Reading guide
Six interior sense fields, one shared declaration
"The eye is impermanent … the ear … the nose … the tongue … the body … the mind is impermanent" — the same three-step chain (impermanent, therefore suffering, therefore not-self) applied identically across all six of the interior sense fields, the faculties themselves rather than what they perceive.
A logical chain, not six separate claims
The discourse doesn't merely assert impermanence six times; it explicitly derives suffering from impermanence and not-self from suffering, giving each of the six sense fields the identical three-link chain rather than treating them as six unrelated observations.
The standard formula for right seeing
"This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self" — the same threefold negation this project has already traced applied to the five aggregates in Book III, now applied to the six sense fields instead.
From disillusionment to full liberation, in four short steps
The discourse closes with this project's own familiar liberation sequence: disillusionment, fading desire, freedom, and the knowledge of that freedom, ending in the standard declaration that rebirth is ended and the spiritual journey complete — establishing the closing formula every one of this vagga's later, more compressed discourses will assume.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
§2“Mendicants, the eye is impermanent. What’s impermanent is suffering. What’s suffering is not-self. And what’s not-self should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ The ear is impermanent. …
§3The nose is impermanent. …
§4The tongue is impermanent. …
§5The body is impermanent. …
§6The mind is impermanent. What’s impermanent is suffering. What’s suffering is not-self. And what’s not-self should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they’re freed. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed. They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.’”
Self-check quiz
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