The Distortions of the Mind: Aṅguttara Nikāya 4:49

cattāro ‘me bhikkhave
saññā-vipallāsā
citta-vipallāsā
diṭṭhi-vipallāsā:…

anicce niccasaññino
dukkhe ca sukhasaññino
anattani ca attā ti
asubhe subhasaññino

micchādiṭṭhigatā sattā
khittacittā visaññino

te yogayuttā Mārassa
ayogakkhemino janā
sattā gacchanti saṃsāraṃ
jātimaraṇagāmino

yadā ca buddhā lokasmiṃ
uppajjanti pabhaṇkarā
te imaṃ dhammaṃ pakāsenti
dukkhūpasamagāminaṃ

tesaṃ sutvāna sappaññā
sacittaṃ paccalatthu te

aniccaṃ aniccato dakkhuṃ
dukkham addakkhu dukkhato
anattani anattā ti
asubham asubhat’ addasuṃ

sammādiṭṭhisamādānā
sabbadukkham upaccagun ti

These four, O Monks, are
distortions of perception,
distortions of thought
distortions of view;…

Sensing no change in the changing,
Sensing pleasure in suffering,
Assuming “self” where there’s no self,
Sensing the un-lovely as lovely—

Gone astray with wrong views, beings
Mis-perceive with distorted minds.

Bound in the bondage of Mara,
Those people are far from safety.
They’re beings that go on flowing:
Going again from death to birth.

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,
“Non-self” in what is without self,
They see the un-lovely as such.

By this acceptance of right view,
They overcome all suffering.

These verses from the Numerical Discourses give the traditional list of the vipallāsas. This Pali word is sometimes trans­lated as “perversions” of the mind; but I find this language too strong and prefer the expression “distortions” of the 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 perversion or dis­tortion of reality by the perceptual and cog­nitive apparatus of the brain.

The distortions are fundamental to the Buddhist notion of ignorance or delusion. It is not that we are inherently flawed in our nature, it is just 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—through meditation practice—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-vipallāsa) 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 errors of vision are corrected by a more careful scru­tiny, but sometimes these sensory mistakes are overlooked and remain.

Distortions of thought (citta-vipallāsa) have to do with the next higher level of men­tal processing, when we find ourselves thinking about or pondering over things in our minds. The mind tends to elaborate upon perception with these thought patterns, and if our thoughts are based upon distortions of perception, then they too will be distorted.

Eventually such thought patterns can be­come habitual, and evolve into distortions of view (diṭṭhi-vipallāsa). We might become so convinced that there is a snake by the path that no amount of evidence to the contrary from our own eyes or reason, nor the advice of others, will shake our beliefs and assump­tions. We are stuck in 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 which make up our unique personality. You will no doubt recognize that the par­ticular distortions mentioned in this text cor­respond to the three characteristics. Taking what is impermanent (anicca) as permanent, what is inherently unsatisfctory (dukkha) as a source of satisfaction, and what is without a self (anattā) to constitute a self—these are the primary ways we distort reality to the profound disadvantage of ourselves and others. Seeing the unlovely (asubha) as lovely rounds out the traditional list of four vipallāsas.

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 text says that we have “gotten back” (pacca-latthu) our “true mind” (sa-citta).

This is the Buddhist view of mental dis­ease 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 this recovery of our natu­ral health can be accomplished.