199. [Second Discourse to Rāhula] (SA199)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the Squirrels’ Feeding Place.

At that time the Blessed One said to Rāhula: “How [should] one know and how [should] one see so that in this body [of mine] with consciousness and all external signs there is no [sense of] an ‘I’, ‘mine’, and the underlying tendency, fetter, and attachment to the I-conceit?”

Rāhula said to the Buddha: “The Blessed One is the root of the Dharma, the eye of the Dharma, the foundation of the Dharma. It would be well if the Blessed One were to explain the meaning of this fully to the monks. Having heard it, the monks will uphold and receive it respectfully.”

The Buddha said to Rāhula: “It is well, listen to what I shall teach you. Whatever eye, whether past, future or present, internal or external, gross or subtle, sublime or repugnant, far or near, one rightly contemplates as it really is that all that is not self, not distinct from the self [in the sense of being owned by it], does not exist [within the self, nor does a self] exist [within it].

“Rāhula, the ear … the nose … the tongue … the body … the mind is also like this.

“Rāhula knowing like this and seeing like this, in this body of mine with consciousness and all external signs, the [sense of] an ‘I’, ‘mine’, and the underlying tendency, fetter, and attachment to the I-conceit do not arise. Rāhula, in this way a monk goes beyond duality, is free from all signs, at peace, and liberated. Rāhula, in this way a monk abandons all craving and desire, turns around and leaves all bondage, and [attains] the unsurpassed transcendence of dukkha.”

When the Buddha had spoken this discourse, hearing what the Buddha had said the venerable Rāhula was delighted and received it respectfully.

As for the internal sense-spheres, in the same way also for the external sense-spheres … up to … for feeling arisen in dependence on mind-contact, [discourses] are to be recited fully as above.

Translated by Bhikkhu Anālayo. Originally published in "On the Six Sense-spheres (1) ―A Translation of Saṁyukta-āgama Discourses 188 to 229 (Fascicle 8)", Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies, 2016, vol. 18 pp. 1–61.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.