#Linked Discourses 22

The Buddha questions the mendicants on the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. “What do you think, mendicants? Do you regard form like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self’?” “Yes, sir.” “Good, mendicants! Form should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Do you regard feeling … perception … choices … consciousness like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self’? [Read More]

The Buddha questions the mendicants on the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. “What do you think, mendicants? Do you regard form like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’?” “No, sir.” “Good, mendicants! Form should be truly seen with right understanding like this: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’ Do you regard feeling … perception … choices … consciousness like this: ‘This is mine, I am this, this is my self’? [Read More]

An unawakened person is bound both internally and externally to the aggregates and grows old in bondage.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, take an uneducated ordinary person who has not seen the noble ones, and is neither skilled nor trained in the teaching of the noble ones. They’ve not seen good persons, and are neither skilled nor trained in the teaching of the good persons. They regard form as self, self as having form, form in self, or self in form. [Read More]

A true Dhamma speaker teaches for letting go of the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, they speak of a ‘Dhamma speaker’. How is a Dhamma speaker defined? How is a mendicant who practices in line with the teaching defined? And how is a mendicant who has attained extinguishment in this very life defined?” “Mendicant, if a mendicant teaches Dhamma for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding form, they’re qualified to be called a ‘mendicant who speaks on Dhamma’. [Read More]

A true Dhamma speaker teaches for letting go of the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, they speak of a ‘Dhamma speaker’. How is a Dhamma speaker defined?” “Mendicant, if a mendicant teaches Dhamma for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding form, they’re qualified to be called a ‘mendicant who speaks on Dhamma’. If they practice for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding form, they’re qualified to be called a ‘mendicant who practices in line with the teaching’. [Read More]

Knowledge is understanding the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘knowledge’. What is knowledge? And how is a knowledgeable person defined?” “Mendicant, it’s when an educated noble disciple understands form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. They understand feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. [Read More]

Ignorance is not understanding the aggregates.At Sāvatthī. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha and said to him: “Sir, they speak of this thing called ‘ignorance’. What is ignorance? And how is an ignorant person defined?” “Mendicant, it’s when an uneducated ordinary person doesn’t understand form, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. They don’t understand feeling … perception … choices … consciousness, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation. [Read More]

Give up desire for the aggregates and they will come to an end.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, you should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form; and any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies. Thus that form will be given up, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. You should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for feeling … perception … choices … consciousness; and any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies. [Read More]

Give up desire for the aggregates and they will come to an end.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, you should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for form. Thus that form will be given up, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. You should give up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for feeling … perception … choices … consciousness. Thus that consciousness will be given up, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. [Read More]

One who truly understand these five aggregates and is freed from them is a perfected one.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are these five grasping aggregates. What five? That is, the grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. A mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding these five grasping aggregates’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. Such a mendicant is called a perfected one, with defilements ended, who has completed the spiritual journey, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, achieved their own true goal, utterly ended the fetters of rebirth, and is rightly freed through enlightenment. [Read More]