To Sujato Bhikkhu

Bhikku, why does the conventional sangha profess and reify we-view and thereby encourage the path to the heavenly abodes? As it is not self, it is also not we, we as an outflow, a thicket of views of self, much suffering ensues. So why is it that this ‘we-view’ is offered, and professed, when the sangha is the assembly of the heaps of behaviors conducive to right release?

These are truly dark times, we-view has clouded the sky, and obscured self-view, oneness-view of a plurality of self-view, has lead to the closing off, the sealing, of dhamma. This sealing, too is not self, the arrival into a sealed world is the fruit of kamma, vipaka. Oneness views, noneness views, extreme views, compound like a bonfire, and of it billowing clouds… enduring views… suffering is enduring view. bhikkhu, the purpose of conversation is release of suffering, here and now, beyond, put out, like a lamp. beyond self, beyond other, beyond we, beyond they… the canker of anger, the canker of [a plurality of overt actions] war, the canker of craving, the canker of [a plurality of covert actions] cunning, the canker of ignorance, the canker of [plurality of ignorance] vipaka… smoke, on the breeze.