Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.82

A Question on the World

Lokapañhāsutta — Gilānavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
An unnamed mendicant questioning; the Buddha answering
Form
A single question — how is “the world” defined? — answered with a wordplay etymology, then run across the six sense fields
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
★★★☆☆ — a short discourse carrying real philosophical weight

Why this discourse

This discourse asks one of the most consequential questions a mendicant could put to the Buddha: how is “the world” (loka) defined? The answer turns on a wordplay the Pali itself preserves — lujjati, “it wears away,” is offered as the reason the word loka is used at all. This is not a cosmological claim about planets or realms; it redefines “world” entirely in terms of the six sense fields wearing away moment by moment — the eye, sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, and the feeling born of it, and the same chain for each remaining field. This connects directly back to Sabbavagga’s own definition of “the all” (sabba) at SN 35.23, already met earlier in this book: both discourses insist that a totalizing term the mendicant might otherwise take as cosmic or external actually names nothing more, and nothing less, than the process of the six sense fields themselves.

Reading guide

A single question, a wordplay answer

How is “the world” defined? The Buddha answers with an etymology the Pali itself carries: lujjati (it wears away) is offered as the reason the word loka is used — not a definition drawn from cosmology.

The world redefined as the six sense fields

“What is wearing away?” The eye is wearing away; sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, and the feeling born of it are wearing away; the same chain repeats for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

Echoing Sabbavagga's own definition of “the all”

This discourse’s own move — taking a term (“the world”) a mendicant might expect to mean something cosmic or external, and redefining it strictly as the six sense fields — directly echoes SN 35.23’s own definition of “the all” (sabba), already met earlier in this book.

Key terms

loka — the world — the term this discourse’s own question asks to define
lujjati — it wears away — the wordplay the Pali offers as the reason the word loka is used
cakkhu — the eye — the first sense field named as wearing away, opening the six-field chain
phassajā vedanā — feeling born of contact — the final link named as wearing away, for each of the six fields
sabba — the all — the term SN 35.23, earlier in this book, defines identically in terms of the six sense fields alone

The text

The complete discourse: a single question on the definition of “the world,” answered by wordplay and run across the six sense fields. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha … and said to him: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘the world’. How is the world defined?” “It wears away, mendicant, that’s why it’s called ‘the world’.

§2And what is wearing away? The eye is wearing away. Sights … eye consciousness … eye contact is wearing away. The painful, pleasant, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact is also wearing away. The ear … nose … tongue … body … The mind … ideas … mind consciousness … mind contact is wearing away. The painful, pleasant, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact is also wearing away. It wears away, mendicant, that’s why it’s called ‘the world’.”

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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 question does the unnamed mendicant ask at this discourse's opening?
Correct: A. A question about definition, not cosmology.
Question 2 of 5
What wordplay does the Buddha use to answer?
Correct: A. A Pali etymological wordplay: loka explained through lujjati.
Question 3 of 5
What, according to this discourse, is actually wearing away?
Correct: A. The eye and its chain, repeated for each of the six sense fields.
Question 4 of 5
Which earlier discourse in this book does this reading guide connect to this one?
Correct: A. Both discourses redefine a totalizing term strictly as the six sense fields.
Question 5 of 5
What kind of claim does this discourse's definition of “the world” avoid making?
Correct: A. The definition is entirely experiential, not cosmological.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

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