Majjhima Nikāya
III. Upari Paṇṇāsa
5. Saḷāyatana Vagga
Sacred Books of the Buddhists
Volume VI
Dialogues of the Buddha
Part V
Further Dialogues of the Buddha
Volume II
Translated from the Pali
by Lord Chalmers, G.C.B.
Sometime Governor of Ceylon
London
Humphrey Milford
Oxford University Press
1927
Public Domain
Sutta 148
Cha-Chakka Suttaɱ
The Six Sixes
[1][chlm][pts][than][ntbb][olds][upal] THUS have I heard:
Once when the Lord was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's pleasaunce,
he there addressed the listening Almsmen: -
I will teach you the Doctrine -
so lovely in its beginning,
so lovely in the middle
and so lovely in its close -
with its meaning and text,
the complete and pure higher life, -
namely,
the Six Sixes.
Listen
and pay attention
and I will speak.
Then to the attentive Brethren the Lord began: -
There are six internal senses,
six external sense-objects,
six groups of perceptions,
six groups of Contacts,
six groups of feelings,
and six groups of cravings.
I have said that there are six internal senses to be recognized;
and these are the senses of
sight,
hearing,
smell,
taste,
touch and
mind. -
These form the first Six.
[281] I have said that sense-objects are six in number;
and they are
forms,
sounds,
odours,
savours,
touch and
mental objects. -
These form the second Six.
I have said there are six groups of perceptions;
[316] they are the classes of perceptions
which severally arise from
(a) sight and forms,
(b) hearing and sounds,
(c) smell and odours,
(d) taste and savours,
(e) touch and tangible things, and
(f) mind and mental objects. -
These form the third Six.
I have said there are six groups of Contacts; -
they are as follows: -
from sight and forms results ocular perception
and the meeting of these three is Contact.
The like happens
with each of the other five senses
and their sense-objects and perception combined. -
This is the fourth Six.
I have said that there are six groups of feelings;
they are the classes of feelings
which severally arise as follows: -
from sight and forms
results ocular perception,
and the meeting of all three is contact,
from which contact come feelings.
The like happens
with each of the other five senses
and their sense-objects and perception combined
so as to result in feelings.
[282]- This is the fifth Six.
I have said there are six groups of cravings; -
they are the kinds of craving
which severally arise as follows: -
from sight and forms results ocular perception,
and the meeting of all three is contact,
from which come feelings
and out of feelings come cravings.
The like happens
with each of the other five senses
and their sense-objects and perception combined
so as to result in contact,
from which contact
come feelings
from which come cravings. -
This is the sixth Six.
If it be said the eye is Self,
that does not hold.
(For,) the arising
and the passing
of the eye
is manifest.
But when anything manifestly
has its arising and its passing,
we are brought to this,
that Self arises
and then passes away again;
and therefore to say
the eye is Self
does not hold,
as the eye is thus non-Self.
The same argument applies to forms,
so that the eye and forms are non-Self.
It applies also to ocular perception,
so that the eye,
its sense-objects and ocular perception
are all three non-Self.
It applies also to ocular contact,
so that the eye,
its sense-objects,
ocular perception
and ocular contact
are all four non-Self.
It applies also to feelings,
[288] so that the eye,
its sense-objects,
ocular perception
and feelings
are all five non-Self.
It applies, lastly, to cravings,
so that the eye,
its sense-objects,
ocular perception,
feelings
and cravings
are all six non-Self.
And what applies to the sense of sight
applies equally to the other five senses, -
each with its sense-objects,
its perceptions,
its feelings,
and its cravings;
they are non-Self all of them.
[284] The way that leads to the origination
of the individuality view
is to regard as Mine -
or this is I -
or this is my Self -
either the eye,
or forms,
or ocular perception,
or ocular contact,
or feelings or cravings;
or similarly
to regard hearing
and the four other senses with their adjuncts.
The way that leads to the cessation
of the individuality view
is not to regard as mine,
and so forth,
either eye
or hearing
or any of the four other senses
or their adjuncts.
[285] From sight and forms
arises ocular perception
and the meeting of all three is Contact,
from which contact come feelings,
pleasant
or unpleasant
or neither.
When experiencing a pleasant feeling,
a man rejoices in it,
hails it,
and clings tight to it;
and a trend to passion ensues.
When experiencing an unpleasant feeling,
the man sorrows,
is miserable,
wails,
beats his breast
and goes distraught;
and a trend to repugnance ensues.
When experiencing a feeling
that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant,
he has no true and causal comprehension
of that feeling's origin,
disappearance,
agreeableness,
perils
and outcome;
and a trend to ignorance ensues.
It can never possibly result that -
without first discarding the pleasant feeling's trend to passion,
without first dispelling the unpleasant feeling's trend to repugnance,
without getting rid of the neutral feeling's trend to ignorance,
without discarding ignorance
and stopping it from arising -
he will put an end,
here and now,
to Ill.
And what is true of sight
is equally true of each of the other five senses.
[286] From sight and forms arises ocular percep- [318] tion
and the meeting of all three is Contact,
from which Contact come feelings,
pleasant or unpleasant or neither.
If, when experiencing a pleasant feeling,
a man does not rejoice in it,
does not hail it,
does not cling tight to it; -
so no trend to passion ensues.
If, when experiencing an unpleasant feeling,
he does not sorrow,
become miserable,
wail,
beat his breast or go distraught; -
so no trend to repugnance ensues.
If, when experiencing a feeling that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant,
he has a true and causal comprehension of that feeling's origin,
disappearance,
agreeableness,
perils
and outcome; -
so no trend to ignorance ensues.
Inasmuch as he has already discarded
the pleasant feeling's trend to passion,
has already dispelled
the unpleasant feeling's trend to repugnance,
has already got rid of
the neutral feeling's trend to ignorance,
has already discarded ignorance
and fostered understanding, -
the result is that he will put an end,
here and now,
to Ill.
And what is true of sight
is equally true of each of the other five senses.
With vision such as this,
the instructed disciple of the Noble
is sick and weary of sight
and the other senses,
is sick and weary of their sense-objects,
is sick and weary of perceptions
and contacts
and feelings
and cravings, -
sick and weary of it all
[287] and so is Delivered;
and to him,
being Delivered,
comes the knowledge of his Deliverance
in the conviction that
this is his last birth,
that he has lived the highest life,
that his task is done
and that now for him
there is now no more of what he has been.
Thus spoke the Lord.
Glad at heart,
those Almsmen rejoiced in what the Lord had said.
While this discourse was being spoken,
the hearts of sixty Almsmen
were delivered from the Cankers
by leaving nothing to support them.
