Reading guide
Three months, not a fortnight
The retreat itself is over six times longer than SN 45.11's own, confirmed by direct comparison — this project does not assume the longer retreat simply produces a longer report of the identical content without checking, and it does not.
Each condition, now doubled by its own settling
Where SN 45.11 named “feeling conditioned by wrong view” and “by right view” as two conditions, this discourse adds “by the settling of wrong view” and “by the settling of right view” as two more, doubling the same structure across all five listed conditions — confirmed by reading both discourses directly rather than assumed from their otherwise identical framing.
Still no eightfold-path resolution
As at SN 45.11, this discourse ends without applying its own list to the eightfold path or any other of this vagga's familiar closing formulas — confirmed by reading the discourse's own final lines directly, the cryptic, unresolved quality is not particular to the shorter retreat of SN 45.11 alone.
Key terms
The text
A three-month retreat, announced
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I wish to go on retreat for three months. No-one should approach me, except for the one who brings my almsfood.” “Yes, sir,” replied those mendicants. And no-one approached him, except for the one who brought the almsfood.
A report: feeling, conditioned by five things and their own settling
§2Then after three months had passed, the Buddha came out of retreat and addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, I’ve been practicing part of the meditation I practiced when I was first awakened. I understand that there’s feeling conditioned by wrong view and by the settling of wrong view, by right view and by the settling of right view. … There’s feeling conditioned by wrong immersion and by the settling of wrong immersion, by right immersion and by the settling of right immersion. There’s feeling conditioned by desire and by the settling of desire. There’s feeling conditioned by thought, and by the settling of thought. There’s feeling conditioned by perception, and by the settling of perception. As long as desire, thought, and perception are not stilled, there is feeling conditioned by that. When desire, thought, and perception are stilled, there is feeling conditioned by that. There is effort to attain the unattained. When that state has been attained, there is also feeling conditioned by that.”
Self-check quiz
3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.