Reading guide
Asking about the positive formula directly
"Do you regard form like this: 'This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self'?" — where SN 22.118 asked about the wrong view and had to supply the right one afterward, this discourse asks about the right view directly from the start.
A "Yes" that needs no correction
"Yes, sir" — the mendicants confirm they already hold this understanding, and the Buddha's "Good, mendicants!" here affirms an already-correct answer rather than, as in SN 22.118, prompting a further explicit statement.
The Buddha still restates the formula afterward — "form should be truly seen with right understanding like this" — but now as confirmation of what the mendicants have already affirmed, not as a correction supplying something missing.
Why pair a discourse of correction with one of confirmation
Read together, SN 22.118 and SN 22.119 test the same understanding from both directions: can the mendicants recognize wrong view when asked about it directly (118), and do they already, independently, hold the right view when asked about that directly instead (119)?
Passing both tests together demonstrates something a single question could not: not merely rejecting the wrong formula when presented with it, but actively holding the right one as their own settled view.
Closing into the identical formula
As in SN 22.118, this discourse closes with the same standard sequence — "seeing this... they understand: 'there is nothing further for this place'" — the shared destination both discourses arrive at, whether starting from correction or from confirmation.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “What do you think, mendicants? Do you regard form like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self’?” “Yes, sir.” “Good, mendicants! Form should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
§2Do you regard feeling … perception … choices … consciousness like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self’?” “Yes, sir.” “Good, mendicants! Consciousness should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
§3Seeing this … They understand: ‘… there is nothing further for this place.’”
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