Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourses 12.93–213

Sets of Eleven on Training, Etc.

Sikkhāsuttādipeyyālaekādasakasutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
Eleven further motivating attitudes, each compressed by bilara-data to a single phrase, each implicitly run through all eleven links exactly as SN 12.82 and SN 12.83–92 modeled in full
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
★☆☆☆☆ — the most compressed page in this entire book, closing on its single most consequential line

Why this discourse

This page holds the largest concentration of discourses anywhere in this saṃyutta: 121 of them, numbered consecutively from SN 12.93 to SN 12.213, compressed by bilara-data into just eleven short phrases. Having already modeled "seek the Teacher" in full across SN 12.82 and SN 12.83 through 92, the source trusts the reader to supply the same eleven-link structure eleven more times, swapping in a new motivating attitude each time: train, practice meditation, rouse up enthusiasm, try vigorously, persevere, be keen, rouse up energy, persist, be mindful, use situational awareness, be diligent. Rather than manufacture 121 individually written pages the source itself never provides, this reading guide follows the same principle used earlier in this book for SN 12.5 through 12.9 and SN 12.72 through 12.81, presenting all eleven phrases together, honestly, on a single page — a page that also happens to close with the one sentence in this entire saṃyutta's closing material that survives translation: "The Linked Discourses on causality are complete."

Reading guide

A checklist of attitudes, not a checklist of arguments

Read together rather than as isolated mechanical stubs, the eleven motivating attitudes on this page form a coherent practical sequence — find a teacher, train, meditate, want it, push hard, don't quit, be ardent, be energetic, keep at it, stay aware, be diligent — less a set of separate doctrines than a single attitude toward practice, restated eleven different ways.

The same eleven-link structure, trusted rather than repeated

None of these eleven phrases spells out the full sentence — not knowing a given link, therefore this attitude is called for, run through all eleven links — because SN 12.82 and SN 12.83 through 92 already modeled that structure completely; the source assumes the reader carries it forward rather than restating it 121 more times.

A scale comparable to, but smaller than, this project's largest known compression

121 discourses is a genuinely large block, but it remains considerably smaller than the roughly five hundred consecutive discourses of near-identical wording compressed in this collection's companion project on the Aṅguttara Nikāya, and the underlying editorial judgment is the same in both cases: honor genuine elision as elision.

The chapter's own close, marked but left untranslated

The source's Pali closes this chapter with two colophons of its own — one naming Antarapeyyāla complete, one summarizing its twelve attitudes and their total discourse count — and closes this book's ninth and final chapter with its own uddāna; none of this material is translated, and none of it is quoted here.

One sentence that survives translation, closing everything

Immediately after that untranslated material, a single line is translated: “the Linked Discourses on causality are complete” — not merely this chapter's close but Nidānasaṃyutta's own, the formal end of all 213 discourses making up the whole book this series has been working through since SN 12.3, and the only closing line in this entire saṃyutta's final material given in English at all.

Key terms

jarāmaraṇaṁ, bhikkhave, ajānatā apassatā yathābhūtaṁ jarāmaraṇe yathābhūtaṁ ñāṇāya sikkhā karaṇīyā — “one who does not truly know or see old age and death should train so as to truly know old age and death” — the first of eleven attitudes, given in its one fully spelled-out instance.
yogo karaṇīyo… chando karaṇīyo… ussoḷhī karaṇīyā… sati karaṇīyā — “practice meditation… rouse up enthusiasm… try vigorously… be mindful” — four of the eleven attitudes, each compressed to a single verb.
appamādo karaṇīyo — “be diligent” — the eleventh and final attitude, closing the whole sequence of twelve begun back in SN 12.82.
sikkhāsuttādipeyyālaekādasaka — “the elided set of eleven beginning with the training discourse” — the source's own name for this block, naming it by its first member.
nidānasaṁyuttaṁ samattaṁ — “the Linked Discourses on causality are complete” — the single translated line closing this entire saṃyutta, all 213 discourses from SN 12.1 through SN 12.213.

The text

The full text of all eleven abbreviated blocks, exactly as elided in the source, closing this page with the single line of closing material that is translated. Each stub implies the same eleven-link structure spelled out in full in SN 12.82 and SN 12.83–92, not reproduced here since the source itself doesn't reproduce it. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1 · SN 12.93–103“Mendicants, one who does not truly know or see old age and death should train so as to truly know old age and death. …”

§2 · SN 12.104–114“… practice meditation …”

§3 · SN 12.115–125“… rouse up enthusiasm …”

§4 · SN 12.126–136“… try vigorously …”

§5 · SN 12.137–147“… persevere …”

§6 · SN 12.148–158“… be keen …”

§7 · SN 12.159–169“… rouse up energy …”

§8 · SN 12.170–180“… persist …”

§9 · SN 12.181–191“… be mindful …”

§10 · SN 12.192–202“… use situational awareness …”

§11 · SN 12.203–213“… be diligent …” The Linked Discourses on causality are complete.

· · ·

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
How many discourses does this single page compress, and into how many phrases?
Correct: A. The largest concentration of discourses anywhere in this saṃyutta, on a single page.
Question 2 of 10
Why doesn't this reading guide expand these 121 discourses into 121 separate pages?
Correct: A. A consistent editorial principle applied across this book's merged pages.
Question 3 of 10
What structure does each of the eleven phrases on this page implicitly carry, without restating it?
Correct: A. The source trusts the reader to carry the established pattern forward.
Question 4 of 10
What is the eleventh and final motivating attitude in this sequence?
Correct: A. Closing the full sequence of twelve attitudes begun in SN 12.82.
Question 5 of 10
What single sentence survives translation in this page's closing material?
Correct: A. The one line of closing material given in English, marking a major structural milestone.
Question 6 of 10
What does that one translated sentence actually mark?
Correct: A. The formal close of the whole book this series has worked through since SN 12.3.
Question 7 of 10
How does this page's scale of compression compare to the largest compression in this collection's companion Aṅguttara Nikāya project?
Correct: A. A genuinely large block, but not the largest example of this editorial principle across the two projects.
Question 8 of 10
How does this reading guide characterize the eleven attitudes when read together, rather than as isolated stubs?
Correct: A. Find a teacher, train, meditate, want it, push hard, don't quit, and so on, forming one throughline.
Question 9 of 10
Are the chapter's own closing colophon and its uddāna translated in the source?
Correct: A. Following the same convention used for untranslated closing material elsewhere in this saṃyutta.
Question 10 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The consistent setting shared with SN 12.82, SN 12.83–92, and much of this saṃyutta.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 12.83–92 · The Teacher (2nd)