The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
The identical fourfold bodily simile as SN 35.236, restated with a single grammatical substitution, closing Samuddavagga
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
★☆☆☆☆ — brief in content, but its closing colophon rewards close attention
Why this discourse
This discourse restates SN 35.236 word for word, with a single systematic substitution: where the previous discourse used paññāyati (“is found”) throughout, this one uses hoti (“there is,” “comes to be”) instead, for the bodily simile and its application to the six senses alike. The content and structure are otherwise identical. What distinguishes this discourse is what follows it: its own untranslated closing colophon, “Samuddavaggo tatiyo” — “Samuddavagga, the third” — settles a question this project's own reading guides have carried open since Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's unusual close. That vagga's own colophon, “Saṭṭhipeyyālo samatto” (“the sixty abbreviated texts are complete”), broke this book's consistent “[Vagga name]vaggo [ordinal]” pattern and left its own position within the fourth paṇṇāsaka unconfirmed. Now that this discourse names Samuddavagga itself “tatiyo” (third), following directly after Nandikkhayavagga's own confirmed “paṭhamo” (first, SN 35.167), the count closes by elimination: Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga must occupy the second position, even though its own colophon never used that word directly.
Reading guide
The same content, one verb changed throughout
Every clause of SN 35.236 recurs here with paññāyati replaced by hoti: “when there are hands, picking up and putting down there is” rather than “…are found,” run consistently through both the bodily simile and its application to the six senses, in both the positive and negative direction.
A closing colophon that resolves an open question
“Samuddavaggo tatiyo” — this vagga is the third — is the first ordinal-bearing colophon this project has read since Nandikkhayavagga's own confirmed “paṭhamo.” Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga, standing directly between the two, never supplied an ordinal of its own; this discourse's own count now closes that gap by simple elimination, without this project needing to assert anything Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own text did not itself state.
An untranslated uddāna naming all ten discourses
This discourse's own closing uddāna, left untranslated in the Pali root exactly as this book's convention has held throughout, names the vagga's own ten discourses in sequence: “two oceans, the angler, with the latex-tree, Koṭṭhika; Kāmabhū and Udāyī indeed, and with burning the eighth; the simile of hands and feet, two — by this the vagga is called.” The count matches this reading guide's own independent reconstruction of the vagga exactly.
No fourth paṇṇāsaka landmark yet, and none expected here
Unlike SN 35.52, SN 35.103, and SN 35.155 — each of which closed its own paṇṇāsaka with an explicit meta-uddāna naming that fifty outright — this discourse's colophon carries only the vagga-level ordinal, consistent with this project's now-repeated observation that such landmarks appear solely at a paṇṇāsaka's own final vagga, not partway through. Samuddavagga is this paṇṇāsaka's third of what its own final vagga, Āsīvisavagga, may or may not confirm as five.
Key terms
hatthesu sati ādānanikkhepanaṁ hoti — “when there are hands, there's picking up and putting down” — the discourse's own opening clause, identical in content to SN 35.236's but using hoti in place of paññāyati throughout
Samuddavaggo tatiyo — “Samuddavagga, the third” — this discourse's own untranslated closing colophon, resolving Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own unconfirmed position by elimination as this paṇṇāsaka's second vagga
dve samuddā bāḷisiko, khīrarukkhena koṭṭhiko — “two oceans, the angler, with the latex-tree, Koṭṭhika” — the closing uddāna's own first line, naming SN 35.228–232
kāmabhū udāyī ceva, ādittena ca aṭṭhamaṁ — “Kāmabhū and Udāyī indeed, and with burning the eighth” — the uddāna's second line, naming SN 35.233–235 and confirming SN 35.235's own position as the vagga's eighth discourse
hatthapādūpamā dveti, vaggo tena pavuccatīti — “the simile of hands and feet, two — by this the vagga is called,” closing the uddāna — though Sujato's own English title for this vagga, “The Ocean,” in fact follows the vagga's own name rather than this final pair
The text
The complete discourse, apart from its own closing colophon and uddāna (both left untranslated in the Pali root and described, not quoted, above): the fourfold bodily simile and its application to the six senses, using hoti throughout in place of SN 35.236's paññāyati. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, when there are hands, there’s picking up and putting down. When there are feet, there’s coming and going. When there are joints, there’s contracting and extending. When there’s a belly, there’s hunger and thirst. In the same way, when there’s an eye, pleasure and pain arise internally conditioned by eye contact. When there’s an ear … nose … tongue … body … mind, pleasure and pain arise internally conditioned by mind contact.
§2When there are no hands, there’s no picking up and putting down. When there are no feet, there’s no coming and going. When there are no joints, there’s no contracting and extending. When there’s no belly, there’s no hunger and thirst. In the same way, when there’s no eye, pleasure and pain don’t arise internally conditioned by eye contact. When there’s no ear … nose … tongue … body … mind, pleasure and pain don’t arise internally conditioned by mind contact.”
· · ·
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
How does this discourse's own content compare to SN 35.236's?
Correct: A. Every clause recurs with the single verb substituted, content and structure otherwise unchanged.
Question 2 of 5
What does this discourse's own closing colophon, “Samuddavaggo tatiyo,” state?
Correct: A. “Samuddavagga, the third” — the vagga-level ordinal within its own paṇṇāsaka.
Question 3 of 5
How does this colophon resolve Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own previously unconfirmed position?
Correct: A. This reading guide reaches the conclusion by elimination, without asserting anything Saṭṭhipeyyālavagga's own text did not itself state.
Question 4 of 5
What does this discourse's own closing uddāna do?
Correct: A. "Two oceans, the angler, with the latex-tree, Koṭṭhika..." — matching this reading guide's own independent reconstruction exactly.
Question 5 of 5
Does this discourse's colophon carry an explicit paṇṇāsaka-level landmark, as SN 35.52, SN 35.103, and SN 35.155 each did for their own paṇṇāsakas?
Correct: A. Consistent with the project's repeated observation, this vagga-ordinal colophon carries no paṇṇāsaka-level landmark of its own.
