Reading guide
The same verdict, pinned to each door by name
SN 35.114 says a mendicant who clings is simply “trapped in Māra's lair.” This discourse says instead that they are “bound in sights known by the eye” — and then, separately, trapped in Māra's lair, fallen under his sway, and caught in his snare. The verdict is stated twice where the companion discourse stated it once.
Confirmed as a pair by this vagga's own uddāna
The mnemonic verse closing SN 35.123, this vagga's own final discourse, opens with “mārapāsena dve” — two [discourses] through Māra's snare — treating SN 35.114 and this discourse as one countable unit within the vagga's own ten.
A pairing pattern this book has used before
Two discourses sharing one core teaching, distributed differently across their own texts, is not new to this book — earlier vaggas have paired a full telling with a compressed one, or a diagnostic with its own remedy. Here the difference is only in grammar, not in compression or content.
Eye and mind still stand for all six
Even in this more granular restatement, only the eye and the mind receive their own full sentence; the four senses between them are still folded into a peyyāla ellipsis, exactly as SN 35.114 folded them.
Key terms
The text
§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 who is bound in sights known by the eye. They’re 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 … ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant who is bound in ideas known by the mind. They’re 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.
§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 who is freed from sights known by the eye. They’re 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 … 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 who is freed from ideas known by the mind. They’re 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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