I have a great disagreement with most Buddhist monks whom do not study the meaning of words with the same fervor they take to chanting and mysticism. Assuming you understand a word and accepting it from dogma is not enlightenment, it is orthodoxy.
Right Action is the misunderstood component of the Noble Eightfold Path - towards enlightenment - that makes people assume what it means.
Samma-Kammanta which literal meaning is integral action or "right action" is the definition in question.
Integral Action - break down this concept:
Integral means "necessary and important as a part of a whole."
Action means "the process of doing something, especially when dealing with a problem or difficulty."
Right action is as confused as most monks are, what is right about any action? That action does "good"? There is no absolute good, nor evil.
To find the limit of evil is like swinging wildly into M.C. Echer's snake enigma above and only hitting one snake.
How does one determine the limits of evil when Buddhism is a personal raft built for one? No other Buddhist can judge - and when you attain deep personal awareness they cannot even advise - what is good in any other method than generalities. If killing HItler would save 6 million people, a Buddhist mustn’t kill? Does this make sense for the good of 6 million other people? Extreme examples are still within the bounds of humanity.
In fact, Zen Buddhist Samurai took the interpretation over to the other extreme in that any interpretation of killing for the greater good ( for their master, for their house, ...) isn't just acceptable, it's obligatory under the code of a samurai. It is a convenient spin by those Buddhists that find that offensive to claim they were not dedicated Buddhists made by those that would consider their interpretation not true.
To me, it would be shameful to reject the enlightenment of any one Buddhist that I don't agree with. That is intolerance.
To Zen Samurai, their interpretation is that acting for the whole, for the integrity of their community, was precisely what belief in Buddhism was for.
Action for the purpose of integrity does not mean without violence in all cases. If it can contain violence in one case, it can be contained in any case.
