Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Within this teaching and training, dissatisfaction is suffering and satisfaction is happiness — the dissatisfied find no happiness whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, in a village, a wilderness, or anywhere else, while the satisfied find happiness in every one of those same situations.
A narrower question, a different register
By adding just three words — “in this teaching and training” — the wanderer shifts the entire register of the answer: AN 10.65 spoke in terms of rebirth and its absence, a cosmic-scale claim; this discourse speaks in terms of contentment and discontent, a psychological state available moment to moment within monastic life itself.
Four postures, six places, one variable
The list runs through the four postures (walking, standing, sitting, lying down) and six kinds of location (village, wilderness, tree-root, empty hut, open air, among the mendicants) — ten situations in total, each elided in the source after the pattern is established, showing that the same single variable, satisfaction or its lack, determines happiness regardless of posture or place.
Completing this chapter's third pair
Together, AN 10.65 and this discourse trace the same question from its widest possible framing (rebirth itself) down to its narrowest, most practical one (one's own satisfaction, right now, in whatever posture or place one happens to be) — two scales of the same underlying concern.
Key terms
The text
A narrower question, from the same wanderer
§1At one time Venerable Sāriputta was staying in the land of the Magadhans near the little village of Nālaka. Then the wanderer Sāmaṇḍakāni went up to Venerable Sāriputta and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, Sāmaṇḍakāni sat down to one side and said to Sāriputta: “Reverend Sāriputta, in this teaching and training, what is happiness and what is suffering?” “Reverend, in this teaching and training dissatisfaction is suffering and satisfaction is happiness. When you’re dissatisfied, you can expect this kind of suffering.
Dissatisfaction, across posture and place
§2You find no happiness or pleasure while walking … standing … sitting … or lying down … or when in a village … a wilderness … at the root of a tree … an empty hut … the open air … or when among the mendicants. When you’re dissatisfied, this is the kind of suffering you can expect.
Satisfaction, across posture and place
§3When you’re satisfied, you can expect this kind of happiness. You find happiness or pleasure while walking … standing … sitting … or lying down … or when in a village … a wilderness … at the root of a tree … an empty hut … the open air … or when among the mendicants. When you’re satisfied, this is the kind of happiness you can expect.”
Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.