Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Related Discourses

2. The Sense Fields

（二〇二） 云何我見斷 75 (202). How to End Views about Self
如是我聞： 一時，佛住舍衛國、祇樹、給孤獨園。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.
時，有異比丘往詣佛所。 稽首佛足，白佛言： 「世尊，云何知、云何見次第我見斷，無我見生？」 2. There was then a certain monk who paid a visit to the Buddha. He bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet and said, “Bhagavān, knowing and seeing what will successively end views about self and produce the view of no self?”
佛告彼比丘： 「於眼正觀無常。 若色、眼識、眼觸、眼觸因緣生受，若苦、若樂、不苦不樂，彼亦正觀無我。 如是⋯乃至⋯意觸因緣生受，若苦、若樂、不苦不樂，彼亦正觀無我。 比丘，如是知、如是見次第我見斷，無我見生。」 3. The Buddha told that monk, “Correctly contemplate the eye as being no self.2 Whether it’s form, visual awareness, visual contact, or painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise as a result of visual contact, they are correctly contemplated as being no self. Thus … up to … painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise as a result of mental contact, they are correctly contemplated as being no self, too. Monk, knowing and seeing in this way will successively end views of self and produce the view of no self.”
時，彼比丘聞佛所說歡喜。 歡喜已，作禮而去。 4. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, that monk who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced. Having rejoiced, he bowed and departed.

Notes

  1. This is sūtra no. 202 in the Taisho edition and no. 253 in Yinshun (T99.2.51c29-2a9). This sūtra is similar to SN 35.165-167 in that a certain monk asks how to know and see in order to end wrong views. These three Pali suttas differ only in the wording of his question. Two of them use synonyms for self view, namely P. sakkāyadiṭṭhi and attānudiṭṭhi. In this sūtra a monk asks about ending views about self and producing the view of no self, which agrees with attānudiṭṭhi. [back]

  2. no self. The Taisho here reads “impermanent” (無常). In SN 35.165-167, each sutta characterizes the senses as impermanent. Here, the Chinese translation begins with “impermanent” but switches to “being no self” after this first sentence. There appears to be a copyist error here, but which is correct? In the Pali parallels (SN 35.165-7), the reading is “impermanent” rather than “not self”. Yinshun chose to follow the switch to “no self” that follows this sentence and amended 無常 to 無我 here. I’ve followed his reading, but I am not certain at all which is correct, given the reading in Pali. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 30 January 2025

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