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SN 45.26PTS SN 5.201 min read

An Untrue Person (2nd)

Dutiyaasappurisasutta

A bad person practices wrong eightfold path, and a worse person has wrong knowledge and wrong liberation, too; a good person is the opposite.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 45.26Linked Discourses 45.26
  • 0.23. Micchattavagga3. The Wrong Way

0.3DutiyaasappurisasuttaAn Untrue Person (2nd)

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Asappurisañca vo, bhikkhave, desessāmi, asappurisena asappurisatarañca.“Mendicants, I will teach you an untrue person and an even more untrue person,1.3Sappurisañca vo, bhikkhave, desessāmi sappurisena sappurisatarañca.a true person and an even truer person.1.4Taṁ suṇātha.Listen …

1.5Katamo ca, bhikkhave, asappuriso?And what is an untrue person?1.6Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco micchādiṭṭhiko hoti …pe… micchāsamādhi—It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion.1.7ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, asappuriso.This is called an untrue person.

2.1Katamo ca, bhikkhave, asappurisena asappurisataro?And what is an even more untrue person?2.2Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco micchādiṭṭhiko hoti …pe… micchāsamādhi, micchāñāṇī, micchāvimutti—It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom.12.3ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, asappurisena asappurisataro.This is called an even more untrue person.

3.1Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sappuriso?And what is a true person?3.2Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco sammādiṭṭhiko hoti …pe… sammāsamādhi—It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion.3.3ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, sappuriso.This is called a true person.

4.1Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sappurisena sappurisataro?And what is an even truer person?4.2Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco sammādiṭṭhiko hoti …pe… sammāsamādhi, sammāñāṇī, sammāvimutti—It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom.4.3ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, sappurisena sappurisataro”ti.This is called an even truer person.”

4.4Chaṭṭhaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. “Wrong knowledge” and “wrong freedom” and their “right” equivalents are sometimes added to the eightfold path to make ten (eg. DN 18:27.8, MN 117:35.13, AN 11.10:4.3). They are not formally defined, but it would seem that “right knowledge” is the understanding that arises when all eight path factors are complete, namely the knowledge of stream-entry; while “right freedom” is the liberation of the perfected one (however, see SN 55.26 for a counterexample). “Wrong knowledge” and “wrong freedom” fall short of that, and in particular would include cases of people who falsely believe they are enlightened and liberated.

    ↩ sn45.26:2.2