205. [Discourse on the Udāna] (SA205)

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

At that time the Blessed One, having recited all of the verses of the Udāna, said to the venerable Ānanda: “The eye is impermanent, dukkha, of a nature to change and become otherwise. Forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on eye-contact, be it painful, pleasant, or neutral, is also impermanent, dukkha, of a nature to change and become otherwise.

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

“A learned noble disciple who contemplates like this becomes liberated from the eye, and also becomes liberated from forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on eye-contact [be it painful, pleasant, or neutral]. He becomes liberated from the ear … the nose … the tongue … the body … the mind, mental objects, mind-consciousness, mind-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on mind-contact, be it painful, pleasant, or neutral. I say that he becomes liberated from birth, old age, disease, death, worry, sorrow, vexation, and pain.”

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.