Reading guide
The same formula, an added refrain
Word for word, the non-conceiving teaching of SN 35.90 repeats here — but after each field-group, a new couplet appears, naming what happens to anything conceived at all.
“It becomes something else”
“For whatever you conceive it to be...that becomes something else. The world is attached to being, taking pleasure only in being, yet it becomes something else” — the instability named directly, twice over, once for the eye's own chain and once for the mind's.
Aggregates, elements, and sense fields named together
This discourse's own closing clause — “as far as the aggregates, elements, and sense fields extend” — is the first place in this vagga where all three of this project's own major analytical frameworks appear side by side in a single line, rather than each explored separately across its own saṃyutta.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, turbulence is a disease, a boil, a dart. That’s why the Realized One lives unperturbed, with dart drawn out. Now, a mendicant might wish: ‘May I live unperturbed, with dart drawn out.’ So let them not conceive anything to be the eye, let them not conceive it in the eye, let them not conceive it as the eye, let them not conceive that ‘the eye is mine.’ Let them not conceive sights … eye consciousness … eye contact … Let them not conceive anything to be the pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on eye contact. Let them not conceive it in that, let them not conceive it as that, and let them not 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.
§2Let them not conceive anything to be the ear … nose … tongue … body … Let them not conceive anything to be the mind … mind consciousness … mind contact … Let them not conceive anything to be the pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling that arises dependent on mind contact. Let them not conceive it in that, let them not conceive it as that, and let them not 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.
§3As 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.’Not 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.’”
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