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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.114

Māra’s Snare (1st)

Paṭhamamārapāsasutta — Lokakāmaguṇavagga

Setting
Not stated — no location formula opens this discourse, unusual for this book
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A single declaration run twice — bound, then freed — across all six sense doors, spoken collectively rather than door by door
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, clear once its own imagery is unpacked

Why this discourse

This discourse opens Lokakāmaguṇavagga, this book's own twelfth vagga, with an image this project has not yet used as a title: Māra, the Wicked One, laying a snare (pāsa) at each sense door, and a mendicant either caught in it or released. The mechanism is exactly the mechanism this book has run under other names many times before — approving, welcoming, and clinging to an agreeable sense object versus not doing so — but the figure of speech is new: not fuel, not fetter, not a yoke, but a hunter's trap, with Māra himself named as the one who sets it and, once a mendicant is caught, can do with them what he wants. A companion discourse immediately follows (SN 35.115) restating the identical content with the sense doors treated individually rather than collectively — the same pairing pattern (two discourses, one shared core, differently distributed) this book has used before at its own paired titles.

Reading guide

A new image for an old mechanism

The clinging-versus-non-clinging structure at each sense door is the oldest formula in this book. What is new here is only the figure of speech applied to it: Māra's own lair, sway, and snare, rather than fuel, fetter, or yoke.

Bound entirely, or entirely free

This discourse gives no partial state. A mendicant who clings at even one sense door is simply trapped in Māra's lair outright, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants — there is no intermediate condition on offer.

Six doors spoken as one

Unlike many of this book's declarations, which spell out at least the eye and the mind in full, this discourse states its verdict once for each of the two conditions (bound, freed) and lets a single peyyāla ellipsis cover all six doors collectively, rather than restating the trapped-in-Māra's-lair language door by door.

The first of a pair

This discourse's own closing colophon marks it “Paṭhamaṃ” — first — announcing before it is even read that a second telling follows immediately, restating the identical content in a different distribution across the six doors.

Key terms

mārapāso — Māra's snare — the image naming this discourse and, by extension, opening this vagga's own gallery of figures for the same clinging mechanism
āvāsagato mārassa — gone to Māra's own lair — the discourse's own description of a mendicant who approves and clings
vasaṃ gato — fallen under [Māra's] sway — the second of the three-part verdict for a clinging mendicant
yathākāmakaraṇīyo pāpimato — for the Wicked One to do with as he wants — the discourse's own description of what capture by Māra actually entails
iṭṭhā kantā manāpā piyarūpā kāmūpasaṃhitā rajanīyā — likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing — this book's own standard six-part description of an object capable of triggering clinging at any sense door

The text

The complete discourse: the bound condition, then the freed condition, each run across the eye, the four senses folded into a single ellipsis, and the mind. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, there are sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant trapped in Māra’s lair, fallen under Māra’s sway, and caught in Māra’s snare. They’re bound by Māra’s bonds, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants.

§2There are sounds … smells … tastes … touches … There are ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keep clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant trapped in Māra’s lair, fallen under Māra’s sway, and caught in Māra’s snare. They’re bound by Māra, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants.

§3There are sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant doesn’t approve, welcome, and keep clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant not trapped in Māra’s lair, not fallen under Māra’s sway, and released from Māra’s snare. They’re free from Māra’s bonds, and the Wicked One cannot do with them what he wants.

§4There are sounds … smells … tastes … touches … There are ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant doesn’t approve, welcome, and keep clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant not trapped in Māra’s lair, not fallen under Māra’s sway, and released from Māra’s snare. They’re free from Māra’s bonds, and the Wicked One cannot do with them what he wants.”

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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 image does this discourse use for the clinging mechanism, new to this book's own titles?
Correct: A. Pāsa, a hunter's snare, laid by Māra himself at each sense door.
Question 2 of 5
According to this discourse, what happens to a mendicant caught even partially in Māra's snare?
Correct: A. The discourse offers only two conditions, bound or freed, with no middle ground.
Question 3 of 5
How does this discourse treat the six sense doors, compared to many other declarations in this book?
Correct: A. Unlike declarations that spell out the eye and mind in full, this one states its verdict once and elides all six doors together.
Question 4 of 5
What does this discourse's own closing colophon mark it as?
Correct: A. Announcing, before it is read, that a companion second telling follows immediately.
Question 5 of 5
What can the Wicked One do to a mendicant caught in his snare, in this discourse's own words?
Correct: A. Yathākāmakaraṇīyo pāpimato — subject entirely to Māra's own will.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

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