Saṃyutta Nikāya
3. Khandha Vagga
22. Khandha Saṃyutta
2. Dutiya Anicca Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
3. The Book Called the Khandhā-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the Elements of Sensory Existence and other Subjects
22. Kindred Sayings on Elements
2. The Second on Impermanence
Sutta 15
Paṭhama Yad Anicca Suttaṃ
What is Impermanent (1)
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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The Exalted One was staying at Sāvatthī.
The Exalted One said:
"Body, brethren, is impermanent.
What is impermanent
that is suffering.[1]
What is suffering,
that is void of the self.
What is void of the self,
that is not mine,
I am not it,
it is not my self.
That is how it is to be regarded
by perfect insight of whet it really is.
■
Feeling, brethren, is impermanent.
What is impermanent
that is suffering.
What is suffering,
that is void of the self.
What is void of the self,
that is not mine,
I am not it,
it is not my self.
That is how it is to be regarded
by perfect insight of whet it really is.
■
Perception, brethren, is impermanent.
What is impermanent
that is suffering.
What is suffering,
that is void of the self.
What is void of the self,
that is not mine,
I am not it,
it is not my self.
That is how it is to be regarded
by perfect insight of whet it really is.
■
The activities, brethren, are impermanent.
What is impermanent
that is suffering.
What is suffering,
that is void of the self.
What is void of the self,
that is not mine,
I am not it,
it is not my self.
That is how it is to be regarded
by perfect insight of whet it really is.
■
Consciousness, brethren, is impermanent.
What is impermanent
that is suffering.
What is suffering,
that is void of the self.
What is void of the self,
that is not mine,
I am not it,
it is not my self.
That is how it is to be regarded
by perfect insight of whet it really is.
■
Thus seeing, brethren, the well-taught Ariyan disciple
is repelled by body,
is repelled by feeling,
is repelled by perception,
is repelled by the activities
is repelled by consciousness.
Being repelled
he lusts not
not lusting he is set free
in this freedom comes insight
that it is a being free.
Thus he realizes:
'Rebirth is destroyed,
lived is the righteous life,
done is my task,
for life in these conditions
there is no hereafter.'"
[1] The force of dukkhaṃ may in many places be better brought out by translating 'Ill-fare,' as opposed to su-khaṃ, wel-fare.' See Pāli Dict. s.v. which suggests 'ease' and 'dis-ease,' 'wealth and ilth,' 'well-being' and 'ill-being.' But all these words have now various significances. 'Ill-fare' is used in Elizabethan literature. Buddhaghosa defines the word at V.M. 461, and at p. 494 attempts its derivation (not very successfully) in du, 'mean, inferior'; 'khaṃ,' empty. But the underlying idea seems to be 'ill-put-together, temporary, unreal, unsatisfactory.' Cf. Expositor i, 53,54, and note on next page; Mrs. Rhys Davids, Bud. Psychology, 1924, p. 83 f.'"
