Reading guide
The other half of the twelve sense bases, again
"Sights are... the arising of suffering... The cessation, settling, and disappearance of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas is the cessation of suffering" — the identical formula from SN 26.1, unchanged except for its object, applied here to the external half of the twelve āyatana already familiar from SN 25.2's own treatment.
A formula, not merely a topic list, held constant
As with SN 25's own working method, what repeats across this saṃyutta's ten discourses is not simply a shared theme but a fixed formula, word for word, with only the opening category changing — confirming this saṃyutta's structure mirrors SN 25's own exactly, down to the level of formulaic repetition.
Sights, sounds, and the rest, each equally suffering's arising
The discourse gives no priority among the six objects — sights are not treated as more or less directly tied to suffering's arising than sounds, smells, tastes, touches, or ideas. All six receive identical treatment, underscoring that the equivalence holds regardless of which sense door is in question.
Eight categories still to come
This saṃyutta's remaining eight discourses will proceed through the same chain SN 25 already walked: consciousness, contact, feeling, perception, intention, craving, the elements, and finally the five aggregates.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, the arising, continuation, and manifestation and regeneration of sights is the arising of suffering, the continuation of diseases, and the manifestation of old age and death. The arising, continuation, and manifestation and regeneration of sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas is the arising of suffering, the continuation of diseases, and the manifestation of old age and death.
§2The cessation, settling, and disappearance of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas is the cessation of suffering, the settling of diseases, and the disappearance of old age and death.”
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