What Is Right?

‘Right’ comes from the word for straight line, not crooked. In other words, direct, without deviating.

Right: Old English, related to Latin rectus ‘ruled’, from an Indo-European root denoting movement in a straight line.

Once we know what is right or direct, we know when a deviation occurs. The only undeviating right is pure consciousness; it is direct seeing, before it is bent by interpretation. In the first instant of seeing, which is pure consciousness, we are all right – happy!

But then, we try to interpret ourselves, creating ideas, beliefs and assumptions, and so we deviate from just seeing. In knowing what is right, confidence arises, and we have no need to argue with others’ interpretations.

Right seeing is recognising that our right life is our right karma on the right path to enlightenment.