The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
SN 35.109's own structure repeated exactly, for grasping and its fuel rather than the fetter
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
★☆☆☆☆ — SN 35.109's own twin, one vocabulary substitution
Why this discourse
This discourse is SN 35.109's own twin, structurally identical in every particular but for its vocabulary: where that discourse distinguished the things that tighten the fetters (saṁyojaniyā dhammā) from the fetter (saṁyojana) itself, this one distinguishes the things that fuel grasping (upādāniyā dhammā) from grasping (upādāna) itself — and locates both, once again, in the identical target: chandarāga, desire and greed for a sense faculty. The six faculties are not grasping; wanting them is. The uddāna closing this vagga groups these two discourses together as a single named pair (“Saṁyojanaṁ upādānaṁ”), confirming what their nearly identical wording already makes obvious.
Reading guide
SN 35.109's own structure, one vocabulary substitution
Every element of SN 35.109 reappears here unchanged in shape: a formal announcement, a two-part question, and the identical one-line formula run across all six sense faculties — with “the fetter” (saṁyojana) replaced throughout by “grasping” (upādāna).
The same isolated culprit
As in SN 35.109, the actual bond is located nowhere but in chandarāga, desire and greed for a sense faculty — the faculty itself is merely “something that fuels grasping,” not grasping in itself.
Confirmed as a pair by the vagga's own uddāna
This vagga's closing summary verse names “Saṁyojanaṁ upādānaṁ” as a single unit, the fetter and grasping named together — external confirmation, from the text's own closing colophon, that SN 35.109 and this discourse were composed and are meant to be read as a matched set.
A logical move already familiar from this project
Distinguishing what a thing is prone to from the thing itself is not new to this discourse or its twin — the same move, applied to different targets, recurs across this project wherever “X-prone” and “X itself” are kept carefully apart rather than collapsed into one term.
Key terms
upādāniyā dhammā — things that fuel grasping — the six sense faculties, named as prone to grasping without being grasping
upādāna — grasping — identified narrowly, exactly as SN 35.109 identified the fetter, as the desire and greed for a sense faculty
chandarāga — desire and greed — the identical culprit SN 35.109 already isolated, now named again as what actually constitutes grasping
Saṁyojanaṁ upādānaṁ — “the fetter, grasping” — this vagga's own closing uddāna naming SN 35.109 and this discourse together as one pair
mano — the mind — the sixth faculty closing this discourse's own run through the formula, as in SN 35.109
The text
The complete discourse: a single definitional formula, matching SN 35.109's own shape, run across all six sense faculties. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the things that fuel grasping, and the grasping. Listen … What are the things that fuel grasping? And what is the grasping?
§2The eye is something that fuels grasping. The desire and greed for it is the grasping. The ear … nose … tongue … body … mind is something that fuels grasping. The desire and greed for it is the grasping. These are called the things that fuel grasping, and this is the grasping.”
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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 distinguish from grasping (upādāna) itself?
Correct: A. Upādāniyā dhammā — the faculties, prone to grasping without being grasping.
Question 2 of 5
What earlier discourse in this vagga does this one structurally repeat, substituting “grasping” for “the fetter”?
Correct: A. “Things That Tighten Fetters,” SN 35.109's own identical shape.
Question 3 of 5
What single term does both this discourse and SN 35.109 identify as the actual culprit?
Correct: A. The identical isolated culprit named in both twin discourses.
Question 4 of 5
How does this vagga's own closing uddāna confirm SN 35.109 and this discourse form a pair?
Correct: A. The vagga's own uddāna groups the fetter and grasping as one unit.
Question 5 of 5
According to this discourse, is a sense faculty itself an instance of grasping?
Correct: A. The faculty fuels grasping; it is not grasping in itself.
