The truth of the cause of suffering concerns the accumulation of ignorance and attachment that produces suffering. It is the same as obsession with false views and wrong attitudes. The cause of suffering is the result of false views and confused thinking as well as emotional afflictions or defilements. Deluded views are classified into 88 defilements and wrong attitudes into 81 degrees.
The 88 defilements of deluded views can be divided into ten major categories:

1. Mistaken view of an independent, unchanging self
2. Extreme views of either nihilism or eternalism
3. Attachment to false views
4. Attachment to non-Buddhist precepts
5. Wrong views denying causality
6. Greed
7. Hatred
8. Ignorance
9. Arrogance
10. Debilitating doubt

When included under each of the four noble truths of the triple world, these ten defilements differ in quantity but total eighty-eight.