Reading guide
"The same setting" — a minimal, confident notice
"The same setting" (tattheva) opens this discourse — the briefest possible setting notice in this entire vagga, trusting the reader to carry forward Varanasi and Isipatana from the discourses immediately before it without needing either restated.
Returning to the formula that started it all
"It's when an unlearned ordinary person doesn't understand form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation" — the exact four-point formula from SN 22.113, word for word, now placed in Koṭṭhita's mouth answering Sāriputta rather than in the Buddha's own voice answering an unnamed mendicant.
This return is not accidental: of all the criteria available to close this vagga with, the discourse chooses specifically the one that opened this entire question at SN 22.113 — the vagga's own name, Avijjāvagga, and its closing discourse both point back to that same origin.
A complete circuit, reviewed
Across ten discourses, Avijjāvagga has now applied four distinct criteria (origin/cessation/practice at SN 22.113 and again here; originate/vanish/both at SN 22.126-128; gratification/drawback/escape at SN 22.129-130 and 133; the five-point combination at SN 22.131-132 and 134) across every combination of speaker (Buddha, Sāriputta, Koṭṭhita), direction (Koṭṭhita-asks, Sāriputta-asks), and format (combined, split) available to it.
Closing without a colophon, into Kukkuḷavagga
As with several vaggas earlier in this book, no explicit closing formula marks the end of Avijjāvagga in the source text — the vagga simply concludes on this returning formula, before Uparipaṇṇāsaka's fourth vagga, Kukkuḷavagga, begins at SN 22.136.
Key terms
The text
§1The same setting. Sāriputta said to Mahākoṭṭhita: “Reverend Koṭṭhita, they speak of this thing called ‘ignorance’. What is ignorance? And how is an ignoramus defined?”
§2“Reverend, it’s when an unlearned ordinary person doesn’t understand form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. They don’t understand feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. This is called ignorance. And this is how an ignoramus is defined.”
§3When he said this, Venerable Sāriputta said to him: “Reverend Koṭṭhita, they speak of this thing called ‘knowledge’. What is knowledge? And how is a knowing one defined?”
§4“Reverend, it’s when a learned noble disciple understands form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. They understand feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. This is called knowledge. And this is how a knowing one is defined.”
Self-check quiz
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