Reading guide
Nearly word for word, one term changed
"I will teach you suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering" — every clause matches SN 22.103's structure exactly, with dukkha substituted for sakkāya throughout.
Even the definitions are identical: suffering is "the five grasping aggregates," its origin is the same threefold craving, its cessation is craving's complete fading away, and the path is the same noble eightfold path — nothing in the content changes, only the name given to the whole.
Why repeat the identical structure under a different name
The near-total repetition is itself the teaching: dukkha and sakkāya are not two different problems requiring two different diagnoses, but the same set of five grasping aggregates described under two different technical terms — one emphasizing the experience of suffering, the other the sense of substantial self it depends on.
Reading SN 22.103 and SN 22.104 side by side makes the equivalence unmistakable in a way that either discourse alone would leave merely implicit.
The compressed "Listen …" opening
Unlike SN 22.103's direct declarative opening, this discourse begins with the Buddha announcing he "will teach" the four points and then instructing the mendicants to "listen," abbreviated in the source with an ellipsis — the standard address formula found at the start of many discourses across the Canon, here elided rather than spelled out in full.
Setting up SN 22.105
This discourse's structure — teach, then define each of the four points in turn — is exactly what SN 22.105 will follow next, returning to sakkāya's own name but keeping this discourse's "I will teach you..." opening rather than SN 22.103's "there are these four ends."
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I will teach you suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Listen …
§2And what is suffering? It should be said: the five grasping aggregates. What five? That is, the grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. This is called suffering.
§3And what is the origin of suffering? It’s the craving that leads to future lives, mixed up with relishing and greed, taking pleasure there wherever it alights. That is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for existence, and craving for nonexistence. This is called the origin of suffering.
§4And what is the cessation of suffering? It’s the fading away and cessation of that very same craving with no residue left behind; giving it away, letting it go, releasing it, and not clinging to it. This is called the cessation of suffering.
§5And what is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering? It is simply this noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. This is called the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.”
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