Reading guide
Suffering, applied outward, one discourse from the close
The same substitution SN 35.223 made for the interior fields (suffering replacing impermanence) repeats here for the exterior fields — one discourse remains before Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own sixty-discourse matrix is complete.
Key terms
dukkha — suffering — the quality declared here, replacing SN 35.225's own anicca
rūpā…dhammā — sights…ideas — the six exterior sense fields, named together, as in SN 35.225
anicca — impermanent — SN 35.225's own quality, distinguished here from dukkha
anattā — not-self — the vagga's own final quality, closing everything at SN 35.227
dukkhasutta — “The Discourse on Suffering” — sharing its own title with SN 35.223's own interior counterpart and, further back, SN 22.13
The text
The complete discourse: the declaration, naming each of the six exterior sense fields, then the liberation formula in compressed form. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas are suffering. Seeing 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 does this discourse declare of the exterior sense fields, replacing SN 35.225's own impermanence?
Correct: A. Dukkha, mirroring SN 35.223's own interior treatment.
Question 2 of 5
How many discourses remain in this vagga after this one?
Correct: A. SN 35.227 alone remains, closing round four, this vagga, and carrying its own colophon.
Question 3 of 5
What interior-half discourse does this discourse mirror?
Correct: A. The exterior half repeats the identical suffering combination already run for the interior fields.
Question 4 of 5
What already-published discourse, further back in this project, shares this same declaration for the five aggregates?
Correct: A. The chain of mirrors traces back through SN 35.223 to SN 22.13, already published in Book III.
Question 5 of 5
What sense fields does this discourse address?
Correct: A. Bāhirāyatana, continuing the exterior half opened at SN 35.225.