The Six Views That Bind
On Self, No-Self, and Everything In Between
The text in the image presents one of the most subtle and profound teachings in all of Buddhism—a teaching not about what to believe, but about the danger of believing anything as “true and established” when it comes to the nature of self.
It is drawn from the Buddha’s analysis of the uninstructed worldling (assutavā puthujano)—the person who has not yet seen through the illusion of self. And it lists six kinds of wrong view (micchā diṭṭhi) that can arise regarding self and not-self.
The Six Views
“atthi me attā” ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati
1. The view “I have a self” arises in him as true and established.
This is the most common view—eternalism, the belief in a permanent, unchanging, independent self that owns experience and continues beyond death. It is the default of the untrained mind.
“natthi me attā” ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati
2. The view “I have no self” arises in him as true and established.
This is annihilationism—the belief that because there is no permanent self, there is nothing at all, that death is utter extinction, that moral responsibility is fiction. The Buddha called this view as dangerous as the first.
“attanāva attānaṃ sañjānāmī” ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati
3. The view “It is by means of self that I perceive self” arises in him as true and established.
Here, the perceiver and the perceived are both taken as self—a doubling of the illusion, self knowing self, subject and object both reified.
“attanāva anattānaṃ sañjānāmī” ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati
4. The view “It is by means of self that I perceive not-self” arises in him as true and established.
A more subtle trap: the perceiver is taken as self, but the object perceived is recognized as not-self. The observer remains untouched, solid—a subtle eternalism hiding behind a recognition of impermanence in everything except the observer.
“anattanāva attānaṃ sañjānāmī” ti vā assa saccato thetato diṭṭhi uppajjati
5. The view “It is by means of not-self that I perceive self” arises in him as true and established.
Even more subtle: the act of perceiving is seen as impersonal, conditioned, not-self—but what is perceived (the self) is still taken as real. The tools are empty, but the target remains solid.
The Sixth View: The Eternal Self
atha vā panassa evaṃ diṭṭhi hoti – yo me ayaṃ attā vado vedeyyo tatra tatra kalyāṇapāpakānaṃ kammānaṃ vipākaṃ paṭisaṃvedeti so kho pana me ayaṃ attā nicco dhuvo sassato avipariṇāmadhammo sassatisamaṃ tatheva ṭhassatī ti.
6. Or else he has a view like this: “It is this self of mine that speaks and feels and experiences here and there the results of good and bad actions. But this self of mine is permanent, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and it will endure as long as eternity.”
This is the classical eternalist view made explicit—a self that is the agent of action (vado, the speaker), the passive subject of experience (vedeyyo, the feeler), the transmigrant that carries identity from life to life, receiving the results of karma. It is permanent (nicco), stable (dhuvo), eternal (sassato), unchanging (avipariṇāmadhammo), and will last forever (sassatisamaṃ tatheva ṭhassati).
