Reading guide
Four levels, not two
This discourse defines an untrue person, an even more untrue person, a true person, and an even truer person in turn, confirmed by reading all four definitions directly — not simply SN 45.25's own two categories restated with intensifying adjectives, but a genuinely different content added for the “even more” and “even truer” levels.
Two factors beyond the familiar eight
“Wrong knowledge” and “wrong freedom” (micchāñāṇa, micchāvimutti) join the familiar eight wrong factors to define “an even more untrue person”; their mirrored positive counterparts do the same for “an even truer person” — this project's own first encounter within this vagga with a ten-factor version of the path's own structure, confirmed not to appear in any of SN 45.21–25.
Knowledge and freedom as the path's own natural completion
Right knowledge and right freedom are not arbitrary additions but read naturally as what follows once the eightfold path's own eight factors are fully developed — knowing (the fruit of right view matured) and being freed (the fruit of right immersion matured) — though this discourse itself offers no explicit gloss connecting the two additions to the original eight this way.
Key terms
The text
An untrue person, and an even more untrue person
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I will teach you an untrue person and an even more untrue person, a true person and an even truer person. Listen … And what is an untrue person? It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion. This is called an untrue person. And what is an even more untrue person? It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. This is called an even more untrue person.
A true person, and an even truer person
§2And what is a true person? It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. This is called a true person. And what is an even truer person? It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. This is called an even truer person.”
Self-check quiz
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