Untitled in the source — Sāmaññavagga — the third chapter of the Elevens
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The same cowherd simile and eight contemplations, now crossed against the six kinds of intention
Length
~1 minute to read; stands for forty-eight discourses
Seventh of ten categories
Intention, the mental factor this chapter's sequence treats as following perception
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the same established pattern, one category over
Why this discourse
The same eleven-factor cowherd simile and eight contemplations apply to the six kinds of intention regarding each sense object — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas — forty-eight further discourses (AN 11.310–357).
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The identical cowherd simile and eight contemplations now apply to the six kinds of intention regarding sense objects — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas — the seventh of this chapter's ten categories.
From recognizing to intending
Where perception (the previous category) simply recognizes and labels a sense object, intention (sañcetanā) is the mind's active response to it — the volitional movement that, in the canon's broader analysis, shapes karma itself, since intention is what the Buddha elsewhere identifies as action (kamma) in its most fundamental sense.
Named for the object, continuing
Like perception before it, this category names each intention for its sense object — ‘intention regarding sights’, not ‘eye intention’ — maintaining the object-based naming this sequence returned to at AN 11.262–309.
The same forty-eight, continuing
Six kinds of intention times eight contemplations gives forty-eight discourses, matching AN 11.310 through AN 11.357 exactly — the seventh of ten categories to repeat this chapter's now-familiar arithmetic.
Key terms
rūpasañcetanāya, saddasañcetanāya, gandhasañcetanāya, rasasañcetanāya, phoṭṭhabbasañcetanāya, dhammasañcetanāya — “intention regarding sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas” — the six kinds of intention, named for their sense objects.
sañcetanā — “intention” — the seventh step in this chapter's sequence, the mind's active, volitional response to a recognized sense object.
kamma — not named directly here, but “action” itself — elsewhere in the canon the Buddha identifies intention as kamma in its most fundamental sense.
rūpasañcetanā — “intention regarding sights” — the first of the six, opening this page's list.
aniccānupassī...paṭinissaggānupassī — the same eight contemplations from AN 11.22–29, again left entirely implicit.
The text
The compressed text in full: the same pattern, now applied to the six kinds of intention. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
