The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
The exact structural mirror of SN 15.11, with the opposite condition
Length
~1 minute 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 direct companion to SN 15.11, best read immediately alongside it
Why this discourse
This discourse repeats SN 15.11's exact instruction with the opposite condition: whenever you see someone in a good way, thriving and happy, you should conclude the identical thing — across this long time, we too have undergone the same thing. The pairing matters. This saṃyutta doesn't reserve its recognition of shared history for suffering alone; someone else's happiness is treated as equally revealing of your own beginningless past, not merely as something to envy or admire from a distance.
Reading guide
A precise structural mirror of SN 15.11
Every element of this discourse — the refrain, the instruction's phrasing, the closing exhortation — matches SN 15.11 exactly, with only the condition itself reversed from suffering to happiness.
Happiness included, not treated as a separate category
It would be easy for a teaching about beginningless suffering to focus only on distress; this discourse deliberately extends the same recognition to good fortune, refusing to let happiness sit outside the pattern.
Neither state kept at a distance
Read together, SN 15.11 and this discourse insist that neither suffering nor happiness in another person is something foreign to you — both are conditions your own beginningless past has already included.
A completed pair before the vagga's most dramatic discourse
Having addressed both distress and happiness in ordinary encounters, this vagga's next discourse shifts dramatically to a specific, named group of thirty mendicants and a genuinely visceral image.
Brevity as its own kind of completeness
Neither this discourse nor SN 15.11 needs elaboration beyond its single instruction — the pairing itself does the work of showing the teaching applies evenly, without requiring further argument.
Key terms
sukhitaṁ susajjitaṁ — “someone in a good way, in a happy state” — this discourse's title condition, the exact opposite of SN 15.11's duggataṁ.
niṭṭhamettha gantabbaṁ — “you should conclude” — the identical instruction phrase carried over unchanged from SN 15.11.
amhehipi evarūpaṁ paccanubhūtaṁ — “we too have undergone the same thing” — the same conclusion, now applied to happiness rather than distress.
iminā dīghena addhunā — “in all this long time” — the same temporal frame from SN 15.11, unchanged.
dutiyaṁ — “the second” — the closing numbering tag, marking this discourse's place in the vagga.
The text
The discourse in full, including the source's own elision of the refrain's repeated middle clauses. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, this transmigration has no known beginning. … When you see someone in a good way, in a happy state, you should conclude: ‘In all this long time, we too have undergone the same thing.’ Why is that? This transmigration has no known beginning. … This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.”
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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 condition does this discourse address, mirroring SN 15.11?
Correct: A. The exact opposite condition from SN 15.11's suffering stranger.
Question 2 of 10
How does this discourse's structure compare to SN 15.11's?
Correct: A. Same refrain, same instruction phrasing, same closing, only the condition reversed.
Question 3 of 10
What point does pairing SN 15.11 and this discourse together make?
Correct: A. Both conditions are treated as equally revealing of shared history.
Question 4 of 10
Does this discourse treat happiness as something to envy from a distance?
Correct: A. Happiness included in the same recognition pattern as distress, not set apart.
Question 5 of 10
What discourse follows this pair, shifting the vagga's tone dramatically?
Correct: A. A dramatic shift in both scale and specificity.
Question 6 of 10
What does this reading guide say about the brevity shared by SN 15.11 and this discourse?
Correct: A. Completeness achieved through the paired structure, not through added argument.
Question 7 of 10
What temporal frame does this discourse invoke, unchanged from SN 15.11?
Correct: A. The same beginningless span invoked throughout this saṃyutta.
Question 8 of 10
Who is the sole speaker in this discourse?
Correct: A. No interlocutor or visitor appears; the Buddha teaches directly.
Question 9 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The setting shared with most discourses in this collection.
