Nyanatiloka Buddhist Dictionary

insight (e.g. ditthi-ppatta, q.v.; ditthi-visuddhi, purification of insight; ditthi-sampanna, possessed of insight).Wrong or evil views (ditthi or micchá-ditthi) are declared as utterly rejectable for being a source of wrongand evil aspirations and conduct, and liable at times to lead man to the deepest abysses of depravity, as it issaid in A. I, 22:"No other thing than evil views do I know, o monks, whereby to such an extent the unwholesome things notyet arisen arise, and the unwholesome things already arisen are brought to growth and fullness. No otherthing than evil views do I know, whereby to such an extent the wholesome things not yet arisen are hinderedin their arising, and the wholesome things already arisen disappear. No other thing than evil views do I know,whereby to such an extent human beings at the dissolution of the body, at death, are passing to a way ofsuffering, into a world of woe, into hell." Further in A. I, 23: "Whatever a man filled with evil viewsperforms or undertakes, or whatever he possesses of will, aspiration, longing and tendencies, all these thingslead him to an undesirable, unpleasant and disagreeable state, to woe and suffering."From the Abhidhamma (Dhs) it may be inferred that evil views, whenever they arise, are associated withgreed (s. Tab. I. 22, 23, 26, 27).Numerous speculative opinions and theories, which at all times have influenced and still are influencingmankind, are quoted in the sutta-texts. Amongst them, however, the wrong view which everywhere, and at alltimes, has most misled and deluded mankind is the personality-belief, the ego-illusion. Thispersonality-belief (sakkáya-ditthi), or ego-illusion (atta-ditthi), is of 2 kinds: eternity-belief andannihilation-belief.Eternity-belief (sassata-ditthi) is the belief in the existence of a persisting ego-entity, soul or personality,existing independently of those physical and mental processes that constitute life and continuing even afterdeath.Annihilation-belief (uccheda-ditthi), on the other hand, is the belief in the existence of an ego-entity orpersonality as being more or less identical with those physical and mental processes, and which therefore, atthe dissolution at death, will come to be annihilated. - For the 20 kinds of personality-belief, seesakkáya-ditthi.Now, the Buddha neither teaches a personality which will continue after death, nor does he teach apersonality which will be annihilated at death, but he shows us that 'personality', 'ego', 'individual', 'man', etc.,are nothing but mere conventional designations (vohára-vacana) and that in the ultimate sense (s.paramattha-sacca) there is only this self-consuming process of physical and mental phenomena whichcontinually arise and again disappear immediately. - For further details, s. anattá, khandha,paticcasamuppáda."The Perfect One is free from any theory (ditthigata), for the Perfect One has seen what corporeality is, andhow it arises and passes away. He has seen what feeling ... perception ... mental formations ... consciousnessare, and how they arise and pass away. Therefore I say that the Perfect One has won complete deliverancethrough the extinction, fading away, disappearance, rejection and casting out of all imaginings andconjectures, of all inclination to the 'vain-glory of 'I' and 'mine." (M. 72).The rejection of speculative views and theories is a prominent feature in a chapter of the Sutta-Nipáta, theAtthaka-Vagga.The so-called 'evil views with fixed destiny' (niyata-miccháditthi) constituting the last of the 10unwholesome courses of action (kammapatha, q.v.), are the following three: (1) the fatalistic 'view of theuncausedness' of existence (ahetukaditthi), (2) the view of the inefficacy of action' (akiriyaditthi), (3)nihilism (natthikaditthi).(1) was taught by Makkhali-Gosála, a contemporary of the Buddha who denied every cause forthe corruptness and purity of beings, and asserted that everything is minutely predestined by fate.