Untitled in the source — Sāmaññavagga — the third chapter of the Elevens, opening the chapter's own peyyāla
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The eleven-factor cowherd simile from AN 11.17, now applied to a mendicant's meditation on the eye, crossed against eight ways of observing it
Length
~2 minutes to read; stands for eight discourses
Opening this nipāta's largest structure
This page opens chapter 3, a single sprawling peyyāla that will run all the way to AN 11.981 — 960 discourses compressed into just twelve pages
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — the individual content is simple; the scale it represents is what takes getting used to
Why this discourse
A mendicant lacking the same eleven qualities already met at AN 11.17's cowherd simile cannot meditate observing impermanence, suffering, not-self, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, or letting go in the eye — eight discourses (AN 11.22–29), one for each way of observing, all built from the identical eleven-factor template.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Just as a cowherd lacking eleven skills cannot maintain a herd, a mendicant lacking the same eleven qualities cannot meditate observing the eye as impermanent, suffering, not-self, ending, vanishing, fading away, ceasing, or being let go of — eight variations on one template, one discourse each.
A simile reused, not reinvented
This page's opening lines are word for word AN 11.17's own cowherd simile, already given in full detail there. Rather than re-explain the eleven qualities, this page and everything that follows in this chapter simply invokes the simile by name and moves straight to what changes: what the mendicant fails to meditate observing, and in what way.
Eight ways of observing, spelled out once
The eight contemplations — impermanence, suffering, not-self, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, and letting go — are named individually across AN 11.22 through AN 11.29, each its own discourse in the source. This is the only place in the entire chapter where these eight are spelled out one at a time rather than compressed with an ellipsis; every later page in this peyyāla assumes the reader already has this list in mind.
What this page opens
AN 11.22 gives this chapter its own namesake, Sāmaññavagga, the Chapter on Similarity — named for how each of its discourses shares an identical underlying pattern. What follows across the next eleven pages is the same pattern applied first to the other five sense faculties, then systematically to nine further categories, before a final page mirrors the whole structure as its positive counterpart.
Key terms
gopālaka — “cowherd” — the simile inherited whole from AN 11.17, invoked here by reference rather than re-explained.
cakkhusmiṁ aniccānupassī — “meditate observing impermanence in the eye” — the first of eight contemplations, and the pattern every later page in this chapter will vary only by category.
khayānupassī, vayānupassī — “observing ending”, “observing vanishing” — two closely related contemplations, the fourth and fifth of the eight, worth distinguishing from each other.
paṭinissaggānupassī — “observing letting go” — the eighth and final contemplation, closing the sequence this page establishes.
sāmañña — “similarity” — the term giving this chapter its name, Sāmaññavagga, for the identical pattern repeated across every discourse within it.
The text
The compressed text in full: the cowherd simile, then eight ways of meditating on the eye, named one by one. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The cowherd simile, applied to the eye
§1“Mendicants, a cowherd with eleven factors can’t maintain and expand a herd of cattle. What eleven? It’s when a cowherd doesn’t know form, is unskilled in characteristics, doesn’t pick out flies’ eggs, doesn’t dress wounds, doesn’t spread smoke, doesn’t know the ford, doesn’t know satisfaction, doesn’t know the trail, is not skilled in pastures, milks dry, and doesn’t show extra respect to the bulls who are fathers and captains of the herd. A cowherd with these eleven factors can’t maintain and expand a herd of cattle. In the same way, a mendicant with eleven qualities can’t meditate observing impermanence in the eye …
