Reading guide
A cross-reference, genuinely translated
“(The same down as far as:)” is confirmed as real Sujato-translated editorial text, not a placeholder this reading guide invents — the source itself instructs the reciter to repeat SN 44.3's own setting and Mahākoṭṭhita's own closing question rather than restate them.
Not knowing generates the thought; knowing removes it
This discourse's own structure is symmetrical: not truly knowing each aggregate's own origin, cessation, and path to its cessation produces all four theses as thoughts that occur; truly knowing the same three things means none of the four thoughts occurs at all — confirmed by reading both halves of the discourse directly, a genuinely different mechanism from SN 44.3's own structural “included in” answer.
Key terms
The text
Not truly knowing, and the thoughts that follow
§1At one time Venerable Sāriputta and Venerable Mahākoṭṭhita were staying near Varanasi, in the deer park at Isipatana. … (The same down as far as:) “What’s the cause, reverend, what’s the reason why this has not been declared by the Buddha?” “Reverend, not truly knowing and seeing form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation, one thinks ‘a realized one still exists after death’ or ‘A realized one no longer exists after death’ or ‘a realized one both still exists and no longer exists after death’ or ‘a realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death.’ Not truly knowing or seeing feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation, one thinks ‘a realized one still exists after death’ or ‘A realized one no longer exists after death’ or ‘a realized one both still exists and no longer exists after death’ or ‘A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death.’
Truly knowing, and the thoughts that do not
§2Truly knowing and seeing form … feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation, one doesn’t think ‘a realized one still exists after death’ or ‘A realized one no longer exists after death’ or ‘a realized one both still exists and no longer exists after death’ or ‘a realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death.’ This is the cause, this is the reason why this has not been declared by the Buddha.”
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