuation of a self. Only the supramundane right view that deals with the unconditioned beyond the unfolding of causes and conditions can lead to disentanglement from karma and rebirth. So the acceptance of mundane right view is a necessary step, but still only a preliminary step on the way to the liberating right view uniquely taught by the Buddha.