Jūḷha-Viyūha Sutta (12) — On Those Who Delight in Their Own View
[418] The Blessed One appeared in vision and asked:
“Ascetics and brahmins cling to their own diṭṭhi (views). Clinging to view, they vow, ‘We are the wise.’ They speak against one another, saying, ‘Whoever knows this (my view) — that one truly knows Dhamma; whoever opposes it — that one is wicked.’
“Each sect clings to its own view so; they quarrel and call others fools. Which of these disputing ascetics speaks the truth, since each declares himself wise?”
The Blessed One replied:
“If anyone will not consent to the Dhamma as another sees it, that person is a fool — ignorant and of base intelligence. All such people are fools and of poor understanding, because they cling to their own diṭṭhi.
“But if those sectarians are bright and pure in their own view, then in that very view they are wise and enlightened — for each partisan’s view is equally a view, just as the views of lay folk are views. Thus those partisan debaters will not call one another fools if they stand purely in their views; each believes his own view to be the ultimate.
“Why do they, then, call one another fools? Because each asserts that only his own view is true and the others false. Thus they set others down as foolish.
“When sectarians of one party declare some view to be truth, other sectarians declare it false; each holds to different truths and disputes. Why cannot they make the truth one? There is only one reality (sacca); there is not a second sacca. Those who truly know do not quarrel over sacca. Sectarians, however, by their own making multiply truths and so cannot agree on a single sacca.
“Why do sectarian leaders vaunt themselves as wise and thus speak many different ‘truths’? Do they arrive at them from hearing, or do they fabricate them by conjecture?”
The Blessed One answered:
“Those manifold so-called truths do not arise except through saññā (perception/assumption) being fixed as if permanent. In the world, sectarians form their speculative diṭṭhi and proclaim paired doctrines of truth and falsity. Persons partisan in view take as their foundation such things as forms seen, sounds heard, objects cognized, or rules and ascetic practices; then, standing firm in that diṭṭhi, they declare themselves pure and judge others foolish.
“A partisan remarks another foolish because of some view; boasting of his own wisdom by that view, he condemns others who hold it not. Such a partisan’s mind is filled with the notion that his view is the ultimate; pride (māna) grows full, and he crowns himself a sage because his diṭṭhi is complete in his own sight.
“But if such a person is censured, he will be considered base by the words of others and thus himself become low in wisdom. If one were truly self-illumined and truly wise apart from partisan clinging, then such sectarian quarrels would not exist — none would be foolish.
“Those who praise a view other than what is fitting are mistaken and impure; sectarians often say such things because they take delight in their own view. They hold to the purity of that one view and will not accept others. Being so firmly attached, when they call others foolish they bring quarrel upon themselves alone.
“A partisan, being fixed in judgment, fabricates teachers and doctrines of his own, thus increasing strife in the world. One who abandons all partisan judgment does not create strife in the world. Thus it ends.”
End of Jūḷha-Viyūha Sutta (12).
Short Pāli Glossary (concise · intensive)
- diṭṭhi — view, opinion; often “wrong view” when clung to.
- sacca — truth, reality; the One Reality (used as “sacca” / “the true”).
- saññā — perception/assumption; mental labeling that can make contingent things seem fixed.
- māna — pride, conceit (the ‘I-am-wise’ inflation).
- Dhamma — the Teaching / reality as taught by the Buddha (leave untranslated where appropriate).
- ascetic / brahmin (samaṇa-brāhmaṇa) — in context, sectarian religious opponents.
- saṃsāra (implied) — the world of disputation and continued becoming; partisan clinging perpetuates it.
- diṭṭhippatta (partisan) — one who firmly holds to a view; “person partisan in view.”