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Reference: Exploring the Words of the Buddha

This is a summary of MN 60 The Incontrovertible Teaching (Apannaka Sutta)

The Buddha gives a group of brahmin householders an “incontrovertible teaching” that will help them steer clear of the tangle in contentious views.

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MN 60 Summary

Buddha asserts that there is such a thing as incontrovertible teaching. He then comments on teachings that are controvertible.

NIHILISM

1. There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed
2. There is no fruit or result of good and bad actions
3. There is no rebirth into either this world or a world beyond
4. There is no fruit of good conduct and bad conduct towards mother and father.
5. There are no beings who are reborn spontaneously
6. There are no Buddhas and arahants, who have themselves realized by direct knowledge, and declare this world and the other world.

Buddha says, “In truth there is another world.” In other words, there is an afterlife and karmic retribution.

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NON-DOING

1. When one acts, mutilates, tortures, inflicts sorrow, oppresses, intimidates, kills living beings, takes what is not given, breaks into houses, plunders wealth, commits burglary, ambushes highways, seduces another’s wife, utters falsehood (or have others do such things)—then according to this doctrine no evil is done by the doer. 
2. If, with a razor-rimmed wheel, one were to make the living beings on this earth into one mass of flesh, there would be no evil and no outcome of evil.
3. If one were to go along the south bank of the Ganges killing and slaughtering, mutilating and making others mutilate, torturing and making others inflict torture, because of this there would be no evil and no outcome of evil. 
4. If one were to go along the north bank of the Ganges giving gifts and making others give gifts, making offerings and making others make offerings, because of this there would be no merit and no outcome of merit. 
5. By giving, by taming oneself, by restraint, by speaking truth, there is no merit and no outcome of merit.

Buddha says, “In truth there actually is doing.”

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NON-CAUSALITY

1. There is no cause or condition for the defilement of beings.
2. beings are defiled without cause or condition. 
3. There is no cause or condition for the purification of beings.
4. beings are purified without cause or condition. 
5. There is no power, no energy, no manly strength, no manly endurance. 
6. All beings, all living things, all creatures, all souls are without mastery, power, and energy.
7. All beings are moulded by destiny, circumstance, and nature.
8. All beings experience pleasure and pain despite their spiritual development.

Buddha says, “In truth there actually is causality.”

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Buddha concludes as follows:

1. Those following such doctrines will avoid these three wholesome states, namely, good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, and good mental conduct; because they do not see in unwholesome states the danger, degradation, and defilement.
2. They will undertake and practice these three unwholesome states, namely, bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, and mental misconduct; because they do not see in wholesome states the blessing of renunciation, the aspect of cleansing.
3. One who does not hold the truth has wrong view, wrong intention, and wrong speech. 
4. He is opposed to those arahants who know the truth.
5. He convinces another to accept an untrue Dhamma.
6. Because he convinces another to accept an untrue Dhamma, he praises himself and disparages others. 
7. Thus any pure virtue that he formerly had is abandoned and corrupt conduct is substituted.
8. And this wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, opposition to noble ones, convincing another to accept an untrue Dhamma, and self-praise and disparagement of others – these several evil unwholesome states thus come into being with wrong view as their condition.
9. If the doctrine is true, then on the dissolution of the body this good person will have made himself safe enough.
10. But if the opposite is true, then on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in hell. 
11. Even if we assume that the doctrine is true: still this good person is here and now censured by the wise as an immoral person, one of wrong view who holds such doctrine.
12. But on the other hand, if the opposite is true, then this good person has made an unlucky throw on both counts: since he is censured by the wise here and now, and since on the dissolution of the body, after death, he will reappear in a state of deprivation, in an unhappy destination, in perdition, even in hell. 
13. He has wrongly accepted and undertaken this incontrovertible teaching in such a way that it extends only to one side and excludes the wholesome alternative.

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NO IMMATERIAL REALMS

1. There are definitely no immaterial realms (no immaterial meditative attainments).

Buddha says, 

1. The above has not been seen by me.
2. The opposite of the above has not been known by me. 
3. Declaring either side to be true would not be fitting for me. 
4. If the above is true then it is certainly still possible that I might reappear among the gods of the fine-material realms who consist of mind. 
5. If the opposite is true then it is certainly possible that I might reappear among the gods of the immaterial realms who consist of perception. 
6. The taking up of rods and weapons, quarrels, brawls, disputes, recrimination, malice, and false speech are seen to occur based on material form.
7. But this does not exist at all in the immaterial realms.
8. Thus, one practices the way to dispassion towards material forms, to the fading away and cessation of material forms.

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NO CESSATION OF BEING

1. There is definitely no cessation of being.

Buddha says,

1. The above has not been seen by me.
2. The opposite of the above has not been known by me. 
3. Declaring either side to be true would not be fitting for me. 
4. If the above is true then it is certainly still possible that I might reappear among the gods of the immaterial realms who consist of perception. 
5. If the opposite is true then it is possible that I might here and now attain final Nibbana.
6. The above view is is close to lust, close to bondage, close to delighting, close to holding, close to clinging.
7. But the opposite view is close to non-lust, close to non-bondage, close to non-delighting, close to non-holding, close to non-clinging.
8. Thus, one practices the way to dispassion towards being, to the fading away and cessation of being.

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FOUR KINDS OF PERSONS

1. He torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself. He goes naked, rejecting conventions, etc. Thus in such a variety of ways he dwells pursuing the practice of tormenting and mortifying the body. 
2. He torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others. He is a butcher of sheep etc., or one who follows any other such bloody occupation. 
3. He torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself, and he also torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others. Here one is a head-anointed noble king or a well-to-do brahmin, etc. And then his slaves, messengers, and servants make preparations, weeping with tearful faces, being spurred on by threats of punishment and by fear. 
4. He does not torment himself or pursue the practice of torturing himself, and he does not torment others or pursue the practice of torturing others. Since he torments neither himself nor others, he is here and now hunger-less, extinguished, and cooled, and he abides experiencing bliss, having himself become holy. Here a Tathagata appears in the world. He understands: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.’

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NOTE: Buddha is discussing these other philosophies because he meditated upon them deeply. The unwholesome states are anomalies. They concern us all. They must be resolved. We cannot ignore them. Subject Clearing is based on this tradition of becoming aware of all that is there.

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