Reading guide
The same question, now asked rather than received
The sevenfold catechism — what is feeling, its origin, cessation, the practice to its cessation, and its gratification, drawback, and escape — recurs word for word from SN 36.15, but this time the Buddha poses it to Ānanda rather than the reverse.
A deference this project has already met elsewhere
Ānanda's own response — “our teachings are rooted in the Buddha... may the Buddha himself please clarify the meaning of this” — is the identical formula this project has already met from several mendicants asked to answer in the Buddha's presence, most recently SN 36.6's own opening exchange in Sagāthāvagga.
Not a test Ānanda fails, but a formal courtesy observed
Nothing in the discourse suggests Ānanda couldn't answer — he has, after all, just asked this exact question himself in SN 36.15. The deference reads as established etiquette in the Buddha's presence rather than genuine uncertainty.
A compressed answer, assumed rather than restated
Bilara-data compresses the Buddha's own answer here with a peyyāla marker after the opening lines, assuming the reader already holds SN 36.15's own full answer in mind rather than restating the contact/eightfold-path/gratification-drawback-escape formula and the graduated cessation list a second time.
Key terms
The text
§1Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him, “Ānanda, what is feeling? What’s the origin of feeling? What’s the cessation of feeling? What’s the practice that leads to the cessation of feeling? And what is feeling’s gratification, drawback, and escape?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. He is our guide and our refuge. Sir, may the Buddha himself please clarify the meaning of this. The mendicants will listen and remember it.” “Well then, Ānanda, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, sir,” Ānanda replied. The Buddha said this: “Ānanda, there are these three feelings: pleasant, painful, and neutral. These are called feelings. … For a mendicant who has ended the defilements, greed, hate, and delusion have been tranquilized.”
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