#Linked Discourses 22

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.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving. There comes a time when the ocean dries up and evaporates and is no more. [Read More]

A mendicant asks whether anything in the aggregates has even the tiniest bit of stability or permanence.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, is there any form at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever? Is there any feeling … perception … choices … consciousness at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever?” “Mendicant, there is no form at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever. [Read More]

A mendicant asks whether anything in the aggregates has even the tiniest bit of stability or permanence. The Buddha answers using the simile of a little dirt under his fingernail.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, is there any form at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever? Is there any feeling … perception … choices … consciousness at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever? [Read More]

Nothing in the aggregates has even the tiniest bit of stability or permanence. In a past life, the Buddha was a great king with vast properties, but all those conditions have passed away.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, is there any form at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever? Is there any feeling … perception … choices … consciousness at all that’s permanent, everlasting, eternal, imperishable, and will last forever and ever? [Read More]

The Buddha 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. At one time the Buddha was staying near Ayojjhā on the bank of the Ganges river. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, suppose this Ganges river was carrying along a big lump of foam. [Read More]

The Buddha 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.At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I don’t argue with the world; it’s the world that argues with me. When your speech is in line with the teaching you don’t argue with anyone in the world. What the astute agree on as not existing, I too say does not exist. [Read More]

If you grasp at the aggregates as a self, you will meet with calamity, like a man swept down by a mountain river, grasping at grass or rushes.At Sāvatthī. “Suppose, mendicants, there was a mountain river that flowed swiftly, going far, carrying all before it. If wild sugarcane, kusa grass, reeds, vetiver, or trees grew on either bank, they’d overhang the river. And if a person who was being swept along by the current grabbed the wild sugarcane, kusa grass, reeds, vetiver, or trees, it’d break off, and they’d come to ruin because of that. [Read More]

Rāhula asks how to contemplate to let go of conceit and be free. The Buddha urges him to see the aggregates as not-self.At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, Rāhula said to the Buddha: “Sir, how does one know and see so that the mind is rid of ego, possessiveness, and conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli; and going beyond discrimination, it’s peaceful and well freed?” “Rāhula, when one truly sees any kind of form at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; coarse or fine; inferior or superior; far or near: all form—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self,’ one is freed by not grasping. [Read More]

Rāhula asks how to contemplate to let go of conceit. The Buddha urges him to see the aggregates as not-self.At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Rāhula went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, how does one know and see so that there’s no ego, possessiveness, or underlying tendency to conceit for this conscious body and all external stimuli?” “Rāhula, one truly sees any kind of form at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; coarse or fine; inferior or superior; far or near: all form—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self. [Read More]

Remorseful after being admonished by the Buddha on his deathbed, Venerable Channa asks for teachings from the mendicants. Unsatisfied, he seeks out Ānanda, who teaches him the address to Kaccāyana (SN 12.15).At one time several senior mendicants were staying near Benares, in the deer park at Isipatana. Then in the late afternoon, Venerable Channa came out of retreat. Taking a key, he went from dwelling to dwelling, going up to the senior mendicants and saying, “May the venerable senior mendicants advise me and instruct me! [Read More]