Reading guide
A demanding declaration, and a confession
The Buddha opens by declaring that anyone who doesn't truly understand the six fields of contact's origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape has not completed the spiritual journey; an unnamed mendicant admits, directly, that this describes him.
A fivefold analysis, applied to contact
Origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape — the same analytical lens this project has already met applied to the aggregates throughout Book III, here applied to the six fields of contact themselves.
The self-view catechism, answered “no”
The Buddha questions the mendicant using this project's own familiar formula — “Do you regard the eye like this: 'This is mine, I am this, this is my self'?” — and the mendicant answers “No, sir” for each of the six fields.
First of a three-part escalation
This discourse's own negative framing (wrongly regarding as self, answered “no”) opens a sequence SN 35.72 will invert (rightly not regarding as self, answered “yes”) and SN 35.73 will recast entirely as a three-characteristics catechism, closing this vagga.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, anyone who doesn’t truly understand the six fields of contact’s origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape has not completed the spiritual journey and is far from this teaching and training.” When he said this, one of the mendicants said to the Buddha, “Here, sir, I’m discouraged. For I don’t truly understand the six fields of contact’s origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape.”
§2“What do you think, mendicant? Do you regard the eye like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.”
§3“Good, mendicant! And regarding the eye, you will truly see clearly with right wisdom that: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Just this is the end of suffering. Do you regard the ear … nose … tongue … body … Do you regard the mind like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.”
§4“Good, mendicant! And regarding the mind, you will truly see clearly with right wisdom that: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Just this is the end of suffering.”
Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.