The Related Discourses

1. The Aggregates

15 (9). Disillusionment

1. Thus I have heard:[1] One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.

2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “Form is impermanent. What’s impermanent is painful, what’s painful is not self, and what’s not self doesn’t belong to self, either. Such observation is called true and correct observation. Thus, feeling … conception … volition … consciousness is impermanent. What’s impermanent is painful, what’s painful is not self, and what’s not self doesn’t belong to self, either. Such an observation is called a true and correct observation.

3. “Noble disciples who thus observe form become disillusioned with it. They become disillusioned with feeling … conception … volition … consciousness. Because they’re disillusioned, they don’t enjoy them. Because they don’t enjoy them, they attain liberation. For someone who’s liberated, this true knowledge arises: ‘My births have been ended, the religious practice has been established, and the task has been accomplished. I myself know that I won’t be subject to a later existence.’”

4. When the monks heard what the Buddha taught, they rejoiced and approved.

Notes

1. This sūtra is parallel with SN 22.15 and similar to SN 22.16 and 17. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 17 October 2022