Reading guide
A narrative template this vagga will repeat eight times
This discourse's shape — request for brevity, compact formula, correct explanation, confirmation, and the mendicant's subsequent attainment — is identical to SN 22.35-36's earlier appearance of this template. What varies each time this template recurs is the single term at its center; the frame itself stays completely fixed across all eight instances in this vagga.
Grasping framed as personal bondage to Māra
The Buddha's brief formula names Māra directly: “when you grasp (upādiyamāna), mendicant, you're bound by Māra. Not grasping, you're free from the Wicked One.” This is a more personified, mythic framing than the abstract vocabulary of most discourses in this book — grasping does not simply produce suffering as an impersonal consequence, it places one under the dominion of a specific adversarial figure.
The mendicant's own confirmed application to each aggregate
As in SN 22.35, the mendicant does not merely receive the formula passively but is asked to demonstrate understanding by applying it himself: grasping form binds one to Māra, and likewise for feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. The Buddha then repeats the mendicant's own words back as confirmation, giving the listener's articulation equal standing with the original teaching.
A vagga named for its recurring outcome
Arahantavagga takes its name not from any single discourse's central image (as Bhāravagga did from “the burden,” or Natumhākavagga from “it's not yours”) but from the outcome shared by nearly every discourse in it: an unnamed mendicant becomes one of the perfected. Eight nearly identical narratives, each ending the same way, make this outcome itself the vagga's defining feature.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “Sir, may the Buddha please teach me Dhamma in brief. When I’ve heard it, I’ll live alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute.” “When you grasp, mendicant, you’re bound by Māra. Not grasping, you’re free from the Wicked One.” “Understood, Blessed One! Understood, Holy One!”
§2“But how do you see the detailed meaning of my brief statement?” “Sir, when you grasp form you’re bound by Māra.
§3consciousness, you’re bound by Māra. Not grasping, you’re free from the Wicked One. That’s how I understand the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement.”
§4“Good, good, mendicant! It’s good that you understand the detailed meaning of what I’ve said in brief like this.
§5And then that mendicant approved and agreed with what the Buddha said. He got up from his seat, bowed, and respectfully circled the Buddha, keeping him on his right, before leaving. Then that mendicant, living alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute, soon realized the supreme end of the spiritual path in this very life. He lived having achieved with his own insight the goal for which gentlemen rightly go forth from the lay life to homelessness. He understood: “Rebirth is ended; the spiritual journey has been completed; what had to be done has been done; there is nothing further for this place.” And that mendicant became one of the perfected.
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.