Reading guide
The catechism's own template, exactly once more
This discourse restates SN 35.124's full catechism — approving, welcoming, and clinging binds consciousness to an object as fuel for grasping and prevents extinguishment; not doing so frees it — word for word, run across the eye, a single ellipsis for the four senses in between, and the mind, in both directions.
A recurring householder, not a coincidence
Nakula's father and his wife Nakula's mother are a well-known elderly couple across this canon, and this project has already met him: SN 22.1 opens with this same householder, at this same location, worded almost identically down to the place-names, asking the Buddha how to keep his mind healthy while his body ages and ails. Here, at a different point in the canon's own arrangement, he asks an entirely unrelated question about extinguishment.
Two questions, one questioner, no connection drawn
The text itself makes no link between these two appearances — SN 22.1 and this discourse were compiled into different saṃyuttas entirely, organized by subject matter (aggregates, then sense fields) rather than by character. This reading guide draws the connection only because both are now published on this same site, not because the canon itself cross-references them.
The template's last full telling in this vagga
After this discourse, none of the remaining two discourses in Gahapativagga (SN 35.132, 35.133) return to this catechism at all — the vagga moves on permanently to its remaining independent narrative episodes.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Bhaggas at Crocodile’s Bellow, in the deer park at Bhesakaḷā’s Wood. Then the householder Nakula’s father went up to the Buddha … and asked 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, sir, what is the reason why some sentient beings are fully extinguished in this very life?” “Householder, 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.
§2There 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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