So, the interesting thing about doing these projects is that I never know what’s going to come up as I practice. This past week, what keeps coming up for me all over the place- in books, in my thoughts, on social media- is the strange overlap and distinction between Right View and the concept of orthodoxy. (Quick note: this post is a little heavy on Christian reflection, but don’t worry, the next post is going to be a little heavy on Buddhist reflection!)
Orthodoxy, by definition, means right belief. It’s primarily a word Christians use to label whether an idea or belief has been considered traditionally acceptable. What strikes me the most is how, in such contrast to the Buddhist concept of Right View, these conversations about orthodoxy are so often argumentative, rigid and defensive.
You get the feeling people are far less interested in determining what is right than they are in defending what they think is right.
Right View and right belief seem awfully close to each other, by definition. But the distinctive wording of the two really matters here. “Belief” communicates a singular entity, a solid statement. It’s primarily an intellectual position one chooses to hold. In contrast, the word “view” paints a far more expansive and inclusive picture. It takes in a wider lens, a panoramic understanding. It’s not about intellect but awareness.
Here’s another distinction: orthodoxy comes from the outside, and right view comes from the inside. Orthodoxy is determined not by human experience of the Divine but by a committee of people who decided what they thought of those human experiences, and what they thought was worth keeping. It’s reductive. It tries to make an experience into a belief. Orthodoxy also comes from the outside because it’s determined–and enforced–by external authority.
Right View begins instead from the inside. It doesn’t care about what the Buddha thought about something thousands of years ago or what the Buddha truly meant. It cares about you waking up to your awareness right here, right now.
That’s it.
No need to sign on a dotted line. No need to constantly be wary that what you say may go against some official teaching. Just be committed to staying open, seeing broadly, and accepting what you see. Amend your beliefs as necessary.
I read a story recently about a group of monks who gave their initiates a final test. They would bring up a teaching, and the monk-in-training had to come up with every argument he could think of that contradicts this teaching. As he listed them, the old monks would clap and praise him.
You can’t have Right View if you have limited view, restricted view. You can’t see truth fully if you only encounter it as a small set of intellectual declarations.
In her book Happiness Here and Now, Elizabeth West suggests that when Jesus taught, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” we can see this as affirmation for those who understand their limits (and acknowledge their suffering). The rub, of course, is that all of us are poor in spirit in this way. So a better description of this beatitude could be: blessed are those who know they are poor in spirit, and act accordingly. Because the truth is, only some of us acknowledge it, and even fewer of us accept it and live it out.
This is where the real work is.
And it’s what I think is missing in our conversations about orthodoxy. It’s definitely what’s missing in the way orthodoxy gets practiced in real time.
Where do you notice a poverty of spirit within yourself this week? Within the world?
Where can you shift from right belief to right awareness?
