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sn.35.76 Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses)

Radha (1)

Then the Venerable Radha approached the Blessed One … and said to him: “Venerable sir, it would be good if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief, so that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One, I might dwell alone, withdrawn, diligent, ardent, and resolute.”

“Radha, you should abandon desire for whatever is impermanent. And what is impermanent? The eye is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it. Forms are impermanent … Eye-consciousness is impermanent … Eye-contact is impermanent … Whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition—whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—that too is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it.

“The ear … The mind is impermanent … Whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition … that too is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it. Radha, you should abandon desire for whatever is impermanent.”

- Translator: Bhikkhu Bodhi

- Editor: Blake Walsh