Thus I have heard: One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.
It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “Everything is [15] impermanent … [16] painful … [17] empty … [18] not self … [19] subject to vain deeds … [20] liable to disintegrate … [21] subject to birth … [22] subject to old age … [23] subject to illness … [24] subject to death … [25] subject to grief … [26] subject to affliction … [27] subject to formation … [28] subject to cessation … [29] subject to being known … [30] subject to being well understood … [31] subject to being ended … [32] subject to realization … [33] actualized … [34] Māra … [35] Māra’s strength … [36] Māra’s tool … [37] burning … [38] blazing … [39] a conflagration. How is everything [impermanent]? It means the eye … and so on … is impermanent. Whether it’s form, visual awareness, visual contact, or the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from visual contact, they are impermanent … and so on … too. So it is with the ear … nose … tongue … body … mind. Whether it’s ideas, mental awareness, mental contact, or the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from mental contact, they are impermanent … and so on … too.
“The well-versed noble disciple who contemplates it in this way is liberated from the eye. Whether it’s form, visual awareness, visual contact, or the painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from visual contact, the disciple is liberated from them, too. So it is with the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Whether it’s ideas, mental awareness, mental contact, or painful, pleasant, and neither painful nor pleasant feelings that arise from mental contact, they are liberated from them, too. I say they are liberated from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, trouble, and suffering.”
After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.
Like the teaching that “everything is impermanent,” thus “everything is painful,” “everything is empty,” “everything is not self,” “everything is subject to vain deeds,” “everything is liable to disintegrate,” “everything is subject to birth,” “everything is subject to old age,” “everything is subject to illness,” “everything is subject to death,” “everything is subject to grief,” “everything is subject to affliction,” “everything is subject to formation,” “everything is subject to cessation,” “everything is subject to being known,” “everything is subject to being well understood,” “everything is subject to being ended,” “everything is subject to realization,” “everything is actualized,” “everything is Māra,” “everything is Māra’s strength,” “everything is Māra’s tool,” “everything is burning,” “everything is blazing,” and “everything is a conflagration” likewise. They are taught at length like the previous two sūtras.