Skip to reading

With Sīvaka · SN 36.21

Early Buddhist discourse · SN 36.21

Small rain-fed rivulets meeting on a dark slate rock face.
About this textContext & reading guide

A conversation with Sīvaka distinguishes several causes of painful feelings and rejects the claim that all experience comes from past actions.

With Sīvaka · SN 36.21

At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.

Then the wanderer Moḷiyasīvaka went up to the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to the Buddha:

“Worthy Gotama, there are some ascetics and brahmins who have this doctrine and view: ‘Everything this individual person experiences—pleasurable, painful, or neutral—is because of past deeds.’ What does the worthy Gotama say about this?”

“Sīvaka, some feelings stem from bile disorders. You can know this from your own personal experience, and it is generally deemed to be true. Since this is so, the ascetics and brahmins whose view is that everything an individual person experiences is because of past deeds go beyond personal experience and beyond what is generally deemed to be true. So those ascetics and brahmins are wrong, I say.

Some feelings stem from phlegm disorders … wind disorders … their conjunction … change in weather … not taking care of yourself … exertion … Some feelings are the result of past deeds. You can know this from your own personal experience, and it is generally deemed to be true. Since this is so, the ascetics and brahmins whose view is that everything an individual person experiences is because of past deeds go beyond personal experience and beyond what is generally deemed to be true. So those ascetics and brahmins are wrong, I say.”

When he said this, the wanderer Moḷiyasīvaka said to the Buddha, “Excellent, worthy Gotama! Excellent! … From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”

“Bile, phlegm, and wind,
their conjunction, and the weather,
not taking care of yourself, exertion,
and the result of deeds is the eighth.”

Translations & sourcesEditions & translators
Read at SuttaCentral ↗

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato

Source edition · Dhammatalks.org ↗

The Atlas reader presents Bhikkhu Sujato’s SuttaCentral translation. This source link preserves the edition previously cited by the Atlas; wording and numbering can differ.

Edition & attribution

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0 1.0

Read at SuttaCentral ↗

SuttaCentral · Bilara translations · Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0 1.0

Introductions, reflection questions and added section headings are editorial material, separate from the attributed translation.

The opening image is AI-generated nature artwork created for Buddhist Atlas. It is an evocative companion, not a depiction of the text’s historical setting.

Source link checked October 21, 2026. The linked publisher provides the text and its usage terms.

Connections
Guru Viking0

No connected episodes found for this text.

People & teachers2
Traditions & history2
Books1
  • In the Buddha’s Words

    Broader context: a thematic anthology of early Buddhist discourses; this link does not claim that the anthology contains this specific text.

    Source
Topics2

Make yourself comfortable

Text size