Early Buddhism · Saṁyutta Nikāya
The Characteristic of Not-Self
Form and identification · selected passages
Two selected passages from SN 22.59; not the complete discourse.
Two non-adjacent passages, shown separately. Surrounding discourse remains available at SuttaCentral. Outer dialogue quotation marks and inline emphasis have been removed; the words are unchanged.
Mendicants, form is not-self.
So you should truly see any kind of form at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; solid or subtle; inferior or superior; far or near: all form—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
Edition & source
Two selected passages from SN 22.59; not the complete discourse.
- Edition
- Linked Discourses 22.59 · Anattalakkhaṇasutta
- Translation
- Bhikkhu Sujato
- Published
- 2018; ongoing digital revision, consulted 13 November 2026
- Reading language
- English
- Original language
- Pāli
- Text & usage
- CC0 1.0 · dedicated to the public domain by the translator through SuttaCentral.
The publisher’s metadata records CC0 for this translation. The translator also requests use consistent with Buddhist values and asks that the work not be used in AI-training datasets or AI technologies. This selection is for a human-readable source page, not a training corpus.
A discourse that tests form, feeling, perception, choices and consciousness against the idea of a controllable, lasting self. Its movement is towards non-identification and release.