On Wrong View and Doubt

revised on 2024-07-30

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Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw; 24th, 25th May 1962

Viññāṇa and citta are the same. There are more wrong views on the mind than on others (body, feeling, etc.) Therefore I give you cittānupassanā for entering the stream. All the minds arise by two causes (i.e., ārammaṇas and dvāras). The cause is anicca and the result is also anicca. Not disenchanting and not desiring anicca means forever dukkha will not cease. As a shadow arises by the mirror and person, minds are like shadows. Doubt and wrong view die by knowing cause and effect with anicca. Doubt is delusion (moha). Avijjā paccaya saṅkhāra → viññāṇam. It continues the D.A process. Therefore the Buddha said that he was afraid of doubt (not knowing the truths that saṁsāra is long). If doubt falls away by listening to talk you will not go to apāyas. If you die now you will not go there. You all only contemplate as (it vanishes, it vanishes, etc). No need to analyze them as cause and effect. This duty is finished with the teacher. After it falls away with perception (saññā) I am asking you to contemplate with paññā. Falling away with saññā is with the teacher’s exposition and it falls away with noting. If you die you will not go to apāyas for one life (i.e., next life). If it falls away with wisdom you will never go there (enter the stream).

Now, people are talking as it happens by itself and take it as non-self (anatta), i.e., not with one’s desire or nature. In reality anatta means the cause is anatta and the result is anatta. This is the real nature of anatta. If you take it as it happens by its nature it becomes ahetuka-diṭṭhi (i.e., without any causes). The cause is dukkha and the result is also dukkha. You have to analyze the causes and effects relationship with the three universal characteristics (Sayadaw continues to talk about the monk Sāti. He took the view of life that life connecting and no changing was sassata-diṭṭhi (similar to the transmigration of the soul). It was something like a gemstone (e.g., ruby) that is changing hands from hands (this talk was given in Mogok).

Connections of mind processes are the connecting of saṁsāra. The mind processes are sending it there. If the mind processes are cut off then saṁsāra is cut off. It doesn’t mean past lives were cut off. If the mind process is cut off and life to life connection is also cut off. If you have a long life with unwholesome minds then it’s a bad long life. According to the Buddha a hundred thousand humans die and only one person takes rebirth at a good destination. So if animals die there is no need to mention them. (If a being falls into apāyas it is very difficult to rise up again to a good destination).

(Tell the story of monk Sāti who had a wrong view). Regarding to the new birth one can give the example of a stamp and its mark on a paper. Here the mark is the result of the stamp. The stamp does not follow through into the mark. Here the stamp is the cause of the mark.

Only the quality of the stamp is included in the mark. Taking them as a cause and effect connection and diṭṭhi falls away. If taking them as having no connection between cause and effect then it becomes uccheda view, and following that there is sassata view. Merit also has two kinds – arriving at Nibbāna and not arriving there. After diṭṭhi falls away and one does merit, it gives the result of Nibbāna. Otherwise it’ll not arrive there. (Note: For the proper way of doing merits, see my translation of two talks in Part 7, Perform a Dāna Properly and Dāna and the Ending of Dukkha).

The monk Sāti had not abandoned his wrong view (sassata) so the Buddha reprimanded him strongly as he was far from the path and fruit and devoid of them.

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revised on 2024-07-30

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• Content of Part 16 on "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

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• Content of "Dhamma Talks by Mogok Sayadaw"

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• Content of Publications of Ven. Uttamo

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