Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 56.8

Thought

Cintasutta — Samādhivagga

Setting
Not given — continuing directly from SN 56.7's own setting
Speaker
The Buddha, addressing the mendicants directly
Form
A direct prohibition naming ten specific propositions, its own reason given, then a direct instruction, its own reason given
Length
1–2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
No individual parallel confirmed by this project's own check
Significance
★★★★ — the eighth of ten discourses, naming the ten classical speculative views elsewhere left undeclared (avyākata) by the Buddha

Why this discourse

Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse names ten specific propositions this project recognizes as the classical set of speculative views the Buddha is elsewhere recorded refusing to declare (avyākata, “undeclared points”): whether the cosmos is eternal or not, finite or infinite, whether the soul and body are the same or different, and four positions on a realized one's own existence after death — naming them here directly as the content of bad, unskillful thought.

Reading guide

The ten undeclared points, named directly

This project's own recognition: the classical list of speculative views the Buddha elsewhere refuses to answer (most famously in the Cūḷamālukyasutta, MN 63) appears here not as a list he declines to address, but as a named example of thought this discourse instructs against outright — a different framing of the same material, this project notes without conflating the two discourses' own distinct purposes.

Four positions on a realized one after death

This project's own reading: the final four propositions — a realized one (tathāgata) exists after death, does not, both does and does not, or neither does nor does not — form a standard tetralemma (catuṣkoṭi) structure this project notes recurs across multiple canonical discussions of this same undeclared question.

Key terms

pāpakaṁ akusalaṁ cittaṁ cinteyyātha — “think up a bad, unskillful idea” — this discourse's own opening prohibition
sassato loko...asassato loko — “the cosmos is eternal...or not eternal” — the first pair of the ten classical undeclared points
hoti tathāgato paraṁ maraṇā...na hoti...hoti ca na ca hoti...neva hoti na na hoti — “a realized one still exists after death...does not...both...neither” — the standard tetralemma on the undeclared question of a realized one's own postmortem status
nādibrahmacariyakā — “not relevant to the fundamentals of the spiritual life” — this discourse's own stated reason for the prohibition
aṭṭhamaṁ — “the eighth” — 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. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, don’t think up a bad, unskillful idea. For example: the cosmos is eternal, or not eternal, or finite, or infinite; the soul and the body are one and the same, or the soul is one thing, the body another; after death, a realized one still exists, or no longer exists, or both still exists and no longer exists, or neither still exists nor no longer exists. Why is that? Because those thoughts aren’t beneficial or relevant to the fundamentals of the spiritual life. They don’t lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment.

§2When you think something up, you should think: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. Why is that? Because those thoughts are beneficial and relevant to the fundamentals of the spiritual life. They lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment.

§3That’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 classical set of propositions does this discourse name as the content of unskillful thought, per this project's own recognition?
Correct: A. This project's own recognition of the classical "undeclared points," here framed differently than elsewhere.
Question 2 of 3
What structure do the final four propositions (about a realized one's own status after death) form?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — the four-cornered structure recurring across multiple canonical discussions of this question.
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 "Aṭṭhamaṁ" ("eighth").
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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