[Qutlsilh]

Yet, the mundane path-factors would certainly also merit being reckoned as “factors of the path”.

In my experience, what is written above has no basis in the Nikayas. The "path" is the path to Nibbana and not the path to "Brahma" or to "heaven".

The mundane factors are described as follows:

'There is what is given, what is offered, what is sacrificed. There are fruits & results of good & bad actions. There is this world & the other world. There is mother & father. There are spontaneously reborn beings; there are priests & contemplatives who, faring rightly & practicing rightly, proclaim this world & the other after having directly known & realized it for themselves.'

Maha-cattarisaka Sutta: The Great Forty The Buddha never taught these factors are the path to Nibbana.

For example, about action (kamma), the Buddha distinguished good & bad kamma from the supramundane cessation of kamma, i.e., the Noble Eightfold Path.

And what is the cessation of kamma? From the cessation of contact is the cessation of kamma; and just this noble eightfold path — right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration — is the path of practice leading to the cessation of kamma.

Nibbedhika Sutta: Penetrative About mother & father, on the supramundane level, the Buddha taught:

294. Having slain mother (craving), father (self-conceit), two warrior-kings (eternalism and nihilism), and destroyed a country (sense organs and sense objects) together with its treasurer (attachment and lust), ungrieving goes the holy man.

Dhammapada About "beings", on the supramundane level, the Buddha taught there are no "beings":

Why now do you assume 'a being'?
Mara, have you grasped a view?
This is a heap of sheer constructions:
Here no being is found.

Just as, with an assemblage of parts,
The word 'chariot' is used,
So, when the aggregates are present,
There's the convention 'a being.'

It's only suffering that comes to be,
Suffering that stands and falls away.
Nothing but suffering comes to be,
Nothing but suffering ceases.

Vajira Sutta: Vajira Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for form, Radha: when one is caught up there, tied up there, one is said to be 'a being.'

"Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for feeling... perception... fabrications...

"Any desire, passion, delight, or craving for consciousness, Radha: when one is caught up there, tied up there, one is said to be 'a being.'

"Just as when boys or girls are playing with little sand castles: as long as they are not free from passion, desire, love, thirst, fever, & craving for those little sand castles, that's how long they have fun with those sand castles, enjoy them, treasure them, feel possessive of them. But when they become free from passion, desire, love, thirst, fever, & craving for those little sand castles, then they smash them, scatter them, demolish them with their hands or feet and make them unfit for play.

"In the same way, Radha, you too should smash, scatter, & demolish form, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for form.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish feeling, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for feeling.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish perception, and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for perception.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish fabrications, and make them unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for fabrications.

"You should smash, scatter, & demolish consciousness and make it unfit for play. Practice for the ending of craving for consciousness — for the ending of craving, Radha, is Nibbana."

Satta Sutta: A Being About priests & contemplatives, on the supramundane level, the Buddha did not recommend the blind faith recommended in the mundane right view:

Yet bhikkhus, you who know and see thus would you say, we have reverence for the Teacher. We say it out of reverence to the Teacher?

No, venerable sir.

Yet bhikkhus, you who know and see thus would you say. Our recluse said it, these are the recluse's words. We do not say that?

No, venerable sir.

Bhikkhus, you who know and see thus would you seek another teacher?

No, venerable sir.

Bhikkhus, you who know and see thus, would you see essence in religious rites, ceremonies and festivals of other recluses and brahmins?

No, venerable sir.

Bhikkhus, isn't it that you by youself knowing, seeing and experiencing say it?

Yes, venerable sir.

Good! O! bhikkhus, I have led you up in this Teaching. It is here and now. Time does not matter. It is open to inspection, leads to the beyond and is to be experienced by the wise, by themselves. Bhikkhus, if it was said the Teaching is here and now. Time does not matter, is open to inspection, leads to the beyond and is to be realised by the wise by themselves, it was said on account of this.

MN 38 In short, the dismissal in the essay of the supramundane & mundane dichotomy appears tenuous.