4:12 The Lesser Array
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('â', Whoever knows this, understands Dhamma. Whoever rejects this, is imperfect.â Thus quarreling, they dispute: ),
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('â', My opponentâs a fool & unskilled.â Which of these statements is true when all of them say they are skilled?" "If, in not accepting an opponentâs doctrine, oneâs a fool, a beast of inferior discernment, then all are fools of inferior discernment— all of these who dwell on their views. But if, in siding with a view, oneâs cleansed, with discernment made pure, sensible, skilled, then none of them are of inferior discernment, for all of them have their own views. I donât say, ),
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('â', Thatâs how it is,â the way fools tell one another. They each make out their views to be true and so regard their opponents as fools." "What some say is true —âThatâs how it isâ— others say is ),
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('â', falsehood, a lie.â Thus quarreling, they dispute. Why canât contemplatives say one thing & the same?" "The truth is one,1 there is no second about which a person who knows it would argue with one who knows. Contemplatives promote their various own truths, thatâs why they donât say one thing & the same." "But why do they say various truths, those who say they are skilled? Have they learned many various truths or do they follow conjecture?" "Apart from their perception there are no many various constant truths in the world.2 Theorizing conjectures with regard to views, they speak of a pair: true & false. Dependent on whatâs seen, heard, & sensed, dependent on habits & practices, one shows disdain [for others]. Taking a stance on his decisions, praising himself, he says, ),
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('â', My opponentâs a fool & unskilled.â That by which he regards his opponents as fools is that by which he says he is skilled. Calling himself skilled, he despises another who speaks the same way. Agreeing on a view gone out of bounds, drunk with conceit, imagining himself perfect, he has consecrated, with his own mind, himself as well as his view. If, by an opponentâs word, oneâs inferior, the opponentâs of inferior discernment as well. But if, by oneâs own word oneâs an attainer-of-knowledge, enlightened, no one among contemplatives is a fool. ),
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('â', Those who approve of a doctrine other than this are lacking in purity, imperfect.â Thatâs what the many sectarians say, for theyâre smitten with passion for their own views. ),
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('â', Only here is there purity,â thatâs what they say. ),
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('â', In no other doctrine is purity,â they say. Thatâs how the many sectarians are entrenched, speaking firmly there concerning their own path. Speaking firmly concerning your own path, what opponent here would you take as a fool? Youâd simply bring strife on yourself if you said your opponentâs a fool with an impure doctrine. Taking     a stance on your decisions, & yourself as your measure, you dispute further down into the world. But a person whoâs abandoned all decisions creates no strife in the world." vv. 878–894 Notes 1. "The truth is one": This statement should be kept in mind throughout the following verses, as it forms the background to the discussion of how people who theorize their conjectures speak of the pair, true and false. The Buddha is not denying that there is such a thing as true and false, or that some statements correspond more truly to reality than others. He avoids defending his own teachings in debates, not because there are many different truths, but because—as he says in Sn 4:8, the purpose of debates is not to arrive at truth but to gain praise. In this way, it encourages the debater to get entrenched in his views. All entrenched views, regardless of how true or false their content might be, behave in line with the truth of conditioned phenomena as explained in the preceding sutta. They lead to conceit, conflict, and states of becoming. When they are viewed in this way—as events in a causal chain rather than as true or false depictions of other events (or as events rather than signs)—the tendency to hold to or become entrenched in them is diminished. This allows for a practitioner to hold to the truths of right view for the sake of putting an end to suffering and stress, and then to put aside any attachment to those truths once they have performed their duty. On this point, see MN 22 and AN 10:93, and the essay, "Truths with Consequences." 2. On the role of perception in leading to conflicting views, see the preceding sutta. - --> - - - -