sentences: "Śīla" refers to "moral conduct", "vata" (or "bata") to "religious duty, observance, rite, practice, custom," and "parāmāsa" to "being attached to" or "a contagion" and has the connotation of "mishandling" the Dhamma.Altogether, "sīlabbata-parāmāso" has been translated as "the contagion of mere rule and ritual, the infatuation of good works, the delusion that they suffice" or, more simply, "fall[ing] back on attachment to precepts and rules."