Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 12.38

Intention

Cetanāsutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
Three parallel cases, run through an identical mechanism — a support for consciousness, establishment, regeneration, and the arising of the whole mass of suffering — with the third case reversing every step into cessation
Length
~3 minutes to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★★★☆ — a compact but doctrinally dense account of how kamma sustains rebirth

Why this discourse

This discourse gives one of the most precise accounts in this saṃyutta of how volitional activity actually feeds rebirth. What one intends, plans, or has underlying tendencies for becomes a support on which consciousness can become established; once established and grown, it regenerates into a new state of existence, bringing future rebirth, old age, death, and the whole train of grief in its wake. What makes the discourse's structure worth attending to closely is its second case: even where active intending and planning are absent, underlying tendencies alone are still enough to provide the same support and set the same process going. Only where none of the three — intending, planning, or underlying tendency — remains at all does the entire chain fail to get a foothold, and the whole mass of suffering ceases.

Reading guide

Three ingredients, not one

The discourse names three distinct things — intending, planning, and underlying tendency — rather than treating volition as a single undifferentiated activity, and then examines what happens when each combination is present or absent.

A support, not a cause in isolation

What is intended, planned, or latent doesn't directly produce rebirth; it becomes an ārammaṇa, an object or support, on which consciousness can become established — a more precise, mechanical image than simple causation.

The second case is the discourse's real point

The first case, where active intending and planning are both present, is unsurprising; the second case, where neither is present but underlying tendency remains, shows that dormant tendency alone is sufficient — liberation can't be achieved by merely suspending active volition while tendencies remain unresolved.

Only the third case breaks the chain entirely

It's only when intending, planning, and underlying tendency are all three absent that consciousness gains no support, fails to become established, and the entire sequence toward future rebirth simply doesn't occur.

A compressed final step, unlike SN 12.39

Once consciousness is established and grows, this discourse moves straight to regeneration into a new existence and the arising of old age and death, without spelling out the intervening links of name and form, the six sense fields, contact, and the rest — a compression the very next discourse, SN 12.39, doesn't make.

Key terms

ceteti… pakappeti… anuseti — “intends… plans… has underlying tendencies for” — the three distinct volitional ingredients the discourse examines in combination.
ārammaṇametaṁ hoti viññāṇassa ṭhitiyā — “this becomes a support for the continuation of consciousness” — the precise mechanical image linking intention to consciousness's persistence.
patiṭṭhā viññāṇassa — “consciousness becomes established” — the step that follows once a support is present.
āyatiṁ punabbhavābhinibbatti — “regeneration into a new state of existence in the future” — what follows once consciousness is established and grows.
anuseti — “has underlying tendencies for” — the one ingredient of the three that alone, even without active intending or planning, is still sufficient to sustain the whole process, as the discourse's second case shows.

The text

The discourse in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī.

§2“Mendicants, what you intend or plan, and what you have underlying tendencies for become a support for the continuation of consciousness. When this support exists, consciousness becomes established. When consciousness is established and grows, there is regeneration into a new state of existence in the future. When there is regeneration into a new state of existence in the future, future rebirth, old age, and death come to be, as do sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

§3If you don’t intend or plan, but still have underlying tendencies, this becomes a support for the continuation of consciousness. When this support exists, consciousness becomes established. When consciousness is established and grows, there is regeneration into a new state of existence in the future. When there is regeneration into a new state of existence in the future, future rebirth, old age, and death come to be, as do sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

§4If you don’t intend or plan or have underlying tendencies, this doesn’t become a support for the continuation of consciousness. With no support, consciousness is not established. When consciousness is not established and doesn’t grow, there’s no regeneration into a new state of existence in the future. When there is no regeneration into a new state of existence in the future, future rebirth, old age, and death cease, as do sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.”

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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 three things does the discourse examine as possible supports for consciousness?
Correct: A. Three distinct volitional ingredients, examined in combination.
Question 2 of 10
What does an intention or underlying tendency become, according to this discourse?
Correct: A. A precise, mechanical image of support rather than simple causation.
Question 3 of 10
In the discourse's second case, what is present and what is absent?
Correct: A. The case that shows dormant tendency alone is sufficient.
Question 4 of 10
What does the second case show about liberation?
Correct: A. Dormant tendency alone is enough to sustain the process toward rebirth.
Question 5 of 10
What must be entirely absent for consciousness to gain no support at all?
Correct: A. Only the third case, with all three absent, breaks the chain entirely.
Question 6 of 10
What happens once consciousness is established and grows, in this discourse's account?
Correct: A. The step leading toward future rebirth, old age, and death.
Question 7 of 10
How does this discourse's final step compare to SN 12.39's account?
Correct: A. SN 12.39 spells out name and form, the six sense fields, and the rest explicitly.
Question 8 of 10
What closes the description of both the arising cases in this discourse?
Correct: A. The recurring closing phrase marking suffering's arising.
Question 9 of 10
Who is the sole speaker in this discourse?
Correct: A. No interlocutor or visiting figure appears.
Question 10 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The consistent setting across this chapter of Nidānavagga.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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