SN 22.6PTS SN 3.151 min read

Retreat

Paṭisallāṇasutta

A mendicant should make an effort in seclusion in order to truly understand the origin and ending of the five aggregates.

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

0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.6Linked Discourses 22.6
0.21. Nakulapituvagga1. Nakula’s Father

0.3PaṭisallāṇasuttaRetreat

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Paṭisallāṇe, bhikkhave, yogamāpajjatha.“Mendicants, meditate in retreat.¹1.3Paṭisallīṇo, bhikkhave, bhikkhu yathābhūtaṁ pajānāti.A mendicant in retreat truly understands.1.4Kiñca yathābhūtaṁ pajānāti?What do they truly understand?1.5Rūpassa samudayañca atthaṅgamañca, vedanāya samudayañca atthaṅgamañca, saññāya samudayañca atthaṅgamañca, saṅkhārānaṁ samudayañca atthaṅgamañca, viññāṇassa samudayañca atthaṅgamañca …pe…The origin and disappearance of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. …”

1.6(yathā paṭhamasutte tathā vitthāretabbo.)(Tell in full as in the previous discourse.)

1.7Chaṭṭhaṁ.

Translator’s notes

Mendicants should “meditate in retreat” (paṭisallāṇe yogamāpajjatha) in order to understand the six senses (SN 35.100, SN 35.161) and the four noble truths (SN 56.2).
Pali yoga (“yoke”) can mean “effort”, as in yogaṁ āpajjati, “engage in effort (regarding that)”, which I render “get involved (in that)” (AN 7.28:1.7). Compare the English expression “harness energy”. The related expression yogamāpajjatha is literally “engage in effort in retreat”. This means primarily to meditate, and indeed Pali yoga shades into the sense “meditation, immersion” (Dhp 282:1), a sense that anticipates Patañjali’s definition of yoga as “the cessation of transformations of mind” (Yogasūtra 1.2).
↩ sn22.6:1.2