A bare list of five faculties, named without further elaboration
Length
<1 minute to read
Northern parallel
No individual parallel confirmed by this project's own check
Significance
★★★★☆ — opens a new vagga with the five feeling faculties, directly confirming the general canonical background this project's own SN 48.22 mentioned only cautiously
Why this discourse
This discourse opens Sukhindriyavagga (“the vagga of the pleasure faculty”) with the five feeling faculties — pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity — directly confirming what this project's own SN 48.22 mentioned only as general canonical background: a distinct indriya category alongside the spiritual, physiological, supramundane, and sense faculties already met across this saṃyutta so far.
Reading guide
A new vagga, and a background note now confirmed
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse opens a new vagga naming the five feeling faculties as its own explicit subject — the same category this project's own SN 48.22 mentioned only as general canonical background (the “feeling faculties” within the classic twenty-two indriya scheme), now directly attested in this discourse's own text.
Five faculties, split by body, mind, and neither
Confirmed by direct reading, the five faculties named here divide naturally: sukha (pleasure) and dukkha (pain) as bodily feeling; somanassa (happiness) and domanassa (sadness) as mental feeling; and upekkhā (equanimity) as neither pleasant nor painful — this project's own observation from the plain listing, not a claim this discourse's own bare text elaborates further.
A recurring bare-opening pattern across this saṃyutta
This project's own observation: this discourse's own title, Suddhika (“plain version”), matches the identical title already met opening SN 48.1 (the start of Vagga 1) and SN 48.25 (the discourse that first matched Chaḷindriyavagga's own name in Vagga 3) — a recurring device this saṃyutta uses to open a new faculty category with its own bare, unelaborated list.
Key terms
Sukhindriyavagga — “the vagga of the pleasure faculty” — this vagga's own new name, naming the first of its own five faculties
sukhindriyaṁ, dukkhindriyaṁ — “the faculties of pleasure and pain” — the two bodily feeling faculties
somanassindriyaṁ, domanassindriyaṁ — “the faculties of happiness and sadness” — the two mental feeling faculties
upekkhindriyaṁ — “the faculty of equanimity” — neither pleasant nor painful, closing this discourse's own list of five
Paṭhamaṁ — “the first” — the closing colophon marker, confirming this as the vagga's first discourse
The text
The complete discourse. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“Mendicants, there are these five faculties. What five? The faculties of pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity. These are the five faculties.”
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Self-check quiz
3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 3
What five faculties does this discourse name?
Correct: A. The five feeling faculties, opening this new vagga.
Question 2 of 3
How does this discourse relate to this project's own SN 48.22?
Correct: A. Direct textual confirmation of a category this project only cautiously mentioned before.
Question 3 of 3
What title pattern does this discourse share with SN 48.1 and SN 48.25?
Correct: A. A recurring device this saṃyutta uses to open new faculty categories.
