Not narrated in this discourse's source text; no discourse in this vagga carries a narrative frame at all
Speakers
Not named explicitly; a four-part riddle answered point by point
Form
A four-line question, answered by a matching four-line reply
Length
~20 seconds to read
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — brief in form, carrying real doctrinal weight as this vagga's closing resolution
Closing this vagga
The tenth and last discourse of the Addhavagga, answering the entire vagga's sequence of riddles with a single concrete doctrinal foundation
Why this discourse
This discourse asks where the world has arisen, what it gets intimate with, what grasping produces its trouble, and in what it is troubled. Every question receives the identical answer: six. The world has arisen in six, gets intimate with six, is derived from six, and is troubled in six — a direct reference to the six sense bases (saḷāyatana: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind), named here as the concrete foundation underlying every candidate this vagga has proposed.
Reading guide
A resolution, not another candidate
SN 1.61 through SN 1.69 each proposed a candidate for what governs or afflicts the world — name, mind, craving, delight, desire, mortality, old age, suffering. This final discourse doesn't add another item to that list; it names the concrete basis all of them actually operate through: the six sense bases, where contact, feeling, and craving all first arise.
The number 'six', repeated without variation
Every one of the verse's four lines answers with the same number, in the same form, applied to a different aspect of the world's condition — its arising, its intimacy, its derivation, and its trouble all trace back to the identical six bases, treated as a single unified answer rather than four separate claims.
A preview of territory this larger collection covers at much greater length
The six sense bases named here become the entire subject of this collection's fourth book, the Saḷāyatanavagga, which this project has not yet reached. This discourse's compact riddle-answer anticipates, in four lines, a theme the fuller collection eventually treats across dozens of discourses.
An untranslated close, as with earlier vaggas
As with SN 1.10, SN 1.20, SN 1.30, SN 1.40, SN 1.50, and SN 1.60, this discourse is followed in the source text by a closing colophon and a mnemonic verse naming the Addhavagga as finished and listing its ten titles — left untranslated in this edition, and described here rather than quoted, following this project's established practice.
A seventh vagga closed, its investigation resolved rather than left open
Unlike this collection's other vaggas, whose closing discourses tend to stand out for length, vividness, or emotional weight, this vagga's close is notable instead for functioning as an actual answer: where SN 1.61 through SN 1.69 posed nine variations on ‘what governs the world,’ this final discourse supplies the doctrinal ground every one of those nine answers was, in different ways, already pointing toward.
Key terms
loka — “the world” — this discourse's title and this vagga's recurring subject across all ten of its discourses.
saḷāyatana — the “six sense bases” — eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — the concrete referent behind this discourse's repeated answer of ‘six,’ and the subject of this collection's fourth book, not yet reached by this project.
chasu loko samuppanno — “the world has arisen in six” — the verse's first answer, naming where the world's arising is located.
chasu santhavaṁ karoti — “it gets intimate with six” — the second answer, naming where the world's engagement happens.
chasu loko vihaññati — “the world's troubled in six” — the verse's closing answer, tracing the world's affliction back to the same six bases.
The text
The discourse in full, with its untranslated closing colophon and mnemonic verse described rather than quoted, as with the vaggas before it. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“In what has the world arisen? With what does it get intimate? By grasping what is the world troubled in what?”
§2“The world has arisen in six. It gets intimate with six. Derived from the six, the world’s troubled in six.”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What single answer does this discourse's reply give to all four of its questions?
Correct: A. The same number, applied to arising, intimacy, derivation, and trouble alike.
Question 2 of 10
What does 'six' refer to in this discourse's answer?
Correct: A. Saḷāyatana — the concrete doctrinal referent behind the verse's repeated number.
Question 3 of 10
How does this discourse relate to SN 1.61 through SN 1.69's various candidate answers?
Correct: A. A resolution rather than another item in the same list.
Question 4 of 10
What later part of the wider Saṃyutta Nikāya does this discourse's subject anticipate?
Correct: A. A theme this discourse compresses into four lines, treated at much greater length elsewhere.
Question 5 of 10
What follows this discourse in the source text, left untranslated?
Correct: A. The same pattern already seen at the close of every vagga since the Naḷavagga.
Question 6 of 10
How does this vagga's closing discourse differ from most other vaggas' closing discourses in this collection?
Correct: A. A resolution to this vagga's sustained investigation, distinct from SN 1.50's emotional reunion or SN 1.30's vivid description.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'chasu loko samuppanno' mean?
Correct: A. This discourse's first answer, naming where the world's arising is located.
Question 8 of 10
How many distinct answers does this discourse give across its four questions?
Correct: A. A single unified answer applied consistently, unlike SN 1.66's four separate afflictions.
Question 9 of 10
What is this discourse's position within the Addhavagga?
Correct: A. This discourse's own closing colophon marks the Addhavagga as finished.
Question 10 of 10
What is the setting of this discourse?
Correct: A. Like every discourse in this vagga, no setting is given directly.
