What Is a False View?

"Delusion" (wang) means false and illusory. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra teaches that deluded views are divided into deluded views of individual karma and deluded views of shared karma, both referring to the views that sentient beings hold in the mundane world—views that perceive illusory dharmas. One meaning of deluded views is the views of the deluded seven consciousnesses; another meaning is that the six sense objects perceived by the seven consciousnesses are all illusory and unreal. How is what the seven consciousnesses perceive illusory and unreal? What is the ultimate and fundamental meaning of "delusion"?

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha explained to us what deluded views are. A person with an eye disease sees a round reddish shadow under a lamp, whereas a person without eye disease sees only the lamplight, with no round shadow of red, black, or yellow. There is no round shadow under the lamp, but because the eyes are diseased, one falsely sees a round shadow. Having an eye disease is called a deluded view; one deludedly perceives dharmas that do not exist, and those dharmas are also illusory and unreal. The Buddha used this analogy: because the minds of sentient beings all have the disease of ignorance, they see the mountains, rivers, and the great earth, the material universe of the vessel-world and the six sense objects, the sentient beings of the six realms, as well as the birth, aging, sickness, and death of sentient beings. Views arising from ignorance are called deluded views, and what deluded views perceive is even more deluded. The Buddhas, however, have no disease of ignorance; everything they see is the mark of suchness (tathatā), with no deluded dharmas and no mundane dharmas. The eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, which is without ignorance, also has no deluded views: it does not see mundane dharmas, does not see illusory marks, does not see the marks of the six sense objects, and does not see the marks of sentient beings.

If someone says that they have truly perceived the six sense objects, perceived you, me, him, or her, perceived sentient beings, and perceived the marks of mundane dharmas, then this is a deluded view born of ignorance. Perceiving the dharmas of the mundane world as truly existing is a deluded view born of ignorance; affirming a mundane dharma as existent is a deluded view. If one does not hold deluded views, what does one see? One sees true suchness and buddha-nature, sees the unborn and unceasing ultimate reality, just as the Buddhas see.

By studying the true dharma of the tathāgatagarbha, gradually seeing through and penetrating the delusion of illusory dharmas and seeing through their essential nature, gradually reducing deluded views and views of ignorance, one will gradually reduce afflictions and suffering, and gradually draw near to the Buddha's wisdom, until finally, like the Buddha, ignorance is exhausted. This is the wellspring of happiness and the bright great road of liberation.