Four types of moha - looking for a sutta reference

I recall seeing a list of 4 types of moha, something like…

  1. Taking non-permanent as permanent,
  2. Taking suffering as pleasant,
  3. Taking non-self as self,
  4. I forget; It was either taking ugly as attractive or the other way around

My google-foo failed me a few days back - does anyone know the sutta?

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Have you tried the more powerful search engine of SuttaCentral Voice?

https://voice.suttacentral.net/scv/index.html#/sutta

:anjal:

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Were you maybe thinking of the four perversions (vipallāsā) listed in AN4.49?

Mendicants, there are these four perversions of perception, mind, and view. What four?

  1. Taking impermanence as permanence.
  2. Taking suffering as happiness.
  3. Taking not-self as self.
  4. Taking ugliness as beauty.
    (…)

https://suttacentral.net/an4.49/en/sujato

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See translator’s note on views, thoughts and perceptions (it can work in that order):

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.049.olen.html

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Yes, we often see what we expect to see, or what we want to see.

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Thanks for the ad, Gabriel! :wink:

Searching for “impermanence as permanence”, AN 4.49 is in fact the only result I get across the entire Pali canon (meaning AN, SN, DN, MN, and Kp, Thag, Thig, Dhp, Iti, and Ud from the KN).

I am adding “impermanence as permanence” to the Voice examples, so after the next update it will suffice to start typing one of these words into the search box and you’ll see the example, clicking on which will lead you directly to the respective Sutta.

Thanks for the inspiration! :pray:

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I’d heard of that but didn’t know where to find it; very snazzy. @sabbamitta has been working hard :slight_smile:

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Well, mostly the work on Voice has been done by Karl @karl_lew. I am just helping out a little bit—like what a person with no clue of website development can do for a website.

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We have a program on Linux called scv-bilara that helps us find Dhamma phrases quickly. In fact, the scv-bilara search engine is part of Voice, so you can search for random text using voice.suttacentral.net. The scv-bilara command line program has many more options than Voice, so if you are comfortable with Linux, you can use it to fly through the Dhamma.

For example, we can easily get Markdown links for pasting into posts:

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"The importance of right view can be gauged from the fact that our perspectives on the crucial issues of reality and value have a bearing that goes beyond mere theoretical convictions. They govern our attitudes, our actions, our whole orientation to existence. Our views might not be clearly formulated in our mind; we might have only a hazy conceptual grasp of our beliefs. But whether formulated or not, expressed or maintained in silence, these views have a far-reaching influence. They structure our perceptions, order our values, crystallize into the ideational framework through which we interpret to ourselves the meaning of our being in the world.

These views then condition action. They lie behind our choices and goals, and our efforts to turn these goals from ideals into actuality. The actions themselves might determine consequences, but the actions along with their consequences hinge on the views from which they spring. Since views imply an “ontological commitment,” a decision on the question of what is real and true, it follows that views divide into two classes, right views and wrong views. The former correspond to what is real, the latter deviate from the real and confirm the false in its place. These two different kinds of views, the Buddha teaches, lead to radically disparate lines of action, and thence to opposite results. If we hold a wrong view, even if that view is vague, it will lead us towards courses of action that eventuate in suffering. On the other hand, if we adopt a right view, that view will steer us towards right action, and thereby towards freedom from suffering. Though our conceptual orientation towards the world might seem innocuous and inconsequential, when looked at closely it reveals itself to be the decisive determinant of our whole course of future development. The Buddha himself says that he sees no single factor so responsible for the arising of unwholesome states of mind as wrong view, and no factor so helpful for the arising of wholesome states of mind as right view. Again, he says that there is no single factor so responsible for the suffering of living beings as wrong view, and no factor so potent in promoting the good of living beings as right view (AN 1:16.2).

In its fullest measure right view involves a correct understanding of the entire Dhamma or teaching of the Buddha, and thus its scope is equal to the range of the Dhamma itself. But for practical purposes two kinds of right view stand out as primary. One is mundane right view, right view which operates within the confines of the world. The other is supramundane right view, the superior right view which leads to liberation from the world. The first is concerned with the laws governing material and spiritual progress within the round of becoming, with the principles that lead to higher and lower states of existence, to mundane happiness and suffering. The second is concerned with the principles essential to liberation. It does not aim merely at spiritual progress from life to life, but at emancipation from the cycle of recurring lives and deaths."—Bikkhu Bodhi

The world that is experienced is only a provisional reality based on the practitioner’s current views. With the successful application of right effort, right view changes:

“Thus these three qualities — right view, right effort, & right mindfulness — run & circle around right view.”—MN 117

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5 years back I would’ve been keen as a bean to tinker (although I was of a different ecosystem). I’m attempting to declutter everything I don’t need currently though, cancelled Netflix last week after realizing there’s virtually nothing of interest to me there.

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4.1A deluded person, overcome by delusion, intends to hurt themselves, hurt others, and hurt both. They experience mental pain and sadness.Mūḷho kho, brāhmaṇa, mohena abhibhūto pariyādinnacitto attabyābādhāyapi ceteti, parabyābādhāyapi ceteti, ubhayabyābādhāyapi ceteti, cetasikampi dukkhaṃ domanassaṃ paṭisaṃvedeti.

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Definition of moha:
“mūḷho panāyaṃ, kālāmā, purisapuggalo mohena abhibhūto pariyādinnacitto pāṇampi hanati, adinnampi ādiyati, paradārampi gacchati, musāpi bhaṇati, parampi tathattāya samādapeti, yaṃ sa hoti dīgharattaṃ ahitāya dukkhāyā”ti.
… AN - tikanipāta, dutiyapaṇṇāsakaṃ, mahāvaggo, kesamuttisutta. …