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False Views

Glossary

In the sutras, the formula of wrong view (natthika-diṭṭhi) is regularly encountered - ten points that the Buddha calls false views (MN41, 60, 76, 110, 117). What views, monks?

“There is no given, no offered, no donated” The fruit of generosity (1) is denied: a gift is just a transfer of property, it does not purify the mind and does not form good kamma. “Offered” (2) refers to gifts to the worthy: the Sangha, the teacher, a person of high morality. Allegedly, neither the intention of the giver nor the qualities of the recipient mean anything. “Donated” (3) refers to ritual gifts: nothing done out of faith or reverence has a moral result.

“There is no fruit and result of good and bad actions” (4) This point is about the denial of the law of kamma. Murder and lies do not lead to bad consequences precisely as immoral acts; generosity and honesty do not bring good ones precisely as moral ones. Social consequences can be recognized by such a person, i.e., a thief will be imprisoned, a generous person will be loved. The internal moral causality that works independently of human laws and others’ opinions is denied.

“There is no this world (5), no other world (6)” There is no afterlife, no rebirth. It is denied that beings come here from a past existence and go to the next one. There is only one random life between birth and death.

“There is no mother (7), no father” (8) Biological parents are not abolished by anyone. The moral weight of these relationships is denied: taking care of parents is not good kamma, cruelty to them is not a particularly serious act. In the Buddhist tradition, everything is the opposite: parents give life and introduce to the world, therefore, helping them is one of the most fruitful actions, and harm is one of the most serious. The debt to parents is unpaid, only help in their meeting with Dhamma can repay it.

“There are no beings born spontaneously” (9) Sattā opapātikā - beings that arise from the Buddhist point of view immediately in a new form, without conception and gradual development: devas, inhabitants of hells, some spirits. Their denial is the denial of planes of existence inaccessible to ordinary perception: there is only visible biological life.

“There are no righteous recluses and brahmans who have themselves known this world and another through direct knowledge” (10) Here, the very possibility of direct spiritual knowledge (abhiññā) is denied: no one can see past lives, rebirth of beings according to their actions, and other worlds through experience. Whoever claims such knowledge is mistaken or deceiving. That is, there are not only no other worlds but also no reliable witnesses.

Combining everything into a single picture: False, from the point of view of Buddhism, views are views that a person is a temporary physical being, death is a complete end, actions have no consequences beyond obvious social effects, and choices in the past do not affect life in the present. Accordingly, if moral actions lead to nothing, then the grounds for refraining from evil when no one sees, being generous without benefit, taking care of parents, purifying the mind, etc. disappear. This inevitably closes the possibility of advancing along the Great Eightfold Path. When cultivating such views, unwholesome states increase, and wholesome ones decrease.