Reading guide
Denying all four positions at once
"A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death" — the fourth and final option, denying both SN 24.15's affirmation and SN 24.16's negation together, rather than SN 24.17's move of affirming both together.
Of the four options, this last one comes closest to how MN 72's fire simile actually resolves the question: an extinguished flame is neither said to exist somewhere nor to not-exist in some locatable sense — the question of its whereabouts is retired, not answered either way.
Full elaboration returns
Unlike SN 24.11–17, this discourse spells out the complete catechism: the view traced to grasping form through consciousness, the impermanence question asked in full for form and for the sixth ground (what is seen, heard, thought, known, attained, sought, and explored by the mind), and the standing stream-enterer conclusion given in full — the fullest single discourse since SN 24.9, appropriate to closing both this foursome and the entire vagga.
The vagga's own confirmed colophon
Following the stream-enterer declaration, the Pāli source (untranslated by Sujato, though directly readable) adds: "Aṭṭhārasamaṁ. Sotāpattivaggo. Aṭṭhārasaveyyākaraṇaṁ niṭṭhitaṁ" — "the eighteenth. The Chapter on Stream-Entry. The eighteen expositions are finished" — explicitly confirming both this vagga's name and its full discourse count, exactly matching what SN 24.20–35's own compressed reference ("as in the previous vagga, eighteen expositions") already implied.
A summary verse naming all eighteen views in order
The source continues with an uddāna (memorization verse) listing all eighteen views by their opening words in sequence — winds, this-is-mine, this-is-my-self, it-might-not-be-mine; no-cause-for-acting, cause; the extensive view as eighth; the cosmos eternal and not, finite and infinite, soul-and-body same and different; and the realized one existing, not existing, and (condensed) both and neither — confirming, verse by verse, the exact eighteen-view structure this reading guide has followed discourse by discourse since SN 24.1.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, when what exists, because of grasping what and insisting on what, does the view arise: ‘A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death’?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …”
§2“When form exists, because of grasping form and insisting on form, the view arises: ‘A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death’ … What do you think, mendicants? Is form permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” … “But by not grasping what’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, would the view arise: ‘A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death’?” “No, sir.” “That which is seen, heard, thought, known, attained, sought, and explored by the mind: is that permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, is it suffering or happiness?” “Suffering, sir.” “But by not grasping what’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, would the view arise: ‘A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death’?” “No, sir.”
§3“When a noble disciple has given up doubt regarding these six grounds, and has given up doubt in suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation, they’re called a noble disciple who is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined for awakening.”
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