Reading guide
The five aggregates, named last, not first
"Form is impermanent, decaying, and perishing. Feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are impermanent, decaying, and perishing" — the aggregates arriving as this saṃyutta's tenth and final category rather than its first, an ordering choice worth noting: Khandhavagga (SN 22) treats the aggregates as its own dedicated, 159-discourse subject; here they are one item among ten in a shorter sequence organized instead around the contact-to-craving chain.
The full formula, one final time
Unlike SN 25.3–9's compressed treatment, this discourse spells out the complete three-tier definition — faith-follower, teaching-follower, and stream-enterer — in full, exactly as SN 25.1 and 25.2 did at this saṃyutta's opening, bracketing the compressed middle eight discourses with full treatment at both ends.
A colophon Sujato actually translated
"The Linked Discourses on stepping into are complete" (sn25.10:3.5) — quotable here exactly as Sujato rendered it, confirming both this saṃyutta's official name and its complete ten discourses, from SN 25.1's opening treatment of the six sense faculties through this closing return to the five aggregates.
Ten categories, one destination
Looking back across the whole saṃyutta: six sense faculties, six sense objects, six consciousnesses, six contacts, six feelings, six perceptions, six intentions, six cravings, six elements, and finally five aggregates — nine different sixfold or fivefold analytical categories, every one of them declared impermanent, every one of them leading to the identical three-tier assurance of the sure path toward stream-entry.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, form is impermanent, decaying, and perishing. Feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are impermanent, decaying, and perishing. Someone who has faith and confidence in these teachings is called a follower by faith. They’ve stepped into the sure path, they’ve stepped into the level of the true person, and they’ve passed beyond the level of the untrue person. They can’t do any deed which would make them be reborn in hell, the animal realm, or the ghost realm. They can’t die without realizing the fruit of stream-entry.
§2Someone who accepts these teachings after deliberating them with a degree of wisdom is called a follower of teachings. They’ve stepped into the sure path, they’ve stepped into the level of the true person, and they’ve passed beyond the level of the untrue person. They can’t do any deed which would make them be reborn in hell, the animal realm, or the ghost realm. They can’t die without realizing the fruit of stream-entry. Someone who understands and sees these principles is called a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined for awakening.”
§3The Linked Discourses on stepping into are complete.
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