Reading guide
A question asked twice, then answered once
The deity's exchange follows a three-step pattern already used at SN 1.1: a first question asking simply whether the Buddha knows a thing, a second confirming that he does, and a third asking how — which the Buddha answers directly, in verse, without further prompting.
Three technical terms, closely related
Nimokkha, pamokkha, and viveka — liberation, emancipation, and seclusion — are named together as a set, without being distinguished from one another in this discourse. The verse answer addresses all three at once, as a single achievement rather than three separate ones.
Three causes, three aggregates
The verse names three specific causes: the ending of relish for continued existence (nandībhavaparikkhaya), the finishing of perception and consciousness (saññāviññāṇasaṅkhaya), and the cessation and stilling of feelings (vedanānaṁ nirodhā upasamā). Perception, consciousness, and feeling are three of the five aggregates (khandha) that later become this collection's own dedicated subject in its third book, the Khandhavagga.
A verse, not further prose explanation
Unlike a discourse that might unpack each of these three causes in prose, this one simply states them, compressed into four lines of verse, and ends. Nothing in the text explains what ‘finishing perception and consciousness’ or ‘stilling feelings’ concretely involves; the deity asks no further question, and none is offered unprompted.
A shape this book's opening chapter repeats
This same short question-and-answer shape, closed by a compact verse, recurs across the Naḷavagga, the first sub-chapter of the Devatāsaṃyutta this discourse belongs to — the same ‘deity approaches, asks, is answered’ frame already met at SN 1.1, now applied to a different subject.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Then, late at night, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and said to him,
§2“Good fellow, do you know the liberation, emancipation, and seclusion of sentient beings?”
§3“I do, good sir.”
§4“But how is it that you know the liberation, emancipation, and seclusion of sentient beings?”
§5“Due to the ending of relish for rebirth; due to the finishing of perception and consciousness; due to the cessation and stilling of feelings—that, respectable sir, is how I know the liberation, emancipation, and seclusion of sentient beings.”
Self-check quiz
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