The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
SN 22.39's chain, elided by the source down to its swapped opening step and closing declaration
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 elided, best read alongside SN 22.39's full statement
Why this discourse
This discourse takes SN 22.39's three-step chain and replaces its opening term with a specific meditation practice: rather than “living full of disillusionment,” mendicants should meditate observing impermanence (aniccānupassī) in the five aggregates. The source elides everything in between, marking the gap with a bare ellipsis before jumping straight to the closing declaration — “they're freed from suffering, I say” — trusting the reader to supply the intervening complete-understanding-then-freedom steps from SN 22.39 immediately before it.
Reading guide
A meditation practice in place of a disposition
SN 22.39's opening step named a general disposition — being full of disillusionment. This discourse instead names a specific meditative activity: observing impermanence (aniccānupassī) directly in each aggregate. The shift is from a broad attitude to a named contemplative practice, though both are presented as leading to the identical outcome.
A genuine elision, not a shortcut taken here
As with SN 22.6 and SN 22.13 earlier in this book, the gap between this discourse's opening clause and its closing declaration is a real feature of the source material, marked with an ellipsis in bilara-data itself rather than a compression introduced by this reading guide. The intervening complete-understanding-then-freedom steps are trusted to the reader's memory of SN 22.39.
The first of three variations on SN 22.39's template
This discourse is the first of the three variations SN 22.39's own guide anticipated: observing impermanence here, observing suffering in SN 22.41 next, and observing not-self in SN 22.42 closing the vagga. All three keep SN 22.39's closing declaration completely unchanged, varying only the specific practice named at the chain's opening.
Anudhamma's meaning sharpened by this variation
Read alongside SN 22.39, this discourse and its two companions suggest that “practicing in line with the teaching” is not a single fixed technique but a family of related practices — disillusionment, or any one of the three marks observed directly in meditation — each equally capable of leading through complete understanding to the identical freedom.
Key terms
aniccānupassī — “observing impermanence” — the meditation practice this discourse substitutes for SN 22.39's "full of disillusionment."
peyyāla — the technical term for this discourse's genuine source-level elision, the same kind of compression seen in SN 22.6 and SN 22.13 earlier in the book.
dukkhasmā parimuccati, vadāmi — “they're freed from suffering, I say” — the closing declaration, unchanged from SN 22.39.
anudhamma — “in line with the teaching” — the vagga's closing quartet's shared subject, here shown to accommodate more than one specific practice.
tilakkhaṇa — the “three marks” — impermanence, the first of the three this quartet will observe directly in turn.
The text
The discourse in full — genuinely this short in the source, its ellipsis given exactly as bilara-data preserves it rather than expanded from SN 22.39. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, when a mendicant is practicing in line with the teaching, this is what’s in line with the teaching. They should meditate observing impermanence in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. … They’re freed from suffering, I say.”
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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
What practice does this discourse substitute for SN 22.39's "full of disillusionment"?
Correct: A. A shift from a general disposition to a specific named meditative practice.
Question 2 of 10
How does the source handle the chain's remaining steps (complete understanding, freedom)?
Correct: A. The same kind of source-level elision seen in SN 22.6 and SN 22.13.
Question 3 of 10
What closing declaration does this discourse retain unchanged from SN 22.39?
Correct: A. Identical wording, closing the shortened chain.
Question 4 of 10
What position does this discourse hold in the vagga's closing quartet?
Correct: A. SN 22.39 gives the full template; this discourse is the first of three variations on it.
Question 5 of 10
What does the existence of this variation suggest about "practicing in line with the teaching"?
Correct: A. Disillusionment or any of the three marks observed directly, each leading to the same freedom.
Question 6 of 10
How many aggregates does this discourse's practice apply to?
Correct: A. Named together as a group, as in SN 22.39.
Question 7 of 10
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: A. Continuing the same setting as SN 22.39.
Question 8 of 10
Does this reading guide reconstruct the elided content and present it as this discourse's own text?
Correct: A. Consistent with this project's practice on other short peyyāla stubs in this book.
Question 9 of 10
What term names the second of the three marks this quartet will observe, coming next in SN 22.41?
Correct: A. SN 22.41 follows this discourse, substituting observing suffering for observing impermanence.
Question 10 of 10
What discourse comes immediately after this one?
Correct: A. The third term of the vagga's closing quartet.
