Reading guide
The full template, restored to close the arc
As at SN 45.41, this discourse gives the anticipated question, the goal named, the follow-up path question, and the eightfold-path answer all in full — confirmed by reading both discourses side by side, this vagga's own compression (tightest in the merged middle six) opens and closes with the fuller form.
A vocabulary link to this project's own earlier fire simile
“No fuel for grasping” (anupādā) shares its own root vocabulary directly with SN 44.9's own upādāna (fuel, grasping), confirmed by comparing both terms — the identical logic that explained why rebirth could not be tracked for one freed from craving now names the goal of the spiritual life itself.
This vagga's own unusual closing colophon
Unlike most vaggas in this saṃyutta, whose own colophon reads “-vaggo [ordinal],” this vagga's own closing line is simply “Aññatitthiyapeyyālaṁ” (“the abbreviated text on followers of other paths”) with no ordinal at all, followed by an untranslated meta-uddāna naming all eight goal-terms in verse — described here rather than quoted, since this content is left untranslated in Sujato's own English.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “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 complete extinguishment with no fuel for grasping.’ If wanderers of other religions were to ask you: ‘Is there a path and a practice for complete extinguishment with no fuel for grasping?’ You should answer them like this: ‘There is a path and a practice for complete extinguishment with no fuel for grasping.’ And what is that path, what is that practice for complete extinguishment with no fuel for grasping? It is simply this noble eightfold path, that is: right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. This is the path, this is the practice for complete extinguishment with no fuel for grasping. When questioned by wanderers of other religions, that’s how you should answer them.”
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