Tissa Sutra

The Path Through Confusion

“Rejoice now, Tissa, rejoice! A Rightly Self-Awakened one is here to inspire you, to guide you, to teach you!”

There is a moment in nearly every sincere practitioner’s journey where the Dhamma feels distant. The fire has dimmed. The clarity once so luminous seems clouded. Confusion, lethargy, and doubt creep in—not because the Dhamma has failed, but because the mind is beginning to loosen its grip on deep-rooted ignorance. That’s exactly where Tissa, a cousin of the Buddha and a monk in the original Sangha, finds himself in the Tissa Sutta (SN 22:84).

This short but striking discourse is one of the most direct teachings on the nature of mental disturbance and the power of Right View to cut through delusion. And it begins with something very human: vulnerability.

“I feel lost and uninspired”

Tissa approaches his fellow monks with raw honesty:

“Friends, I feel lost and uninspired. My mind is cloudy and overwhelmed. I am lethargic. I find this life unsatisfying. I am uncertain about the Dhamma.”

Sound familiar? Whether you’ve been practicing for years or just started dipping your toe into Buddhist teachings, this kind of crisis is not uncommon. It often emerges not from failure, but from the slow breakdown of long-cherished beliefs that are no longer sustainable under the light of truth.

Crucially, the Sangha doesn’t pacify Tissa with platitudes or vague spiritual reassurances. They do something more valuable: they bring him back to the Buddha.

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Diagnosing the Distress

The Buddha doesn’t dismiss Tissa’s suffering. He names it. He links it clearly to passion and craving—especially the craving tied to the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental fabrications, and consciousness. These aggregates are not in themselves the problem; it’s our clinging to them, and our misidentification with them, that causes suffering.

One by one, the Buddha walks Tissa through a process of inquiry:

• Do you understand that craving for form leads to pain, sorrow, and despair?

• Do you see that when one is free from this craving, suffering doesn’t arise in the same way?

• Can you see that the five aggregates are impermanent and therefore stressful?

• Is it wise, then, to claim any of them as “This is me, this is mine, this is who I am”?

Tissa answers yes to each of these questions. This is the turning point. Understanding leads to disenchantment, disenchantment to dispassion, and dispassion to release.

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The Real Nature of Consciousness

One striking detail is how the Buddha discusses the fifth aggregate—consciousness—not as some ultimate truth, but as a process conditioned by ignorance. In other words, even our awareness, our inner narration, can be a trap if it arises from or reinforces ignorance of the Four Noble Truths.

The Buddha teaches that true insight comes not from overanalyzing these mind-states, but from framing them within the Eightfold Path. Clarity doesn't emerge by indulging confusion—it comes by stepping onto the path that transcends it.

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A Parable of the Path

To solidify the teaching, the Buddha offers a beautiful parable: two men come to a fork in the road. One is skilled in the Dhamma, the other is not. The path splits—one leads into ignorance, sensual swamp, and cliffs of despair. The other, the Noble Eightfold Path, leads to freedom, to “a delightful place of spacious and level ground.”

Each obstacle on the journey represents something real in the practitioner’s life:

• The forest is ignorance.

• The swamp is sensual desire.

• The cliff is resentment and despair.

• The level ground is peace/freedom from clinging.

The analogy is elegant because it places the burden of direction in the hands of the practitioner, while still pointing out that guidance is essential. A skilled teacher helps us read the signs.