166. [First Discourse on the View that the Self Consists of Form] (SA166)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.

At that time the Blessed One said to the monks: “The existence of what is the cause, by clinging to what, by being fettered and attached to what, by seeing what as the self, do living beings have a view like this and speak like this: 'The self consists of form, anything else is false; the self is formless, anything else is false; the self has form and is formless, anything else is false; the self neither has form nor is formless, anything else is false; the self is limited, anything else is false; the self is unlimited, anything else is false; the self is limited and unlimited, anything else is false; the self is neither limited nor unlimited, anything else is false; [the self is] with unified perception … with variegated perceptions … with manifold perceptions … with boundless perceptions [anything else is false]; the self is entirely happy … entirely miserable … either happy or miserable … neither happy nor miserable, anything else is false?'”

The monks said to the Buddha: “The Blessed One is the root of the Dharma, the eye of the Dharma, the foundation of the Dharma …” to be recited fully in the same way in the sequence of the above three discourses.

Translated by Bhikkhu Anālayo. Originally published in ‘On Views and Penetrative Knowledge – A Translation of Saṁyukta-āgama Discourses 139 to 187 (Fascicle 7)’, Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies, 2015, vol. 17 pp. 43–100.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Seniya Ariyakumara and Ayya Vimala.