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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.170

Desire and Greed for the Impermanent Interior

Ajjhattaaniccachandarāgasutta — Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha, addressing the mendicants
Form
The identical structure as SN 35.168-169, with the compound chandarāga (desire-and-greed) substituted
Length
~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
★☆☆☆☆ — closes the three-file opening unit

Why this discourse

This discourse closes round one's opening three-item unit: desire (SN 35.168), greed (SN 35.169), and now desire-and-greed together (chandarāga) — the same compound term that every one of round one's remaining five, merged combinations (SN 35.171 onward) will fold into a single elided sentence rather than spelling out as its own file.

Reading guide

The compound that unifies the trio

Chandarāga is not a fourth, separate affliction but desire and greed named together — the term every later merged file in round one (SN 35.171 onward) will use once, compressing what this trio spells out across three separate discourses into a single elided sentence.

Why this trio alone gets three files

SN 35.168-170 is the only combination in round one kept as three separate files; every other interior/exterior × impermanent/suffering/not-self pairing merges its own desire/greed/both trio directly. This trio's own separateness may simply preserve, at this vagga's opening, the individual shape each variant would otherwise take before the pattern is established and compression begins.

Key terms

chandarāgo pahātabbo — “desire and greed should be given up” — this discourse's own compound term, uniting SN 35.168's chanda and SN 35.169's rāga
chanda — desire — SN 35.168's own term
rāga — greed — SN 35.169's own term
anicca — impermanent — the quality declared of the six interior sense fields, unchanged across all three discourses of this unit
ajjhattikāyatana — the six interior sense fields — unchanged across SN 35.168-170, before SN 35.177 turns to the exterior fields

The text

The complete discourse, apart from its own closing ellipsis (Sujato's own English elides the repeated material): the instruction, then the definition of what is impermanent. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, you should give up desire and greed for what is impermanent. And what is impermanent?

§2The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are impermanent …”

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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 compound term does this discourse use, combining SN 35.168's and SN 35.169's own targets?
Correct: A. Chandarāgo pahātabbo, uniting chanda and rāga into a single compound.
Question 2 of 5
How many discourses does round one's opening unit (SN 35.168-170) contain, and how are they stored in bilara-data?
Correct: A. The only three-item unit in round one kept as three separate files rather than one merged file.
Question 3 of 5
What does every one of round one's remaining five combinations (SN 35.171 onward) do with this same three-item pattern?
Correct: A. SN 35.171 onward compress the identical three-item pattern this trio spells out across separate files.
Question 4 of 5
What sense fields and quality does this discourse share with SN 35.168-169?
Correct: A. Ajjhattikāyatana and anicca, unchanged across all three discourses of this opening unit.
Question 5 of 5
What begins at SN 35.171, immediately following this discourse?
Correct: A. SN 35.171-173 is the first of round one's five merged combinations, moving from impermanent to suffering.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 35.169 · Greed for the Impermanent Interior