Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourses 12.5–9

Five More Buddhas

Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, Kassapasutta

Setting
Sāvatthī, Jeta's Grove — the same setting named once at the head of this set of five
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Five separate discourses, each preserved in the source as a single elided line naming a different past Buddha
Length
~1.5 minutes to read
Northern parallel
The Chinese Dīrgha-āgama and other sources preserve fuller accounts of these same seven Buddhas, though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the content is minimal by design; the interest lies in what the repetition itself signals

Why this discourse

SN 12.4 gave, in full, the account of how the past Buddha Vipassī reasoned his own way to the twelve-link chain of dependent origination before his awakening. That same discourse closed with an explicit editorial note: tell this in full for all seven Buddhas. Rather than actually writing out five more complete versions, the source preserves each of the next five — Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, and Kassapa — as a single elided line, naming the Buddha and trusting the reader to supply Vipassī's full account underneath. This reading guide treats all five together rather than manufacturing five nearly identical full-length guides for content the source itself declines to spell out.

Reading guide

An instruction followed to the letter, not embellished

SN 12.4's closing note said this account should be told in full for all seven Buddhas; the source honors that instruction's letter by preserving five more discourse numbers, but honors its spirit by eliding each one down to a single line rather than repeating pages of identical prose five times over.

Five real discourses, not a single merged one

Despite their near-total brevity, each of these five carries its own discourse number and its own place in the collection; this guide treats them together for readability, not because bilara-data itself merges them into one file.

A traditional lineage of seven, this book's second and third

Vipassī, Sikhī, Vessabhū, Kakusandha, Koṇāgamana, Kassapa, and Gotama are traditionally enumerated together as the Buddhas of the current age; fuller biographical accounts of each exist elsewhere in the canon (the Mahāpadāna Sutta, DN 14, most notably), and this reading guide points there rather than inventing biographical detail this discourse set doesn't itself supply.

Content this guide declines to manufacture

Because the source gives essentially no distinguishing content between these five beyond the substituted name, this guide does not pretend to find five separate teachings here; the single teaching is Vipassī's, applied five more times.

A structural signal about how the chapter itself is built

Reading these five stubs alongside SN 12.4's full version reveals something about how Buddhavagga is constructed: one template given in full, then applied by name-substitution alone — the same technique seen at smaller scale elsewhere in this collection, here used across an entire chapter's structure.

Key terms

sikhissa… bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa — “for Sikhī, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha” — the fixed opening formula shared by all five stubs, varying only the name.
vessabhū — “Vessabhū” — the third of the seven Buddhas in this traditional lineage, named in SN 12.6.
kakusandha — “Kakusandha” — the fourth of the seven, traditionally regarded as the first Buddha of the current aeon, named in SN 12.7.
koṇāgamana — “Koṇāgamana” — the fifth of the seven, named in SN 12.8.
kassapa — “Kassapa” — the sixth of the seven, immediately preceding Gotama himself, named in SN 12.9.

The text

All five discourses in full — each is preserved in the source as exactly this one elided line, with no further text beyond the Buddha's name. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1 · SN 12.5“Sikhī, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha …”

§2 · SN 12.6“Vessabhū, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha …”

§3 · SN 12.7“Kakusandha, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha …”

§4 · SN 12.8“Koṇāgamana, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha …”

§5 · SN 12.9“Kassapa, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha …”

· · ·

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 does each of these five discourses consist of in the source text?
Correct: A. The instruction to tell the account in full was honored by elision, not repetition.
Question 2 of 10
Which discourse gives the full account these five stubs each refer back to?
Correct: A. The template all five apply with only the name changed.
Question 3 of 10
How many separate discourse numbers do these five stubs actually carry?
Correct: A. Treated together here for readability, not because the source merges them.
Question 4 of 10
What does this reading guide do regarding invented biographical detail for each Buddha?
Correct: A. Honesty about what the source does and doesn't say.
Question 5 of 10
What is the traditional name for the fuller account of these seven Buddhas' lives?
Correct: A. A separate discourse this reading guide points to rather than duplicating.
Question 6 of 10
Which Buddha is traditionally regarded as the first of the current aeon?
Correct: A. The fourth of the traditional seven, named in SN 12.7.
Question 7 of 10
Which Buddha immediately precedes Gotama in this traditional lineage of seven?
Correct: A. The sixth of the seven, named in SN 12.9, directly before Gotama's own account in SN 12.10.
Question 8 of 10
What does the repetition across these five stubs reveal about Buddhavagga's own construction?
Correct: A. A structural technique visible at chapter scale here.
Question 9 of 10
What formula opens each of the five stub discourses, varying only the name?
Correct: A. The fixed template shared across all five names.
Question 10 of 10
Where is this set of five discourses set, as named once at their head?
Correct: A. The same setting shared with the rest of Buddhavagga.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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