Reading guide
Six goal-names, one shared template
Giving up the fetters, uprooting the underlying tendencies, completely understanding the course of time, ending the defilements, realizing the fruit of knowledge and freedom, and knowledge and vision itself — six distinct goals, each keeping only its own clause naming the goal before the source elides the rest of the template with an ellipsis.
Compression deepens across the run
SN 45.41 (the previous page) gave the template in full; this merged file compresses even further than SN 45.42-47's own individual predecessor, keeping only a single clause per discourse rather than restating the anticipated question or the eightfold-path answer at all, confirmed by reading the merged file's own actual content rather than assumed from SN 45.41's own fuller shape.
Every genuinely distinct fragment, quoted rather than summarized
Consistent with this project's own standing rule on peyyāla coverage, all six goal-name clauses are quoted individually below rather than folded into one paraphrased list, since each names a genuinely different target even though the surrounding template is identical.
Key terms
The text
45.42“Mendicants, if wanderers who follow another religion were to ask you: ‘Reverends, what’s the goal of leading the spiritual life under the ascetic Gotama?’ You should answer them like this: ‘The goal of leading the spiritual life under the Buddha is to give up the fetters.’ …
45.43‘… to uproot the underlying tendencies.’ …
45.44‘… to completely understand the course of time.’ …
45.45‘… to end the defilements.’ …
45.46‘… to realize the fruit of knowledge and freedom.’ …
45.47‘… for knowledge and vision.’ …”
Self-check quiz
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