Saṁyutta Nikāya

   The Tathagata crossed the flood of suffering by neither standing nor swimming.

   Five kings including Pasenadi are enjoying themselves and wonder which of the senses affords the highest pleasure. They ask the Tathagata, who replies that it is subjective, depending on a persons preferences. Inspired, the laymen Candanaṅgalika offers a verse in praise of the Tathagata.

   A wealthy man dies childless, having not enjoyed his riches. The Tathagata says that wealth should be properly enjoyed and shared.

   A brahmin who loves to contradict everyone approaches the Tathagata thinking to challenge him. But when he hears the Tathagata speak, he cannot find anything to contradict.

   A desciple plagued by bad thoughts is encouraged by a deity.

   The famous twelve links of dependent origination are spelled out, showing the origin and cessation of suffering dependent on ignorance.

   The Tathagata gives definitions for each of the twelve links. These are general definitions that apply wherever the twelve links are mentioned.

   Venerable Kaccānagotta asks the Tathagata about right view, and the Tathagata answers that right view arises when one sees the origin and cessation of "The World", the Five Aggregates, and is free of clinging.

   Both the wise and the foolish have been reborn in this life due to their deeds conditioned by ignorance in past lives. But a fool continues to make the same mistakes and is reborn yet again, whereas a wise person does not.

  The ending of defilements comes only when the truth is seen. But seeing the truth comes about due to a vital condition. In this way, twelve factors leading to freedom are united with the twelve factors leading to suffering.

   Sāriputta is asked by Venerable Bhūmija as to the origin of pleasure and pain. He replies that the Tathagata teaches that pleasure and pain originate by conditions. Moreover, all those who offer opinions on this question are themselves part of the web of conditions, as they cannot state their views without contact.

   Intentions or choices are the force that propels consciousness from one life to the next.

   A noble disciple who is a layperson has eliminated the fear that comes from breaking precepts, possesses the four factors of stream-entry, and understands dependent origination.

   The origin and ending of the world are explained in terms of sense experience giving rise to craving and suffering.

  A desciple should thoroughly investigate the causes of suffering in accordance with dependent origination. If someone who still has ignorance makes a choice, their consciousness fares on to a suitable state of existence. But one who has eradicated ignorance is detached and is not reborn anywhere.

   Craving increases when you linger on pleasing things that stimulate grasping, illustrated with the simile of a bonfire.

   An ignorant person might become free of attachment to their body, but not their mind. Still, it would be better to attach to the body, as it is less changeable than the mind, which jumps about like a discipleey.

   An ignorant person might become free of attachment to their body, but not their mind. Still, it would be better to attach to the body, as it is less changeable than the mind. But a noble disciple reflects on dependent origination.

   The Tathagata defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness. He illustrates them with a series of powerful and horrifying similes.

   The Tathagata defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness, showing how they lead to suffering according to dependent origination.

   Venerables Mahākoṭṭhita and Sāriputta discuss whether the factors of dependent origination are created by oneself, another, both, or by chance.

   For someone who has seen the truth, the suffering eliminated in future lives is like the great earth; what remains is like the dirt under a fingernail.

   A rare group of seven elements: light, beauty, the four formless states, and the attainment of cessation. Each of these is known due to the negation of something: light vs. darkness, beauty vs. ugliness, and so on.

  Before his awakening the Tathagata saw the gratification, the drawback, and the escape in the four material elements.

   A great mountain would erode before the end of the eon.

   When you see someone suffer, know that you too have experienced that.

   Moggallāna reflects that second absorption is the true noble silence, and the Tathagata encourages him to develop it.

   The householder Nakulapitā asks the Tathagata for help in coping with old age. The Tathagata says to reflect: “Even though I am afflicted in body, my mind will be unafflicted.” Later Sāriputta explains this in terms of the five aggregates.

  A desciple should develop concentration in order to truly understand the origin and ending of the five aggregates.

   The distinction between “five aggregates” and “five grasping aggregates”.

   Consciousness stands dependent on the other four aggregates, and this attachment is what fuels the cycle of rebirth.

   Consciousness is like a seed that is planted in the soil of the other four aggregates and watered with craving.

   To be fully accomplished, a desciple should investigate the five aggregates in light of the four noble truths, as well as their gratification, drawback, and escape. In addition, they should investigate the elements, sense fields, and dependent origination.

   In the Deer Park at Varanasi the Tathagata teaches the famous second discourse, on not-self with regard to the aggregates, to the group of five disciples. At the conclusion, they become perfected ones.

   Mahāli the Licchavi reports to the Tathagata that the rival teacher Pūraṇa Kassapa asserts that there is no reason for beings to be either defiled or pure. The Tathagata denies this, and goes on to explain how it happens.

   One of the most extensive discourses in this collection begins with the Tathagata saying that when anyone recollects a past life, all they are recollecting is the five aggregates. He then gives a distinctive set of definitions of the aggregates in terms of their functions, and discusses them from various aspects.

   On a sabbath day with the Sangha at Sāvatthi, the Tathagata answers a series of ten questions on the aggregates.

   Venerable Yamaka had the wrong view that one whose defilements have ended is annihilated at death. The disciples ask Sāriputta to help, and he asks Yamaka whether the Realized One in this very life may be identified as one of the aggregates, or apart from them. Convinced, Yamaka lets go of his view and sees the Dhamma.

   Venerable Assaji is ill, and asks the Tathagata to visit him. The Tathagata does so, and learns that Assaji has difficulty maintaining his meditation. The Tathagata encourages him to contemplate the impermanence of the aggregates.

   The Tathagata doesn’t dispute with the world; the world disputes with him. He has understood the five aggregates and explains them. Like a lotus, he was born in the swamp, but rises above it.

   The Tathagata gives a series of similes for the aggregates: physical form is like foam, feeling is like a bubble, perception is like a mirage, choices are like a coreless tree, and consciousness is like an illusion.

   A desciple asks whether anything in the aggregates has even the tiniest bit of stability or permanence. The Tathagata answers using the simile of a little dirt under his fingernail.

   Transmigration has no knowable beginning; even the oceans, mountains, and this great earth will perish. But like a dog on a leash running around a post, beings remain attached to the aggregates.

   Contemplating the arising and falling away of the Five Aggregates leads to knowing and liberation, but this may not be immediately apparent. The Tathagata illustrates this with similes of a hen brooding on her eggs, the wearing away of an axe handle, and the rotting of a ship’s rigging.

  The perception of impermanence eliminates lust, ignorance, and conceit. Illustrated with a long series of similes.

   Mahākoṭṭhita asks what an ethical desciple should focus on, and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer. A stream-enterer contemplating in the same way may become a non-returner, a once-returner, and a perfected one.

   Mahākoṭṭhita asks what an educated deciple should focus on, and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer. A stream-enterer contemplating in the same way may become a non-returner, a once-returner, and a perfected one.

   The Tathagata explains to a desciple that ignorance is not knowing the Five Aggregates in terms of arising and passing away.

   Sāriputta explains to Mahākoṭṭhita that ignorance is not understanding the aggregates in terms of arising and ceasing.

   One with faith in the teachings on the six interior sense fields is called a “follower by faith”, while someone with conceptual understanding is called a “follower of the teachings”. But someone who sees them directly is called a stream-enterer.

   One with faith in the teachings on the five aggregates is called a “follower by faith”, while someone with conceptual understanding is called a “follower of the teachings”. But someone who sees them directly is called a stream-enterer

   Beings are attached to the six interior sense fields due to gratification, repelled due to drawbacks, and find escape because there is an escape.

   Beings are attached to the six exterior sense fields due to gratification, repelled due to drawbacks, and find escape because there is an escape.

   The arising of the six interior sense fields is the arising of suffering.

   The arising of the six exterior sense fields is the arising of suffering.

   The “all” consists of the six interior and exterior sense fields.

   The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields should be given up.

   The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields is burning. This is the famous “third sermon” taught at Gayā’s Head to the followers of the three Kassapa brothers.

   Venerable Migajāla asks how one lives alone, and how with a partner. The Tathagata says that so long as one is bound by desire to the senses, one lives with a partner. A desciple free of such desire dwells alone, even if they live in close association with worldly people.

   Hearing that a newly-ordained desciple was sick, the Tathagata visited him to offer support and Dhamma encouragement.

   Through giving up ignorance, knowledge arises. To do this, contemplate the six senses as impermanent. Then a desciple truly understands, and sees everything differently.

   Ānanda asks for a teaching to take on retreat. The Tathagata teaches him that the senses are impermanent, etc.

   Venerable Māluṅkyaputta asks for a teaching to take on retreat. The Tathagata wonders how to teach an old disciple like him, then questions him on his desire for sense experience that has been or might be, and encourages him to simply let sense experience be. Māluṅkyaputta says he understands, and expands the Tathagata’s teaching in a series of verses.

   When a desciple lives without restraint regarding the senses, they are negligent. If they have restraint, they are diligent.

   Non-restraint is delighting in the senses, restraint is not delighting in them.

   While practicing for awakening, the Tathagata reflected that he should be diligent when his mind strayed to sense pleasures of the past, future, or present. He urges the desciples to realize that place where the senses completely cease, and they ask Ānanda to explain this to them.

   If anyone asks why we live the holy life, it is for the ending of suffering.

   Identity view arises due to grasping the process of sense experience.

   A parable of a jackal who fails to eat a tortoise who stays still, with limbs retracted, like a deciple guarding the senses.

   The Tathagata is invited to teach in a new hall in Kapilavatthu. Late at night, after teaching the Sakyans, the Tathagata invites Moggallāna to teach. He speaks on the mental corruption that flows from attachment to the senses.

  The senses are like a snake, a crocodile, a bird, a dog, a jackal, and a monkey all tied up together, pulling in all directions towards their natural habitat. Mindfulness is like a post that keeps them grounded.

   Both ordinary and awakened people experience the three feelings. The difference is that when an ordinary person is stricken with feeling, they react, creating more suffering, whereas an awakened person responds with equanimity.

   A desciple should await their death mindful and aware. They should bear the feelings of approaching death with wisdom and equanimity.

   A deciple wonders how there can be three kinds of feeling, yet all of them are suffering.

   Moggallāna speaks to the deciples of a time when his practice of the first absorption was faltering. He expresses his gratitude for the Tathagata, who urged him to stabilize that attainment.

   "Citta asks Kāmabhū about the different kinds of processes (saṅkhāra) in a series of questions that lead to the most profound of meditation experiences. "

   Venerable Godatta asks Citta whether the liberations of measurelessness, nothingness, emptiness, and signlessness are different states, or just different words for the same thing. Citta explains that they are both: they are terms for different meditation experiences, but may also be used of perfection or arahantship.

   Talapuṭa the head of a troupe of performers asks the Tathagata whether the belief that performers have a good rebirth is correct. The Tathagata tries to dissuade him, but ultimately reveals that by inciting lust they head to a bad rebirth. Talapuṭa is distressed and asks to ordain.

  The Unconditioned and the path leading to the Unconditioned.

   The wanderer Vacchagotta reports to the Tathagata a conversation among ascetics on the views of the six heretical teachers as to where a perfected one is reborn. Unsure of what the Tathagata’s position was, he asks how it is to be understood. The Tathagata says it is like a flame that burns dependent on fuel, and goes out when that fuel is extinguished.

   Ānanda sees the brahmin Jāṇussoṇi resplendent on his all-white chariot. He asks the Tathagata whether there is a similarly divine vehicle in Buddhism. The Tathagata responds by drawing a detailed set of analogies between the eightfold path and a chariot.

   The Tathagata presents the eightfold path together with a detailed analysis of each factor. It should be assumed that these explanations apply wherever the eightfold path is taught.

  The seven underlying tendencies.

   Just as the body depends on food, the awakening factors depend on nutriment. The Tathagata gives specific conditions for each of the factors.

   Here the awakening factors are described in the context of hearing the teachings and reflecting on them. This leads to full enlightenment, or at least to some lesser attainment.

   The various awakening factors can be donned at different times of the day, like a man who puts on bright colored clothes whenever he wants.

   The wanderer Kuṇḍaliya points out that some ascetics argue for the sake of winning debates. But the Tathagata says his path is for the sake of liberation. Kuṇḍaliya asks what leads to liberation, and the Tathagata traces a sequence of conditions back to sense restraint.

   Sāriputta asks Upavāṇa how one can reflect and see the awakening factors in oneself.

  The awakening factors lead to the ending of craving.

  Improper attention promotes the hindrances; proper attention promotes the awakening factors.

   The Tathagata spells out in detail the factors that nourish the hindrances, and those that nourish the awakening factors.

   Some wanderers tell some Buddhist desciples that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the seven awakening factors, so what is the difference? The Tathagata explains by giving a detailed analytical treatment that he says is beyond the scope of the wanderers.

   Which awakening factors should be developed when the mind is tired, and which when it is energetic? And what is always useful?

   Some wanderers tell some Buddhist desciples that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the four Brahmā meditations, so what is the difference? The Tathagata explains the detailed connection between the Brahmā meditations and the awakening factors, which taken together lead to liberation.

   The brahmin Saṅgārava asks why sometimes verses stay in memory while other times they don’t. The Tathagata replies that it is due to the presence of either the hindrances of awakening factors. He gives a set of similes illustrating each of the hindrances with different bowls of water.

   A series of passages on the benefits of meditating on a skeleton. Some editions treat the sections as separate suttas.

   Newly ordained deciples should practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation; trainees are practicing them, and perfected ones have perfected the practice.

   The parable of the quail and the hawk. When the quail ventured outside her ancestral territory, she became vulnerable. And what is a desciple’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

  The parable of the cook. The cook prepares different kinds of dishes for the king and keeps track and observes which ones the king likes at different times and on different occasions. In the same way, a disciple observes what the mind needs at that time and gives it an appropriate practice.

   The Tathagata decides to spend his final rains retreat at Vesālī in Beluvagāmaka. During the retreat he becomes very ill, but later recovers. Ānanda wonders who will guide the Saṅgha when the Tathagata dies, but the Tathagata says they should be their own refuge, grounded on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

  Sāriputta dies of illness, and the novice Cunda together with Ānanda take his bowl and robes and report the sad news to the Tathagata. The Tathagata dispels Ānanda’s sadness by speaking of the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

   When Venerable Uttiya asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Tathagata teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.

  The Simile of the Beauty Queen illustrates the proper mind state and the full, real-time body awareness required to practice Right Mindfulness while walking. When confronted with extreme danger from all sides, the mind cannot afford to cling to the self or its formations, as such attachment would obscure clear seeing. Instead, all attention is focused solely on awareness itself and the observation of the Five Aggregates.

  Venerable Bhadda asks Ānanda about the ethical virtues encouraged by the Tathagata—what is their purpose? To develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

   A brahmin asks the Tathagata about the conditions under which the true teaching lasts long or does not last long after the Tathagata’s passing. The Tathagata says it depends on whether the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are practiced.

   Mindfulness is the four kinds of mindfulness meditation. Situational awareness is watching the arising and passing of feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.

   The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead to realizing the deathless.

   The Tathagata teaches the simple passage on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and an advanced analysis, which involves contemplating them as impermanent.

   The causes for the origination and cessation of the phenomena upon which the four kinds of mindfulness practice are grounded.

   The Tathagata gives a detailed explanation of each of the five faculties.

   The five faculties of pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity are analyzed in detail. In addition, each is to be seen in one of the three feelings.

   The five faculties of pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity are taught in a detailed exposition that treats them in an unusual order. The abandoning of each is related to the attainment of a particular meditative absorption.

   How does someone recognize that they are a trainee? By understanding the four noble truths and the five faculties. But only a perfected one fully embodies these qualities.

   An analysis of the four bases of psychic power showing how enthusiasm, energy, higher consciousness, and inquiry work in the context of advanced meditation.

   The Tathagata teaches the bases for psychic power and analyzes them in detail.

   Before his awakening, the Tathagata reflected on the path for developing the bases of psychic power.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. It is developed by going into seclusion, establishing mindfulness on the breath, and proceeding through sixteen stages.

   Mindfulness of the breath is very beneficial. It is developed together with the seven factors of awakening.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. It is developed by going into seclusion, establishing mindfulness on the breath, and proceeding through sixteen stages.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. When developed it leads to perfection or non-return.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. When developed it leads to perfection or one of the lesser attainments.

   When the Tathagata asks Venerable Ariṭṭha about breath meditation, his answer, while not incorrect, does not do full justice to the practice.

   The Tathagata sees Venerable Mahākappina meditating nearby and points out that his steadiness and tranquility are due to practicing breath meditation.

   Before his awakening the Tathagata generally practiced mindfulness of the breath, which kept him alert and peaceful and led to the ending of defilements. One who wishes for any of the higher fruits of the renunciate life should practice the same way.

   The Tathagata taught the contemplation on the ugliness of the body, then left to go on retreat. However, many disciples, misconstruing the teachings, ending up killing themselves. The Tathagata taught mindfulness of breath breath as a peaceful and pleasant abiding.

   The Tathagata goes on a three month retreat, and later says that during that time he mostly practiced breath meditation.

   Venerable Lomasavaṅgīsa explains to Mahānāma that the difference between a trainee and the Realized One is that the trainees practice to give up the hindrances, whereas the Realized One has already ended all defilements.

   Answering Ānanda, the Tathagata explains how one thing fulfills four things, four things fulfill seven things, and seven things fulfill two things.

  The four bases of power, when developed and cultivated, are of great fruit and great benefit.

   The Tathagata asks Sāriputta about the four factors for stream-entry: association with good people, hearing the teaching, proper attention, and right practice. He also defines the “stream” and the “stream-enterer”. Keep in mind however that the only way to hear the Dharma at that time was through association with a noble one.

   The famous first discourse, taught at Varanasi to the group of five ascetics. It begins by rejecting the extremes of asceticism and indulgence and recommends the middle way of the eightfold path. Then it defines the four noble truths and analyzes them in twelve aspects. It ends with Venerable Kondañña becoming the first person apart from the Tathagata to realize the Dhamma.

   Ignorance is not knowing the four noble truths.

   Understanding is knowing the four noble truths.

   The first truth is to be understood; the second is to be given up; the third is to be realized; and the fourth is to be developed.

   The Tathagata takes the desciples to a steep precipice, and points out that those who do not understand the four noble truths fall into a still deeper precipice.

  Just as it’s impossible to climb the upper floor without building the lower floors first, it’s impossible to end suffering without penetrating the four noble truths.