222. [First Discourse on Understanding] (SA222)

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: “You should understand all things that are to be understood, all things that are to be discerned. Listen and pay proper attention to what I shall teach you. What are all things that are to be understood, all things that are to be discerned?

“Monks, the eye is a thing to be understood, a thing to be discerned. Forms, eye-consciousness, eye-contact, and feeling arisen in dependence on eye-contact and experienced within, be it painful, pleasant, or neutral, all these are things to be understood, things to be discerned.

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

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.