The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A short formal announcement, then a single definitional distinction run across all six sense faculties without catechism or narrative
Length
under 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
★☆☆☆☆ — the shortest and most schematic discourse met so far in this vagga
Why this discourse
This discourse makes a conceptual move this project has already met applied to other targets: distinguishing the things prone to a defilement from the defilement itself. The six sense faculties — eye through mind — are named things that tighten the fetters (saṁyojaniyā dhammā), but the fetter (saṁyojana) proper is identified narrowly as the desire and greed (chandarāga) for them, not the faculties themselves. A sense faculty is not, in itself, a bond; wanting it is. The distinction matters practically: what must be abandoned is never the eye or the mind as such, only the craving that fastens onto them.
Reading guide
A distinction, not a list
The discourse's own question names two things at once — “the things that tighten the fetters” and “the fetter” itself — and the answer is careful to keep them apart: the six faculties are the first, the desire and greed for them is the second.
The faculty is not the bond
Naming the eye itself as merely “something that tightens the fetters,” rather than as the fetter, keeps the object of practice precise: nothing needs to be destroyed or escaped in the sense faculties themselves, only the chandarāga (desire-and-greed) that fastens onto them.
A single sentence, six times over
The same one-line formula — “the eye is something that tightens the fetters; the desire and greed for it is the fetter” — is run across all six faculties, with the four in the middle folded into a single peyyāla ellipsis.
A pair completed by the discourse just after it
SN 35.110, immediately following, repeats this exact structure for a second pair of terms — things that fuel grasping, and grasping itself — making these two discourses a matched set built on the identical logical move.
Key terms
saṁyojaniyā dhammā — things that tighten the fetters — the six sense faculties themselves, named as prone to bondage without being bondage
saṁyojana — the fetter — identified narrowly as the desire and greed for a sense faculty, not the faculty itself
chandarāga — desire and greed — the precise term the discourse isolates as what actually binds, at any of the six sense faculties
cakkhu — the eye — the first faculty given in full before the remaining four are folded into a peyyāla ellipsis
mano — the mind — the sixth and last faculty named, closing the formula's single run through all six
The text
The complete discourse: a single definitional formula run across all six sense faculties. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the things that tighten the fetters, and the fetter. Listen … What are the things that tighten the fetters? And what is the fetter?
§2The eye is something that tightens the fetters. The desire and greed for it is the fetter. The ear … nose … tongue … body … mind is something that tightens the fetters. The desire and greed for it is the fetter. These are called the things that tighten the fetters, and this is the fetter.”
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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 does this discourse name as “things that tighten the fetters”?
Correct: A. Saṁyojaniyā dhammā — the eye through the mind, prone to bondage without being bondage.
Question 2 of 5
What does the discourse identify as the fetter itself, distinct from the faculties?
Correct: A. Chandarāga alone is named as the actual saṁyojana.
Question 3 of 5
What does this distinction imply must actually be abandoned in practice?
Correct: A. The faculty tightens the fetter; it is not itself what must be given up.
Question 4 of 5
Which discourse immediately follows this one, repeating the identical structure for a different pair of terms?
Correct: A. “Things That Fuel Grasping,” the matched companion piece.
Question 5 of 5
How many of the six sense faculties receive the formula spelled out in full, rather than folded into a peyyāla ellipsis?
Correct: A. Eye opens the formula, mind closes it, with ear, nose, tongue, and body elided between.
