if we consider the Buddha’s hagiography, romantic love proves to be a significant feature of the story.

Although she is abandoned by the Bodhisatta as he makes his Great Departure, the Yasodhara of South Asian hagiography cannot be defined by her abandonment. She is regularly represented as a powerful character with a voice of her own — one who challenges, cries, speaks, and commands. But above all else, the Yasodhara of many of these sources is regularly described as the Buddha’s match.

The translation includes the Pāli word commentary.

When faced with the task of rendering the term Tathāgata into other languages, translators had to decide between taking it to imply tathā āgata, “thus come”, or tathā gata “thus gone”

… their perfect physiques proclaim their supreme attainments.

This is the difference between a Realized One, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha, and a mendicant freed by wisdom.

The Buddha declares that a mendicant is freed by wisdom by non-attachment to the aggregates, in just the same way as he himself. He then explains that the difference between himself and another awakened mendicant is simply that he was the first to discover the path and teach it to others.

But even though the Buddha dropped such an obvious hint, such a clear sign, Ānanda didn’t beg the Buddha, ‘Sir, may the Blessed One please remain for the eon!’

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.

The moon was bright and the stars were clear. There was no more darkness. Celestial flowers fell down like rain from the sky to worship the Bodhisattva.

A translation of the Chinese version of Aśvaghoṣa’s famous epic composed in the second century of the common era. The classic Indian poem gives a tasteful biography of Śākyamuni Buddha’s life which is still admired for its artistry today.

For an older translation of the (reconstructed) Sanskrit, see Cowell, 1894.

Good man, didn’t you see the third divine messenger that appeared among human beings?

The Buddhist “judgment day.”

This paper focuses on a section of the Gandavyuha Sutra (Book 39 of the Avatamsaka Sutra), which lists and frequently explains the Buddhalakṣaṇas. The study introduces a new translation of the passage from the original Sanskrit, and compares its descriptions to other relevant Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan sources. In most cases the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra offers the most convincing explanation of the relevance and/or origin of the lakṣaṇa.

The Tathagata, great king, is liberated from reckoning in terms of consciousness; he is deep, immeasurable, hard to fathom like the great ocean.

While staying in Toraṇavatthu, King Pasenadi wishes to visit a spiritual teacher, and the nun Khemā is highly recommended to him. He asks her about whether a Realized One exists after death, and she says this is not answerable. Later he visits the Buddha, who replies in exactly the same way.

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.

… the Perfectly Enlightened One is declared to be the chief among them. So too, whatever wholesome states there are, they are all rooted in diligence

This is the first sutta in a repetition series continuing with:

• SN 45.140
• SN 45.141–5
• SN 45.146–8

But, bhikkhus, when a Tathagata arises in the world, an Arahant, a Perfectly Enlightened One, then there is the manifestation of great light and radiance; then no blinding darkness prevails, no dense mass of darkness…

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.

I was drunk with the pride of birth…

There is no story of Gotama having touched the ground before his awakening in the earliest Buddhist texts describing these events

I see some fervent mortifiers who takes it easy reborn in a place of loss. But I see another fervent mortifier who takes it easy reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.

The Buddha tells a naked ascetic the true meaning of austerity.

These eight things don’t arise to be developed and cultivated except when a Realized One, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha has appeared.

An important sutta in which the Buddha reiterates the uniqueness of his discovery.

That bhikkhu sees the Dhamma. Seeing the Dhamma, he sees [the Tathāgata].

To see the Dhamma is to see the Buddha and to be close to him, even when physically far away.

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.

If he strikes an elephant, he does it carefully…

When the Buddha teaches, he respects his audience.

In the traditional world one never hears a story for the first time; every telling is a retelling.

Traditional accounts of the life story of the Buddha contain an apparent paradox: at birth he is virtually omniscient, but by adolescence when he encounters the famous “four sights”—an old man, an ill man, a corpse, and a mendicant—he does not know how to understand them. This article proposes one possible religious meaning visible within this paradox, relating to differing motivations which encourage believers both to begin Buddhist practice, since they share the ignorance the Buddha felt as a young man, and to continue it despite the vast distance to its final goal

… it was common for khattiyans to be referred to by brahmanical priestly names

May all these beings have happy minds! Listen closely to my words…

A popular Theravāda chant and a peak into how the Sangha ritually continues the Buddha’s role as “teacher of the devas.”

Ninety-one eons ago, the Buddha Vipassī arose in the world, perfected and fully awakened…

The story of the Buddha Vipassī which later came to be grafted onto Buddha Gotama’s biography.

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?

Make sure to also read Bhante’s translation notes as well.

Ānanda’s tears and the Buddha’s expression of gratitude and thanks are testament to the close bond between the two men, one that went beyond their kin relationship.

A down-to-earth biography of the Buddha based on the Pāli Canon.

An interactive, electronic edition can be read online here.

It is an early Sanskrit poem written in India on the legendary history of Buddha, and therefore contains much that is of interest for the history of Buddhism, besides its special importance as illustarating the early history of classical Sanskrit literature.

A more contemporary (2009) translation by Charles Willemen from the (arguably more faithful) Chinese recension of the text (Taishō 4 192) can be found here.

This article proposes to “decode” the twin miracle and the miracle to convert Aṅgulimāla as coded repudiations of rival karma theories, and to examine their relevance to the modern world.

I shall keep reciting the Way to the Beyond

Perhaps the last sutta of the early Pāli Canon, the Pārāyanānugītigāthā extols the virtues of the Buddha and of those who preserve, and realize, his teachings.

Was the Buddha vedagū according to the Brahmanical understanding of expertise in the three Vedas?

… curiously, while a great deal of attention is given to the Buddha’s last meal, almost none has been given to his first meal after he became awakened, and about which it is possible to say something concrete

… besides numerous incontestably very late elements, it also contains many other extremely ancient elements

A translation and analysis of the Ekottara Āgama’s Mahāparinibbāna Sutta.

Given the fact that the praiseworthy qualities of the Buddha are the main theme of the Mahāsakuludāyi-sutta and its parallel, it is not surprising if the tendency to elevate the Buddha’s status would to some degree also have influenced the reciters responsible for transmitting the discourse. A comparison of the two versions in fact reveals several instances where this tendency is at work

A translation and analysis of MA 107, a short parallel to MN 77.

… it is most likely that the Buddha suffered from mesenteric infarction caused by an occlusion of an opening of the superior mesenteric artery

What had started out as a rather straightforward fact took on a mystical flavour.

On how the unbounded praiseworthiness of the Buddha expressed in the early texts quickly took on mythic proportions.

This small Sutta deals with the veneration in which the Buddha held the Dharma, the doctrine which he had discovered on the night of his enlightenment and which he had chosen as his teacher. This text throws some light on the nature of the Buddha and the Dharma as they were conceived by the first Buddhists.

On the five pure and impure Skandhas and on the subtle reversal of paṭicca-samuppāda in the prajñāpāramitā

The Buddha was the first religious teacher who meant his message to be proclaimed to all humankind and who made a concrete effort to do this.

In the Dhamma we have a perfect teaching, and in the Buddha we have a perfect teacher, and the combination of these two meant that within a short time of being first proclaimed, the Dhamma became remarkably widespread.

Master Gotama, are there any laypeople who, without giving up the fetter of lay life, make an end of suffering when the body breaks up?

On the limits of the lay life… and the Buddha’s omniscience.

Particularly interesting to me is how you can see some of the seeds of the later Mahayana ideas about the Tathāgata-garbha and Dharmakāya within the Pali’s exuberant exultations.

[the Apadāna] does in fact include a Sumedha story which features the honoring of Dīpaṅkara Buddha with lotus flowers

On the many version of the Buddha’s prophecy across ancient Buddhist literature and art.

With skilful means and compassion, you were born in the Śākya clan…

Not only is there no mention of a wife or child in the Buddha’s recounting of his renunciation, he seems to suggest that he was still living at home with [both] his parents

… scholars have had little to no luck in identifying a Brahmanical source for the 32 marks of a great Man, in spite of the fact that the Buddhist texts are nearly unanimous is stating that this is a Brahmanical concept

… there may have been Bhikkhunīs in existence before the request for ordination by Mahāpajāpatī

The Buddha’s bad karma refers to ten problematic incidents that happened in the life of the historical Buddha. […] The texts related to the bad karma of the Buddha can be divided into two groups: those texts accepting the bad karma and those rejecting the whole matter.

The original picture that emerges from the Pali literature, however, reveals a very human person who, living in troubled, insecure times, faced numerous difficulties and challenges, both personally and to his monastic community. Here, we shall outline this earliest version of Buddha’s life, based on the scholarly research of Stephen Batchelor presented in his Confession of a Buddhist Atheist.

The Buddha’s movements northwards were of course limited by the then impenetrable jungles of the Himalayan foothills and it is unlikely that he ever went further south than the southern edge of the Ganges watershed. Still, this would mean that his wanderings covered an area roughly equivalent to 200,000 square kilometres, a huge area by any standards.

A short introduction to the territory covered by the Buddha’s wanderings.

The most detailed description of the Buddha and his habits in the Canon.

See K.R. Norman’s series of articles on The Metres of the Lakkhaṇa Sutta for a discussion of this sutta’s poetry.

… aspects of the myth must be stripped away

An invitation to imagine a more austere figure than the prince of myth.

… it could be interpreted as a dish that was ‘made well softened,’ that is to say, ‘easily digestible’ and thus suitable

A possible exoneration of poor Cunda the Smith.

… here is a book to take up at quiet times

A haphazard collection of inspirational quotes on the Lord Buddha’s nine virtuous qualities taken mostly from the Pāli Canon.

The book doesn’t pretend to have a thesis or an agenda. It’s merely a ready companion for your devotional recollection.

… a fair number of occurrences in the Buddha’s life would be difficult to explain if he had been omniscient

One of the most obvious fallacies of modern Theravāda Buddhism is the depiction of the Buddha with a full head of hair.

What is going on? Can the Buddha be feeling these things?

It is inescapable that, whatever the reading, according to the early texts the Buddha did not have “normal” genitals. And the only reading actually supported by a canonical text is that the Buddha was intersex, and his genitals looked like a woman’s.

If we study these teachings we will gain deeper understanding of how we should purify our own minds, and by studying the responses of the gods we can find models for our own behaviour in relation to the Master and his teaching.

A short survey of the Buddha’s interactions with the Devas.

In recognition of its pre-eminence among the Master’s epithets, the early Buddhist teachers and their successors have applied their wisdom and erudition to fathoming the multiple implications of this suggestive word.

… based on what can be culled from the Madhyama-āgama discourse in comparison with the other versions, it seems possible to arrive at a coherent narrative of [the founding] of the order of nuns.

This translation by T. W. Rhys Davids also contains his own introduction to the Jātakas, which remains worth a read even a century later.

I invite the reader to join me in a search for what could be found in the textual corpus of early Buddhist discourses

In the first chapter I investigate the bodhisattva conception as such, surveying relevant passages from the early discourses. With the second chapter I turn to the meeting between the previous Buddha Kāśyapa and the bodhisattva Gautama, examining the relation of this meeting to the notion of a vow the bodhisattva took to pursue the path to Buddhahood. The future Buddha Maitreya is the theme of the third chapter, in which I take up the notion of a prediction a bodhisattva receives in assurance of his future success.

… there’s no other ascetic or brahmin—whether past, future, or present—whose direct knowledge is superior to the Buddha

The Venerable Sāriputta extols the Buddha’s many remarkable qualities.

For a comparison of this sutta to its parallels, see DiSimone 2016.

… it is perhaps not so much the funeral itself, but rather the description which is so unusual and exceptional

The Mahāparinibbānasutta records funeral rites in more detail than any (even roughly) contemporary Indic text. This paper explores how far we may trust its description and what causes may explain its uniqueness in ancient Indian literature.

Suppose a man were struck by an arrow thickly smeared with poison.

For a more detailed, comparative analysis including a practice guide, see Bhikkhu Analayo’sarticle: “Gradual Entry into Emptiness”.

And even those disciples of his who fall out with their companions in the holy life and abandon the training to return to the low life—even they praise the Master and the Dhamma and the Sangha; they blame themselves instead of others, saying: “We were unlucky, we have little merit”

The ascetic Sakuludāyin is amazed at how revered the Buddha is by his disciples, and the Buddha explains why his disciples love and respect him so dearly:

Udāyin, when my disciples have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, prey to suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering, and I satisfy their minds

The Buddha then goes on to enumerate in detail the path of tranquility meditation and its fruits, including several uncommon lists, such as the eight liberations and the ten kasiṇas, the perfection of which is the ultimate reason the Sangha honors and respects their teacher.

Note that the “uncommon lists” here aren’t found in this sutta’s Chinese parallel and are somewhat out of proportion to the rest of the sutta, suggesting that they are late additions.

Recollecting that nun’s faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom, [one] applies her mind to that end. This is how a nun lives at ease.

The Buddha interrogates a group of shy monks, and explains why he reveals the attainments of his disciples.

Mendicants, there are four areas where the Realized One has nothing to hide, and three ways he is irreproachable.

“Why, exactly, do you teach some people thoroughly and others less thoroughly?”

The chief Asibandhakaputta asks the Buddha why, if he has equal compassion for all, he teaches some more than others. The Buddha answers with a simile of a field: a farmer knows to put most of their effort into the fertile land.

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.

… literalism, if not originating from artistic representations, would certainly have been encouraged by them.

Venerable Anālayo makes a compelling argument that fire miracles in the Canon came from symbolism and early Buddhist artistic motifs that came to be taken too literally, showing one example of how early Buddhist art influenced the texts.

Note: The above PDF link is missing Chapter 40. You can read the missing chapter online here.

You can also listen to this essay on YouTube.