Reading guide
The same fourfold not-conceiving formula, carried over
Does not conceive anything to be the eye, in the eye, as the eye, or that "the eye is mine" — identical to SN 35.30, applied once again across all six sense fields.
A new clause: aññathā hoti, "becomes something else"
Inserted twice — once after the eye-block, once after the mind-block — a diagnosis of why conceiving fails in the first place: "for whatever you conceive it to be, whatever you conceive it in, whatever you conceive it as, and whatever you conceive to be 'mine': that becomes something else. The world is attached to being, taking pleasure only in being, yet it becomes something else." Whatever's conceived doesn't hold still long enough to be pinned down as "this" or "mine."
A closing scope broader than SN 35.30's own
Where SN 35.30 closed by folding "the all" back into its own formula, this discourse closes instead on "the aggregates, elements, and sense fields" (khandhadhātuāyatanaṁ) — three of the Nikāyas' own standard doctrinal categories, named together and explicitly, wider than this vagga's own recurring six-sense-field frame.
Paired with SN 35.32, delivered in a wholly different form
This discourse's own title carries "(1st)"; SN 35.32 will deliver this same content — the practice conducive to uprooting all conceiving — through a wholly different form: direct catechism, not declarative teaching.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the practice that’s conducive to uprooting all conceiving. Listen … And what is the practice that’s conducive to uprooting all conceiving?
§2It’s when a mendicant does not conceive anything to be the eye, does not conceive it in the eye, does not conceive it as the eye, and does not conceive that ‘the eye is mine.’ They don’t conceive anything to be sights … eye consciousness … eye contact. And they don’t conceive anything to be the pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact. They don’t conceive it in that, they don’t conceive it as that, and they don’t conceive that ‘that is mine.’ For whatever you conceive it to be, whatever you conceive it in, whatever you conceive it as, and whatever you conceive to be ‘mine’: that becomes something else. The world is attached to being, taking pleasure only in being, yet it becomes something else.
§3They don’t conceive anything to be the ear … nose … tongue … body … mind … They don’t conceive anything to be the pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact. They don’t conceive it in that, they don’t conceive it as that, and they don’t conceive that ‘that is mine.’ For whatever you conceive it to be, whatever you conceive it in, whatever you conceive it as, and whatever you conceive to be ‘mine’: that becomes something else. The world is attached to being, taking pleasure only in being, yet it becomes something else. As far as the aggregates, elements, and sense fields extend, they don’t conceive anything to be that, they don’t conceive it in that, they don’t conceive it as that, and they don’t conceive that ‘that is mine.’
§4Not conceiving, they don’t grasp at anything in the world. Not grasping, they’re not anxious. Not being anxious, they personally become extinguished. They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.’ This is the practice that’s conducive to uprooting all conceiving.”
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