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 sense objects
Length
~1 minute to read; stands for forty-eight discourses
A new category, the standard scale
The first of nine remaining categories in this chapter, each contributing forty-eight discourses
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the same established pattern, one category over
Why this discourse
The same eleven-factor cowherd simile and eight contemplations already established move from the six sense faculties to the six sense objects — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas — six categories times eight contemplations, forty-eight further discourses (AN 11.70–117).
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The identical cowherd simile and eight contemplations now apply to the six sense objects — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas — the second of this chapter's ten categories.
From faculty to object
Having completed the six sense faculties (the eye and its five companions) across the previous two pages, this page moves to what those faculties perceive: the sense objects themselves. This shift — from the sensing organ to the thing sensed — is the first step of a systematic analytical sequence this chapter will now carry through eight further steps.
The arithmetic, now standard
Six sense objects times eight contemplations gives forty-eight discourses, exactly matching AN 11.70 through AN 11.117. From this page onward, forty-eight is the standard unit this chapter's remaining categories will each contribute, until the final compressed page changes the pattern entirely.
A familiar analytical sequence
Sense faculty, then sense object, then (as the following pages will show) consciousness, contact, feeling, perception, intention, craving, thought, and consideration — this ten-step progression will be recognizable to readers familiar with the analytical method found elsewhere in the canon's treatment of the six sense bases, systematically applied here to insight into impermanence.
Key terms
rūpesu, saddesu, gandhesu, rasesu, phoṭṭhabbesu, dhammesu — “in sights, in sounds, in smells, in tastes, in touches, in ideas” — the six sense objects, paired with the six sense faculties in the standard order.
rūpa — “sight”, form — the first sense object, paired with the eye as its faculty.
dhamma — “idea”, mental object — the sixth sense object, paired with the mind, completing the standard six-object list.
bāhira āyatana — not named directly here, but the traditional term for the six external sense bases (objects) this page addresses, distinct from the six internal bases (faculties) of the previous two pages.
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 sense objects. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
