Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.152

What’s the goal of the spiritual life?

Kimatthiyabrahmacariyasutta — Navapurāṇavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha alone, coaching the mendicants in advance for a question others might ask them
Form
A scripted two-question exchange with outsiders, the second answer run across all six sense fields and their feelings
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 rehearsed answer, worth reading as apologetic strategy as much as doctrine

Why this discourse

This discourse doesn't address the mendicants' own practice directly; it scripts what they should say when asked about it by outsiders. "What's the goal of leading the spiritual life under the ascetic Gotama?" the Buddha imagines wanderers of other religions asking, and supplies a two-part answer in advance: first, the compact reply ("to completely understand suffering"), and then, anticipating the inevitable follow-up ("what is that suffering?"), the fuller answer naming each of the six sense fields, their objects, consciousnesses, contacts, and feelings as suffering in turn. The discourse is unusual in this vagga for addressing outsiders explicitly rather than assuming an audience of mendicants alone.

Reading guide

A question anticipated, not yet asked

"If wanderers who follow another religion were to ask you..." — the discourse is framed entirely as preparation, coaching mendicants in a scripted answer before any actual outsider has posed the question.

The short answer: to completely understand suffering

"The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand suffering" — a single-sentence answer, given as the correct first response before the discourse anticipates a natural follow-up question.

The long answer: the six sense fields themselves

"The eye is suffering... the goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand this" — repeated for sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, and the feeling arising from that contact, then across the remaining five sense fields, giving "suffering" here its widest possible scope: not any particular experience, but the entire apparatus of sensory experience itself.

A rare address to outsiders

Unlike most of this vagga's other discourses, which address the mendicants' own training directly, this one is explicitly apologetic in form — equipping the community with a ready answer for exactly the kind of interreligious questioning the early texts elsewhere depict as commonplace.

Key terms

aññatitthiyā paribbājakā — wanderers who follow another religion — the imagined questioners this discourse coaches mendicants to answer
kimatthiyaṁ...brahmacariyaṁ — what's the goal of the spiritual life — the anticipated question this discourse's own title names directly
dukkhassa pariññāya — for the complete understanding of suffering — the short answer, given first
cakkhu dukkhaṁ — the eye is suffering — the opening line of the long answer, run across all six sense fields and their feelings
pariññeyyaṁ — to be completely understood — the verb repeated after each element named, the discourse's own refrain

The text

The complete discourse: the scripted short and long answers for wanderers of other religions who ask about the goal of the spiritual life. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, if wanderers who follow another religion were to ask you: ‘Reverends, what’s the goal of leading the spiritual life under the ascetic Gotama?’ You should answer them: ‘The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand suffering.’ If wanderers of other religions were to ask you: ‘Reverends, what is that suffering?’ You should answer them:

§2‘The eye is suffering. The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand this. Sights … Eye consciousness … Eye contact … The pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact is also suffering. The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand this. The ear … nose … tongue … body … mind … The pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact is also suffering. The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand this. This is that suffering. The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to completely understand this.’ When questioned by wanderers of other religions, that’s how you should answer them.”

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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 is this discourse's own scripted answer addressed to?
Correct: A. The discourse coaches mendicants in advance, before any actual outsider has posed the question.
Question 2 of 5
What is the short answer this discourse gives to "what's the goal of the spiritual life?"
Correct: A. A single-sentence answer, given first before the discourse anticipates a natural follow-up question.
Question 3 of 5
How does the discourse answer the anticipated follow-up, "what is that suffering?"
Correct: A. Giving "suffering" its widest scope — the entire apparatus of sensory experience itself.
Question 4 of 5
How does this discourse differ in form from most of this vagga's other discourses?
Correct: A. A rare address to interreligious questioning, unlike the vagga's more typical training-focused discourses.
Question 5 of 5
What refrain follows each element named in the long answer?
Correct: A. Repeated after each of the six sense fields' own four elements and the feeling arising from contact.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

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