[556] **"Claiming to be skilled, they assert" (pavādiyāse kusalāvadānā):** "They assert" — because they dispute with one another (vippavadanti), for that reason too they are said to "assert." Or else, they assert, speak, utter, expound, and express each his own view (diṭṭhi): "The world is eternal; this alone is true, anything else is vain" — thus they assert, speak, utter, expound, and express. "The world is not eternal" … "The Tathāgata after death neither exists nor does not exist; this alone is true, anything else is vain" — thus they assert, speak, utter, expound, and express. **"Claiming to be skilled" (kusalāvadānā):** they are claimants of skill, claimants of wisdom, claimants of sagacity, claimants of knowledge (ñāṇa), speakers by way of reason, speakers by way of characteristic, speakers by way of cause, speakers by way of ground — according to their own creed. Hence, "claiming to be skilled, they assert."
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.