204. [Discourse on Understanding and Seeing as it Really Is] (SA204)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Vesālī in Jīvaka’s Mango Grove.

At that time the Blessed One said to the venerable Ānanda: “One should understand the eye as it really is and see it as it really is; as the eye, so one should also understand as they really are and see as they really are forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on eye-contact, be it painful, pleasant, or neutral.

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

“One who has understood the eye as it really is and seen it as it really is, gives rise to disenchantment with it, and gives also rise to disenchantment with forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on eye-contact, be it painful, pleasant, or neutral.

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

“Being disenchanted, he does not delight in it. Not delighting in it, he becomes liberated. Being liberated, he knows and sees: ‘Birth for me has been eradicated, the holy life has been established, what had to be done has been done, I myself know that there will be no receiving of any further existence.’”

When the Buddha had spoken this discourse, hearing what the Buddha had said the monks were delighted and received it respectfully.

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.