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, “There are five acquired aggregates. What are the five? They are the acquired aggregate of form … feeling … conception … volition … and the acquired aggregate of awareness. It’s good that a monk isn’t pleased by form, doesn’t praise form, doesn’t take form, and isn’t attached to form. It’s good that a monk isn’t pleased by feeling … conception … volition … awareness, doesn’t praise awareness, doesn’t take awareness, and isn’t attached to awareness. Why is that?
“If a monk isn’t pleased by form, doesn’t praise form, doesn’t take form, and isn’t attached to form, then his mind becomes liberated by not being pleased by form. In this way, if a monk isn’t pleased by feeling … conception … volition … awareness, doesn’t praise awareness, doesn’t take awareness, isn’t attached to awareness, then his mind becomes liberated by not being pleased by awareness. If a monk isn’t pleased by form, his mind becomes liberated. In this way, if he isn’t pleased by feeling … conception … volition … awareness, his mind becomes liberated. Neither ceasing nor arising, he abides in equitable detachment with correct mindfulness and knowledge.
“That monk who knows and sees in this way sees them and their origin as forever ended without remainder. Having seen them and their origin as forever ended without remainder, he also sees them and their endpoint as forever ended without remainder. Having seen them and their endpoint as forever ended without remainder, he also sees them and both their origin and endpoint as forever ended without remainder. He is attached to nothing. Someone who is attached to nothing takes nothing whatsoever from any world. Someone who takes nothing also seeks nothing. Someone who seeks nothing realizes nirvāṇa for themselves: ‘My births have been ended, the religious life has been established, and the task has been accomplished. I myself know that I wont be subject to a later existence.’”
After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.