Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

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2. The Sense Fields

（二一四） 二因緣 98 (214). Two Causes and Conditions
如是我聞： 一時，佛住舍衛國、祇樹、給孤獨園。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.
爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「有二因緣生識。 何等為二？ 謂眼、色⋯耳、聲⋯鼻、香⋯舌、味⋯身、觸⋯意、法⋯ 2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “There are two causes and conditions that give rise to awareness. What are the two? They are eye and forms … ear and sounds … nose and odors … tongue and flavors … body and touches … mind and ideas …
如是廣說乃至⋯「非其境界故。 3. “[Suppose an ascetic or brahmin were to say, ‘These are not two things. The ascetic Gautama claims they are two things, but these are not two. Those who use their own reasoning to say they are two things simply say this.’ When questioned, that ascetic or brahmin wouldn’t understand. Their uncertainty would increase]2 because it’s not their area.
「所以者何？ 眼、色因緣生眼識，彼無常、有為、心緣生。 色若眼、識，無常、有為、心緣生。 此三法和合觸。 觸已受。 受已思。 思已想。 此等諸法無常、有為、心緣生；所謂觸、想、思。 耳、鼻、舌、身、意亦復如是。」 4. “Why is that? The eye and forms are the causes and conditions that give rise to visual awareness, which is impermanent, conditioned, and dependently arisen from the mind. Whether it’s form, eye, or awareness, they are impermanent, conditioned, and dependently arisen from the mind.3 These three things combine into contact. Being contacted, there’s feeling. Being felt, there’s intention. Being intended, there’s conception. These types of things are impermanent, conditioned, and dependently arisen from the mind; that is, these contacts, conceptions, and intentions. The ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are likewise.”
佛說此經已，諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 5. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.

Notes

  1. This is sūtra no. 214 in the Taisho edition and no. 276 in Yinshun (T99.2.54a22-b1, Y30.263a3-8). Its closest parallel is SN 35.93. These two parallels are nearly identical in meaning. SN 35.93 is a bit more explicit and careful to specify standard categories like visual awareness and contact when this version is more general in its wording. Another difference is that feeling, intention, and conception all arise from contact in SN 35.93, but here these four things form a chain of causation beginning with contact and ending with conception. Otherwise, these subjects are treated the same. [back]

  2. The translator here indicated an abbreviation that ends with 非其境界故. I’ve expanded the abbreviated text assuming he was referring to a passage identical to the one found in SĀ 1.97. [back]

  3. impermanent, conditioned, and dependently arise from the mind. C. 無常、有為、心緣生. SN 35.93 characterizes these things as “impermanent, decaying, and perishing” (P. anicco vipariṇāmī aññathābhāvī), but a similar passage in SN 22.81 parallel with the same in SA 1.169 (57) reads “impermanent, conditioned, and dependently originated” (P. anicco saṅkhato paṭiccasamuppanno). In our parallel passage here (and in SA 1.169), “mind (or thought)” (心) has been added to “dependently arisen,” but it’s not clear to me how it should be read.

    Lacking grammatical particle to clarify the situation, I could read 心 as an object in dative (“dependently arise from the mind”) or instrumental case (“dependently arise by the mind”), or it could be a subject meant to refer to awareness (“thoughts that dependently arise”). None of them quite make sense to me because forms and the eye are physical or external things, strictly speaking. I’ve translated the expression in the dative case, assuming it refers to the sensory awareness that occurs in the mind. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 21 February 2026

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