The Three Vipallasa

Vipallasa means hallucination, delusion, erroneous observation, or, taking that which is true as being false, and that which is false as true.

There are three kinds of Vipallasa, to wit:

1. Sañña-vipallasa: hallucination of perception;
2. Citta-vipallasa: hallucination of thought;
3. Ditthi-vipallasa: hallucination of views.

Of these three, hallucination of perception is fourfold, thus:

• It erroneously perceives impermanence as permanence;
• Impurity as purity;
• Ill as good; and
• No-soul as soul.

The same holds good with regard to the remaining two vipallasa, i.e. those of thinking and viewing.

All these classifications come under the category of "This is mine! This is my Self or living Soul!" and will be made clear later.

The three Vipallasa may be illustrated respectively by the similes of the wild deer, the magician, and a man who has lost his way.

This is the simile of the wild deer to illustrate the hallucination of perception.

In the middle of a great forest a certain husbandman cultivated a piece of paddy land. While the cultivator was away, wild deer were in the habit of coming to the field and eating the young spikes of growing grain. So the cultivator put some straw together into the shape of a man and set it up in the middle of the field in order to frighten the deer away. He tied the straws together with fibers into the resemblance of a body, with head, hands and legs; and with white lime painting on a pot the lineaments of a human face, he set it on the top of the body. He also covered the artificial man with some old clothes such as coat, and so forth, and put a bow and arrow into his hands. Now the deer came as usual to eat the young paddy; but approaching it and catching sight of the artificial man, they took it for a real one, were frightened and ran away.

In this illustration, the wild deer had seen men before and retained in their memory the perception of the shape and form of men. In accordance with their present perception, they took the straw man for a real man. Thus their perception of it was an erroneous perception. The hallucination of perception is as here shown in this allegory of the wild deer. It is very clear and easy to understand. This particular hallucination is also illustrated in the case of a bewildered man who has lost his way and cannot make out the cardinal points, East and West, in the locality in which he is, although the rising and setting of the sun may be distinctly perceived by any one with open eyes. If the error has once been made, it establishes itself very firmly, and is only with great difficulty to be removed. There are many things within ourselves, which we are always apprehending erroneously and in a sense the reverse of the truth as regards Impermanence and No-soul. Thus through the hallucination of perception we apprehend things erroneously in exactly the same way that the wild deer take the straw man to be a real man even with their eyes wide open.

Now for the simile of the magician to illustrate the hallucination of thought.

There is a pretended art called magic by means of which when lumps of earth are exhibited in the presence of a crowd, all who look at them think they are lumps of gold and silver. The power of the magical art is such as to take from men their ordinary power of seeing and in its place put an extra-ordinary kind of sight. It can thus for a time, turn the mind upside down, so to speak. When persons are in command of themselves they see lumps of earth as they are. But under the influence of this magical art, they see the lumps of earth as lumps of gold and silver with all their qualities of brightness, yellowness, whiteness, and so forth. Thus, their beliefs, observations, or ideas, become erroneous. In the same way our thoughts and ideas are in the habit of wrongly taking false things as true and thus we delude ourselves. For instance, at night, we are often deceived into thinking we see a man when it is really the stump of a tree that we are looking at. Or, on seeing a bush, we imagine we are looking at a wild elephant; or, seeing a wild elephant take it to be a bush.

In this world all our mistaken ideas as to what comes within the field of our observation, are due to the action of the hallucination of thought which is deeper and more unfathomable than that of the perception, since it deludes us by making false things seem true. However, as it is not so firmly rooted as the latter, it can easily be removed by investigation or by searching into the causes and conditions of things.

Now for the simile of the man who has lost his way, to illustrate the hallucination of views.

There was a large forest haunted by evil spirits, demons, who lived there building towns and villages. There came some travelers who were not acquainted with the roads through the forest. The demons created their towns and villages as splendidly as those of Devas, or celestial beings and themselves assumed the forms of male and female Devas. They also made the roads as pleasant and delightful as those of the Devas. When the travelers saw these, they believed that these pleasant roads would lead them to large towns and villages, and so, turning aside from the right roads, they went astray following the wrong and misleading ones, arriving at the towns of the demons and suffering accordingly.

In this allegory, the large forest stands for the three world of Kama-loka, Rupa-loka and Arupa-loka. The travelers are all those who inhabit these worlds. The Right Road is Right Views; and the misleading road is Wrong Views. The Right Views here spoken of are of two kinds, namely, those that pertain to the world, and those pertaining to Enlightenment. Of these two, the former is meant to connote this right view; "All beings are the owners of their deeds; and every deed, both moral and immoral, committed by oneself is one's own property and follows one throughout the whole long course of life" while the latter is meant to connote the knowledge of the Doctrine of Causal Genesis, of the Aggregates, of the Ayatana (Bases), and No-Soul. Of these two views, the former is as the right road to the round of existences. The worlds of the Fortunate (i.e., the abodes of human beings, Devas, and Brahmas), are like the towns of good people. The erroneous views that deny moral and immoral deeds and their results or effects, and come under the names of Natthikaditthi, Ahetuka-ditthi, and Akiriya-ditthi, are like the wrong, misleading roads. The worlds of the Unfortunate, which are the abodes of the tortured, of Animals, Petas, and Asuras, are like the towns of the demons.

The right view of knowledge, which is one of the factors of Enlightenment, is like the right road that leads out of the round of existence. Nibbána is like the town of good people.

The views "My Body!" and "My Soul!" are also like the wrong and misleading roads. The world comprising the abodes of human beings, Devas, and Brahmas, or the ceaseless renewing of existences, is like the towns of the demons.

The aforesaid erroneous views are known as the hallucinations, such being deeper and more firmly established than that of thought.