The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
SN 22.39's chain, elided identically to SN 22.40-41 but with the quartet's third and final swapped opening step
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, closing both the quartet and the vagga
Why this discourse
This discourse closes both the quartet SN 22.39 opened and Natumhākavagga itself, completing the three marks with the last of the quartet's substituted practices: meditating observing not-self (anattānupassī) in the five aggregates. As in SN 22.40 and SN 22.41, everything between this opening clause and the closing declaration is elided by the source, trusting the reader's memory of SN 22.39's full template. With impermanence, suffering, and now not-self all given as equally valid opening practices leading to the identical freedom, the quartet closes having demonstrated that “practicing in line with the teaching” admits more than one door into the same result.
Reading guide
The quartet's third and final substituted practice
Completing the sequence SN 22.40 and SN 22.41 began, this discourse names the last of the three marks: mendicants should meditate observing not-self (anattānupassī) directly in each aggregate. With this substitution, the quartet has now given all three marks — impermanence, suffering, not-self — each as an independently sufficient opening practice within the identical chain.
A closing that completes rather than merely continues
Unlike SN 22.40 and SN 22.41, which each opened a new variation mid-sequence, this discourse closes the sequence — there is no fourth mark waiting to be substituted in a further discourse. The quartet's structure (one full statement, then three progressively shorter variations) is now complete.
Natumhākavagga's own close, without a dramatic flourish
This discourse also closes the vagga itself, and does so with the same understated brevity that closed Bhāravagga in SN 22.32 — no closing verse, no narrative, no colophon naming the vagga's completion. The vagga simply ends on its shortest and most compressed page, the fourth in a row of near-identical short discourses.
What the whole quartet demonstrates together
Read as a set, SN 22.39-42 make a claim about practice worth stating explicitly: “practicing in line with the teaching” is not tied to any single technique — disillusionment in general, or any one of the three specific marks observed directly in meditation, each leads through the identical chain of complete understanding to the identical freedom from suffering. The quartet's repetitive structure is itself the argument for this pluralism, not merely its illustration.
Key terms
anattānupassī — “observing not-self” — the meditation practice this discourse substitutes for SN 22.41's "observing suffering," completing the three marks.
tilakkhaṇa — the “three marks” — impermanence, suffering, and now not-self, all three given across this quartet as independently sufficient starting points.
peyyāla — the technical term for this discourse's genuine source-level elision, identical in kind to SN 22.40 and SN 22.41's.
dukkhasmā parimuccati, vadāmi — “they're freed from suffering, I say” — the closing declaration, unchanged across all four discourses of the quartet.
anudhamma — “in line with the teaching” — the quartet's shared subject, now shown across four discourses to accommodate multiple equally valid practices.
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 not-self 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 22.41's "observing suffering"?
Correct: A. The quartet's third and final substituted practice, completing the three marks.
Question 2 of 10
How does this discourse's role differ from SN 22.40 and SN 22.41's?
Correct: A. There is no fourth mark waiting to be substituted in a further discourse.
Question 3 of 10
How does this discourse close Natumhākavagga?
Correct: A. The vagga simply ends on its shortest and most compressed page.
Question 4 of 10
What claim does the whole SN 22.39-42 quartet make about practice, taken together?
Correct: A. The quartet's repetitive structure is itself the argument for this pluralism.
Question 5 of 10
How does the source handle the chain's remaining steps in this discourse?
Correct: A. The identical elision pattern as SN 22.40 and SN 22.41.
Question 6 of 10
What closing declaration does this discourse retain, unchanged across the whole quartet?
Correct: A. Identical wording across all four discourses in the quartet.
Question 7 of 10
How many aggregates does this discourse's practice apply to?
Correct: A. Named together as a group, as throughout the quartet.
Question 8 of 10
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: A. Continuing the same setting as the rest of the quartet.
Question 9 of 10
What position does this discourse hold in the vagga's closing quartet?
Correct: A. Closing the sequence SN 22.39 opened.
Question 10 of 10
What comes immediately after this discourse, moving beyond Natumhākavagga?
Correct: A. The book's own systematic coverage continues into its next chapter.
