Saɱyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
35. Saḷāyatana Saɱyutta
§ III: Paññāsaka Tatiya
5. Nava-Purāṇa Vagga
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
IV. The Book of the Six Sense Bases
35: Connected Discourses on the Six Sense Bases
The Third Fifty
5. New and Old
Sutta 151 [WP: #152]
'Kim Atthiya?' Suttaɱ
For What Purpose the Holy Life?
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Copyright Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)
This selection from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saɱyutta Nikāya by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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[1][pts] "Bhikkhus, if wanderers of other sects ask you:
'For what purpose, friends, is the holy life lived under the ascetic Gotama?'
— being asked thus, you should answer those wanderers thus:
'It is, friends, for the full understanding of suffering that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.'
Then, bhikkhus, if those wanderers ask you:
'What, friends, is that suffering for the full understanding of which the holy life is lived under the ascetic Gotama?'
— being asked thus, you should answer those wanderers thus:
"'The eye, friends, is suffering: it is for the full understanding of this that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.
Forms are suffering: it is for the full understanding of them that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.
Eye-consciousness is suffering ... Eye-contact is suffering ...
Whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition — whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant — that too is suffering: it is for the full understanding of this that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.
The ear is suffering ...
The mind is suffering ...
Whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition ... that too is suffering: it is for the full understanding of this that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.
This, friends, is the suffering for the full understanding of which the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.'
"Being asked thus, bhikkhus, you should answer those wanderers of other sects in such a way."
