Samyutta Nikaya: Khandhavagga Ditthisamyutta (III-24)

 

1: The oddly-phrased statement: “The winds do not blow, the rivers do not flow, pregnant women do not give birth, the moon and sun do not rise and set but stand as steady as a pillar.”

 

This implies permanence, which would imply some kind of soul or atman—by its unchangeability it acquires a doctrine of self.

 

Bhikkhu Bodhi brings up a late Ajivaka doctrine that states change to be illusory, whereas all is really permanent. Definitely a wrong view from the Dharma standpoint.

 

2: The 15-line meditation.

 

3: Introduces a (false) eternalist view, said to be caused by investing the aggregates with self.

 

4: Introduces a (false) annihilationist view, using the same template as #3.

 

5: The absolute nihilist point of view of Kessambali. What’s interesting is that taken out of context it sounds almost like prajnaparamita in that there are negations of everything including negation—but it is not stated as a transcendental truth, but a mundane one.

 

6: Purana Kassapa’s doctrine on the inefficacy of action. No merit accrued by giving, no outcome of evil. Seems to be a kind of predestination.

 

7: Doctrine of non-causality (Makkhali Gosala): there is no cause or condition for defilment or purity. This is even more strongly pre-destination.

 

8: This collection of views—the seven bodies, modes of generation, different kinds of karma, and on an on into an increasingly absurd set of lists—appears to be taken at least in part from the Ajivakas.

 

9 – 18: Various false views set to the same template:

 

The world is eternal

The world is not eternal

The world is finite

The world is infinite

Soul and body are the same

Soul and body are different

Tathagata exists

Tathagata does not exist

Tathagata both exists and does not exist

Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist

 

19: The same odd eternalist/substantive view of #1.

 

20 – 44: Mostly repeats. 37 – 44 discuss various false views of the nature of self:

 

consisting of form/formless/both/neither

happy/miserable/both/neither

 

45 – 70: repeat 19 – 44 using a slightly different template.

71 – 96: repeat 19 – 44 as well, with again a slightly different template.