Reading guide
A new form for familiar content: direct question and answer
"What do you think, mendicants? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?" — "Impermanent, sir." — "But if it's impermanent, is it suffering or happiness?" — "Suffering, sir." — "But if it's impermanent, suffering, and perishable, is it fit to be regarded thus: 'This is mine, I am this, this is my self'?" — "No, sir." Three questions, three answers, repeated across the same five-part-per-sense breakdown used since SN 35.24–27.
A diagnostic instrument new to this vagga
This permanent?/suffering?/fit-to-regard-as-self? chain doesn't appear anywhere earlier in Sabbavagga; it is genuinely distinct from SN 35.26–27's own fourfold verb chain and SN 35.30–31's own fourfold not-conceiving formula, arriving only at this trio's own close — though the underlying three-mark structure (impermanence, suffering, not-self) recurs throughout the wider Nikāyas as the standard route to seeing anything as not fit to call one's own.
A closing formula echoing this vagga's own narrative pair
"Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned … Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they're freed" — the same disillusionment-freedom sequence SN 35.28–29 used, tying this trio's own catechism back to this vagga's earlier narrative pair, even though the diagnostic leading up to it differs entirely.
This vagga's own colophon and uddāna, untranslated
As at SN 35.22's own close for Yamakavagga, this discourse's own closing colophon ("Sabbavaggo tatiyo," "Sabbavagga, the third, finished") and its own uddāna are both left untranslated in the English source, and are described here rather than quoted.
The uddāna's own tally of all ten discourses
Unlike Yamakavagga's own uddāna, which simply marked each of its five pairs "duve" ("two"), this vagga's own untranslated uddāna instead names each of its ten discourses by an abbreviated tag — roughly, "the all, and the two on giving up; the two on failing to completely understand; burning and overcome; and the two on what's fit and conducive" — before its own closing line, "thus the vagga is so called." A tally, not a pairing scheme, fitting this vagga's own trio-duo-duo-trio design rather than Yamakavagga's five-times-two one.
Sabbavagga complete: ten discourses, a trio-duo-duo-trio design
With this discourse, Sabbavagga's own ten-discourse structure stands confirmed: a trio defining and prescribing (SN 35.23–25), a duo diagnosing (SN 35.26–27), a duo narrating (SN 35.28–29), and a closing trio on uprooting conceiving (SN 35.30–32) — a shape shared with neither Aniccavagga's own 2×2×3 matrix nor Yamakavagga's own five interior-exterior pairs. Next comes Jātidhammavagga (SN 35.33–42), this saṃyutta's own fourth vagga.
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?
§2What do you think, mendicants? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, is it suffering or happiness?” “Suffering, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, is it fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.”
§3“Are sights … eye consciousness … eye contact … The pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact: is that permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, is it suffering or happiness?” “Suffering, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, is it fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.” …
§4“Is the ear … nose … tongue … body … mind … The pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact: is that permanent or impermanent?” “Impermanent, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, is it suffering or happiness?” “Suffering, sir.” “But if it’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, is it fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.”
§5“Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with the eye, sights, eye consciousness, and eye contact. And they grow disillusioned with the painful, pleasant, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact. They grow disillusioned with the ear … nose … tongue … body … They grow disillusioned with the mind, ideas, mind consciousness, and mind contact. And they grow disillusioned with the painful, pleasant, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact. Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they’re freed. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed. 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.”
Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.