The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
Ten discourses compressed by bilara-data into a single file, each an elided one-line application of SN 12.71's test to a further link
Length
~2 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
★☆☆☆☆ — ten discourses of pure elided repetition, read here honestly as such
Why this discourse
SN 12.71 tested whether an ascetic or brahmin understands old age and death, its origin, its cessation, and the path to that cessation. These ten discourses take that identical test and run it through the rest of the chain, one link at a time: rebirth, continued existence, grasping, craving, feeling, contact, the six sense fields, name and form, consciousness, and choices. Bilara-data itself preserves each of these ten as a single elided line naming only the link in question, trusting the reader to supply SN 12.71's full sentence structure around it — and rather than expand each one into ten separately fabricated pages, this reading guide keeps them together on a single page, exactly as elided, following the same principle of honest compression already used for SN 12.5 through 12.9's five past Buddhas earlier in this book.
Reading guide
Ten discourses, one shared sentence
Each of these ten items in the source names only the link being tested — rebirth, continued existence, and so on — leaving the full "don't understand its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation, so I don't deem them true ascetics or brahmins" structure to be supplied from SN 12.71, exactly as bilara-data elides it.
Choices given in full where the rest are stubs
Nine of the ten links are compressed to a bare named phrase, but the tenth, choices, is spelled out with its complete fourfold formula before the closing peyyāla — the one point in this set where the source pauses to state the pattern in full rather than trust elision alone.
The same test, unchanged in substance across all ten
Nothing about the underlying claim shifts from link to link; what changes is only which phenomenon is being tested, confirming that SN 12.71's opening test was never specific to old age and death but a template meant to be run across the whole chain.
A milestone the source itself marks
The closing material carries not only this chapter's own summary verse but a second, higher-level verse listing all eight chapter names completed so far in this book — Buddhavagga, Āhāravagga, Dasabalavagga, Kaḷārakhattiyavagga, Gahapativagga, Dukkhavagga, Mahāvagga, and Samaṇabrāhmaṇavagga — marking the completion of Nidānasaṃyutta's first half before its much larger closing section begins. Neither verse is translated in the source and neither is quoted here.
A smaller-scale version of a familiar editorial choice
This set of ten is far shorter than the roughly five hundred consecutive discourses of near-identical wording compressed elsewhere in this collection's companion project on the Aṅguttara Nikāya, but the underlying editorial judgment is the same: honor genuine elision as elision, rather than manufacture content the source itself doesn't provide.
Key terms
jātiṁ nappajānanti — “they don't understand rebirth” — the first of the nine links given as a bare stub, SN 12.71's structure implied around it.
vedanaṁ nappajānanti — “they don't understand feeling” — one of the nine links compressed identically.
nāmarūpaṁ nappajānanti — “they don't understand name and form” — another of the nine, unpacked no further than its name.
saṅkhāre nappajānanti, saṅkhārasamudayaṁ nappajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhaṁ nappajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ nappajānanti — “they don't understand choices, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation” — the tenth and final link, given in full rather than stubbed like the other nine.
jātisuttādidasaka — “a set of ten on rebirth, etc.” — the source's own name for this block, naming the set by its first member rather than listing all ten.
The text
The full text of all ten discourses, exactly as elided in the source. Each stub implies SN 12.71's complete sentence structure, not reproduced here since the source itself doesn't reproduce it. The chapter's own closing verse and the higher-level verse naming this book's first eight chapters are not translated in the source and are not quoted here; see the reading guide above for their contents. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1 · SN 12.72At Sāvatthī. “… they don’t understand rebirth …”
§2 · SN 12.73“… continued existence …”
§3 · SN 12.74“… grasping …”
§4 · SN 12.75“… craving …”
§5 · SN 12.76“… feeling …”
§6 · SN 12.77“… contact …”
§7 · SN 12.78“… the six sense fields …”
§8 · SN 12.79“… name and form …”
§9 · SN 12.80“… consciousness …”
§10 · SN 12.81“… choices … … they understand …”
· · ·
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 test do these ten discourses apply, one link at a time?
Correct: A. The same test run through the remaining nine links of the chain.
Question 2 of 10
How does the source preserve most of these ten discourses?
Correct: A. Trusting the reader to supply SN 12.71's full structure around each bare name.
Question 3 of 10
Which link among the ten is given in full rather than as a bare stub?
Correct: A. The one point where the source pauses to state the pattern in full.
Question 4 of 10
Why does this reading guide keep all ten discourses on a single page rather than expanding each into its own page?
Correct: A. The same principle already applied to SN 12.5 through 12.9's five past Buddhas.
Question 5 of 10
What milestone does the closing material of this set mark?
Correct: A. A verse naming Buddhavagga through Samaṇabrāhmaṇavagga, marking Nidānasaṃyutta's first half complete.
Question 6 of 10
Is either of the two closing verses translated in the source?
Correct: A. Following the same convention used for untranslated closing material elsewhere in this saṃyutta.
Question 7 of 10
Does the underlying claim change from link to link across these ten discourses?
Correct: A. Confirming SN 12.71's test was always meant as a template for the whole chain.
Question 8 of 10
How does the scale of this compressed set compare to similar compression in this collection's companion project on the Aṅguttara Nikāya?
Correct: A. The same editorial judgment applied at a much smaller scale.
Question 9 of 10
What does "Jātisuttādidasaka," this set's own name, mean?
Correct: A. Named by its first member rather than by listing all ten link names.
Question 10 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The consistent setting shared with SN 12.71 and much of this saṃyutta.
