The six external sense objects and their own cause declared impermanent, closing on the matrix's compressed formula
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
★★☆☆☆ — the same argument, turned outward
Why this discourse
This discourse pivots the matrix outward: after three discourses applying impermanence, suffering, and not-self to the six internal bases (SN 35.140–142), the same three marks now run, in the same order, across the six external objects — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas — beginning here with impermanence again. The same twofold move as before: each object, and the cause and reason that gives rise to it, are both declared impermanent, and since an object produced by what is impermanent cannot itself be permanent, its own impermanence follows.
Reading guide
The matrix turns outward
Ajjhatta (internal) gives way to bāhira (external): sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas replace eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind, exactly the binary this vagga's own closing uddāna names in its final line.
The same twofold move, applied externally
Sights are impermanent; the cause and reason that gives rise to sights is also impermanent; since sights are produced by what is impermanent, how could they be permanent? — the identical reasoning as SN 35.140, now applied to what's perceived rather than what perceives.
A shorter chain of six
Where the internal half moves eye/ear/nose/tongue/body to mind, this external opening moves sights/sounds/smells/tastes/touches to ideas — the same shared-ellipsis convention this book has used throughout, now applied to the object side of perception.
Key terms
rūpā, bhikkhave, aniccā — mendicants, sights are impermanent — the matrix's external half, opening exactly where its internal half did
yopi hetu, yopi paccayo rūpānaṁ uppādāya, sopi anicco — the cause and reason that gives rise to sights is also impermanent — the same two-step move as SN 35.140, applied to the object rather than the base
saddā...gandhā...rasā...phoṭṭhabbā — sounds...smells... tastes...touches — the four external objects folded into a shared ellipsis between sights and ideas
evaṁ passaṁ …pe… — seeing this … — the same compressed closing formula as the matrix's internal middle discourses
duve ajjhattabāhirāti — two, internal and external — this vagga's own closing uddāna names exactly this binary, confirmed in full at SN 35.145
The text
The complete discourse: the six external sense objects and their own cause declared impermanent, closing on the matrix's compressed formula. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, sights are impermanent. The cause and reason that gives rise to sights is also impermanent. Since sights are produced by what is impermanent, how could they be permanent? Sounds … Smells … Tastes … Touches … Ideas are impermanent. The cause and reason that gives rise to ideas is also impermanent. Since ideas are produced by what is impermanent, how could they be permanent?
§2Seeing this … They understand: ‘… there is nothing further for this place.’”
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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 shift does this discourse make compared to the previous three (SN 35.140-142)?
Correct: A. Ajjhatta (internal) gives way to bāhira (external), the matrix's own second half.
Question 2 of 5
Which mark does this discourse open the external half with?
Correct: A. The same order — impermanence, suffering, not-self — repeats for the external objects.
Question 3 of 5
What twofold claim does this discourse make about sights?
Correct: A. The same two-step reasoning applied to the object side of perception.
Question 4 of 5
Which four objects are folded into a shared ellipsis between sights and ideas in this discourse?
Correct: A. The matrix's own shared-ellipsis convention, now applied to the object side.
Question 5 of 5
What does this vagga's own closing uddāna name that matches this discourse's own shift?
Correct: A. Confirmed in full detail at this vagga's own closing discourse, SN 35.145.
