The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A single prose simile, stated once with no verse
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
★★☆☆☆ — introduces a new sixfold distinction worth sitting with
Why this discourse
A guest house welcomes lodgers from every direction and every social rank — aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials alike, arriving from east, west, north, and south. This discourse compares the body to that guest house: varied feelings arrive in it without regard for a single source or category. But this discourse also introduces a distinction none of this vagga's earlier discourses have drawn: each of the three feelings can arise either “of the flesh” (sāmisa, literally “with meat/bait,” meaning tied to sensuality) or “not of the flesh” (nirāmisa) — doubling the threefold classification into six, a distinction SN 36.19's own famous enumeration of two/three/five/six/eighteen/thirty-six/108 feelings will build on directly.
Reading guide
A house that turns no one away
The guest house doesn't select for a specific class of traveler; aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials all lodge there indiscriminately, from all four directions — extending the openness already met in SN 36.12's wind simile from four directions alone to four directions plus four social categories.
A new distinction: of the flesh, and not of the flesh
Sāmisa (“of the flesh,” or “carnal”) and nirāmisa (“not of the flesh,” or “spiritual”) apply to each of the three feelings independently — a pleasant feeling tied to sensuality and a pleasant feeling free of it are named as two distinct things, not the same feeling under two descriptions.
Six feelings, not three, once this distinction is drawn
Applying sāmisa and nirāmisa to each of the three basic feelings yields six: carnal and spiritual versions of pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling alike — the first doubling this saṃyutta has introduced beyond its own founding threefold classification.
A distinction this vagga will return to at greater scale
SN 36.19, later in this vagga, will explicitly enumerate two, three, five, six, eighteen, thirty-six, and a hundred and eight feelings as equally valid teachings — this discourse's own sixfold sāmisa/nirāmisa split supplies the concrete mechanism (doubling the three basic feelings) behind at least one of those larger numbers.
Key terms
āgantukāgāraṁ — a guest house — giving this discourse its title, sheltering travelers from every direction and social rank
khattiyā... brāhmaṇā... vessā... suddā — aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials — the guest house's own indiscriminate lodgers, extending the simile's openness beyond direction alone to social category
sāmisā... vedanā — “feelings of the flesh” — pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling tied to sensuality
nirāmisā... vedanā — “feelings not of the flesh” — the same three feelings, free of sensuality, named as a distinct category
catutthaṁ — “fourth” — this discourse's own untranslated closing marker, its position within Rahogatavagga
The text
The complete discourse: the guest house simile and its application, including the sāmisa/nirāmisa distinction. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, suppose there was a guest house. Lodgers come from the east, west, north, and south. Aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials all stay there. In the same way, various feelings arise in this body: pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. Also pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings of the flesh arise. Also pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings not of the flesh arise.”
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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
Who does the guest house in this simile welcome?
Correct: A. Aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials alike, from all four directions.
Question 2 of 5
What new distinction does this discourse introduce beyond the three basic feelings?
Correct: A. Sāmisa and nirāmisa apply to each of the three feelings independently, tied to or free of sensuality.
Question 3 of 5
How many total feelings result from applying the sāmisa/nirāmisa distinction to the three basic feelings?
Correct: A. Carnal and spiritual versions of pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling — the first doubling introduced in this saṃyutta.
Question 4 of 5
How does this discourse's guest house simile extend SN 36.12's own wind simile?
Correct: A. Aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials add a social dimension the wind simile alone did not include.
Question 5 of 5
Which later discourse in this vagga builds on this sixfold sāmisa/nirāmisa distinction?
Correct: A. This discourse's sixfold split supplies a concrete mechanism behind at least one of SN 36.19's larger enumerated numbers.
