Middle Discourses: The Final Fifty

ฉบับแปลอังกฤษ · Sutta Piṭaka — The Basket of Discourses · Volume 14 · 520 pages

Summarized by AI from the full volume (91 topics) — click to jump to where each topic begins.

Page 1–13 MN 101 Devadaha: Refuting the Jain Doctrine of Past Deeds (Part 1) At Devadaha, the Buddha tells the mendicants about Jain ascetics who teach that all pleasant, painful, and neutral experience results solely from past deeds, so that ending future deeds through fervent austerity ends suffering. He recounts questioning the Jains and finding they cannot actually verify they existed in past lives or that they did the bad deeds supposedly being worn away, and uses the simile of a man who endures a surgeon's painful treatment for an arrow wound to show that pain duri
Page 14–24 MN 101 Devadaha: How Exertion and Striving Is Fruitful (Part 2) The Buddha explains when exertion actually is fruitful: when a mendicant neither torments themselves nor indulges in pleasure, but discerns whether active striving or equanimity is needed to become dispassionate toward a given source of suffering, illustrated by a man overcoming infatuation with a woman and a fletcher straightening an arrow shaft over a fire. He then narrates the full monastic path: a person hears the Dhamma from a Realized One, goes forth, undertakes the ethical precepts and re
Page 25–26 MN 101 Devadaha: Ten Grounds for Praising the Realized One (Part 3) Concluding the discourse, the Buddha states that the Realized One deserves praise on the same ten grounds by which the Jains deserved criticism: under every possible theory of causation (past deeds, divine creation, circumstance, class of rebirth, or effort in this life), his present undefiled happiness shows he must have acted well by that very account. This mirrors and completes the contrast opened earlier in the sutta between the fruitless self-mortification of the Jains and the genuinely fru
Page 27–40 MN 102 The Five and Three: Refuting Views About Self After Death At Sāvatthī, the Buddha surveys ascetics and brahmins who speculate about the final destiny of the self after death, holding that it is percipient, non-percipient, neither percipient nor non-percipient, or that it is simply annihilated, showing how these positions collapse into a pattern of five becoming three and three becoming five. He examines each view in turn, explaining the psychological motives behind it and using similes such as a trader speculating about future profit and a dog circling
Page 41–48 MN 103 Is This What You Think of Me?: Resolving Disputes in the Sangha Staying near Kusinārā, the Buddha asks the mendicants whether they suspect he teaches the Dhamma for material gain, and they affirm they see him as teaching purely out of sympathy for their welfare. He instructs them to train harmoniously in the qualities he has directly realized (the mindfulness meditations, right efforts, bases of psychic power, faculties, powers, awakening factors, and the eightfold path), and gives detailed procedural guidance for defusing four possible kinds of doctrinal di
Page 49–51 MN 104 At Sāmagāma: The Jain Schism and the Threat of Future Dispute (Part 1) After the death of the Jain leader of the Ñātika clan near Pāvā, his followers split into bitterly quarreling factions hurling insults at one another, leaving their lay disciples disillusioned with a teaching that was poorly explained and did not lead to peace. The novice Cunda reports this to Venerable Ānanda, who brings it to the Buddha out of concern that a similar dispute could fracture the Saṅgha after the Buddha's own passing, causing great harm to gods and humans. The Buddha reassures Āna
Page 52–57 MN 104 At Sāmagāma: Six Roots of Dispute and Ways to Settle Them (Part 2) The Buddha enumerates six roots of dispute among mendicants, including being irritable and acrimonious, contemptuous, jealous and stingy, devious, holding corrupt views, or stubbornly clinging to one's own opinions, all of which undermine respect for the Teacher, the teaching, and the Saṅgha and should be rooted out. He lists four kinds of disciplinary issues (arising from disputes, accusations, offenses, or business) and the seven traditional means of settling them, then explains several in pro
Page 58–60 MN 104 (concluded): Resolving Disputes and the Six Warm-Hearted Qualities This section concludes an earlier discourse by giving the formal ritual procedure for settling a monastic dispute through "covering over as if with grass" — representatives of each quarreling faction publicly confess and mutually forgive all but the gravest offenses. The Buddha then teaches Ānanda six warm-hearted (sāraṇīya) qualities that create fondness, respect, harmony, and unity among spiritual companions: kindness in body, speech, and mind; sharing material gains without reservation; livin
Page 61–66 MN 105 With Sunakkhatta: Genuine vs. Overestimated Declarations of Enlightenment The Licchavi noble Sunakkhatta asks the Buddha whether mendicants who have declared enlightenment in his presence always do so rightly, and the Buddha explains that some declare truly while others do so out of overestimation, which the Buddha may need to correct. He describes the five kinds of sensual stimulation and, through vivid similes — a returning traveler eager for news of home versus one who is indifferent, a withered leaf that can never turn green again, a rock broken in two that cannot
Page 67–73 MN 105 (continued): The Poisoned Dart Simile and the Danger of False Attainment The Buddha warns that a mendicant may wrongly believe they have uprooted the "dart" of craving and the "poison" of ignorance and are rightly intent on extinguishment, when in fact subtle conceit remains; if such a person then indulges in unsuitable sense objects, latent lust can still prove spiritually fatal. He develops an extended simile of a man wounded by a poisoned arrow, whose surgeon cannot always be certain every trace of poison has been removed — careless behavior afterward causes the w
Page 74–78 MN 106 Conducive to the Imperturbable: Reflections Leading to the Formless Attainments Addressing the mendicants at Kammāsadamma, the Buddha teaches that sensual pleasures are impermanent, hollow, and Māra's domain, creating an obstacle to training, and describes reflections by which a noble disciple can develop a mind confident in, and destined for, rebirth in "the imperturbable" — a highly stable meditative state beyond the four absorptions. He then gives further reflections, on the composition of form and on the impermanence of all perceptions including those of the imperturbab
Page 79–80 MN 106 (concluded): Ānanda's Questions on Subtle Grasping and Noble Liberation Ānanda asks whether a mendicant who cultivates equanimity through the reflection "it might not be, and it might not be mine" necessarily attains final extinguishment. The Buddha explains that the outcome depends on whether the meditator still approves of, welcomes, and clings to that very equanimity — which is in fact a subtle attachment to the dimension of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, "the best thing to grasp." Only the mendicant who does not cling even to this refined state becomes f
Page 81–88 MN 107 With Moggallāna the Accountant: Gradual Training and the Simile of the Road to Rājagaha The brahmin accountant Moggallāna observes that accounting, archery, recitation, and even the staircase of the longhouse show gradual, step-by-step training, and asks whether the Buddha's teaching has a similar gradual path. Using the simile of training a thoroughbred horse, the Buddha describes the graduated training of a mendicant: taking up ethical restraint, guarding the six sense doors, eating in moderation, cultivating wakefulness, developing mindfulness and situational awareness, dwelling
Page 89–91 MN 108 With Moggallāna the Guardian: No One Equals the Buddha Shortly after the Buddha's final passing, Ānanda, staying near Rājagaha, visits the brahmin Moggallāna the Guardian, who is overseeing King Ajātasattu's fortification of the city against a feared King Pajjota. Moggallāna asks whether any mendicant possesses every quality of the Buddha in equal measure, and Ānanda answers that none does, since the Buddha originated and mastered the path while his disciples merely follow it afterward. Their exchange is interrupted by the arrival of the chief minis
Page 92–97 MN 108 (continued): The Teaching as Refuge and the Ten Inspiring Qualities Vassakāra presses Ānanda on who now serves as the Saṅgha's refuge and authority, since the Buddha appointed no successor and the Saṅgha elected none. Ānanda explains that the teaching itself, embodied in the recited monastic code recited on the sabbath, functions as their refuge and enforces right conduct rather than any individual. Asked whom the mendicants do honor and rely on, Ānanda lists ten inspiring qualities taught by the Buddha: ethical conduct, deep learning of the teachings, contentme
Page 98–100 MN 108 (concluded): Which Kinds of Meditation the Buddha Actually Praised Vassakāra asks about Ānanda's dwelling in the Bamboo Grove and recalls that the Buddha once "praised all kinds of meditation," but Ānanda corrects this: the Buddha did not indiscriminately praise every form of meditation. He explains that meditation still dominated by the five hindrances — sensual desire, ill will, dullness, restlessness, and doubt — without genuine understanding of how to escape them, was not praised, whereas meditation that develops the four absorptions was praised. Vassakāra
Page 101–104 MN 109 The Longer Discourse on the Full-Moon Night: Questions on the Five Grasping Aggregates On the full-moon sabbath, seated before the assembled monks, the Buddha answers a monk's systematic questions about the five grasping aggregates — form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. He explains that all five are rooted in desire, that "grasping" is identical with the desire and greed for the aggregates rather than something separate from them, and that disparity in that desire is possible when one wishes for a different future form or mind-state. He defines the scope of the t
Page 105–108 MN 109 (concluded): Gratification, Drawback, Escape, and the Ending of Self-View The Buddha explains the gratification, drawback, and escape associated with each of the five aggregates, then describes exactly how a substantialist (self) view arises — by regarding any aggregate as self, self as possessing it, it as contained within self, or self as contained within it — and how such a view is absent in a trained noble disciple who sees otherwise. He teaches that seeing every instance of each aggregate with the right understanding "this is not mine, I am not this, this is not
Page 109–114 MN 110 The Shorter Discourse on the Full-Moon Night: True Persons and Untrue Persons On another full-moon sabbath, the Buddha asks the silent assembly whether an untrue (bad) person could ever recognize another untrue person, or recognize a true person — establishing that untrue persons simply lack the discernment to identify either kind. He then details, point by point, the marks of an untrue person: bad qualities such as faithlessness and laziness, companionship with similarly bad people, harmful intentions and counsel, false and harsh speech, harmful actions, wrong view that
Page 115–122 MN 111 One by One (Anupada Sutta) The Buddha praises Sāriputta's wisdom, describing how for a fortnight Sāriputta practiced "discernment of phenomena one by one." Entering each of the four jhānas and then the four formless attainments in turn, he analyzed the mental factors present in each state as they arose, remained, and passed away, understanding them as impermanent and not clinging to or being repelled by any of them. The practice culminates in the attainment of the cessation of perception and feeling, where his defilements
Page 123–133 MN 112 The Sixfold Purification (Chabbisodhana Sutta) The Buddha teaches how to respond when a mendicant declares they have attained full enlightenment: rather than simply approving or rejecting the claim, one should question them closely on how their mind is freed regarding the four kinds of statement (what is seen, heard, thought, and known), the five grasping aggregates, the six elements, and the six interior and exterior sense fields, and on how they have eradicated I-making and mine-making. A model answer is given for a mendicant whose defilem
Page 134–144 MN 113 A True Person (Sappurisa Sutta) The Buddha contrasts the qualities of an "untrue person" with those of a "true person." The untrue person takes pride in external distinctions -- high birth, wealth, fame, receiving abundant robes and requisites, being learned, expert in monastic law, a skilled Dhamma teacher, or practicing austerities like forest-dwelling, rag-robes, or eating in one sitting -- and even meditative attainments up to the formless jhānas, using these to glorify themselves and belittle others. The true person recog
Page 145–155 MN 114 What Should and Should Not Be Cultivated, Part 1: Bodily, Verbal, and Mental Conduct (Sevitabbāsevitabba Sutta) The Buddha gives a brief statement that bodily, verbal, and mental behavior, the arising of thoughts, the acquisition of perceptions and views, and even one's manner of coming into existence each have a kind that should be cultivated and a kind that should not. Sāriputta unpacks the detailed meaning: bodily conduct is unwholesome when it involves killing, stealing, or sexual misconduct, and wholesome when these are abandoned; verbal conduct is unwholesome when it involves lying, divisive speech,
Page 156–161 MN 114 Part 2: The Six Sense Doors Continuing the same sutta, the Buddha extends the cultivate/not-cultivate framework to experience through each of the six sense doors -- sights seen by the eye, sounds heard by the ear, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas known by the mind. Whatever way of engaging with a given sense object causes unskillful qualities to grow and skillful qualities to decline should be abandoned, while whatever way causes the opposite should be developed. Sāriputta again explains the detailed meaning for each sen
Page 162–165 MN 114 Part 3: Requisites, Places, and Companions The same analysis is applied to external conditions: robes, almsfood, lodgings, and the villages, towns, cities, and countries one frequents, along with the individuals one associates with, can each be of a kind that should be cultivated or one that should not, depending on whether they cause unskillful qualities to grow or skillful qualities to grow. Sāriputta again gives the detailed explanation, ending with the point that even the choice of which individuals to keep company with should be jud
Page 166–172 MN 115 Many Elements, Part 1: Danger, the Elements, and Dependent Origination (Bahudhātuka Sutta) The Buddha declares that all danger, peril, and hazard in the world comes from fools, not from the wise, comparing a fool to a small fire that spreads and burns down even a well-built house, and urges the mendicants to train to be astute and inquiring. When Ānanda asks what qualifies a mendicant as astute, the Buddha explains it means being skilled in the elements, the sense fields, dependent origination, and the possible and impossible. He then lays out several schemes of elements -- the eighte
Page 173–174 The Many Elements (MN 115) — Concluding Section on Kamma and Its Fruit This is the closing portion of the Bahudhātuka Sutta ("The Many Elements"), completing the Buddha's explanation of knowledge of the possible and impossible: bad conduct of body, speech, and mind never yields a pleasant result and can lead to rebirth in a bad place, while good conduct never yields an unpleasant result and can lead to rebirth in a heavenly realm. This finishes the definition of a mendicant who is "skilled in the possible and impossible." Venerable Ānanda, astonished at the teachin
Page 175–179 At Isigili (MN 116) — The Mountain of the Independent Buddhas Staying near Rājagaha on Mount Isigili, the Buddha points out the surrounding peaks — Vebhāra, Paṇḍava, Vepulla, and Vulture's Peak — noting that each once bore a different name, whereas Isigili alone has always kept the same name and description. He explains that five hundred independent (pacceka) buddhas once lived on this mountain: they were seen entering it but never seen leaving, so people said the mountain "swallows the seers," giving rise to the name Isigili. The Buddha then recites, in p
Page 180–186 The Great Forty (MN 117) — Right View as Forerunner of the Path The Buddha teaches "noble right immersion together with its vital conditions and its prerequisites," identifying the other seven path factors as its necessary supports. Working systematically through right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, and right livelihood, he distinguishes for each a "worldly" version still bound up with attachment and rebirth from a "noble, undefiled, transcendent" version that is itself a path factor. For every factor, right view first distinguishes wrong f
Page 188–189 The Great Forty (MN 117) — Twenty Skillful and Twenty Unskillful Qualities Continuing the Great Forty exposition, the Buddha shows that for a person of right view, wrong view and its associated bad qualities are worn away while skillful qualities flourish, and this same pattern repeats for every remaining path factor through to right knowledge and right freedom. This produces a scheme of twenty qualities on the skillful side and twenty on the unskillful side, which the Buddha declares cannot be refuted by any ascetic, brahmin, god, Māra, or divinity. He states that any
Page 190–193 Mindfulness of Breathing (MN 118) — The Pure Assembly at the Full Moon MN 118 opens with the Buddha staying at Migāra's mother's mansion together with many eminent senior disciples, during a period when senior monks are diligently mentoring junior monks in groups of ten, twenty, thirty, or forty, leading to rapid progress. On the full-moon sabbath the Buddha sits in silence surveying the assembled Saṅgha and declares himself satisfied with their practice, urging them to strive further, and announces he will remain in Sāvatthī until the next full moon a month later.
Page 194–197 Mindfulness of Breathing (MN 118) — The Sixteen Steps of Breath Meditation The Buddha explains why the assembly is so excellent: it contains mendicants at every stage of awakening, from stream-enterers to perfected ones, and many devoted to different meditation subjects, especially mindfulness of breathing, which he says is very fruitful when developed. He then teaches the sixteen steps of breath meditation arranged in four tetrads: observing long and short breaths while experiencing and calming the whole body; breathing while experiencing rapture, bliss, and mental ac
Page 198–202 Mindfulness of Breathing (MN 118) — From the Four Focuses to Knowledge and Freedom The Buddha continues by showing how practicing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation through breathing naturally fulfills the seven awakening factors in sequence: mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity each arise dependent on the one before as the meditator's practice deepens. He then explains that cultivating these seven awakening factors, when they rely on seclusion, dispassion, and cessation and culminate in letting go, fulfills tr
Page 203–208 Mindfulness of the Body (MN 119) — Breath, Posture, and the Body's Repulsive Parts Prompted by mendicants marveling at the Buddha's claim about the benefits of mindfulness of the body, the Buddha lays out its many methods in MN 119. These begin with mindfulness of breathing, awareness of the four postures (walking, standing, sitting, lying down), and full situational awareness during all daily activities such as eating, dressing, and toileting. The teaching then moves to the classic contemplation of the body's parts — hair, nails, organs, and fluids — likened to a farmer sorti
Page 209–211 Mindfulness of the Body (MN 119) — Corpses, Bones, and the Bliss of Absorption The corpse contemplations continue through progressive stages of decay down to scattered, bleached, and crumbled bones, each compared to the meditator's own body and its shared fate. The Buddha then reframes mindfulness of the body around the four absorptions (jhānas): in each one the meditator's entire body is described as thoroughly drenched and suffused with the rapture, bliss, or pure equanimous clarity of that absorption. Vivid similes drive this home — bath powder kneaded with water until
Page 212–216 Mindfulness of the Body (MN 119) — Repelling Māra and the Ten Benefits The Buddha uses three paired similes to contrast neglecting mindfulness of the body with cultivating it: Māra can penetrate an undeveloped mind as easily as a stone ball sinks into wet clay, a fire-drill lights a dry log, or water pours into an empty jar — but cannot penetrate a developed mind, just as a light ball of string cannot pierce solid hardwood, a fire-drill cannot ignite a green sappy log, and water cannot be poured into an already-full jar. He then lists ten benefits of cultivating mi
Page 217–225 Rebirth by Choice (MN 120) In the Saṅkhārupapatti Sutta, the Buddha teaches "rebirth by choice": a mendicant endowed with faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom who deliberately wishes and resolves to be reborn among a particular group of beings — wealthy aristocrats, brahmins, or householders, or successively higher classes of gods from the Four Great Kings up through the most exalted luminous and formless-realm divinities — will, by settling on and cultivating that wish, be reborn accordingly. The formula repea
Page 226–229 The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness (MN 121) — Beginning the Graduated Meditation In the Cūḷasuññatā Sutta, Venerable Ānanda recalls the Buddha once mentioning that he frequently dwells in a meditation on emptiness, and asks him to confirm and explain it. The Buddha affirms this and describes a graduated practice, using the stilt longhouse itself as an example: it is empty of animals and valuables, but "not empty" of the monastic community occupying it. In the same way, a mendicant first ignores perceptions of village and people to focus solely on the perception of wilderness
Page 230–233 The Graduated Emptiness Meditation (continued, likely MN 121 The Shorter Discourse on Emptiness) This section continues a step-by-step meditation in which a mendicant successively ignores a coarser perception and settles the mind on a subtler one, moving from the dimension of nothingness up through the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception and finally to the signless immersion of the heart. At each stage the meditator checks that only a "modicum of stress" remains and understands the field of experience as empty of what is absent while what remains is genuinely present. The sig
Page 234–245 MN 122 The Longer Discourse on Emptiness At Kapilavatthu the Buddha notices many resting places crowded together at Khemaka the Dark's lodge and uses this as an occasion to teach Ānanda that a mendicant who loves company and groups cannot attain the joys of renunciation, seclusion, peace, or awakening, while one who lives alone can. He then explains in detail how to "still, settle, unify, and immerse" the mind through the four absorptions and through meditating on emptiness internally, externally, and on the imperturbable, checking at
Page 246–254 MN 123 Incredible and Amazing A group of mendicants marvel at the Buddha's psychic power to recall the lives of past Buddhas, and the Buddha asks Ānanda to relate more of the Realized One's incredible and amazing qualities. Ānanda then recounts, with the Buddha's confirmation at each point, the miraculous events surrounding the being intent on awakening's life in the Tusita heaven, his conception and gestation in his mother's womb, the immeasurable light and trembling of the ten-thousandfold galaxy that mark his conception a
Page 255–259 MN 124 With Bakkula The naked ascetic Kassapa, an old lay friend of the elder Bakkula, questions him about his eighty years as a monk; redirected to ask about sensual perceptions rather than sex, Bakkula reveals that in all that time no perception or thought of sensuality, ill will, or cruelty ever arose in him, along with a long list of ascetic and disciplinary practices he never violated. Astonished, Kassapa asks for ordination and, practicing diligently, quickly attains arahantship. The sutta closes with Bakkula
Page 260–265 MN 125 The Level of the Tamed (Part 1) — Prince Jayasena's Doubt and the Mountain Simile The novice Aciravata teaches the Dhamma to the sensual, skeptical Prince Jayasena, who declares it impossible that meditation could unify the mind and leaves unconvinced. Reporting this to the Buddha, Aciravata is told that someone absorbed in and burning for sensual pleasures simply cannot know what only renunciation reveals, illustrated by the simile of tamed versus untamed animals unable to perform the tasks of the tamed. The Buddha then gives the simile of two friends climbing a mountain, wh
Page 266–272 MN 125 The Level of the Tamed (Part 2) — Taming the Royal Elephant and the Graduated Training The Buddha continues the elephant-taming simile: the trainer gently coaxes the captured wild elephant with kind speech and rewards until it accepts food, then trains it step by step to pick up and put down, go forward and back, stand and sit, and finally to remain motionless under attack until it is fit to serve a king. This is mapped onto a disciple's graduated training under a Buddha: going forth, taking up ethical conduct, guarding the sense doors, abandoning the five hindrances, and using th
Page 273–283 MN 126 With Bhūmija Prince Jayasena asks Venerable Bhūmija how the Buddha would judge ascetics who claim the spiritual life bears no fruit regardless of whether one wishes for results or not; Bhūmija guesses that the Buddha would say fruit depends on whether the practice is rational, and later confirms this guess directly with the Buddha, who approves his answer. The Buddha then explains that ascetics with wrong view and the rest of the wrong eightfold factors cannot win the fruit no matter how they wish, just as o
Page 284–287 MN 127 With Anuruddha The chamberlain Pañcakaṅga sends word inviting Venerable Anuruddha to a meal and, after serving him personally, asks whether the "limitless release of the heart" and the "expansive release of the heart" taught by different senior mendicants are the same teaching under different names or genuinely different. Anuruddha first asks for Pañcakaṅga's own view, then corrects him: the two differ in both meaning and phrasing. He defines the limitless release of the heart as radiating boundless love, comp
Page 288–294 MN 127 Anuruddha Sutta (cont.): The Radiant Deities and Degrees of Luminosity Continuing a discussion with the householder Pañcakaṅga, Venerable Anuruddha describes four kinds of rebirth among the radiant gods of limited or limitless luminosity, and explains through the simile of oil lamps gathered in one house why the deities' colors differ though their combined radiance appears uniform when together, but become distinct in both color and light when they separate. He clarifies, using the image of flies clinging to a carrying-pole, that the gods do not believe their state
Page 295–297 MN 128 Corruptions (Upakkilesa Sutta), Part 1: The Quarreling Monks of Kosambī At Kosambī, the mendicants are fighting and quarreling bitterly, and the Buddha's repeated pleas to stop are rebuffed by a monk who tells him to enjoy his own peaceful meditation while they continue their dispute. After a third rejection, the Buddha silently leaves on almsround and, standing alone, recites verses on the folly of holding grudges, teaching that hatred is never settled by hatred but only by love, and praising the person who finds no worthy companion to instead wander alone like a l
Page 298–302 MN 128 Corruptions, Part 2: Anuruddha, Nandiya, and Kimbila's Harmonious Life After leaving Kosambī, the Buddha visits Bhagu and then the Park of the East-Raftered Hall, where Anuruddha, Nandiya, and Kimbila warmly welcome him despite the park keeper's initial attempt to turn him away. The Buddha asks whether the three are living in harmony, and Anuruddha explains that he treats his companions with kindness in body, speech, and mind, deliberately setting aside his own preferences to go along with theirs, so that though different in body they are "one in mind." He also des
Page 303–310 MN 128 Corruptions, Part 3: Overcoming the Corruptions That Obscure Light and Vision The three monks admit that although they perceive light and visions of forms in meditation, these visions keep vanishing and they don't understand why, so the Buddha recounts his own pre-awakening struggle with the same problem. One by one he identifies eleven "corruptions of the mind" that caused his immersion to collapse and the light to disappear -- doubt, loss of focus, dullness and drowsiness, terror, elation, discomfort, excessive energy, overly lax energy, longing, perception of diversity
Page 311–316 MN 129 The Foolish and the Astute, Part 1: The Fool's Torments in This Life and in Hell The Buddha describes the three marks of a fool -- thinking, speaking, and acting poorly -- and the three kinds of anguish a fool suffers in this very life: guilty unease when moral conduct is discussed in public, terror at seeing criminals punished while knowing they deserve the same, and remorseful despair on their deathbed as their past bad deeds "settle down" on them like a mountain's evening shadow. After death such a person is reborn in hell, and the Buddha illustrates its unimaginable suff
Page 317–321 MN 129 The Foolish and the Astute, Part 2: Rebirth as an Animal and the Blind Turtle The Buddha continues describing where a fool may be reborn from hell -- among grass-eating, dung-eating, or animals that live and die in darkness, water, or filth -- noting that the suffering of the animal realm is likewise too vast to fully describe. He then gives the famous simile of a blind sea turtle surfacing once every hundred years and the improbability of it poking its neck through a yoke's single hole floating on the ocean, declaring that it is even rarer for a being fallen to the under
Page 322–333 MN 129 The Foolish and the Astute, Part 3: The Astute Person's Happiness and the Wheel-Turning Monarch In contrast to the fool, the Buddha describes the astute person, who thinks, speaks, and acts well and consequently experiences confidence rather than dread when morality is discussed, security rather than fear at seeing criminals punished, and peace rather than anguish when facing death, leading to rebirth in heaven. Asked for a simile of heaven's happiness, the Buddha describes at length the seven treasures (the wheel, elephant, horse, jewel, woman, householder, and commander treasures) and fo
Page 334–343 MN 130 Messengers of the Gods: King Yama's Interrogation and the Torments of Hell The Buddha compares his clairvoyant knowledge of beings passing away and being reborn according to their deeds to a person watching others go in and out of two houses, then describes how the wardens of hell drag an evildoer before King Yama, who interrogates them about five "messengers of the gods" they failed to heed while alive: a helpless newborn baby (signifying birth), a frail elderly person (aging), a gravely sick person (illness), a punished criminal (the consequences of crime), and a dec
Page 344–346 The Divine Messengers (MN 130) — Hell's Torments and King Yama's Wish, concluded This is the concluding portion of the Devadūta Sutta, vividly describing the successive hells—the Burning Chaff hell, the Red Silk-Cotton Forest, the Sword-Leaf Forest, and the Acid River—where beings suffer for their bad deeds until those deeds are exhausted, including hell wardens force-feeding the hungry and thirsty with molten copper. It closes with King Yama's private reflection: having seen the torments inflicted on the negligent, he hopes to one day be reborn human, meet a fully awakened
Page 347–351 MN 131: One Fine Night (Bhaddekaratta Sutta) The Buddha teaches the celebrated "one fine night" verses: don't run back to the past or anticipate the future, but clearly discern whatever phenomenon is present, since death could come tomorrow and there is no bargaining with it. He then explains each line in detail using the five aggregates (form, feeling, perception, choices, consciousness): delighting in memories of how one was in the past is running back to the past; longing for how one might be in the future is anticipating it; and regard
Page 352–356 MN 132: Ānanda and One Fine Night Venerable Ānanda is discovered teaching the mendicants the summary recital and analysis of "one fine night" in the assembly hall. When the Buddha learns of this he summons Ānanda and has him repeat, verse by verse, the same detailed explanation of not running back to the past, not anticipating the future, and not faltering amid the present that was given in MN 131. The Buddha praises Ānanda's exposition as correct, then repeats the verses and analysis himself once more, confirming that Ānanda ha
Page 357–368 MN 133: Mahākaccāna and One Fine Night A glorious deity urges the monk Samiddhi to learn the "one fine night" teaching, prompting him to ask the Buddha, who recites the summary verses but retires to his dwelling without explaining them. The mendicants seek out Venerable Mahākaccāna, renowned for his skill in exposition; he first rebukes them for bypassing the Buddha himself, likening it to searching for heartwood among branches and leaves instead of the trunk, but then agrees to explain. Mahākaccāna gives a detailed analysis in terms
Page 369–374 MN 134: Lomasakaṅgiya and One Fine Night A godling named Candana visits the monk Lomasakaṅgiya at night; neither of them can recall the full analysis of "one fine night," but Candana remembers the verses he once heard the Buddha teach to the gods of the thirty-three, and urges Lomasakaṅgiya to learn the complete teaching properly. Lomasakaṅgiya travels to see the Buddha, who confirms Candana's devoted and attentive nature before reciting the summary verses again. The sutta closes as the Buddha begins the standard detailed analysis, und
Page 376–385 MN 135: The Shorter Analysis of Deeds (Cūḷakammavibhaṅga) The brahmin student Subha asks the Buddha why human beings differ so greatly in fortune—some short-lived, some long-lived, some sickly, some healthy, some ugly, some beautiful, some poor, some rich, some foolish, some wise. The Buddha explains that beings are owners and heirs of their own deeds, and methodically matches each life circumstance to its karmic cause: killing produces a short life, cruelty produces sickness, bad temper produces ugliness, jealousy produces insignificance, stinginess p
Page 386–399 MN 136: The Longer Analysis of Deeds (Mahākammavibhaṅga) The wanderer Potaliputta claims the Buddha teaches that only mental deeds are real and that there exists an attainment with no feeling at all; the junior monk Samiddhi denies misrepresenting the Buddha but gives an overly simplistic answer to a follow-up question, prompting Samiddhi and Ānanda to consult the Buddha. The Buddha explains that Samiddhi's categorical reply was mistaken, then delivers the famous "great analysis of deeds," warning against generalizing from a clairvoyant's observation
Page 400–403 MN 137: The Analysis of the Six Sense Fields (Saḷāyatanavibhaṅga), part 1 The Buddha presents an analytical framework built on six sets of six: the six interior sense fields (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind), the six exterior sense fields (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, ideas), six classes of consciousness, six classes of contact, eighteen mental preoccupations (six each of happiness, sadness, and equanimity arising through the senses), and thirty-six positions of sentient beings. He distinguishes "domestic" happiness and sadness—reactions rooted in cravi
Page 404–410 MN 137 (concluding portion): The Analysis of the Six Sense Fields — Renunciate vs. Domestic Feelings, and the Buddha as Trainer This section completes the analysis of the six sense fields by contrasting worldly ("domestic") sadness and equanimity, which arise from ordinary reactions to sense objects, with "renunciate" sadness and equanimity, which arise from insight into impermanence and longing for liberation. The text then gives a formula for progressively relying on subtler wholesome states to abandon coarser ones, culminating in equanimity based on unity over diversity. It closes by explaining three cases in which th
Page 411–414 MN 138: The Buddha's Terse Summary and the Search for an Interpreter The Buddha gives the mendicants an extremely condensed "summary recital": a mendicant should examine things so that consciousness is neither scattered externally toward sense objects nor stuck internally in meditative bliss, and is free of anxious grasping, so that the origin of future suffering does not arise. Without explaining further, he retires to his dwelling, leaving the mendicants puzzled. They decide Venerable Mahākaccāna, praised by the Buddha and respected by his peers, is best placed
Page 415–420 MN 138: Mahākaccāna's Detailed Exposition of the Summary Recital Mahākaccāna unpacks each phrase of the Buddha's terse teaching. Consciousness is "scattered and diffused externally" when it chases after and clings to the features of sights, sounds, and other sense objects; it is "not scattered" when it does not follow them with craving. Consciousness is "stuck internally" when a meditator clings with gratification to the rapture, bliss, or equanimity experienced in each of the four absorptions, and "not stuck" when they experience those states without such at
Page 421–422 MN 138: The Buddha Confirms Mahākaccāna's Explanation The mendicants, satisfied with Mahākaccāna's explanation, return to the Buddha and report what happened. The Buddha confirms that Mahākaccāna's account is exactly correct and that he himself would have explained it the same way, praising Mahākaccāna as astute and wise. This closes the sutta and its exchange between the Buddha, the puzzled mendicants, and their gifted interpreter.
Page 423–424 MN 139: The Analysis of No Strife — Summary Recital and the Two Extremes The Buddha introduces "the analysis of no strife," a summary recital listing several practical guidelines: avoid indulgence in sensual pleasure and in self-mortification, know flattery and rebuke and avoid them while just teaching Dhamma, learn to evaluate different kinds of pleasure and pursue the inner kind, and be careful and measured in speech. He then explains the first point in detail: indulging in sensual pleasure is low and harmful, self-mortification is painful and pointless, and breaki
Page 425–428 MN 139: The Middle Way, Teaching Without Flattery or Rebuke, and True Pleasure The Buddha identifies the middle way between the two extremes as the noble eightfold path. He then distinguishes between speech that flatters or rebukes people directly (praising or condemning "all those who...") and speech that simply teaches Dhamma by describing principles and their consequences without judging persons, showing how the same content can be delivered either way. Finally he teaches how to evaluate pleasure: the pleasure derived from the five kinds of sensual stimulation is filthy
Page 429–433 MN 139: Guidelines on Speech and the Recap of Strife-Free Principles The Buddha gives practical rules for speech: don't say untrue or pointless things behind someone's back or to their face, know when true-but-pointless remarks should simply be withheld, avoid speaking hurriedly since it stresses body and voice and garbles meaning, and don't dogmatically insist that only one region's word for a common object (like a cup or bowl) is correct. The sutta closes with a systematic recap labeling every practice discussed as either "beset by strife" (harmful, wrong way)
Page 434–436 MN 140: The Analysis of the Elements — The Buddha Meets Pukkusāti Incognito This narrative frame opens "The Analysis of the Elements." While wandering near Rājagaha, the Buddha asks the potter Bhaggava for a night's lodging in his workshop, only to learn a wandering monk, Pukkusāti, is already staying there; Pukkusāti graciously agrees to share the space. Neither recognizes the other. As both meditate through much of the night, the Buddha, impressed by Pukkusāti's bearing, questions him and learns that Pukkusāti went forth in devotion to the Buddha purely on reputation,
Page 437–444 MN 140: The Six Elements, Feelings, and the Purified, Radiant Mind Recognizing that this stranger is his own disciple, the Buddha decides to teach him and delivers the detailed analysis of the six elements (earth, water, fire, air, space, consciousness), six sense fields, eighteen mental preoccupations, and four foundations. Each material element is examined internally and externally (e.g., hair, bone, and flesh for earth; bile and blood for water) and is to be seen as "not mine, not self," leading to disillusionment and detachment. What remains after peeling a
Page 445–448 MN 140: Liberation at Death, Pukkusāti's Realization, and His Untimely Death Using the simile of an oil lamp running out of fuel, the Buddha describes how a liberated person, no longer taking pleasure in any feeling, lets everything felt become "cool" at the breakup of the body. He elaborates the four ultimate foundations—wisdom (knowing the ending of suffering), truth (the undeceptive nature of extinguishment), generosity (letting go of all attachments), and peace (the pacification of greed, hate, and delusion)—and describes going beyond all forms of self-"conceiving" a
Page 449–451 MN 141: The Analysis of the Truths — Turning the Wheel of Dhamma and Defining Suffering Opening at the deer park in Isipatana where the Buddha first "rolled forth the Wheel of Dhamma," he recounts his first teaching of the four noble truths and praises Sāriputta and Moggallāna as exemplary spiritual friends—Sāriputta guiding disciples to stream-entry, Moggallāna to full awakening—before leaving to let Sāriputta expound the truths in detail. Sāriputta then begins his exposition, restating the four truths and defining the first components of the truth of suffering: birth, old age, an
Page 452–455 MN 141: Sorrow Through Distress, the Aggregates, and the Eightfold Path in Detail Sāriputta continues defining the components of suffering: sorrow, lamentation, physical pain, mental sadness, distress, and "not getting what one wishes" (illustrated by the futile wish not to be reborn, age, or die), summarizing all of this as the five grasping aggregates of form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. He then explains the origin of suffering as craving for sensual pleasure, continued existence, and nonexistence; its cessation as the fading away of that craving; and t
Page 456–458 MN 142: The Analysis of Religious Donations — Mahāpajāpati's Robe and Ānanda's Plea This opens "The Analysis of Religious Donations" near Kapilavatthu, where the Buddha's foster-mother, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, offers him a robe she wove and spun herself. Three times she asks him to accept it personally, and three times the Buddha instead tells her to give it to the whole Saṅgha, since doing so honors both the Saṅgha and himself. Venerable Ānanda then intervenes, urging the Buddha to accept it directly in recognition of how much Mahāpajāpati did for him—raising and nursing him afte
Page 459–463 MN 142 (concluding section): The Analysis of Offerings — Fourteen Gifts, Sangha Donations, and What Purifies a Gift The Buddha (via Ānanda) lists fourteen kinds of individual gift, ranked from giving to an animal up to giving to a fully awakened Buddha, and explains the escalating fruitfulness of each. He then describes seven kinds of donation made to the Sangha as a whole, declaring that even in a degenerate future when the robe is worn by unethical monastics, a gift given to the Sangha collectively remains incalculably more fruitful than any gift to an individual. Finally he sets out four ways a gift can be
Page 464–470 MN 143: Advice to Anāthapiṇḍika — Sāriputta's Deathbed Teaching on Letting Go of the Six Senses The householder Anāthapiṇḍika, gravely ill and in severe pain, sends for Sāriputta, who visits with Ānanda and finds him suffering terribly. Sāriputta gives him a profound teaching, instructing him to train so as not to grasp at the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind, nor at their objects, their forms of consciousness, contact, or feeling, nor at the elements, the aggregates, the formless dimensions, or even at this world or the next — cutting off consciousness's dependence on anything at all
Page 471–473 MN 143 (cont.): Anāthapiṇḍika Weeps, Dies, and Returns as a Radiant Godling Hearing Sāriputta's teaching, Anāthapiṇḍika bursts into tears — not from distress but because in all his years of devotion he had never before heard such a deep Dhamma talk, and he urges that such teaching be given to laypeople too, not reserved for monastics. Shortly after Sāriputta and Ānanda leave, Anāthapiṇḍika dies and is reborn as a glorious godling, who returns that same night to visit the Buddha and speak verses in praise of Jeta's Grove and of Sāriputta's wisdom and peace. The Buddha co
Page 474–480 MN 144: Advice to Channa — A Monk's Suicide and the Question of Blame The gravely ill Venerable Channa tells visiting monks Sāriputta and Mahācunda that he intends to take his own life, and despite their pleas and offers of food, medicine, and care, he insists he acts out of devotion to the Teacher rather than despair. Sāriputta questions him and finds that Channa has genuinely seen through clinging to the six sense bases as self, and Mahācunda reminds him of a teaching on the cessation of "quivering" and inclination that ends all future rebirth. After the monks l
Page 481–485 MN 145: Advice to Puṇṇa — Brief Teaching for a Monk Bound for a Hostile Land Venerable Puṇṇa asks the Buddha for a brief teaching before he goes to live alone in seclusion, and the Buddha explains that suffering originates from relishing and clinging to pleasant sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas, and ceases when such clinging is abandoned. Puṇṇa reveals he plans to live among the fierce and violent people of Sunāparanta, and in a memorable exchange the Buddha probes his resolve by asking how he would respond to escalating abuse, culminating in being kill
Page 486–494 MN 146: Nandaka's Teaching to the Nuns — Similes of the Lamp, the Tree, and the Cow's Hide When the reluctant Venerable Nandaka is assigned to instruct Mahāpajāpati Gotamī and five hundred nuns, he leads them through a systematic question-and-answer analysis showing that the six interior sense bases, six exterior sense objects, and six classes of consciousness are all impermanent, suffering, and not fit to be regarded as self. He reinforces this with vivid similes: an oil lamp's light is no more permanent than its oil, wick, and flame; a tree's shadow is no more permanent than its roo
Page 495–503 MN 146 (cont.): Nandaka Repeats the Teaching and All Five Hundred Nuns Become Stream-Enterers At the Buddha's instruction, Nandaka returns the next day and gives the nuns the identical teaching on impermanence and non-self that he gave before. This time the Buddha declares the teaching fully successful, comparing it to the moon being genuinely full on the fifteenth day, and announces that every one of the five hundred nuns — even the least advanced among them — has become a stream-enterer, no longer liable to rebirth in the lower realms and assured of eventual full awakening. This short
Page 504–508 MN 147: The Shorter Advice to Rāhula — Leading His Own Son to Full Awakening Perceiving that the conditions for Rāhula's full liberation have matured, the Buddha takes his son to the Dark Forest, followed by thousands of curious deities, to give him a final push toward awakening. Through a systematic question-and-answer method covering the eye and its objects, consciousness, contact, and everything that arises from contact — and then the same for ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind — the Buddha leads Rāhula to see each as impermanent, suffering, and not self. As the discou
Page 509–511 MN 148: Six By Six — The Five Sets of Six Explained (Senses, Objects, Consciousness, Contact, Feeling) The Buddha announces a comprehensive teaching on "six sets of six" that lay out the entire process of experience: the six interior sense fields (eye through mind), the six exterior sense fields (sights through ideas), the six classes of consciousness that arise dependent on each sense meeting its object, and the six classes of contact formed when sense, object, and consciousness meet. He methodically defines each set using a repeated question-and-explanation formula, building a precise map of ho
Page 512–515 MN 148 (cont.): The Sixth Set (Craving) and the Argument That None of the Six Can Be Self The Buddha completes the six sets of six by explaining the sixth set, the six classes of craving that arise via contact and feeling for each sense door. He then mounts a systematic philosophical argument against selfhood: for each element in the chain — the eye, sights, eye consciousness, eye contact, feeling, and craving, and likewise for the other five sense doors — he shows that because it demonstrably arises and vanishes, claiming it to be "self" would absurdly mean that one's self arises an
Page 516–520 MN 148 (cont.): The Origin and Cessation of Identity, and the Underlying Tendencies of Feeling The Buddha contrasts the practice that leads to the origin of "substantial reality" (identifying with the six senses and their chain of contact, feeling, and craving as "mine, I am this, my self") with the practice that leads to its cessation, which sees all of this as not-self. He then explains how the underlying tendencies to greed, aversion, and ignorance take root in pleasant, painful, and neutral feeling respectively when one reacts to them unwisely, and how ending suffering in this very li
Page 521–523 MN 149: The Great Discourse on the Six Sense Fields — Arousal, Suffering, and the Eightfold Path The Buddha teaches that failing to truly know and see the eye and its objects, consciousness, contact, and the feelings that arise from contact — and likewise for all six sense doors — leaves a person aroused, fettered, and confused, causing craving, future rebirth, and mounting mental and physical suffering to grow. Conversely, one who does truly know and see these things is not aroused by them, and instead disperses the grasping aggregates, gives up craving, and experiences a growing sense of
Page 524–527 MN 149 The Great Discourse on the Sixfold Base (concluding section) This is the closing portion of the sutta on the six sense fields. It explains that developing the noble eightfold path brings the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the bases of psychic power, the faculties, powers, and awakening factors to full development, alongside serenity and discernment working together. It lays out four categories of direct knowledge: the five grasping aggregates should be completely understood, ignorance and craving for continued existence shou
Page 527–532 MN 150 With the People of Nagaravinda While wandering in the Kosalan lands, the Buddha arrives at Nagaravinda and is approached by the local brahmins and householders, who have heard of his reputation as a fully awakened teacher. The Buddha instructs them on how to answer other religious wanderers who ask which ascetics deserve honor: those still gripped by greed, hatred, and delusion toward sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas, whose minds are unsettled and whose conduct is bad, do not deserve reverence, while those f
Page 532–540 MN 151 The Purification of Almsfood Sāriputta visits the Buddha, who remarks on his clear faculties and bright complexion and asks what meditation he has been practicing; Sāriputta answers that he usually meditates on emptiness, which the Buddha praises as the meditation of a great man. The Buddha then teaches a detailed method of self-examination: a mendicant should reflect, after going for and returning from alms, whether any desire, greed, hatred, delusion, or aversion arose in the mind toward sights, sounds, smells, tastes, to
Page 540–548 MN 152 The Development of the Faculties (final sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya) The student Uttara reports that his teacher Pārāsariya defines the development of the sense faculties as simply not seeing sights or hearing sounds, which the Buddha dismantles by pointing out that this would make a blind or deaf person the most developed of all. Turning to Ānanda, the Buddha then teaches the true supreme development of the faculties in the training of the Noble One: when agreeable, disagreeable, or mixed reactions arise through any of the six senses, a mendicant recognizes them