Hi Peter,

Welcome aboard this cyber ship. We are very honoured by your joining us with a
succinct and authoritative definition of sammaa.

[Those who are new should know that Peter wrote "Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism"
published in 1986. Besides his growing number of academic appointments, he has
translated the commentaries on the Petavatthu and trhe Vimaanavatthu for the Pali
Text Society.]

I read "Divine Revelation" about a decade ago, quite stimulated by it, especially
after reading the reviews by Paul Harrison (Numen 24, 2, 1987) and Charles Hallisey
(JIABS 11,1, 1988). Too bad these journals are not found in Singapore (let me know
if otherwise, please).

[Peter discuss terms relateed to sammaa in chapter 2 of his book.]

Piya.

Peter Masefield wrote:

> Sammaa and micchaa are very common Pali terms, and there really is no
> mystery about them.
>
> The real meaning of the Pali term sammaa (Sanskrit samyak) is "right" in
> the sense of "proper", and is usually glossed in the commentaries by
> hetunå (with (good) cause, reasonable, etc.and thus, by extension,
> perhaps "factual"), ~naayena (in the right/correct manner, etc.) and
> avipariita.m (unequivocal, incontravertible).
>
> This sense is also illustrated by its opposite, micchaa (Sanskrit
> mithyaa), which means "wrong", or "incorrect".
>
> So sammaadi.t.thi is "right/correct" view, i.e. seeing things properly
> (and as they really are--yathaabhuuta.m), as opposed to micchaadi.t.thi,
> "wrong/incorrect" view, i.e. not seeing things properly (or as they
> really are).
>
> Peter Masefield.
>
>
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