Defiled happiness and undefiled happiness. These are the two kinds of happiness.
]]>Bhikkhus, saying ‘a heap of the unwholesome,’ it is about the five hindrances that one could rightly say this.
]]>Wanderers of other religions advocate three kinds of seclusion. What three? Seclusion in robes, almsfood, and lodgings.
While other religions’ monastics focus on external seclusion, the Buddha taught his monastics to be inwardly restrained.
]]>They arouse faith in things that are dubious, and they don’t arouse faith in things that are inspiring. When a foolish, incompetent untrue person has these four qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged.
After reflection, you should criticize those worthy or criticism, and praise those worthy of praise.
]]>When a mendicant has faith, approaches, pays homage, asks questions, actively listens to the teachings, remembers the teachings, reflects on the meaning, and practices accordingly, the Realized One feels inspired to teach [them].
How we should approach the Dhamma and Dhamma teachers.
]]>I bring together such a large congregation by using the four ways of being inclusive
]]>Mendicants, there are four ways of practice. What four?
Reverends, what is the vital condition for the development of the awakening factors?
A mendicant grounded on these five things should develop four further things.
How spiritual friendship forms the foundation of the holy life.
]]>To give up these five weaknesses in your training you should develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.
Meditation relies on ethics, but ethics is also supported by meditation.
]]>One gives a gift for the purpose of ornamenting the mind
Eight ways of giving a gift.
]]>He gives what is pure and excellent…
]]>It’s a mendicant who, when they see a sight with their eyes, is neither happy nor sad. They remain equanimous, mindful and aware.
]]>At a time when bandits are strong, kings are weak…
]]>The heart’s wish of one who is virtuous succeeds because of his purity.
When giving with a certain wish in mind, you can get it.
This sutta provides a canonical basis for the ubiquitous Buddhist practice of “dedicating the merit” of an offering.
]]>This one thing, when developed and cultivated, leads solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace…
Ten themes the Buddha recommends for meditation.
]]>Monks, a friend endowed with seven qualities is worth associating with.
]]>At whatever time, monastics, there are dishonest kings, […] the gods become agitated.
When the rulers of society are dishonest, that is a time of climate change
]]>one acquires merit even if one throws away dishwashing water in a refuse dump or cesspit with the thought: ‘May the living beings here sustain themselves with this!’
The Buddha is falsely accused of preventing gifts to other communities, but agrees that gifts to the Noble Ones are the most fruitful karmically.
]]>Householders, if wife and husband want to see each other in both this life and the next, they should be equals in faith, ethics, generosity, and wisdom.
]]>Mendicants, there are these five drawbacks of placing faith in an individual.
]]>… the one who is extinguished without extra effort, the one who is extinguished with extra effort, and the one who heads upstream..
A rare sutta, showing ten stages of enlightenment.
]]>friends and colleagues, relatives and family should be encouraged, supported, and established in three things.
]]>Cintākavi, sutakavi, atthakavi, paṭibhānakavi
The four kinds of poets.
]]>Having flown across the sky,
the birds resort to this delightful base
have a good morning
]]>These are the five benefits of good conduct.
]]>There are, bhikkhus, these four qualities that make one an elder. What four?
]]>Just as pain arises as an affliction for a healthy person, even so the attention to perceptions dealing with directed thought that beset me was an affliction for me.
The householder Tapussa reflects that it is renunciation that distinguishes lay from monastic. The Buddha agrees by giving a long account of his cultivation of immersion leading up to his awakening.
]]>However, when the boy has grown up and has enough sense, the nurse would be unconcerned about him.
The Buddha looks after mendicants like a nurse looks after a child until they’ve grown up.
]]>Reverends, do you see this large tree trunk?
]]>Someone who had not established mindfulness of the body might well attack one of their spiritual companions and leave without saying sorry.
When another monk falsely accuses Sāriputta of hitting him, the Buddha calls Sāriputta to respond to the allegation.
]]>There are ten warm-hearted qualities that make for fondness and respect, conducing to inclusion, harmony, and unity, without quarreling. What ten?
]]>And what, Bhante, is the purpose and benefit of the knowledge and vision of things as they really are?
The purpose of ethics, concentration, and wisdom are that they lead to liberation.
]]>Mendicants, there are three failures.
]]>Having undertaken them, train in the training rules. When you have done so, what further should be done?
]]>Mahānāma, when a noble disciple has reached the fruit and understood the instructions they frequently practice this kind of meditation.
]]>Monks, there are these eight bonanzas of merit, rewards of skillfulness, nourishments of happiness…
]]>Reverends, an unethical person, who lacks ethics, has destroyed a vital condition for right immersion.
]]>Ten things hinder the ten likable, desirable, and agreeable things that are rare in the world.
]]>Mendicants, a mendicant practicing mindfulness of breathing who has five things will soon penetrate the unshakable.
]]>One is unripe but seems ripe,
One is ripe but seems unripe…
Four people similar to mangoes.
]]>Judging by this fish’s approach, by the ripples it makes, and by its force, it’s a big fish, not a little one.
How to assess a person’s ethics, purity, resilience, and wisdom.
]]>Mendicants, when a mendicant’s mind has been well consolidated with wisdom it’s appropriate for them to say: ‘I understand…’
Nine reflections by which a mendicant knows their mind has wisdom.
]]>Among these five trainee’s powers, the power of wisdom is foremost, the one that holds all the others in place…
]]>Greed is to be abandoned neither by body nor by speech…
Some things are to be abandoned through wisdom.
]]>Bhikkhus, live under a protector, not without a protector. One without a protector lives in suffering. There are these ten qualities that serve as a protector.
]]>Good man, didn’t you see the third divine messenger that appeared among human beings?
The Buddhist “judgment day.”
]]>The snake, the scorpion, the centipede, the mongoose, the cat, the mouse, and the owl, or any other animals that creep away when they see people. Thus a being is reborn from a being; one is reborn through one’s deeds.
Those who do the ten kinds of bad deeds are like creepy creatures and are reborn as such.
]]>Most people find you unlikable and unlovable. You have lots of enmity and many faults. You feel lost when you die.
The five drawbacks of intolerance.
]]>Firstly, a person meditates spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth…
The Brahma Vihāras lead to rebirth in the Brahma Realm. And from there, it depends…
]]>Mendicants, there are these three sources that give rise to deeds. What three? Greed, hate, and delusion are sources that give rise to deeds.
]]>Mindfulness is well established in oneself: ‘In this way I’ll experience through freedom the teaching that I haven’t yet experienced, or support with wisdom in every situation the teaching I’ve already experienced.’ That’s how mindfulness is its ruler.
How training benefits, wisdom oversees, freedom is the heartwoos, and mindfulness is in charge.
]]>You should train like this: ‘We will fear the fault apparent in the present life, and we will fear the fault to do with lives to come.’
]]>Someone with forty qualities is cast down to hell…
]]>Monks, these five future dangers, unarisen at present, will arise in the future. Be alert to them and, being alert, work to get rid of them.
The Saṅgha may forsake the simple life and indulge in luxuries.
]]>Mendicants, a mendicant with five qualities who visits families is unlikable and unlovable, not respected or admired.
]]>If a senior mendicant is unethical, of bad character, this is how they’re ugly, I say. … If you associate with, accompany, and attend to that person, following their example, it’ll be for your lasting harm and suffering. …
A bad mendicant is like hemp: uncomfortable to be in close contact with.
]]>Bhante, on how many grounds has the Tathāgata prescribed the training rules for his disciples and recited the Pātimokkha?
The Ten Reasons the Buddha laid down the monastic rules.
]]>A mendicant might wish: ‘May I be liked and approved by my spiritual companions, respected and admired.’ So let them fulfill their precepts, be committed to inner serenity of the heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, and frequent empty huts.
If a mendicant wishes to attain spiritual heights, they should begin by practicing the monastic rules.
]]>Monks, whether Tathāgatas arise or not, this aspect of the world remains the same…
Impermanence, suffering, and not-self are natural laws discovered by the Buddha.
]]>‘When Master Gotama teaches in this way, is the whole world saved, or half, or a third?’ But when he said this, the Buddha kept silent.
Venerable Ānanda answers on the Buddha’s behalf with the simile of the citadel.
]]>‘This contemplative Gotama whom you praise is a nihilist, one who doesn’t declare anything.’
‘I tell you, venerable sirs, that the Blessed One righteously declares that “This is skillful.” He declares that “This is unskillful.”’
The householder Vajjiya Māhita visits some wanderers and the Buddha praises his defense of the Dhamma, explaining in detail what religious practices the Buddha does praise.
]]>…a mendicant arousing knowledge
of the outcome of greed, hate, and delusion,
would cast off all bad destinies.
Greed, hatred, and delusion as planting karmic “seeds.”
]]>Those who fall back on God’s creative activity as the essential truth have no desire to do what should be done and to avoid doing what should not be done…
The beliefs that everything is caused by past karma, by a creator God, or by chance all lead to apathy. The Buddha teaches us to instead analyze things based on causes and effects.
]]>There are, bhikkhus, these three kinds of intoxication.
Siddhattha’s delicate upbringing.
]]>The beauties remain as they are in the world,
while, in this regard,
the enlightened
subdue their desire.
The Buddha gives a deep discourse on the development of wisdom.
]]>He walked back & forth on top of a giant mountain of excrement …
Before his awakening, the bodhisatta had five great dreams that foretold profound aspects of his dispensation.
]]>Monk, can you train in reference to the three trainings: the training in heightened virtue, the training in heightened mind, the training in heightened discernment?
What to do if you’re having trouble remembering all the rules.
]]>In what way is extinguishment apparent in the present life … ?
]]>Bhikkhus, it is good for a bhikkhu from time to time to review his own failings. It is good for him from time to time to review the failings of others. It is good for him from time to time to review his own achievements. It is good for him from time to time to review the achievements of others.
Devadatta’s downfall was from not overcoming the eight worldly winds.
]]>There is, brahmin, a sense in which you could rightly say that I’m a teacher of annihilationism. For I teach the annihilation of greed, hate, and delusion, and the many kinds of unskillful things.
The brahmin Verañja rebukes the Buddha for his lack of respect for senior brahmins. He levels a series of criticisms, each of which the Buddha deflects by redefining terms. The Buddha affirms that his claim to superiority is because he was the first to achieve awakening.
]]>Mendicants, if wanderers of other religions were to ask: Reverends, all things have what as their root? …
]]>An “Udāna” from the AN.
]]>You should neither approve nor dismiss that mendicant’s statement. Instead, having carefully memorized those words and phrases, you should …
How to determine if something is an authentic teaching of the Buddha.
]]>Percipient in this way, too, one is not sensitive to that dimension.
Ānanda exclaims how amazing it is that the Buddha has found a way to freedom while still experiencing the world.
Questioned by the monk Udāyī, Ānanda elucidates that he’s referring to the formless attainments and then goes on to recount a fascinating discussion on the meditation of the enlightened which he had had with the nun Jaṭilagāhiyā.
]]>What is the cause, Reverend Sāriputta, what is the reason why some sentient beings aren’t fully extinguished in the present life?
For the Buddha’s answer to this question, see SN 35.131.
]]>For the Buddha’s instructions on attaining this state, see the previous sutta.
]]>He himself abstains from lying but doesn’t encourage others in undertaking abstinence from lying.
How to practice selfishly—or not.
]]>There is the case where a certain individual doesn’t practice for the subduing of passion within him/herself but encourages others in the subduing of passion
Four kinds of people. See the previous sutta for their relative ranking.
]]>The person who practices to benefit both themselves and others is the foremost…
See the next sutta for how…
]]>But then, a mendicant grounded on these five things should develop four further things. They should develop the perception of ugliness to give up greed, love to give up hate, mindfulness of breathing to cut off thinking, and perception of impermanence to uproot the conceit ‘I am’.
Venerable Meghiya, while attending on the Buddha, wants to go off and meditate in a forest alone. The Buddha discourages him, but he goes anyway. When his meditation doesn’t go well, he returns chastened to the Buddha, who teaches him the importance of getting the fundamentals right.
]]>… four streams of merit, streams of the wholesome, nutriments of happiness—heavenly, ripening in happiness, conducive to heaven…
]]>The scope of the six fields of contact extends as far as the scope of proliferation. When the six fields of contact fade away and cease with nothing left over, proliferation stops and is stilled.
What is there when the senses cease?
]]>… could a bhikkhu obtain such a state of concentration that he would have no I-making, mine-making, and underlying tendency to conceit…?
The Buddha instructs Ānanda on taking Nibbāna as an object of meditation.
]]>It is natural that non-regret arises in a virtuous person, one whose behavior is virtuous.
There’s no need to make a wish to get enlightened; it happens naturally when the conditions are there.
]]>I say that this person is like the warrior who is killed and finished off by his foes. Some people are like that.
Some warriors, like some monks, are killed or injured in battle, while others emerge victorious.
]]>Mendicants, a resident mendicant with five qualities shows compassion to the lay people. What five?
]]>Some ascetics and brahmins regard the attainment of the meditation on universal water to be the ultimate.
The female lay follower Kāḷī of Kuraraghara in Avantī asks Venerable Mahākaccāna about a verse spoken by the Buddha in “The Maidens’ Questions” (SN 4.25). He replies unexpectedly in terms of the necessity of going beyond the ten kasinas to develop liberating insight.
]]>A mendicant with these five qualities is an exquisite ascetic of ascetics.
]]>And if anyone should be rightly called an exquisite ascetic of ascetics, it’s me.
And they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. But they don’t have direct meditative experience of the eight liberations. That’s how a person is a white lotus ascetic.
The confirmed ascetic, the white lotus ascetic, the pink lotus ascetic, and the refined ascetic of ascetics.
]]>… over a hundred and fifty training rules come up for recitation, in which gentlemen who love themselves train.
Even spiritually advanced people can break the minor rules, but striving to keep them is still worthwhile.
]]>The pain & distress dependent on sensuality do not exist at that time.
The Buddha encourages Anāthapiṇḍika to not rest short with generosity, but to practice meditation too.
]]>Unless these five dangers and threats are given up, one is said to be unethical, and is reborn in hell.
What is truly dangerous is breaking the precepts.
]]>‘I must now behave in a different manner.’ This must be reflected upon again and again by one who has gone forth.
]]>Mendicants, there are these five drawbacks for a family who takes their meals late in the day.
And five benefits of eating at a reasonable hour.
]]>Accomplishment in initiative, protection, good friendship, and balanced finances.
The brahmin Ujjaya is going abroad, and asks the Buddha to teach him. The Buddha teaches four practical ways to ensure success in this life, and another four ways to ensure success in the next.
]]>This is called accomplishment in balanced finances.
Dīghajāṇu of the Koliyans asks the Buddha to teach in a way suitable for lay people who enjoy life. The Buddha teaches four practical ways to ensure success in this life, and another four ways to ensure success in the next.
]]>… those who have not long gone forth, who are newcomers in this Dhamma & Vinaya should be encouraged, exhorted, and established in these five things.
]]>Bhikkhus, this spiritual life is not lived for the sake of deceiving people …
… rather, this spiritual life is lived for the sake of restraint …
A sutta on the proper motivation for “priests” in the Buddha’s religion… and for the rest of us too.
]]>The faithful succeed, not the faithless. The ethical succeed, not the unethical. The energetic succeed, not the lazy. The mindful succeed, while the unmindful do not.
Nandiya the Sakiyan moves to Sāvatthī to be near the Buddha. At the end of the rains, he asks the Buddha’s advice on how to live and the Buddha outlines a series of meditations for cultivating Right View.
]]>Take a case where a mendicant focuses on sensual pleasures, but their mind isn’t eager, confident, settled, and decided about them. But when they focus on renunciation, their mind is eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. Their mind is in a good state…
A practical method for escaping the five fetters.
]]>Mendicants, a noble disciple who grows in ten ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life. What ten?
What do people accumulate to be happy and successful?
]]>At a time when a great wind blows, it stirs the water, and the water stirs the earth.
At the end of his life, the Buddha explains to Ānanda the eight causes of earthquakes.
]]>I had an only son called Nanda who I loved dearly. The rulers forcibly abducted him on some pretext and had him executed. But I can’t recall getting upset …
Sāriputta and Moggallāna are on tour in the southern hills. A deity informs the laywoman Veḷukaṇṭakī that they are approaching. When Sāriputta expresses his amazement that she speaks with the gods, she goes on to list her other amazing qualities.
]]>A faithful laywoman would rightly aspire: ‘May I be like the laywomen Khujjuttarā and Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda’s mother!’
Leading examples for the four assemblies.
]]>A faithful laywoman would rightly aspire: ‘May I be like the laywomen Khujjuttarā and Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda’s mother!’
]]>Mendicants, any mendicant who abuses and insults their spiritual companions, speaking ill of the noble ones, will, without a doubt, fall into one or other of these eleven disasters.
]]>Any mendicant who abuses and insults their spiritual companions, speaking ill of the noble ones, will, without a doubt, fall …
]]>Bhikkhus, possessing three factors, a shopkeeper soon attains vast and abundant wealth…
And how does a bhikkhu have benefactors?
Shopkeepers and mendicants both have to be clever, responsible, and well supported.
]]>In the same way, a mendicant with eleven qualities can meditate observing impermanence in the eye … meditate observing letting go.
The formulaic expansion of AN 11.17 into 960 suttas.
]]>Mendicants, a cowherd with eleven factors can’t maintain and expand a herd of cattle. What eleven?
For this sutta’s lengthy repetition series, see AN 11.22–981.
]]>So too, all wholesome qualities are rooted in heedfulness and converge upon heedfulness
Diligence is the foremost of all good qualities.
]]>Suppose your clothes or head were on fire. In order to extinguish it, you’d apply intense enthusiasm, effort, zeal, vigor, perseverance, mindfulness, and situational awareness. In the same way, in order to give up those bad, unskillful qualities, that mendicant should apply intense enthusiasm …
A mendicant should reflect each night on the dangers that lie around them, and practice mindfulness of death with urgency to give up the kilesas.
]]>Oh if I’d only live as long as it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, I’d focus on the Buddha’s instructions and I could really achieve a lot.
Various mendicants practice mindfulness of death, but do so inadequately. The Buddha explains how to do so with proper urgency,
]]>As for the person who has neither serenity nor discernment: in order to get those skillful qualities, they should apply intense enthusiasm…
How each kind of person should practice.
]]>Just as the great ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too, this Dhamma and discipline has but one taste: the taste of liberation. This is the sixth astounding and amazing quality…
Spirits delight in the ocean for eight reasons, and likewise the mendicants delight in the Dhamma for eight similar reasons.
]]>These five things, when developed and cultivated, have freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom as their fruit and benefit.
Five meditations that lead to freedom and the Buddha supplies five similes which subtly illustrate five aspects of awakening.
]]>Monk, don’t be bitter. If you’re bitter, corrupted by putrefaction, flies will, without a doubt, plague and infest you.
The Buddha helps a monk in distress by teaching of “bitterness”, “rotting flesh”, and “insects”.
]]>When there is still more to be done, this venerable stopped half-way after achieving some insignificant distinction. But stopping half-way means decline in the teaching and training proclaimed by the Realized One.
Ten qualities which tell you that someone isn’t an arahant.
]]>When a mendicant is committed to development, they might not wish: ‘If only my mind was freed from the defilements by not grasping!’ Even so, their mind is freed…
Liberation doesn’t happen because you wish for it, but because you develop the factors of the path.
]]>When your heart is not overcome and mired in ill will … even hymns that are long-unpracticed spring to mind, let alone those that are practiced.
On how the Five Hindrances cloud our judgement and fog our memory.
]]>But when gold is freed from these five defilements, it is malleable, wieldy, and luminous, pliant and properly fit for work.
The hindrances are like corruptions in gold.
]]>When they’ve been given up and eliminated, there are fine corruptions: thoughts of family, country, and being looked up to. A sincere, capable mendicant gives these up, gets rid of, eliminates, and obliterates them.
Meditation is like purifying gold. A meditator should progressively eliminate more and more refined corruptions.
]]>who wants to listen, memorizes the teachings, examines their meaning, and practices accordingly, and is diligent when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
At Naḷakapāna the Buddha invites Sāriputta to teach. He speaks of ten qualities that lead to decline or non-decline.
]]>It’s like the moon in the waxing fortnight. Whether by day or by night, its beauty, roundness, light, and diameter and circumference only grow. In the same way, whoever has faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
At Naḷakapāna the Buddha invites Sāriputta to teach. He speaks of ten qualities that lead to decline or non-decline.
]]>Gone beyond all things,
Even the gods revere him
When going for a bath, the Buddha encounters a giant royal elephant. But a spiritual giant is even more impressive.
]]>Endowed with these five qualities, a king’s elephant is worthy of a king…
]]>A seed sown in a field that possesses these eight factors brings forth abundant fruits, its fruits are delectable, and it yields a profit.
A strange simile for the Eightfold Path, illuminating something of how we might think about each aṅga.
]]>Mendicants, three kinds of people are bound for a place of loss, bound for hell…
]]>They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as a boil, as a dart, as misery, as an affliction, as alien, as falling apart, as empty, as not-self. They turn their mind away from those things, and apply it to the deathless
On making the jump from samatha to vipassanā.
]]>Any bhikkhu who is skillful in this, diligent, clearly comprehending and ever mindful, is said to be standing in an ancient, primal noble lineage.
Contentment with any old robe, alms-food, lodgings, and love of meditation: these are ancient traditions of the noble ones.
]]>I am one of those in the world who sleep well.
The Buddha sleeps well, even on cold, hard ground.
]]>There are, mendicants, these ten topics of discussion…
]]>When your harp’s strings were tuned too tight, was it resonant and playable?
When Venerable Soṇa thinks of disrobing, the Buddha comes and encourages him with the famous simile of the lute that is tuned neither too loose nor too tight.
]]>Mendicants, ‘danger’ is a term for sensual pleasures…
The Buddha explains how addiction to sensual pleasures is perilous.
]]>Few are those among humans who cross to the far shore.
The wrong path is the near shore where most people dwell; the right path is the far shore, where few have crossed over.
]]>Whether or not other bhikkhus train, I will train.
With eight qualities a royal thoroughbred is worthy of a king.
]]>… there are these four right strivings. What four?
A definition of Right Effort.
]]>… a bad person and a worse person, a good person and a better person
Is it better to preach the Dhamma or to practice it?
]]>When right view is assisted by five factors, it has liberation of mind as its fruit…
]]>A nun with five qualities is cast down to hell…
Five good and five bad qualities that determine a nun’s destiny after death.
]]>When villages, towns, and cities are burning up, there is sometimes an occasion when the mother finds her son and the son finds his mother.
Perils that tear mothers and children apart.
]]>… right view is the forerunner and precursor of skillful qualities
]]>Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.
The Buddha declares the antidote to greed.
]]>… whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, reached, sought after, examined by the mind—that I know.
The Buddha knows what can be known and thus remains poised in the midst of the world.
]]>I went in search of the world’s gratification, and I found it.
The Buddha became awakened by understanding gratification, as well as its danger and escape.
]]>King Pasenadi of Kosala had returned from the war front, victorious in battle, his purpose having been achieved. Then King Pasenadi of Kosala set out for the park.
Fresh from battle, King Pasenadi declares his love and devotion to the Buddha.
]]>… those Licchavis clothed Piṅgiyānī with five hundred upper robes. And Piṅgiyānī clothed the Buddha with them.
]]>You Licchavis are so fixated on sensual pleasures!
For the conclusion, see AN 5.195.
]]>… the appearance of three people is rare in the world…
]]>Mendicants, these six things are unsurpassable. What six? The unsurpassable seeing, listening, acquisition, training, service, and recollection.
But none of them compare with the Dhamma.
]]>If he strikes an elephant, he does it carefully…
When the Buddha teaches, he respects his audience.
]]>… at the time of his final extinguishment. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants…
As he lay dying, the Buddha encouraged his disciples to ask any last questions.
]]>It is painful to dwell without reverence and deference. Now what ascetic or brahmin can I honor, respect, and dwell in dependence on?
Let me then honor, respect, and dwell in dependence only on this Dhamma to which I have become fully enlightened.
Who should a Buddha revere?
]]>… four inspiring places that a faithful gentleman should go to see
]]>… wine at minimum conduces to madness
The karmic results of breaking the five precepts.
]]>See also, SN 36.21.
]]>Here, a bhikkhu lives in dependence on the Teacher or on a certain fellow monk in the position of a teacher, toward whom he has set up a keen sense of moral shame and moral dread, affection and reverence…
Eight conditions that lead to the arising of wisdom, its growth and perfection.
]]>There is a person who is not to be associated with…
You should associate with people who are equal or better than you.
]]>… possessing eight qualities, a bhikkhu is worthy of going on a mission
]]>Mendicants, there are these five kinds of emotional barrenness. What five? …
]]>… these five things lead to the decline and disappearance of the true teaching
]]>… the Saṅgha may, if it wishes, turn the bowl upside down for a lay follower on eight grounds.
The Buddha allowed the monks to protest in a peculiar way which has actually been used, for example by the Burmese.
]]>… near Kallavāḷamutta Village, Venerable Mahāmoggallāna was nodding off while meditating…
Seven methods for overcoming drowsiness in your meditation.
]]>It’s inappropriate to talk to an unfaithful person about faith…
]]>Mendicants, I’m not even comfortable thinking about a place where mendicants argue…
When mendicants fight, the Buddha doesn’t like it.
]]>… seven principles that prevent decline
]]>A mendicant with seven qualities is liked and approved by their spiritual companions
]]>… when a mendicant explains what is not the teaching as the teaching…
Ten roots for disputes in the Saṅgha.
]]>… what is the person whose mind is like a diamond?
Showing the Canonical basis for the “Vajra” image which would become important in later Buddhism.
]]>… how is a bhikkhu skilled in the ways of his own mind?
The Buddha teaches that if you can’t read anyone else’s mind, read your own by regular self-reflection.
]]>He understands thus: ‘Formerly there was greed which was bad, and now there is none, which is good. Formerly there was hate, which was bad, and now there is none, which is good. Formerly there was delusion, which was bad, and now there is none, which is good.’ So here and now in this very life he is parched no more
How to navigate among different spiritual opinions.
]]>… there are these four ways of taking a wrong course
Making decisions prejudiced by favoritism, hostility, stupidity, and cowardice will lead in a bad direction.
]]>… an enemy wishes of an enemy, ‘O, may this person sleep badly!’
When someone is angry, they wish ill upon their enemy and are disappointed if they do well.
]]>… these four people similar to vipers are found in the world
]]>There are six proper occasions for going to see an esteemed mendicant…
The right time to visit a monastic is when you need guidance and support.
]]>… four things are born of love and hate
And how to not be burned by them.
]]>And how is an individual like an inscription in rock?
]]>There are these nine people who, dying with something left over, are exempt from hell, the animal realm, and the ghost realm.
Sāriputta visits some wanderers, who claim that only perfected ones are free from bad rebirth. Sāriputta has no opinion on this, but asks the Buddha, who replies that even stream-enterers are freed from lower rebirths.
]]>I do not recall any mental exultation arising because deities come to me
Ugga the Householder roars his lion’s roar and the Buddha confirms him as a non-returner.
]]>It seems that we are actually impermanent, though we thought ourselves permanent; it seems that we are actually transient, though we thought ourselves everlasting
A lion’s roar terrifies beasts. The Buddha’s teaching terrifies the gods.
]]>Craving is a cause of seeking. Seeking is a cause of gaining…
Nine things that are rooted in craving.
]]>… a mendicant who wants to accuse another should first check five things in themselves and establish five things in themselves
]]>… a person of integrity, when asked, does not reveal another person’s bad points, to say nothing of when unasked
On speaking well and ill of others.
]]>… a gentleman who goes forth from the lay life to homelessness in this teaching and training should anticipate four dangers
The risks of (metaphorical) waves, crocodiles, whirlpools, and sharks.
]]>… don’t arouse faith in things that are dubious
On the importance (!) of judgement.
]]>… even for King Pasenadi there is alteration; there is change
A sutta on using anicca to make the transition from samatha to vipassanā.
]]>… what, bhikkhus, is the person whose speech is like dung?
]]>Having these six qualities the householder Tapussa is certain
]]>On the eighth day of the fortnight, mendicants, the ministers and counselors of the Four Great Kings wander about the world…
The gods rejoice when they see people practicing well.
]]>… he sank and melted down and wasn’t able to stay still. It’s like when ghee or oil is poured onto sand: it sinks and melts down, and can’t remain
A god from the Pure Abodes visits the Buddha and complains about how busy he is.
]]>… a mendicant who abuses and insults their spiritual companions can expect…
Why a monk shouldn’t speak ill of his peers.
]]>They make themselves happy and pleased. This is the second ground for praise.
The Buddha explains—and ranks!—the ten ways of seeking wealth.
]]>Here, monastics, for the donor there are three factors, and for the receivers there are three factors.
]]>… together with its commentary interleaved, […] it should give the student an idea of how the word commentaries work
These are the five gifts of a bad person.
Good and bad ways of offering gifts.
]]>… can you point out a fruit of giving that’s apparent in the present life?
The Buddha teaches General Sīha the benefits of giving.
]]>O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food!
Many of those who practice mindfulness of death don’t do so urgently enough.
]]>… what is the reason why for different people the same kind of business undertaking might fail, while another doesn’t meet expectations, another meets expectations, and another exceeds expectations?
]]>Some excellent thoroughbred people are like this
A thoroughbred responds when it sees a goad.
]]>… life as a human is short, brief, and fleeting, full of suffering and distress. Be thoughtful and wake up! Do what’s good and lead the spiritual life, for no-one born can escape death.
Araka was a famous teacher long ago, when the life span was much greater than today. Nevertheless, he still taught impermanence; how much more is it relevant to us today.
]]>… he should put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, relentlessness, mindfulness, & alertness for the abandoning of those very same evil, unskillful qualities. Just as when a person whose turban or hair is on fire
A method for recollecting one’s own death that leads to urgency, diligence, and, ultimately, joy.
]]>… a monk who wishes to criticize another should first establish five resolutions
]]>I had over a thousand sons who were valiant and heroic, crushing the armies of my enemies.
The Buddha recalls the results of his good deeds.
]]>… there are these five kinds of wealth. What five?
]]>… five drawbacks for a person who talks a lot
And the benefits to being reserved.
]]>Once upon a time, householder, there was a brahmin named Velāma…
[…but] it would be more fruitful to develop the perception of impermanence—even for as long as a finger-snap—than to do all of these things
The wealthy and devoted lay supporter Anāthapiṇḍika rather curiously says that only poor alms are given in his home. The Buddha praises gracious and bounteous generosity, but meditation surpasses even the greatest offering.
]]>Monks, there are these four modes of practice. Which four? Intolerant practice, tolerant practice, self-controlled practice, and even practice.
]]>Bhikkhus, there are these four Dhamma factors, primal, of long standing, traditional, ancient…
Contentment, good will, mindfulness and convergence are basic principles of the Dhamma.
]]>It’s like a bungalow with a bad roof. The roof peak, rafters, and walls are unprotected. They get soaked, and become rotten.
Protecting your mind is like protecting a house.
]]>Monks, I do not see a single thing that gives rise to sense desire like the feature of attractiveness.
]]>give up sense pleasures even if it’s painful:
they call this person “one who goes against the stream.”
This sutta defines a person who goes with the stream; a person who goes against the stream; a stable person; and one who has crossed over.
]]>Just as a palm fruit that has just been removed from its stalk is pure and bright, so Master Gotama’s faculties are tranquil and the color of his skin is pure and bright.
What high and luxurious bed does the Buddha use?
]]>Remember me, brahmin, as a Buddha.
The brahmin Doṇa is filled with wonder when he sees the Buddha’s footprints.
]]>Visiting a family with nine factors is worthwhile
Nine factors in how a family should relate to the Saṅgha.
]]>What six? Firstly, a noble disciple recollects…
A way to escape from greed.
]]>In what way, Bhante, is one a lay follower?
Questioned by his relative Mahānāma, the Buddha explains what makes someone a Buddhist lay follower, a virtuous lay follower, and a lay follower practicing for the welfare of all.
]]>… these six are conditions that are conducive to amiability, that engender feelings of endearment and respect
Six warm-hearted qualities practiced among the mendicants.
]]>Luminous, monks, is the mind.
]]>… in three cases one may be understood to have faith and confidence
How to know a faithful person.
]]>Mendicants, there are eight lost opportunities for spiritual practice.
On how the Human Realm at a time of a Buddha is a unique opportunity for spiritual practice.
]]>… you can expect eleven benefits when the heart’s release by love has been cultivated, developed, and practiced, made a vehicle and a basis, kept up, consolidated, and properly implemented.
Asked by a householder to teach a path to freedom, Venerable Ānanda explains no less than eleven meditative states that may serve as doors to the deathless.
]]>Kālāmas, do not go by oral tradition, by lineage of teaching, by hearsay, by a collection of scriptures, by logic…
In this famous sutta, the Buddha outlines a practical epistemology.
]]>… a mendicant with four qualities is worthy of offerings
A mendicant like a king’s elephant.
]]>Someone with six qualities is able to enter the sure path
Things that enable or obstruct true understanding while listening to the teachings.
]]>… having fulfilled our duty, free of remorse and regret, we were reborn in a superior realm
Some deities come to the Buddha and speak of their practice in their past life and, in so doing, explain the conduct expected of lay people towards monastics.
]]>… when the teachings have been followed by ear, recited by speech, examined by mind, and well penetrated by view, four rewards can be expected
The Buddha assures us that we can attain stream entry as a deva.
]]>But when discourses spoken by the Realized One—deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness—are being recited the mendicants do want to listen. They pay attention and apply their minds
]]>Mendicants, there are these five opportunities for freedom.
]]>The river would keep flowing swiftly for a long way, carrying all before it.
A simile describing how samādhi depends on a momentum of practice to clear away the hindrances.
]]>Yet it is just within this fathom-long body, with its perception & intellect, that I declare that there is the cosmos, the origination of the cosmos, the cessation of the cosmos, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the cosmos.
The god Rohitassa tells how he tried to go to the end of the world, and the Buddha explains how to do it successfully.
For Venerable Ānanda’s own exegesis of this sutta, see SN 35.116.
]]>The fact that the figures Buddhaghosa gives correspond to the number of suttas found in modern European editions in the cases of the Dīgha-nikāya and Majjhima-nikāya but are wildly out of line in the cases of the Saṃyutta-nikāya and Anguttara-nikāya should give us pause for thought.
]]>A man remembering this, a person established in Nobility,
Is praised right here and now, and later rejoices in heaven.
The legitimate purposes of wealth.
]]>The Noble Disciple, householder, with the wealth he has attained through industry and effort, accumulated through the strength of his arms, through the sweat of his brow, righteously, in accordance with the Dhamma, performs four suitable deeds.
Four things that are desirable, but hard to get; and how to get them.
]]>… having heard these ten perceptions, venerable Girimānanda’s afliction immediately abated
A profound discourse on Vipassana meditation in an apotropaic frame.
]]>Bhikkhus, there are these three authorities. What three? Oneself as one’s authority, the world as one’s authority, and the Dhamma as one’s authority.
]]>Mahānāma, why do you say that they will make it as Vajjis?
How to cimb the social ladder the Buddhist way.
]]>… you should ignore that person’s impure behavior
A series of remarkable similes illustrate the lengths we should go to to remove resent.
]]>The blind person, the one-eyed person, and the two-eyed person.
In which the Buddha dismisses the possibility that one could be ethically wise but materially foolish.
]]>… some groups of suttas in the Aṅguttara Nikāya with saṃyutta-like nature were probably moved from the Saṃyutta Nikāya to the Aṅguttara Nikāya within the Pali tradition. Evidence of a comparable movement into the Ekottarika Āgama is also available.
In the Ones and Twos, it is often the case that a single original sutta has been subdivided so that its component sections become a series of similarly structured derivative suttas superficially appropriate for inclusion in the Ones or Twos. Moreover, material for this process of subdividing has sometimes been provided by multiplying doctrinal sets with formulaic statements.
On how the AN/EA was originally composed and subsequently grew and developed (in response to the needs of the recitation groups).
]]>A monk endowed with six qualities is capable of realizing the unexcelled cooled state.
For a comparison of different translations, see this table.
]]>What kind of person isn’t thrown in jail for stealing half a dollar, a dollar, or a hundred dollars? A person who is rich, affluent, and wealthy.
Karma, contrary to later oversimplifications, is not a strict formula, whereby a certain action always has the same result.
]]>… having seen with wisdom, their defilements come to an end. And they understand that with wisdom. To this extent the Buddha spoke of the one freed by wisdom
]]>Well, Reverend Anuruddha, when you say: ‘With clairvoyance that is purified and surpasses the human, I survey the entire galaxy,’ that’s your conceit.
Anuruddha receives a sharp teaching.
]]>Bhikkhus, there are these ten fetters.
Five lower and five higher.
]]>A lay follower living at home with these five qualities is self-assured.
Confidence or lack thereof in layfolk is due to their precepts.
]]>Adapted from the index of the same name in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s AN translation.
]]>Many of the individual translations from this book were released for free distribution and have been collected into this open source ebook for your convenience. The entire book can be read on the publisher’s website with a free account.
]]>So, Ānanda, deeds are the field, consciousness is the seed, and craving is the moisture.
How consciousness, karma, and craving create and sustain future lives.
]]>Reverends, all things are rooted in desire. Attention produces them.
The Buddha gives an extraordinary ten-point summary of the path from things to the cessation of things.
]]>But does this gift really aid departed relatives and family? Do they actually partake of it?
The Buddha informs a brahmin that gifts offered to dead ancestors can only go to ancestors reborn in the ghost realm, but assures him that the gift yields a reward for the donor no matter where they are reborn.
]]>… five people similar to warriors are found among the monks
Some warriors, like some monks, falter before the threat of battle, while others emerge victorious.
]]>Ānanda, are all precepts and observances, lifestyles, and spiritual paths fruitful?
Not all paths go up the same mountain.
]]>[There is] a time for listening to the teaching, a time for discussing the teaching, a time for serenity, and a time for discernment.
]]>This somewhat confusing discourse has a parallel in MĀ 12, which I recommend reading alongside this account as it helps to clarify things somewhat.
]]>Gain and loss, disrepute and fame,
blame and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions that people meet
are impermanent, transient, and subject to change.
The eight worldly conditions in brief.
]]>Mendicants, there are four areas where the Realized One has nothing to hide, and three ways he is irreproachable.
]]>Mendicants, these seven perceptions, when developed and cultivated, are very fruitful and beneficial. They culminate in the deathless and end with the deathless. What seven? The perceptions of ugliness, death, repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, impermanence, suffering in impermanence, and not-self in suffering.
]]>As for the individual who has attained neither internal tranquillity of awareness nor insight into phenomena through heightened discernment, he should approach an individual who has attained both internal tranquillity of awareness & insight into phenomena
On the importance of attending to the wise in progressing on the path. Also notable in this Sutta is the Buddha’s emphasis on developing both tranquility and insight.
]]>… whoever—monk or nun—declares the attainment of arahantship in my presence, they all do it by means of one or another of four paths.
]]>… beings are intoxicated with life and engage in misconduct by body, speech, and mind. But when one often reflects upon [death], the intoxication with life is diminished.
Topics that are worth regularly reflecting on, whether as a lay person or a renunciant.
]]>… conditioned phenomena have these three characteristics…
The difference between the conditioned and the unconditioned.
]]>… what is confinement, and what is the opening amid confinement that the Buddha spoke of?
At Udāyī’s request, Ānanda explains an obscure verse spoken (in SN 2.7) by a deity. The nine progressive meditations are the gradual escape from confinement.
]]>Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.
In this Sutta, The Buddha emphasizes the importance of wilderness and seclusion for a meditator.
]]>There is a way of developing immersion further
Developing convergence for pleasure, understanding, mindfulness, and for ending the defilements.
]]>They focus on the cessation of identification, and their mind is eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. You’d expect that mendicant to stop identifying.
A rare sutta about cessation attainment and the final leap.
]]>All of the monks and nuns who declare in my presence that they have attained perfection, did so by one or other of four paths.
Ways of practicing serenity and discernment.
]]>Upāli, it’s not easy to endure isolated wilderness & forest lodgings. It’s not easy to maintain seclusion, not easy to enjoy being alone. The forests, as it were, plunder the mind of a monk who has not gained concentration.
When Upāli asks to go into retreat, the Buddha warns him that secluded wilderness dwellings are hard to endure unless one is accomplished in meditation. He gives a long account of the training required before going into solitude, and ends by encouraging Upāli to stay in the Saṅgha.
]]>Mendicants, there are these seven kinds of wealth. What seven? The wealth of faith, ethical conduct, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom.
]]>Their intentions, aims, wishes, and choices all lead to what is likable, desirable, agreeable, beneficial, and pleasant. Why is that? Because their view is good.
When a person has wrong view, all their path development is wrong. But when they have right view, everything good follows.
]]>Mendicants, there are eight grounds for laziness.
And the corresponding eight grounds for energy.
]]>An instructed noble disciple also meets gain and loss, disrepute and fame, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain.
The eight worldly conditions in detail.
]]>‘I’ve developed the heart’s release by love… Yet somehow ill will still occupies my mind.’
The Buddha’s teachings are effective, so we can’t claim to have practiced them fully if we’re still afflicted by various forms of suffering.
]]>Mendicants, there are these five drawbacks to a charnel ground…
How a person may have the same defects as a cemetery.
]]>… use these five methods to completely get rid of resentment when it has arisen towards anyone
Five reflections to eliminate enmity in brief.
]]>How does a person both make a hole and live in it?
Four people similar to mice.
]]>Though it sprouted and grew in the water, it would rise up above the water and stand with no water clinging to it. In the same way, the Realized One has escaped
Giving up ten things, the Buddha lives free of limits.
]]>Householder, there are these four kinds of happiness that may be achieved by a layperson
The happiness of ownership, using wealth, debtlessness, and blamelessness.
]]>A very famous example of poetic analysis and hermeneutics in action at the time of the Buddha, this sutta gives several subtle cues on how to read obscure passages.
]]>It would be good, lord, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief
This discourse is one of the few teachings in the canon (along with the teachings on mindfulness) which the Buddha declared as “categorical”: always applicable and useful in any situation. This sutta gives, better than any other, the overall direction of the teachings, and is a helpful rubric to refer back to.
]]>It’s only natural that joy springs up when you have no regrets.
This lovely sutta reassures us that the path to awakening is the natural result of cultivating and perfecting ethics.
]]>