Reading guide
A puzzle about self-reference
If an arahant has fully seen through the notion of a substantial self, the deity's question implicitly asks, how could they still use ordinary first-person language at all — 'I speak,' 'they speak to me' — without contradicting what they have realized? This is not a rhetorical question the Buddha simply dismisses; it receives a direct, considered answer.
Loka-samaññā, the world's own labels
The Buddha's first answer turns on a specific phrase: such a person, being skillful, understands lokasamaññaṁ, the world's own conventional labels, and uses terms like 'I' as mere expressions (voharamattena) rather than as claims about an underlying substantial self. The words are used, but not believed in the way ordinary usage might imply.
Conceit as ties, not as vocabulary
The deity's second question sharpens the puzzle: doesn't using 'I' bring such a person close to conceit (māna) after all? The Buddha's second answer relocates the issue entirely: conceit is a matter of ties (gantha), all of which such a person has dissolved, not a matter of which words are spoken. Someone can be completely free of conceit's ties while still using the vocabulary conceit also happens to use.
A distinction with wide implications
This discourse's distinction between conventional language and the psychological ties it might, in an unliberated speaker, accompany has relevance well past this single exchange: it addresses directly how teaching, conversation, and ordinary reference remain possible for someone who has, by the collection's own account, seen through the assumption of a substantial self underlying such reference.
Key terms
The text
A question about self-reference
§1“When a mendicant is perfected, proficient, with defilements ended, bearing the final body: would they say, ‘I speak’, or even ‘they speak to me’?”
§2“When a mendicant is perfected, proficient, with defilements ended, bearing the final body: they would say, ‘I speak’, and also ‘they speak to me’. Skillful, understanding the world’s labels, they’d use these terms as mere expressions.”
A sharper question about conceit
§3“When a mendicant is perfected, proficient, with defilements ended, bearing the final body: is such a mendicant drawing close to conceit if they’d say, ‘I speak’, or even ‘they speak to me’?”
§4“Someone who has given up conceit has no ties, the ties of conceit are all dissipated. Though that intelligent person has passed beyond conceiving, they’d still say, ‘I speak’, and also ‘they speak to me’. Skillful, understanding the world’s labels, they’d use these terms as mere expressions.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.