Reading guide
Freed by not grasping, exactly as before
"A mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding these five grasping aggregates' origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape" — the identical formula as SN 22.110, unaltered in its transfer to Rādha's own saṃyutta.
The Canon's fullest closing formula, unchanged
"With defilements ended, who has completed the spiritual journey, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, achieved their heart's goal, utterly ended the fetter of continued existence, and is rightly freed through enlightenment" — the same cumulative description as SN 22.110, gathering the same multiple images into the same single statement.
A quiet culmination of this vagga's reuse sequence
Having restated SN 22.106 (SN 23.4), SN 22.107-108 (SN 23.5-6), and now SN 22.109-110 (SN 23.7-8), Māravagga has systematically walked Rādha through this book's entire earlier progression from basic definitions through stream-entry to arahantship — a personal recapitulation of Antavagga's own arc.
Turning to the vagga's own closing material
SN 23.9 and SN 23.10, this vagga's final two discourses, will similarly restate SN 22.111-112's own giving-up-desire instructions for Rādha — completing the full reuse of Antavagga's material within this single vagga.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. When Venerable Rādha was seated to one side, the Buddha said to him: “Rādha, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? The grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.
§2A mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding these five grasping aggregates’ origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape. Such a mendicant is called a perfected one, with defilements ended, who has completed the spiritual journey, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, achieved their heart’s goal, utterly ended the fetter of continued existence, and is rightly freed through enlightenment.”
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