Reading guide
A manifesto, quoted at unusual length
"There's no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. There's no fruit or result of good and bad deeds. There's no afterlife..." — this vagga's longest single view statement so far, running through denial of moral causation, denial of parents and spontaneous rebirth, and denial that any ascetic or brahmin has ever truly realized the afterlife through insight.
The body reduced to its elements, then discarded
The view continues into a vivid materialist account of death: the four elements in the body simply disperse back into their respective substances, the faculties "transferred to space," four pallbearers carry the corpse to the cremation ground, and "offerings dedicated to the gods end in ashes" — giving itself declared "a doctrine of morons," and any positive teaching dismissed as "baseless, false nonsense."
"Both the foolish and the astute are annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and don't exist after death" — annihilationism (ucchedavāda) in its starkest canonical form.
A view closely tracking Ajita Kesakambalī's doctrine
The Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) attributes near-identical language to Ajita Kesakambalī, one of six teachers King Ajātasattu consults about the fruits of the ascetic life — the same denial of giving's meaning, the same four-element dissolution, the same closing line about fools and the astute alike being annihilated. This reading guide does not assert a precise textual relationship between the two passages, only that the content overlap is unmistakable.
The identical diagnostic, applied to the most extreme case
Despite the view's length and vividness, the diagnostic that follows is unchanged: the view is shown to arise from grasping the aggregates, each aggregate shown impermanent, and a noble disciple who gives up doubt on these grounds and the four truths declared a stream-enterer — the same machinery applied to views as different as "winds don't blow" and total moral nihilism.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, when what exists, because of grasping what and insisting on what, does the view arise: ‘There’s no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. There’s no fruit or result of good and bad deeds. There’s no afterlife. There’s no such thing as mother and father, or beings that are reborn spontaneously. And there’s no ascetic or brahmin who is rightly comported and rightly practiced, and who describes the afterlife after realizing it with their own insight. This person is made up of the four principal states. When they die, the earth in their body progresses and proceeds to the substance of earth. The water in their body progresses and proceeds to the substance of water. The fire in their body progresses and proceeds to the substance of fire. The air in their body progresses and proceeds to the substance of air. The faculties are transferred to space. Four men with a bier carry away the corpse. Their footprints show the way to the cremation ground. The bones become bleached. Offerings dedicated to the gods end in ashes. Giving is a doctrine of morons. When anyone affirms a positive teaching it’s just baseless, false nonsense. Both the foolish and the astute are annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and don’t exist after death’?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …”
§2“When form exists, because of grasping form and insisting on form, the view arises: ‘There’s no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. … Both the foolish and the astute are annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and don’t exist after death.’ When feeling … perception … choices … consciousness exists, because of grasping consciousness and insisting on consciousness, the view arises: ‘There’s no meaning in giving, sacrifice, or offerings. … Both the foolish and the astute are annihilated and destroyed when their body breaks up, and don’t exist after death.’ What do you think, mendicants? Is form permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “Is feeling … perception … choices … consciousness permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “That which is seen, heard, thought, known, attained, sought, and explored by the mind: is that permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “But by not grasping what’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, would such a view arise?” “No, sir.”
§3“When a noble disciple has given up doubt regarding these six grounds, and has given up doubt in suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation, they’re called a noble disciple who is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined for awakening.”
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