Traditions: Pāli Dhammapada; Pāli Saṁyutta Nikāya Motif: What is experienced is not a permanent possession called self Connection verdict: Related Buddhist teaching with different argumentative forms Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29
Summary
Dhammapada 279 says all phenomena are not-self; Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.59 examines each of the five aggregates.
Read the two scenes
The discourse proceeds through bodily form and mental processes, asking whether each is permanent, satisfactory, and fit to identify as a self. Its dialogue with the first five mendicants turns a slogan into a series of tests. Dhammapada 279 compresses the conclusion into a memorable line. Translating anattā as not-self is only a beginning; schools and translators differ about its philosophical reach. The comparison should not be turned into a claim that a person has no ethical agency or that suffering does not matter.
What connects—and what does not
The verse states a compact insight; the discourse asks whether body, feeling, perception, choices, or consciousness can be governed as “mine.”
The texts share a doctrinal vocabulary, but the verse is not a substitute for the discourse’s step-by-step inquiry.
Why read them side by side?
A compact verse becomes clearer when paired with the questions by which a discourse asks the listener to examine experience.
Sources and reading notes
- Dhammapada 279 within verses 273–289 — Pāli-canon translation; compare the wider discourse and Pāli terms.
- SN 22.59, The Characteristic of Not-Self — Pāli-canon translation; compare the wider discourse and Pāli terms.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.