The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
The identical instruction from SN 22.33, stripped of its Jeta's Grove simile and closing with the bare imperative restated once more
Length
under a 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
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and direct, best read as SN 22.33's companion
Why this discourse
This discourse gives the identical instruction as SN 22.33 — give up what isn't yours, for your welfare and happiness, applied to each aggregate in turn — but omits the grass-and-leaves simile entirely. Where SN 22.33 spent roughly half its length illustrating why the aggregates aren't self, this discourse simply states the instruction, states it again for each aggregate, and closes by repeating the bare imperative once more without any supporting image at all. The comparison between the two discourses shows how the same content could be delivered either with or without its illustrative apparatus.
Reading guide
The identical instruction, no simile attached
Every clause of this discourse's instruction matches SN 22.33 exactly — give up what isn't yours, for your welfare and happiness, applied in turn to form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. What is missing is the entire second half of SN 22.33: no grove, no grass and sticks, no rhetorical question to the assembled mendicants.
A closing repetition standing in for the simile
In place of SN 22.33's illustrative closing section, this discourse simply repeats its own opening instruction once more: “give up what's not yours. Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness.” The repetition itself, rather than an image, provides the discourse's sense of closure.
What the comparison with SN 22.33 reveals
Reading these two discourses side by side shows that the instruction to give up the aggregates did not, in this tradition, require the Jeta's Grove simile to stand on its own — the bare imperative was evidently considered a complete teaching in itself, with the simile functioning as an optional, vivid elaboration rather than a logically necessary component.
A short companion opening the vagga's second half of its opening pair
As the second of Natumhākavagga's own two “it's not yours” discourses, this brief companion sets the pattern the vagga's remaining pairs (SN 22.35-36's mendicant narrative, SN 22.37-38's Ānanda dialogue) will also follow — a fuller first discourse followed by a shorter or differently elaborated second.
Key terms
na tumhākaṁ — “it's not yours” — the same title phrase as SN 22.33, unchanged here despite the missing simile.
pajahatha — “give up” — the discourse's central imperative verb, identical to SN 22.33's.
hitāya sukhāya — “for welfare and happiness” — the promised result, repeated at both the instruction's first statement and its closing repetition.
peyyāla — the technical term for the kind of source-level compression seen in SN 22.6 and SN 22.13 earlier in this book, though this discourse is not itself elided — it is simply shorter by design, lacking a simile rather than eliding one.
tiṇakaṭṭhasākhāpalāsa — “grass, sticks, branches, and leaves” — SN 22.33's simile material, entirely absent from this discourse's shorter form.
The text
The discourse in full. Three elided repetitions (feeling, perception, and choices, each following the same instruction spelled out in full for form and consciousness) are given exactly as bilara-data preserves them. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, give up what’s not yours. Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness. And what isn’t yours? Form isn’t yours: give it up. Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness.
§2Consciousness isn’t yours: give it up. Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness. Give up what’s not yours. Giving it up will be for your welfare and happiness.”
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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
How does this discourse's instruction compare to SN 22.33's?
Correct: A. Every clause matches SN 22.33 exactly.
Question 2 of 10
What is missing from this discourse that SN 22.33 included?
Correct: A. The entire illustrative second half of SN 22.33 is absent here.
Question 3 of 10
What does this discourse use in place of the simile to provide closure?
Correct: A. The instruction repeated once more stands in for illustrative content.
Question 4 of 10
What does comparing SN 22.33 and this discourse reveal about the simile's role?
Correct: A. The bare imperative was evidently a complete teaching on its own.
Question 5 of 10
What pattern does this pair (SN 22.33-34) set for the rest of the vagga?
Correct: A. SN 22.35-36 and SN 22.37-38 follow a similar fuller-then-varied structure.
Question 6 of 10
How many aggregates does this discourse's instruction apply to?
Correct: A. Feeling, perception, and choices are elided but follow the same pattern.
Question 7 of 10
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: A. Continuing the same setting as SN 22.33, without the grove-specific simile detail.
Question 8 of 10
What promised result follows from giving up what isn't yours in this discourse?
Correct: A. Hitāya sukhāya, identical to SN 22.33's wording.
Question 9 of 10
What discourse comes immediately after this one?
Correct: A. Opening the vagga's second pair, a narrative structure distinct from this discourse's bare instruction.
Question 10 of 10
Is this discourse itself an elided peyyāla stub, or a complete discourse that is simply shorter by design?
Correct: A. Unlike SN 22.6 or SN 22.13, this discourse is not eliding a fuller statement given elsewhere in identical form.
