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THE EVILS AND DANGERS OF
THE SOUL VIEW OR HERESY OF SELF

(Continued from December, 1957 issue. )

Samanera U Pandita
Ye Ngone Kyaung, Yan Kin Taung.

Vol. III, No. 1, 1958


     For the common worldling (who although, as a result of noble pure or high meritorious deeds done or acquired in previous lives) may be reborn in and enjoying the celestial estate or bliss of the highest heaven.

     Yet due to the inherent tendency towards Egoism or the attachment or adherence to the delusive notion or concept of a permanent soul, ego or self firmly implanted in this mind and which he is unable to shed, eradicate or relinquish upon the breaking up or dissolution of the aggregates of life of his present state of existence either today or tomorrow he is liable to be reborn in the lowest hell or some degraded, depraved form of existence may be his next destination.

     His future reinstatement or existence is uncertain, and inevitably bound up with perdition subject and doomed to the danger of hell fire destruction and perdition. So great are the evils and dangers consequent on or resulting from the adherence to the soul view or the delusion of self.

     Today in this present life, he may be a most intelligent, wise and profoundly learned, erudite scholar, an adept, thoroughly proficient in great lore and learning and virtuous, or a paragon of virtue; tomorrow, when he departs from this life; he may be reborn an idiot, a fool, an ignoramus or as a clown, man, joker or lunatic. Such is the extent and degree or gloss nature of the evils that can ensure from the firm belief and attachment to this false perverted view or heresy of a permanent soul, entity or an immortal ego principle supposed to be inherent in the life personality.

     In this present life, although he may be a monk, recluse or hermit possessed of wonderful miraculous or great occult psychic powers or endowed with abnormal or supernormal faculties (as Abhinna and Iddhis) capable of flying through the air or floating in levigation and walking or gliding over water, as if on dry land; or cleaving and passing through the solid earth; and through walls, mountains or gross solid physical objects, even through the bowels of this great earth, diving down and cleaving through its mighty cavernous depths; at will, and capable of soaring up above into space, as far as the realm of Brahma, and even handle manipulate or wield the sun and the moon, with ease, or from being single he is capable of appearing in diverse or manifold forms.

     But even though he may be a monk or recluse exercising such great and miraculous powers (due to the presence or inherence of the ego delusion or the clinging to the belief or heresy of an immortal, permanent soul or self) he is subject liable after death to perdition or to the doom, danger and destruction of Hell fire. He is doomed and destined on his death to sink into some depraved retrogressive form of life or existence, he is liable to revert retrograde into the form and condition of a bug and gnat, or fly or into that of a louse; flea or insect or into some such mean base depraved form of life as a result of the Ego delusion persisting and inhering or deeply and firmly planted; rooted in his mind which he is as yet incapable of extirpating or uprooting.

     As long as the benighted, deluded, blinded minds of worldlings or worldly beings creatures are not rid or freed from but are entangled within the clutches or grips of Egoism, such beings are (as the result of its influence) liable to commit the worst evils, sins and crimes the foulest, monstrous and blackest under the sun, and even to the extent of committing such wrongs and evils as the five great unpardonable capital sins or heinous offences. They are (1) Causing the blood of a Tathagata (Buddha) to flow or shedding the blood of a Buddha; (2) Slaying or causing the death of an Arahant or fully perfected pure passionless Saint; (3) Slaughter of one's mother or Matricide; (4) Slaughter of one's father or Patricide (5) Causing factions, dissensions and schisms in the order of the Sangha.

     Of all sins, crimes and evils the destruction or slaughter of life whether for, or in war, game, sport or trade, is the worst evil and of this the slaying of an Arahant; true saint or of one's parents is the everest point or highest and grossest height or point of evil, that can ever be committed by man the consequences of which are endless suffering of the most horrible agonies and agonizing pains, woes and tortures in the lowest region of the infernal realms known as Maha Avicci.

     The Ego delusion has a potentiality or power capable of pitching or hurling a man into committing such sins and consequently into such horrible states of suffering, woes and miseries as are only to be experienced in the lowest hell worlds; by its infernal inhabitants the denizens brutes, monsters and demons expiating there as a result of their gross misdeeds; during previous bygone lives; for endless aeons world cycles 'Kabas' and Asankhiyas a vast measure of time which makes the astronomer's light years seem insignificant and as nothing.

     There is nothing so pernicious, delusive and absurd in the world as the acceptance of and adherence to false doctrines creeds untruths and half truths, as the belief in the soul view, the attachment to the creatorist view or the concept of a personal God Creator as creating, and sustaining this Universe and the Universe and Soul as being the products of a special divine creation. According to Buddhism, there are three great permanent perversions or heresies false view known as the Niyata Miccha Ditthi. These are Natthika Ditthi, Ahetuka Ditthi and Akiriya Ditthi. These are the three principal perversions or types of views held by the heretical sects and the leaders before and during the Buddha's life time.

     Akiriya Ditthi is the view that denies the effects, fruits or results of deeds, good or had favourable or unfavourable. It means that all deeds, whatever, done by conscious beings creatures good or evil, right or wrong, pure or impure, noble or base, fair or foul, virtuous or vicious arc fruitless and of no consequence i.e. null and void. Such was the view held by the leader Nayaka of the heretical sects Purana Kassapa, one of the great heretical leaders during Buddha's time.

     Ahetuka Ditthi is the view which denies the existence of the Causes and facts of Good and Evil, Virtue and Vice, or Moral Right and Wrong. It means in effect that the state, form, nature and condition, wherein all beings creatures are born or placed, are causeless or without any proper assignable cause or reason to account for the facts of the diversity or variation of or difference in form, nature state temperament or intelligence and the varied states of fate and fortune, among living conscious beings, creatures but are just fortuitous haphazard; or a matter of blind chance or accident of just haphazard fortuitous events and that there is no such cause or reason as good or evil Kamma as accountable or assignable cause. This was the view expounded and held by Makkhali Gosala of the Cow-pen.

     Natthika Ditthi is the complete denial of the consequences of good or evil Kamma and states the view that the world with all living creatures, beings, therein just arises and appears as a matter of chance which views the world and all events therein as the result of blind chance or accident or as haphazard mere fortuitous events, and that when the living beings creatures die or life ceases to function that is the final end of all. This view is rank materialism and purely Nihilistic; exactly what those who follow Marxism adopt so that according to this view they believe and hold that there is no benefit or good in alms giving, charity and virtue. It is a complete denial of Kamma, Rebirth and the after-life, as well as a total negation or denial of the moral mative order and responsibility or consequences of deeds. This is the view held and expounded by the Leader of the Heretical Sect, Ajjitakesakambala and there is nothing new or novel about it.

     Now according to Buddhism, the acceptance or belief in any one of these three principal perversions or false views, amount to the acceptance of all three, and as a consequence of cleaving to these heresies or perversions, a person or being who so accepts these false views is consigned or destined to the Lowest Hell in the infernal realms subject to the most horrible agonies, woes and sufferings for endless countless aeons, world systems, world cycles, or vast immeasurable periods.

     And even during the periodic world destruction or conflgaration, there is no chance or hope of release therefrom but he has to suffer out expiate the consequences of adherence to these views, in some other hell world in another universe or world system. Now so long as one is not free from the Ego delusion personality view or the heresy of Soul or permanent self, one is liable at any period of existence to fall under the sway or influence of the aforementioned three principal perversions or evil views known as "Niyata Miccha Ditihi".

     The Sassata Ditthi or the Eternalistic view or error of those who say and believe that the world life principle and soul are eternal, immoral and continues beyond death.

     The Uccheda Ditthi the Annihilationist view or thoso who fall under the Annihilationist error, and who believe and affirm that the world principle (jiva) and the soul (atta) are not eternal and that they do continue beyond death.

     Both these heresies or false view result also from, and are rooted consequently in the basic, fundamental, or principal fallacy perversion or heresy of soul. But with the dawning of the Insightt-knowledge or the perfect grasp and thorough comprehension of the law, chain, cycle process of conditioned dependent, causal origination clears, dispels and banishes all doubts, uncertainty and delusion, regarding the actual, true nature of the world, life and all phenomena.

     The Paticca Samuppada is the only solution discovered and given taught by the Buddha, which can clear and wipe out the intricate tangle or thicket of false view concepts and theories mentioned above. So long as the mind is entangled in this net or web of Delusion and held in bondage under the baneful evil influence of these views, one is liable at any moment, consequently to fall into any kind of wrong misdeeds, error and to corn any form of sin under the sun, no matter however great, gross, foul, black and wicked or heinous. There is no end to the amount to evil one is capable of committing or to which one cannot fall a victim. Such are evils and dangers of the Heresy or Delusion of Self.



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