The second arrow (Sallatha Sutta)
“An Arrow”
In SN 36.6 the Buddha says that both an ordinary person and a trained disciple feel painful feelings. The ordinary person then sorrows, laments and falls into confusion, so they feel two feelings, physical and mental, “like a person who is struck with an arrow, only to be struck with a second arrow.” The trained disciple feels one: physical, not mental.
What the text says
The discourse starts with a question: if everyone feels pleasant, painful and neutral feelings, what is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an ordinary person? The answer is not that the wise stop feeling pain. The verses say plainly that a wise person “does not not feel the feeling of pleasure and pain.”
The difference is what happens next. The untrained person resists the pain, and because they know no other way out of pain, looks forward to sensual pleasure. The discourse traces three underlying tendencies in that reaction: aversion toward pain, greed for pleasure, and ignorance about neutral feeling. The trained person feels the same pain without resisting it and without reaching for pleasure as an escape, and so feels it “detached.”
Taking it into a day
- When something hurts, name the first arrow plainly: ‘a headache’, ‘that remark stung’.
- Then notice what arrives next: the story, the complaint, the replay. That is the second arrow.
- Notice the reach for comfort, such as the snack or the scroll, that the discourse describes. You do not have to refuse it; just see it.
- Feel the first arrow for three breaths without adding to it.
A modern summary often attached to this parable. It is not in the text, and the discourse is more careful: the physical feeling remains, and what can end is the mental feeling added to it, along with the tendencies that drive it.
About this text
The Buddha tells the mendicants that both an ordinary person and a learned noble disciple feel pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings, and asks what the difference is. When an ordinary person meets physical pain, they sorrow, lament, and become confused, feeling two pains, bodily and mental, like someone struck by a second arrow after the first. Knowing no escape from pain except sensual pleasure, they grasp at that. A learned noble disciple feels only the first arrow, the bodily pain, without the mental one, and understands feelings’ arising, passing, gratification, drawback, and escape. Short verses close the teaching.
A note on this text. Uses “underlying tendency” and “rebirth” in passing, and the closing verse refers to “this world and the next.”
The full text
Linked Discourses 36.6 · 1. With Verses · An Arrow · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 3 min · on SuttaCentral
“Mendicants, an unlearned ordinary person feels pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. A learned noble disciple also feels pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. What, then, is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an ordinary unlearned person?” “Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …” “When an unlearned ordinary person experiences painful physical feelings they sorrow and wail and lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience two feelings: physical and mental. It’s like a person who is struck with an arrow, only to be struck with a second arrow. That person experiences the feeling of two arrows. In the same way, when an unlearned ordinary person experiences painful physical feelings they sorrow and wail and lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience two feelings: physical and mental. When they’re touched by painful feeling, they resist it. The underlying tendency for aversion toward painful feeling underlies that. When touched by painful feeling they look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures. Why is that? Because an unlearned ordinary person doesn’t understand any escape from painful feeling apart from sensual pleasures. Since they look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures, the underlying tendency to greed for pleasant feeling underlies that. They don’t truly understand feelings’ origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape. The underlying tendency to ignorance about neutral feeling underlies that. If they feel a pleasant feeling, they feel it attached. If they feel a painful feeling, they feel it attached. If they feel a neutral feeling, they feel it attached. They’re called an unlearned ordinary person who is attached to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. They are attached to suffering, I say.
Explained: The second arrow
When a learned noble disciple experiences painful physical feelings they don’t sorrow or wail or lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience one feeling: physical, not mental.
It’s like a person who is struck with an arrow, but was not struck with a second arrow. That person would experience the feeling of one arrow. In the same way, when a learned noble disciple experiences painful physical feelings they don’t sorrow or wail or lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience one feeling: physical, not mental. When they’re touched by painful feeling, they don’t resist it. There’s no underlying tendency for aversion toward painful feeling underlying that. When touched by painful feeling they don’t look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures. Why is that? Because a learned noble disciple understands an escape from painful feeling apart from sensual pleasures. Since they don’t look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures, there’s no underlying tendency to greed for pleasant feeling underlying that. They truly understand feelings’ origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape. There’s no underlying tendency to ignorance about neutral feeling underlying that. If they feel a pleasant feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a painful feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a neutral feeling, they feel it detached. They’re called a learned noble disciple who is detached from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. They are detached from suffering, I say. This is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an unlearned ordinary person.
A wise and learned person does not not feelthe feeling of pleasure and pain.This is the great difference of skillbetween the attentive one and the ordinary.
A learned person who has appraised the teachingdiscerns this world and the next.Desirable things don’t disturb their mind,nor are they repelled by the undesirable.
Both favoring and opposingare cleared and ended, and are no more.Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state,they who have gone beyond rebirthunderstand rightly.”
Questions
Is the second arrow the same as the poisoned arrow?
No. The second arrow is SN 36.6, about pain and our reaction to it. The poisoned arrow is MN 63, about a man who refuses treatment until he knows who shot him, a parable about unanswerable questions.
What is the Pali name of this discourse?
It is usually called the Sallatha Sutta (the Arrow). Bhikkhu Sujato titles it “An Arrow”. It is number 6 in the collection on feelings (vedanā), SN 36.