62 kinds of wrong view

The 62 kinds of wrong view (regarding eternity, self, and causality):

1. The one who claims to recall many past lives and believes the self to be eternal.

2. The one who recalls one to ten contractions and expansions and believes the self to be eternal.

3. The one who recalls 40 periods of contractions and expansions and believes the self to be eternal.

4. The one who sees beings rush around, circulate, and re-arise, but “this” remains forever.

5. The one who recalls a past existence in a heavenly plane where he was subject to a more powerful deva and thus, thinks in this life that the more powerful deva is an eternal, all- powerful God. Such a person proclaims that deva to be the one-all-powerful God, creating or following a mono-theist religion, which is essentially wrong view.

6. The one who believes that certain devas are permanent and perfect because they do not enjoy the pleasures of the senses.

7. The one who believes that certain devas are permanent and perfect because they are not corrupt in the minds.

8. The one who believes that the thoughts, the consciousness, and the mind constitute a permanent soul.

9. The one who reaches a state of consciousness or trance and believes that the world is finite.

10. The one who reaches a state of consciousness or trance and believes that the world is infinite.

11. The one who reaches a state of consciousness or trance and believes that the world is finite up and down and infinite across.

12. The one who believes the world is neither finite nor infinite.

13. The one who does not know and will not say if anything is good or bad, thus evades answers, believing good or bad can not be known (such as an agnostic).

14. The one who evades all questions thinking that answering them would be “attachment” to something.

15. The one who evades all questions fearing that he will be caught in his ignorance.

16. The one who evades questions because he is stupid.

17. A deva in the sphere of the unconscious who having a perception immediately falls from that existence to another. Recalling the past existence, but no other wrongly feels that there is a first cause, a first existence.

18. The one who believes that the self and the world arose by chance.

19. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and material.

20. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and immaterial.

21. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and both immaterial and material.

22. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and neither material nor immaterial.

23. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and finite.

24. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and infinite.

25. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and both finite and infinite.

26. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and neither finite nor infinite.

27. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and of uniform perception.

28. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and of varied perception.

29. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and of limited perception.

30. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and of unlimited perception.

31. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and wholly happy.

32. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and wholly miserable.

33. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and both happy and miserable.

34. The view that the self after death is healthy and conscious and neither happy nor miserable.

35. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and material.

36. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and immaterial.

37. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and both material and immaterial.

38. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and neither material nor immaterial.

39. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and finite.

40. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and infinite.

41. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and both finite and infinite.

42. The view that the self after death is healthy and unconscious and neither finite nor infinite.

43. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and material.

44. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and immaterial.

45. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and both material and immaterial.

46. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and neither material nor immaterial.

47. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and finite.

48. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and infinite.

49. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and both finite and infinite.

50. The view that the self after death is healthy and neither conscious nor unconscious and neither finite nor infinite.

51. The view that since the self is material, composed of the four great elements, the product of mother and father, at the breaking-up of the body it is annihilated and perishes, and does not exist after death.

52. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one of the senses.

53. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one that is mind-made.

54. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one that sees the Infinity of Space.

55. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one that sees Infinite Consciousness,

56. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one that sees the Sphere of Nothingness.

57. The view that it is a different kind of self that perishes, one that sees the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception.

58. The view that indulgence in the senses can still lead to nibbana.

59. The view that the first jhana is an enlightenment experience.

60. The view that the second jhana is an enlightenment experience.

61. The view that the third jhana is an enlightenment experience.

62. The view that the fourth jhana is an enlightenment experience.

(from the Brahmajala Sutta, Digha Nikaya 1)

References

• The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists -- Explained. David N. Snyder, Ph.D., 2006.
• http://www.thedhamma.com/