Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Related Discourses

3. Dependent Origination

（二九五）非汝所有 3.13 (295). Not Yours
如是我聞： 一時，佛住王舍城、迦蘭陀竹園。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at the Squirrels’ Bamboo Grove of Rājagṛha.
爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「此身非汝所有，亦非餘人所有。 謂六觸入處，本修行願，受得此身。 云何為六？ 眼觸入處⋯耳⋯鼻⋯舌⋯身⋯意觸入處。 2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “This body is not possessed by you, nor is it possessed by someone else. That is, the six sense fields of contact are the wishes cultivated in the past that obtained this body.2 What are the six? The visual sense field of contact … auditory … olfactory … gustatory … somatic … and the mental sense field of contact.
「彼多聞聖弟子於諸緣起善正思惟觀察： 『有此六識身、六觸身、六受身、六想身、六思身。 所謂此有故，有當來生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 如是如是純大苦聚集。 是名有因有緣世間集。 3. “The well-versed noble disciple skillfully and correctly considers and investigates dependently arisen things: ‘There are these bodies of six kinds of awareness, six kinds of contact, six kinds of feeling, six kinds of conception, and six kinds of intention. Because they exist, there will be future birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, trouble, and pain. In this way, the whole mass of suffering forms. This is called there being causes and conditions for the world to form.3
「『謂此無故，六識身無，六觸身、六受身、六想身、六思身無。 謂此無故，無有當來生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 如是如是純大苦聚滅。』 4. “‘Because this doesn’t exist, these bodies of six kinds of awareness, six kinds of contact, six kinds of feeling, six kinds of conception, and six kinds of intention don’t exist. Because they don’t exist, there is no future birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and trouble. In this way, the whole mass of suffering ceases.’
「若多聞聖弟子於世間集、世間滅如實正知，善見、善覺、善入，是名聖弟子招此善法、得此善法、知此善法、入此善法。 覺知、覺見世間生滅，成就賢聖出離、實寂、正盡苦，究竟苦邊。 所以者何？ 謂多聞聖弟子世間集滅如實知，善見、善覺、善入故。」 5. “If a well-versed noble disciple truly and correctly knows, sees well, realizes well, and enters well the formation and cessation of the world, this is called a noble disciple who invites this good Dharma, attains this good Dharma, knows this good Dharma, and enters this good Dharma. Perceptively knowing and seeing the birth and cessation of the world, he accomplishes the noble escape, the real tranquility, correctly ends suffering, and reaches the final limit of suffering. Why is that? The well-versed noble disciple truly knows, sees well, realizes well, and enters well the formation and cessation of the world.”4
佛說此經已，諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 6. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.

Notes

  1. This is sūtra no. 295 in the Taisho edition and no. 476 in Yinshun (T99.2.84a23-4b11, Y30.33a1-a10). It’s parallel with SN 12.37 and SF162. SN 12.37 is quite brief, reading like a synopsis compared to this sūtra and the Sanskrit parallel, which correspond to each other fairly closely. [back]

  2. the six sense fields of contact are the wishes cultivated in the past that obtained this body. C. 謂六觸入處，本修行願，受得此身, P. purāṇamidaṁ, bhikkhave, kammaṁ abhisaṅkhataṁ abhisañcetayitaṁ vedaniyaṁ daṭṭhabbaṁ. , S. ṣaḍ imāni sparśāyatanāni pūrvam abhisaṁskṛtāny abhisañcetitāni, paurāṇaṁ karma veditavyam iti vadāmi.

    All three extant parallels depart from each other here. The C. and S. versions both agree on the inclusion of the six sense fields in the passage, which replaces the body as the subject for the remainder of the sūtra. This is absent from SN 12.37. Even without looking at SN 12.37, however, the sense fields are an awkward insertion that makes the sentence equate them with past deeds rather than the body.

    The C. version also ends the sentence differently than the S. version, which itself matches SN 12.37 better. This C. ending is also confusing, since it isn’t clear whether the body is obtained by cultivating past wishes or by the six sense fields. I’ve translated the C. to match the logic of the other two parallels, which is that the body is the result of past karma. [back]

  3. These five sensory bodies of awareness, contact, feeling, conception, and intention are a rubric commonly found in Abhidharma analysis. They become the six sets of six when the body of six cravings is added to them. This continued commentary on the meaning of kāya (“body”) is absent from SN 12.37. There, we find instead the general principle of dependent origination, which is that one thing arises because of something else existing, and a thing ceases because something else ceases. [back]

  4. This conclusion about the dependent origination of the world is also missing from the SN 12.37, but the S. version includes it. Looking at the entire sūtra, we can see that the concept of the body has been developed to such an extent that it disappears at the conclusion, suggesting that SN 12.37 is probably a more faithful edition. It has been expanded by Sarvāstivādins to incorporate a psychological model of experience and a theory of the karmic causation of the world. [back]

Translator: Dōgen Sīṁsāpa (draft) and Charles Patton (editor)

Last Revised: 14 October 2025

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