Impermanent, Painful, Empty, and Not Self (SA195)

Thus I have heard: One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.

It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “Everything is [11] impermanent … [12] painful … [13] empty … [14] not self. How is everything impermanent? It means the eye is impermanent … painful … empty … not self. Whether it’s forms, visual awareness, visual contact, or the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from visual contact, they are impermanent … painful … empty … not self, too. The ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind are likewise.

“The well-versed noble disciple who contemplates it in this way becomes disillusioned with the eye. Whether it’s forms, visual awareness, visual contact, or the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from visual contact, they become disillusioned with it. They become disillusioned with the ear … nose … tongue … body … mind … sounds … odors … flavors … touches … ideas … [auditory … olfactory … gustatory … somatic … and] mental awareness, mental contact, and the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from mental contact, too. Because the disciple becomes disillusioned with them, they don’t enjoy them. Because they don’t enjoy those things, they are liberated. Being liberated, they know and see this: ‘My births have been ended, the religious life has been established, and the task has been accomplished. I myself know that I won’t be subject to another existence.’”

After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.

Like this sūtra on impermanence, pain, emptiness, and not self are taught in the same way.

This sūtra is part of the Dharma Pearls translation project.

Prepared by Charles Patton for SuttaCentral.