Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.118

The Question of Sakka

Sakkapañhasutta — Lokakāmaguṇavagga

Setting
Near Rājagaha, on Vulture's Peak Mountain
Speakers
Sakka, lord of gods, questioning the Buddha directly
Form
A single question, asked in both its positive and negative form at once, answered with the familiar clinging-versus-non-clinging structure run across all six sense doors
Length
~2 minutes 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 direct question and a direct answer

Why this discourse

This discourse moves the setting to Rājagaha's Vulture's Peak, a location this book has not used before, and gives the questioner a name familiar from elsewhere in this canon: Sakka, lord of gods. His question is not about cosmology or ethics but about extinguishment itself — why do some sentient beings fail to become fully extinguished in this very life, and why do others succeed? The Buddha's answer restates this book's own oldest mechanism in slightly different vocabulary: a mendicant who approves, welcomes, and clings to an agreeable sense object gives their own consciousness a support, a fuel for grasping, and fuel for grasping is precisely what prevents extinguishment; a mendicant who does not cling denies consciousness that support, and becomes extinguished. The same question, unchanged, is put to a different questioner immediately afterward, at SN 35.119.

Reading guide

A new location for this book

Vulture's Peak, near Rājagaha, has not served as this book's setting before; this discourse and its own companion (SN 35.119) both use it, breaking from the Sāvatthī default this vagga otherwise assumes.

Sakka's own question

Not a question about ethics or cosmology but about extinguishment directly: what causes some beings to fail at it, and others to succeed, in this very life — a framing this book has not used before, though the answer draws on its oldest material.

Fuel for grasping, as the deciding factor

The Buddha's own answer names consciousness's own support and fuel for grasping as the mechanism: clinging to an agreeable object gives consciousness that fuel, and a mendicant carrying it cannot become extinguished; withholding it, they can.

The first of another pair

This discourse's own question and answer recur essentially unchanged at the very next discourse, put instead to the centaur Pañcasikha — another instance of this vagga's own recurring pairing habit.

Key terms

sakko devānamindo — Sakka, lord of gods — the questioner in this discourse, a figure recurring across this canon as chief of the Thirty-Three gods
gijjhakūṭe pabbate — on Vulture's Peak Mountain — this discourse's own setting, near Rājagaha
na parinibbāyanti — are not fully extinguished — the negative half of Sakka's own question
upādāniyaṃ ārammaṇaṃ — support and fuel for grasping — what a clinging mendicant's own consciousness gains from an agreeable object, and what prevents extinguishment
anupādāno bhikkhu parinibbāyati — a mendicant free of grasping becomes extinguished — the positive half of the Buddha's own answer

The text

The complete discourse: Sakka's own question, and the Buddha's answer, run across all six sense doors for both the negative and positive case. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, on the Vulture’s Peak Mountain. And then Sakka, lord of gods, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and said to him: “What is the cause, sir, what is the reason why some sentient beings are not fully extinguished in this very life? What is the cause, what is the reason why some sentient beings are fully extinguished in this very life?”

§2“Lord of gods, 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, their consciousness has that as support and fuel for grasping. A mendicant with fuel for grasping does not become extinguished. There 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, their consciousness has that as support and fuel for grasping. A mendicant with fuel for grasping does not become extinguished. That’s the cause, that’s the reason why some sentient beings are not fully extinguished in this very life.

§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, their consciousness doesn’t have that as support and fuel for grasping. A mendicant free of grasping becomes extinguished. There 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, their consciousness doesn’t have that as support and fuel for grasping. A mendicant free of grasping becomes extinguished. That’s the cause, that’s the reason why some sentient beings are fully extinguished in this very life.”

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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
Who asks the Buddha this discourse's own question, and where?
Correct: A. Sakka questions the Buddha directly, at Rājagaha's Vulture's Peak — a new setting for this book.
Question 2 of 5
What does Sakka actually ask about?
Correct: A. A direct question about extinguishment itself, not ethics or cosmology.
Question 3 of 5
What does the Buddha say clinging to an agreeable object gives a mendicant's own consciousness?
Correct: A. Upādāniyaṃ ārammaṇaṃ — precisely what prevents extinguishment.
Question 4 of 5
What happens at the very next discourse, SN 35.119?
Correct: A. The centaur Pañcasikha asks Sakka's own question next, essentially unchanged.
Question 5 of 5
What setting does this discourse use, breaking from this vagga's own default?
Correct: A. Most of this vagga assumes Sāvatthī by default; this discourse and its companion move to Rājagaha instead.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 35.117 · The Kinds of Sensual Stimulation