Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.104

Sanctuary from the Yoke

Yogakkhemisutta — Yogakkhemivagga

Setting
At Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A formal announcement, then a single declaration mirrored across sight and mind, the four sense doors between them folded into a peyyāla ellipsis
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a short declaration whose central term rewards a closer look

Why this discourse

This discourse opens Yogakkhemivagga, this book's own eleventh vagga, and supplies the term that names it: yogakkhema, rendered here as “sanctuary from the yoke.” The word already carries weight for readers of this project — MN 26 uses the identical compound (anuttaraṁ yogakkhemaṁ, “the supreme sanctuary from the yoke”) for the very goal the Bodhisatta set out seeking, before Uddaka Rāmaputta, the failed teacher just met at this book's previous discourse (SN 35.103), fell short of showing it to him. Here the Tathāgata is called yogakkhemī because he has given up, cut off at the root, the agreeable and arousing objects met at each sense door — the same yoke Uddaka's own boastful verse claimed, wrongly, to have already loosened. Sujato's own translation preserves a further layer the English can only gesture at: the Realized One “teaches yoga [yogaṁ akkhāsi] for giving them up” — the very discipline (yoga, the yoke of practice) is what leads to yogakkhema, freedom from the yoke. Bondage and the path out of it share one root word.

Reading guide

A word this project has already met, at its highest register

MN 26's own account of the Bodhisatta's quest names “the supreme sanctuary from the yoke, extinguishment” (anuttaraṁ yogakkhemaṁ nibbānaṁ) as the very thing sought and, eventually, found — the identical compound this discourse now applies directly to the Tathāgata's own relationship to sense objects.

Two words sharing one root

Sujato's own English keeps “the yoke” visible in both directions: the Realized One “teaches yoga for giving up” agreeable sense objects, and is called yogakkhemī, one who has found sanctuary from that very yoke, because he has done so. The discipline and its own fruit are named with the same Pali root, yuj-.

A vagga named for its own opening word

Where Saḷavagga just finished was named for a number (“the sixes”) and Channavagga before it for a person, Yogakkhemivagga takes its name from this discourse's own central term — a return to the naming-by-first-discourse pattern already noted as this book's own default.

Only two doors given in full

The declaration runs the identical two-part structure — agreeable objects, then their abandonment, then the yogakkhemī verdict — across the eye and the mind alone, with the four sense doors between them folded into a single peyyāla ellipsis rather than spelled out.

Key terms

yogakkhema — sanctuary from the yoke — the compound naming both this discourse and the whole vagga; the identical term MN 26 applies to the Bodhisatta's own goal
yogaṁ akkhāsi — “taught the yoke [of practice]” — Sujato's own rendering keeps visible that yoga (discipline) and yogakkhema (freedom from the yoke) share one root
tathāgata — the Realized One — the discourse's own term for the Buddha throughout, describing what he has already accomplished, in the third person
ucchinnamūlā tālāvatthukatā — cut off at the root, made like a palm stump — the same annihilation-imagery formula met describing abandoned defilements elsewhere in this project
piyarūpā kāmūpasaṁhitā rajanīyā — agreeable, connected with sensual pleasure, arousing — the discourse's own three-part description of what the Tathāgata has given up at each sense door

The text

The complete discourse: the formal announcement, then the yogakkhemī declaration run across the eye and, by elision, the mind. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I will teach you an exposition of the teaching, an explanation of one who has found sanctuary from the yoke. Listen … And what is an exposition of the teaching, an explanation of one who has found sanctuary from the yoke?

§2There are sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. The Realized One has given these up, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, and obliterated them, so they are unable to arise in the future. He teaches yoking oneself to meditation for giving them up. That’s why the Realized One is called one who has found sanctuary from the yoke. …

§3There are ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. The Realized One has given these up, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, and obliterated them, so they are unable to arise in the future. He teaches yoking oneself to meditation for giving them up. That’s why the Realized One is called one who has found sanctuary from the yoke. This is an exposition of the teaching, an explanation of one who has found sanctuary from the yoke.”

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Self-check quiz

5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 5
What Pali compound does this discourse share with MN 26's own account of the Bodhisatta's goal?
Correct: A. MN 26's own “anuttaraṁ yogakkhemaṁ”, the supreme sanctuary from the yoke, sought and found.
Question 2 of 5
What has the Tathāgata already done to agreeable sense objects, according to this discourse?
Correct: A. Cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, unable to arise again.
Question 3 of 5
What does Sujato's own translation keep visible about “yoga” and “yogakkhema”?
Correct: A. The Realized One “teaches yoga for giving up” what makes him yogakkhemī.
Question 4 of 5
How many sense doors does this discourse spell out in full, rather than folding into a peyyāla ellipsis?
Correct: A. Eye and mind bracket a single peyyāla ellipsis covering the remaining four.
Question 5 of 5
What figure, met at the previous discourse, claimed falsely to have already found this same sanctuary?
Correct: A. SN 35.103's boastful verse, reclaimed rather than discarded by the Buddha.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 35.103 · About Uddaka