Reading guide
A shift in delivery: the Buddha initiates
"Then Venerable Rādha went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him: 'Rādha, I will teach you...'" — unlike SN 23.1-3, where Rādha asked and the Buddha answered, here the Buddha himself initiates the teaching once Rādha has simply taken his seat.
The identical threefold definition from SN 22.106
"The things that should be completely understood... complete understanding... and the individual who has completely understood" — object, process, person, exactly as at SN 22.106: the five aggregates as what must be understood, the ending of greed, hate, and delusion as what understanding consists of, and the anonymized "the venerable of such and such name and clan" as who has achieved it.
Even the deliberately generic closing formula — naming no specific individual — carries over unchanged, preserved even in a discourse now delivered to one specific, named disciple.
Why reuse rather than rewrite
That this content transfers to Rādha's saṃyutta without any alteration suggests the teaching's value does not depend on its original audience or occasion — the same threefold analysis of understanding applies equally well whether delivered to the assembled mendicants generally or to one particular disciple personally.
A pattern this vagga's remaining discourses will continue
SN 23.5 through SN 23.10 will each similarly reuse specific discourses already given in Antavagga (SN 22.107-112), now personally addressed to Rādha — this discourse establishing that pattern for the first time.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Rādha went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him:
§2“Rādha, I will teach you the things that should be completely understood, complete understanding, and the individual who has completely understood. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, sir,” Rādha replied. The Buddha said this: “And what things should be completely understood? Form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. These are called the things that should be completely understood.
§3And what is complete understanding? The ending of greed, hate, and delusion. This is called complete understanding.
§4And what is the individual who has completely understood? It should be said: a perfected one, the venerable of such and such name and clan. This is called the individual who has completely understood.”
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