Grammatical Analysis
Māna: [m.] conceit; pride; arrogance; measuring. Derived from root mā (to measure, compare). Literally signifies the psychological act of measuring oneself against others.
Orthodox Definition
In the Abhidhamma, Māna is a highly destructive, unwholesome mental factor (akusala-cetasika) that arises exclusively in conjunction with greed-rooted consciousness dissociated from views (diṭṭhivippayutta-lobhamūla-citta). It is the eighth of the ten fetters (saṃyojana).
The commentaries emphasize that māna is fundamentally an act of comparison. It operates in three basic ways:
- Seyya-māna: Thinking “I am better than them” (superiority complex).
- Sadisa-māna: Thinking “I am equal to them” (equality conceit).
- Hīna-māna: Thinking “I am worse than them” (inferiority complex).
Even the feeling of low self-esteem is classified as conceit because it still involves the ego “measuring” itself against external objects. While identity view (sakkāya-diṭṭhi)—the intellectual belief in a soul—is broken at Stream-entry, the subtle, lingering, ego-centric feeling of “I am” (asmi-māna) is so deeply ingrained that it is only completely eradicated at the final stage of Arahatship.
Textual References
- Sutta: Khemaka Sutta (SN 22.89) – The profound discourse where Venerable Khemaka explains that even though he sees no self in the aggregates, a lingering scent of “I am” (asmi-māna) still remains, like the residual scent of soap on freshly washed clothes.
- Abhidhamma: Vibhaṅga (Detailed breakdowns of the 3, 7, and 9 types of conceit).
- Commentary: Atthasālinī – Analyzing pride’s characteristic as stiffness or inflation of mind (unnati-lakkhaṇa).