Anariyavohārasutta — Bhūmicālavagga — the seventh chapter of the Eights
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A compact 4×2 combinatorial structure, stated in a single sentence
Length
a few seconds to read
The most compact discourse in this chapter
Where several discourses in this book take paragraphs to enumerate eight items, this one compresses all eight into a single sentence crossing four categories with two directions of falsehood
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and logically clean, best read alongside AN 8.68's own mirror-image structure
Why this discourse
AN 8.67 names eight ignoble expressions, built from a single compact structure: falsely claiming to have seen, heard, thought, or known something you haven't, and falsely claiming not to have seen, heard, thought, or known something you have.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Eight ignoble expressions arise from crossing four categories of experience — seeing, hearing, thinking, and knowing — against two directions of falsehood: claiming something happened when it didn't, and claiming something didn't happen when it did.
A 4×2 structure, not eight separate lies
Rather than naming eight unrelated falsehoods, this discourse crosses four categories of experience against two directions of misrepresentation, producing exactly eight combinations from a structure that could be stated in a single short sentence.
Four categories spanning all channels of knowing
Seeing, hearing, thinking, and knowing together cover the full range of how a person comes to claim awareness of something — direct sensory experience (seeing, hearing), and internal cognitive processes (thinking, knowing) — leaving no channel of claimed experience untouched by the discourse's own scope.
Two directions, both equally ignoble
The discourse treats false claiming and false denying as equally ignoble, not weighting one direction as worse than the other — overclaiming experience one doesn't have and underclaiming experience one does have are named together as the same category of falsehood.
Key terms
anariyā vohārā — “ignoble expressions” — this discourse's own title term, contrasted directly with AN 8.68's noble expressions immediately following.
adiṭṭhe diṭṭhavāditā — “saying you've seen something, but you haven't” — the overclaiming direction, applied to the first of the four categories.
diṭṭhe adiṭṭhavāditā — “saying you haven't seen something, and you have” — the underclaiming direction, the mirror image of the first.
suta, muta, viññāta — “heard, thought, known” — the remaining three categories, each crossed against the same two directions of falsehood as seeing.
vohārā — “expressions” — a term for speech acts or verbal claims, the discourse's own subject matter throughout.
The text
The discourse in full: eight ignoble expressions, crossing four categories against two directions of falsehood. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Eight ignoble expressions
§1“Mendicants, there are these eight ignoble expressions. What eight? Saying you’ve seen, heard, thought, or known something, but you haven’t. And saying you haven’t seen, heard, thought, or known something, and you have. These are the eight ignoble expressions.”
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Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 6
What structure produces this discourse's eight ignoble expressions?
Correct: B. A compact 4x2 combinatorial structure, not eight independent items.
Question 2 of 6
What are the four categories of experience named?
Correct: B. Together spanning direct sensory experience and internal cognitive processes.
Question 3 of 6
What two directions of falsehood does the discourse treat as equally ignoble?
Correct: B. Overclaiming and underclaiming named together as the same category of falsehood.
Question 4 of 6
How does this discourse compare in length to most others in this chapter?
Correct: B. A structure compact enough to state very briefly.
Question 5 of 6
How does this discourse relate to AN 8.68, immediately following it?
Correct: B. A deliberately paired contrast, false versus truthful claims.
Question 6 of 6
Is a setting given for this discourse?
Correct: C. A bare formula, matching several other discourses in this chapter.
