Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 56.23

The Fully Awakened Buddha

Sammāsambuddhasutta — Koṭigāmavagga

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speaker
The Buddha, addressing the mendicants directly
Form
A direct statement of the four truths, then a single defining claim
Length
<1 minute to read
Northern parallel
No individual parallel confirmed by this project's own check
Significance
★★★★ — the third of ten discourses, defining the epithet “fully awakened Buddha” itself by a single criterion

Why this discourse

Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse claims that it is specifically because of having truly awakened to the four noble truths that a Realized One is called “the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha” — defining the title itself, not merely describing an attribute the title-holder happens to have.

Reading guide

A title defined, not merely described

This project's own reading: this discourse's own claim is definitional — “it is because he has truly understood these four noble truths that the Realized One is called” the fully awakened Buddha — naming true understanding of the four truths as constitutive of the title itself, not one quality among several that a Buddha happens to possess.

Key terms

imesaṁ kho, bhikkhave, catunnaṁ ariyasaccānaṁ yathābhūtaṁ abhisambuddhattā — “because he has truly understood these four noble truths” — this discourse's own stated grounds for the title
tathāgato 'arahaṁ sammāsambuddho'ti vuccati — “the Realized One is called 'the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha'” — the title this discourse defines
abhisambuddhattā — “because of having truly awakened” — sharing its own root with “sammāsambuddha” itself, the awakening that gives the Buddha his own title
arahaṁ — “the perfected one” — the first of the paired epithets this discourse attributes to true understanding
tatiyaṁ — “the third” — this discourse's own root text confirming its own position directly, read rather than assumed

The text

Every genuinely translated fragment given in the consulted English source, which itself preserves the elision for the middle two truths. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are these four noble truths. What four? The noble truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. These are the four noble truths. It is because he has truly understood these four noble truths that the Realized One is called ‘the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha’.

§2That’s why you should practice meditation …”

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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 does this discourse claim as the grounds for the title "fully awakened Buddha"?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — a definitional claim, not merely a descriptive one.
Question 2 of 3
How does this project characterize this discourse's own claim, compared to merely describing a quality?
Correct: A. This project's own reading of the discourse's own explanatory structure.
Question 3 of 3
What position does this discourse occupy in this vagga's own ten-discourse sequence?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading of the root text's own closing marker "Tatiyaṁ" ("third").
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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