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SN 22.110PTS SN 3.1611 min read

A Perfected One

Arahantasutta

One who truly understand these five aggregates and is freed from them is a perfected one.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.110Linked Discourses 22.110
  • 0.211. Antavagga11. Ends

0.3ArahantasuttaA Perfected One

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Pañcime, bhikkhave, upādānakkhandhā.“Mendicants, there are these five grasping aggregates.1.3Katame pañca?What five?1.4Seyyathidaṁ—rūpupādānakkhandho …pe… viññāṇupādānakkhandho.That is, the grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.1.5Yato kho, bhikkhave, bhikkhu imesaṁ pañcannaṁ upādānakkhandhānaṁ samudayañca atthaṅgamañca assādañca ādīnavañca nissaraṇañca yathābhūtaṁ viditvā anupādāvimutto hoti.A mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding these five grasping aggregates’ origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape.11.6Ayaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, bhikkhu arahaṁ khīṇāsavo vusitavā katakaraṇīyo ohitabhāro anuppattasadattho parikkhīṇabhavasaṁyojano sammadaññāvimutto”ti.Such a mendicant is called a perfected one, with defilements ended, who has completed the spiritual journey, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, achieved their heart’s goal, utterly ended the fetter of continued existence, and is rightly freed through enlightenment.”

1.7Aṭṭhamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. The stream-enterer (as in the previous discourse) and the perfected one (arahant) share the same understanding of the aggregates as they truly are, but the arahant has fully let go of all grasping. Note too that the stream-enterer is said to be a “noble disciple”, which includes lay people, but the arahant is a “mendicant”. The discourses do not say that formal ordination is a requirement for arahantship, but they consistently treat the arahant as one who lives the renunciate life of a mendicant.

    ↩ sn22.110:1.5