The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A peyyāla stub — the opening line only, with the source itself instructing readers to fill in the rest from the previous discourse
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
★☆☆☆☆ — the shortest discourse in this vagga, understood only alongside SN 22.5
Why this discourse
This is one of the plainest peyyāla stubs in the collection: bilara-data preserves only the opening line — develop retreat (paṭisallāna); a mendicant in retreat truly understands; what do they truly understand; the origin and ending of the five aggregates — followed by a direct editorial instruction, “tell in full as in the previous discourse.” Nothing is fabricated to fill the gap here; the discourse is read exactly as short as the source leaves it, because its brevity is itself the point worth noticing: whoever assembled this pair of discourses considered paṭisallāna's full explanation so identical to samādhi's that writing it out twice was unnecessary.
Reading guide
A single swapped word, and an editorial shortcut
The discourse opens with the same four-part structure as SN 22.5 — instruction, claim of true understanding, question, and the aggregates named as the answer — but swaps paṭisallāna (retreat) in for samādhi (immersion) as the quality to be developed. Rather than restating the rest of the chain (approving, welcoming, clinging, relishing, grasping, and onward), the source simply instructs the reader: tell in full as in the previous discourse.
What the editorial note itself reveals
This kind of instruction, “tell in full as in the previous discourse,” is a genuine feature of how this material was preserved and transmitted, not an editorial addition made for this website. It appears elsewhere in the canon wherever reciters judged that two discourses shared identical content apart from one swapped term, and it is quoted here exactly as the source gives it rather than expanded into invented prose, matching this project's practice with other short peyyāla stubs encountered earlier in the Saṃyutta Nikāya.
Immersion and retreat, treated as functionally equivalent
Taken together with SN 22.5, this discourse's brevity makes an implicit claim worth sitting with: that developing immersion and developing solitary retreat were understood, at least by whoever paired these two discourses, to deliver the identical result — true understanding of how the five aggregates arise and cease. The practices are named separately, but the insight they unlock is treated as one and the same.
A companion pair closing before the vagga's midpoint
With this discourse, the vagga has now paired its central teaching (SN 22.5's aggregates-and-dependent-origination chain) with a matching restatement, before moving on to the different diagnostic vocabulary of anxiety and grasping in SN 22.7 and SN 22.8. The pairing device itself — full statement, then a one-word-swapped stub — recurs elsewhere in this saṃyutta and is worth watching for.
Key terms
paṭisallāna — “retreat” or “seclusion” — the quality this discourse instructs mendicants to develop, standing in for samādhi from the previous discourse.
peyyāla — the formal term for a passage the source itself elides, instructing the reciter or reader to supply the full wording from elsewhere — exactly what this discourse consists of.
vitthāretabbaṁ — “should be told in full” — the closing editorial instruction's operative verb, directing readers back to SN 22.5.
purimasuttasadisaṁ — “like the previous discourse” — the sense of the closing instruction, even though the exact Pali wording given in translation is the shorter “tell in full as in the previous discourse.”
samādhi — “immersion” — the term this discourse replaces with paṭisallāna, carried over by cross-reference rather than restated, from SN 22.5.
The text
The discourse in full — genuinely this short in the source, including its closing editorial instruction, given exactly as bilara-data preserves it rather than expanded. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, meditate in retreat. A mendicant in retreat truly understands. What do they truly understand? The origin and ending of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. …” (Tell in full as in the previous discourse.)
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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 does this discourse instruct mendicants to develop, in place of SN 22.5's samādhi?
Correct: A. The one substantive change from the previous discourse's wording.
Question 2 of 10
How does the source itself handle the rest of the discourse's content?
Correct: A. A genuine transmission feature, not an omission introduced by this reading guide.
Question 3 of 10
What does this reading guide do with the editorial shortcut, rather than filling in the missing content itself?
Correct: A. Consistent with this project's practice on other short peyyāla stubs elsewhere in the Saṃyutta Nikāya.
Question 4 of 10
What does a mendicant "in retreat" truly understand, according to this discourse's stated claim?
Correct: A. Identical wording to SN 22.5's claim, just with paṭisallāna substituted for samādhi.
Question 5 of 10
What does this discourse's brevity implicitly suggest about immersion and retreat?
Correct: A. Pairing the two under one shared explanation treats them as functionally equivalent here.
Question 6 of 10
What formal term describes a passage the source elides and instructs the reader to fill in from elsewhere?
Correct: A. The technical term for exactly this kind of compression, seen throughout the Saṃyutta and Aṅguttara Nikāyas.
Question 7 of 10
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: A. Continuing the same setting as SN 22.5.
Question 8 of 10
How does this discourse's pairing device (full statement, then a one-word-swapped stub) relate to the rest of the saṃyutta?
Correct: A. A structural device the reading guide flags for recognition in later vaggas.
Question 9 of 10
What comes immediately after this discourse in the vagga?
Correct: A. A change in topic and vocabulary, moving from origin/ending to anxiety and grasping.
Question 10 of 10
Who speaks in this discourse?
Correct: A. Consistent with SN 22.5, a direct teaching rather than a disciple-led dialogue.
