The Shorter Exhortation to Rṅhula Cūḍa Rṅhulovṅda Sutta (MN 147)
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Are forms constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Is consciousness at the eye constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Is contact at the eye constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye as a mode of feeling, a mode of perception, a mode of fabrication, or a mode of consciousness:1 Is it constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think, Rṅhula? Is the ear constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord" ⦠"What do you think, Rṅhula? Is the nose constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord" ⦠"What do you think, Rṅhula? Is the tongue constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord" ⦠"What do you think, Rṅhula? Is the body constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord" ⦠"What do you think, Rṅhula? Is the intellect constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Are ideas constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Is consciousness at the intellect constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Is contact at the intellect constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "What do you think? Whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect as a mode of feeling, a mode of perception, a mode of fabrication, or a mode of consciousness: Is it constant or inconstant?" "Inconstant, lord." "And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?" "Stressful, lord." "And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ),
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('â', This is mine. This is my self. This is what I amâ?" "No, lord." "Seeing thus, Rṅhula, the instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with the eye, disenchanted with forms, disenchanted with consciousness at the eye, disenchanted with contact at the eye. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the eye as a mode of feeling, a mode of perception, a mode of fabrication, or a mode of consciousness: With that, too, he grows disenchanted. "He grows disenchanted with the ear.⦠"He grows disenchanted with the nose.⦠"He grows disenchanted with the tongue.⦠"He grows disenchanted with the body.⦠"He grows disenchanted with the intellect, disenchanted with ideas, disenchanted with consciousness at the intellect, disenchanted with contact at the intellect. And whatever there is that arises in dependence on contact at the intellect as a mode of feeling, a mode of perception, a mode of fabrication, or a mode of consciousness: With that, too, he grows disenchanted. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is released. With release, there is the knowledge, ),
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('â', Released.â He discerns that ),
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('â', Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.â" That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, Ven. Rṅhula delighted in the Blessed Oneâs words. And while this explanation was being given, Ven. Rṅhulaâs mind, through lack of clinging/sustenance, was released from effluents. And to those many thousands of devas there arose the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: "Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation." Note 1. The Buddhaâs basic approach in this discourse is to take a line of questioning that he usually applies to the five aggregates (see SN 22:59) and to apply it to the framework of the six sense media as given in SN 35:28. This phrase, however, is the one point where this sutta deviates from that framework. The corresponding phrase in SN 35:28 focuses exclusively on feelings. The passage here—vedanṅgataṃ, saā±ā±ṅgataṃ, saṃkhṅrṅgataṃ, viā±ā±ṅṃagataṃ—focuses on all four mental aggregates. For another example of translating –gataṃ as "mode," see the phrase "mode of perception" (saā±ā±ṅgataṃ) in MN 121. For another example of a teaching that combines the two frameworks of five aggregates and six sense media, see MN 28. See also: MN 61; MN 62; Thag 4:8 - --> - - - -