..续本文上一页 speculative views regarding the self and the world; (3) clinging to rules and observances, i.e., to external rules, rituals and austerities in the belief that they lead to liberation; (4) and clinging to a doctrine of self, i.e., to a view of a truly existent self. The last type of clinging, the subtlest and most elusive of the group, is tantamount to what the texts refer to as "personality view" (sakkayaditthi): the view of a substantial self taken to be either identical in some way to the five aggregates that constitute the personality, or to stand in some relationship to those aggregates (see MN 44/i,300, etc.).

　　The Buddha next points out that the recluses and brahmans who propose a path to liberation all declare that they propound "the full understanding of all kinds of clinging," a phrase the commentary to the sutta glosses as meaning the overcoming (samatikkama) of all kinds of clinging. However, the Buddha says, in spite of this claim, the other spiritual teachers recognize and attack only a limited number of the forms of clinging; at best, they might teach the overcoming of the first three forms of clinging. What they cannot teach, because they have not comprehended this for themselves, is the overcoming of clinging to a doctrine of self, and it is this fourth type of clinging that vitiates even the aspects of their teachings that are wholesome and praiseworthy. Because they perceive the dangers in the grosser types of clinging, they might urge their disciples to relinquish them, to give up sensuality, dogmatism and ritualism, and to cultivate in their place renunciation, detachment and equanimity. Thereby they can enjoin their disciples to engage in virtuous courses of spiritual practice, courses which have the potency to generate superior states of rebirth within the round of samsara. However, what they have not discovered, because of the insurmountable limits to their range of understanding, is the buried root of the entire cycle of repeated existence, which consists precisely in that adherence to the notion of self. For this reason, the Buddha maintains, such a Dhamma and Discipline cannot show the way to the uprooting of the belief in self, and he therefore concludes that it is "unemancipating, unconducive to peace" — the final peace of Nibbana. Being taught by one who is not a Fully Enlightened Buddha, such a system does not merit the confidence of those who can be satisfied with nothing less than complete release from all samsaric suffering.

　　In contrast to other spiritual teachers, the Buddha continues, he himself, the Tathagata, describes the full understanding of all kinds of clinging, inclusive of the clinging to a doctrine of self. Recognizing the danger in views of self, aware that all such views, no matter how lofty, are undermined by a fundamental cognitive error, he proclaims a path that leads to the eradication of views of self in all their bewildering variety. Hence, the Buddha says, his Dhamma and Discipline is truly emancipating, truly capable of leading to final peace, promulgated by a Fully Enlightened One, the proper field of confidence for seekers of liberation.

　　Sections 16-17. In the final sections of the discourse, the Buddha will validate his claim regarding the emancipating quality of his Dispensation by showing how a disciple who undertakes the practice of his teaching can reach the fruit of final deliverance. He first takes up the four kinds of clinging, the subject around which the preceding portion of the exposition revolved, and connects this topic with another major principle of his doctrine, dependent arising (paticca samuppada). By applying the principle of dependent arising, he traces clinging to its source in craving, and then, continuing this line of inquiry, he pursues the entire …

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