Vipallasa Sutta: Distortions of the Mind
These four, O meditators, are distortions of perception, distortions of thinking, distortions of view...
Sensing no change in the impermanent,
Sensing pleasure in the unsatisfactory,
Assuming "self" where there is impersonal process,
Sensing the repulsive as lovely —
Gone astray with wrong views, beings
Mis-perceive with distorted minds.
Bound in the bondage of Mara (Death),
Those people are far from safety.
They are beings who go on wandering:
Going again from redeath to rebirth.
But when in the world of darkness
Buddhas arise to make things bright,
They present this profound teaching
Which brings suffering to an end.
When those with wisdom have heard this,
They recuperate their right mind:
They see change in what is changing,
Suffering where there's suffering,
The impersonal in what is without self,
They see the repulsive as such.
By the regaining of right view,
They overcome all suffering.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Andrew Olendzki
These verses from the Numerical Discourses (AN) give the traditional list of the "distortions" (vipallasas). This Pali word is sometimes translated as "perversions" of mind, but I find this language too strong and prefer the "distortions" of mind.
The term is composed of a prefix (vi-), which carries the sense of division, separation, or removal, another prefix (pari-), meaning around or complete (as in our related word peri-meter), and a verb (-as), which can be taken as meaning "to throw."
Putting all this together, we have the image of the mind taking something up, turning it around, and throwing it back down — a distortion or perversion of reality by the perceptual and cognitive process of the mind.
The distortions are fundamental to the Buddhist notion of ignorance or delusion. It is not that we are inherently flawed in our nature. Rather, it is that we make some serious errors on many levels as we attempt to make sense of the world around us.
As we come to recognize — particularly through meditation practice, mindfulness, and stillness — some of the ways we misconstrue things about our experience, we become more able to correct for these errors and gain greater clarity.
The distortions of the mind work on three levels of scale. First, distortions of perception (sañña-vipallasa) cause us to misperceive the information coming to us through the sense doors. We might mistake a rope by the path as a snake, for example. Normally such optical illusions, or errors of vision, are corrected by a more careful scrutiny, but sometimes these sensory mistakes are overlooked and remain.
Distortions of thought (citta-vipallasa) have to do with the next higher level of mental processing, when we find ourselves thinking about or pondering things over things in mind. The mind tends to elaborate upon perception with these thought patterns, and if our thoughts are based on distortions of perception, then they too will be distorted.
Eventually such thought patterns can become habitual and evolve into distortions of view (ditthi-vipallasa). We might become so convinced that there is a snake on the path that no amount of evidence to the contrary from our own eyes or reason, nor the advice of others, will shake our wrong beliefs and assumptions. We are stuck in (clinging to) a mistaken view.
Furthermore, these three levels of distortion are cyclical. Our perceptions are formed in the context of our views, which are strengthened by our thoughts, and all three work together to build the cognitive systems that make up our unique personality.
You will no doubt recognize that the particular distortions mentioned in this text correspond to the three characteristics (the Three Universal Marks of Existence).
- Taking what is impermanent (anicca) as permanent,
- what is inherently unsatisfactory (dukkha, unable to fulfill) as a source of satisfaction, and
- what is impersonal (anatta) as constituting a self — these are the primary ways we distort reality to the profound disadvantage of everyone.
- Seeing the repulsive (asubha, unlovely) as lovely rounds out the traditional list of four vipallasas.
I like the way these verses say that when under the influence of these distortions we have "lost our senses" (vi-saññino) and our mind is "broken" or "thrown" (khitta-citta). When the distortions are corrected by right view, clear thinking and careful perception, then the texts say that we have "gotten back" (pacca-latthu) our "true mind" (sa-citta).
This is the Buddhist view of mental illness and mental health. Delusion is a mental illness that causes all sorts of suffering; mental health can be restored by correcting the flaws in how the mind operates.
Fortunately, "
buddhas arise to make things bright" and illustrate in detail how the recovery of natural health can be accomplished.
More- Buddhism Podcast, Aug. 19, 2025; Andrew Olendzki (trans.), Vipallasa Sutta (AN 4.49 PTS: A ii 52), edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
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