Reading guide
Nine categories, one file, nine clearly marked sections
Unlike SN 18.13-20's individual titles suggesting nine separate discourses, bilara-data stores this entire range as a single file with nine internal sections, each corresponding to exactly one of Paṭhamavagga's original nine categories after the eye.
The most heavily compressed material in this saṃyutta
Where even SN 18.2 through 18.9 gave each category its own discourse number and full text, if elided sentence structure, this block reduces every category to little more than its own name, relying entirely on the reader already having encountered the fuller versions in Paṭhamavagga.
A structure that exactly mirrors Paṭhamavagga's order
Sights, consciousness, contact, feeling, perception, intention, craving, elements, aggregates: this sequence reproduces Paṭhamavagga's own category order exactly, confirming Dutiyavagga isn't reorganizing the material but simply restating it at a different level of compression.
The aggregates section alone given somewhat fuller treatment
The ninth and final section, on the aggregates, includes slightly more of the closing formula than the eight sections before it, echoing how SN 18.10 also received fuller treatment than the discourses immediately preceding it in Paṭhamavagga.
Setting up the vagga's shift to a new question in its final two discourses
After this compressed sweep through all ten of Paṭhamavagga's original categories, the two discourses closing this vagga move to a different kind of question entirely, asking not whether each category is impermanent but how one sees so as to be free of conceit regarding all of them at once.
Key terms
The text
§1 · Sights, Etc.At Sāvatthī. “What do you think, Rāhula? Are sights permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “… sounds … smells … tastes … touches … ideas …”
§2 · Consciousness“… eye consciousness … ear consciousness … nose consciousness … tongue consciousness … body consciousness … mind consciousness …”
§3 · Contact“… eye contact … ear contact … nose contact … tongue contact … body contact … mind contact …”
§4 · Feeling“… feeling born of eye contact … feeling born of ear contact … feeling born of nose contact … feeling born of tongue contact … feeling born of body contact … feeling born of mind contact …”
§5 · Perceptions“… perception of sights … perception of sounds … perception of smells … perception of tastes … perception of touches … perception of ideas …”
§6 · Intention“… intention regarding sights … intention regarding sounds … intention regarding smells … intention regarding tastes … intention regarding touches … intention regarding ideas …”
§7 · Craving“… craving for sights … craving for sounds … craving for smells … craving for tastes … craving for touches … craving for ideas …”
§8 · Elements“… the earth element … the water element … the fire element … the air element … the space element … the consciousness element …”
§9 · The Aggregates“… form … feeling … perception … choices … Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “Seeing this … They understand: ‘… there is nothing further for this place.’”
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