If you take pleasure in consciousness, you take pleasure in suffering.

One truly sees any kind of form at all—past, future, or present; internal or external; solid or subtle; inferior or superior; far or near: all form—with right understanding: ‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’

Rāhula asks how to see so that conceit no longer occurs. The Buddha teaches him to investigate the five aggregates in terms of not-self.

Form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness. These are called the things that should be completely understood. And what is complete understanding? The ending of greed, hate, and delusion.

Even the Stream Enterer and Anāgāmīn understanding of the Aggregates is provisional. Only the Arahant completely understands the Five Aggregates.

And who is the bearer of the burden [of the five aggregates]? The individual (puggalo), it should be said;

This infamous passage became a point of contention centuries after the Buddha, as the “Pudgalavādins” argued that the “puggalo” here was an ultimately real being “neither identical with nor separate from the aggregates” — a position which earned them much ridicule from the Theravādins.

But, if we don’t read this passage as metaphysical, how should we read it?

Bhante Sujato, in his notes on this translation, proposes that we read this sutta instead as a reformulation of the Four Noble Truths, with “bearing the burden” here meaning not “what metaphysical entity owns the aggregates” but rather, “who is responsible for them?”

Experiencing revulsion, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion his mind is liberated.

The five aggregates are burning.

Monks, there are these three effluents. Which three?

A short poem on the ending of the out-flows.

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.

But because consciousness is painful—soaked and steeped in pain and not steeped in pleasure—sentient beings do grow disillusioned with it. Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they are purified. This is a cause and reason for the purification of sentient beings.

Mahāli the Licchavi reports to the Buddha that the rival teacher Pūraṇa Kassapa asserts that there is no reason for beings to be either defiled or pure. The Buddha denies this, and goes on to explain how it happens.

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.

Is the one who acts the same as the one who experiences the result?

Fed and fuelled by that, the great tree would stand for a long time.

When Ānanda suggests that dependent origination is simple, the Buddha rebukes him and explains how stable and hard to eradicate it is with the simile of a great tree.

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.

those wanderers who followed other religions, unable to bear the esteem of the mendicant Sangha, abused, attacked, harassed, and troubled the mendicants…

How a wise meditator views abusive speech.

When you live with good friends, good companions, and good associates, you should live supported by one thing: diligence in wholesome qualities.

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

Just as a fine thoroughbred steed…

Bhikkhu, if one teaches the Dhamma for the purpose of revulsion towards the eye, for its fading away and cessation, one can be called a bhikkhu who is a speaker on the Dhamma.

if occasionally, due to a lapse of mindfulness, evil unwholesome memories and intentions connected with the fetters arise in him, slow might be the arising of his mindfulness, but then he quickly abandons them, dispels them, puts an end to them

The Buddha urges mendicants to be free of desire for the six senses, giving a series of vivid similes.

Not grasping what’s impermanent, suffering, and perishable, would people think ‘I’m better’ or ‘I’m equal’ or ‘I’m worse’?

Conceit stems from clinging to the senses and their impressions.

I have seen, bhikkhus, the hell named ‘Contact’s Sixfold Base.’

A monk disjoined from the fetter of delight is said to be a person who is living alone.

The Buddha defines “living alone” as living detached from relishing the six senses and their objects.

Bhikkhus, these six bases for contact—if untamed, unguarded, unprotected, unrestrained—are bringers of suffering.

A series of verses encouraging us to guard well our senses.

Mendicants, the eye of the past and future is impermanent, let alone the present.

the Dhamma for abandoning all

The faculty of conviction, the faculty of persistence, the faculty of mindfulness, the faculty of concentration, & the faculty of discernment.

The Buddha defines the Five Spiritual Faculties (indriya).

through nonclinging find delight
In the relinquishment of grasping

The eightfold path leads from the near to the far shore.

Those bhikkhus who are accomplished in virtue, accomplished in concentration, accomplished in wisdom, accomplished in liberation, accomplished in the knowledge and vision of liberation: even the sight of those bhikkhus is helpful

A description of the path, from hearing the good teachings up to enlightenment explained via the seven awakening factors.

Bhikkhus, I do not see even one other thing that, when developed and cultivated, leads to the abandoning of the things that fetter so effectively as this

What fetters one? And what leads to release?

Bhikkhus, when the mind becomes excited, it is timely to develop the enlightenment factor of tranquillity…

…the sign of the beautiful: frequently giving careless attention to it is the nutriment for the arising of unarisen sensual desire…

Just as the body depends on food, the hindrances and the awakening factors feed on specific nutriments. In this sutta, the Buddha gives the specific condition for each of these mental qualities.

Mendicants, there are four ways of practice. What four?

1. Painful practice with slow insight,
2. painful practice with swift insight,
3. pleasant practice with slow insight, and
4. pleasant practice with swift insight.

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.

What’s the cause for the development of the bases of psychic power?

if you practice fully you succeed fully. If you practice partially you succeed partially. These five faculties are not a waste…

… that wise, competent, skilful bhikkhu picks up the sign of his own mind.

Like a cook, a meditator must attend to the signs of their success.

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…

Giving food you give strength.
Giving clothes you give beauty.

A few verses on the results of giving particularly praising the giving of shelter.

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.

Formerly, when this young deva was a human being, he undertook faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and wisdom…

The devas complained when a poor man was reborn in heaven, even outshining them!

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.

A discussion and Pāli edition of this text’s (16th century? Cambodian?) commentary by Venerable Ñāṇamaṅgala can be found on Academia.edu, here.

The collection notably includes a northern version of Ven. Nāgasena’s conversion of King Milinda (111, Fascicle 9) as well as many stories about Gandhara.

Wherever the mind feels confidence, great king.

“Where should I give” and “Where is a gift very fruitful” are two different questions.

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.

Master Gotama, I have four sons. At their wives’ order my sons chased me out from my house.

The Buddha gives him a verse to recite in the village council, contrasting his faithless sons to his trusty wooden staff. Ashamed, the sons take back their father.

One who betters their birth, one who equals their birth, and one who fails their birth.

What is the abode of wealth?
What drags a person around?

… if this person were to die at this time, as if carried there he would be placed in heaven.

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.

That was not the earth splitting open, Samiddhi. That was Mara…

When Māra repeatedly pesters the monk Samiddhi when he is on retreat, the Buddha encourages him to press on in his practice.

How does one cross over the flood?
How does one cross over the ocean?

A yakkha demon challenges the Buddha with riddles and threatens to “hurl out his mind, rip open his heart, or hurl him across the River Ganges” if he doesn’t solve the riddles to the yakkha’s satisfaction.

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.

Cintākavi, sutakavi, atthakavi, paṭibhānakavi

The four kinds of poets.

No ties torment one who has nothing

A series of Satullapa gods address the Buddha in verse.

Having flown across the sky,
the birds resort to this delightful base

… as a fragile bridge of reeds…

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!’

Live like a suckling babe,
for Death has not come for you.

The Buddha says that life is short.

Mendicants, when what exists, because of grasping what and insisting on what, does the view arise: ‘The one who acts does nothing wrong…’

Clinging to different aggregates yields very different philosophies, but all trend towards moral nihilism.

How is Māra defined?

Those who see it like this see rightly.

‘Fisherman’ is a term for Māra the Wicked. ‘Hook’ is a term for possessions, honor, and popularity.

How is it possible that my husband detests me?

Karotha buddhasāsanaṁ
Do what the Buddha taught…

A poem which humbly and brilliantly summarizes the Buddhist path at all its various levels.

When one’s ferverous nature has been laid down…

Vaḍḍha, do not get caught
in the endless thicket of the world…

I was a householder
when I heard the Dhamma…

How does being a woman have anything to do
with a well-collected mind?

Why do you live as if lost?

I used to pay homage to constellations,
worshiping fire in the forest…

I wandered here and there,
jealous…

to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha I go…

Though I’m skinny,
sick, and feeble…

… right by my child’s half-eaten flesh.

Offerings should be given for the dead

The book itself starts with a “matika,” a list of classifications of dhammas, which are ideas or phenomena. It includes 22 three-fold and 100 two-fold classifications by the Abhidhamma method and 42 by the Sutta method. The main content is divided into four parts: the first covers states of mind, the second covers material phenomena, the third explains the matika classifications using the first two parts, and the fourth further elaborates on these classifications, excluding the Sutta method’s two-fold classifications.

… he suffered painful, sharp, severe, and acute feelings, which he endured unbothered, with mindfulness and awareness.

have a good morning

What is so dear to you about contemplatives?

The story of Rohinī’s conversion.

now old, it has become like hemp bark—
the word of the truthful one is confirmed.

A guided meditation on the aging body.

… feeble, leaning on a staff.

Your passion has been appeased
like a dry vegetable in a pot.

The rain falls and the wind blows…

Crested peacocks…

birth to even more goodness…

If evil unwholesome states that have arisen in me are not abandoned, this may lead to my harm.

Sāriputta approaches Kassapa and asks how it is that only someone who is keen and conscientious can realize freedom.

These are the five benefits of good conduct.

Oh so well was the goad
shown to me by my mother…

A monk celebrates the wise women in his life.

I’ve entered the path to realize freedom from death

One who gets drowsy from overeating

In the past my mind wandered how it wished…

What is this hullabaloo to you?

A fun, simple poem to learn in the original Pāḷi.

I stepped up on the path for walking meditation…

one accomplished in vision is a disciple of the Buddha.

Venerables, how does a noble disciple have right perspective?

Venerable Sāriputta gives a detailed explanation of Right View, the first factor of the noble eightfold path. At the prompting of the other mendicants, he approaches the topic from a wide range of perspectives.

They must have done a good deed to be experienced as pleasant either previously or later, or else at the time of death they undertook Right View. And that’s why, when their body broke up, after death, they were reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.

When Samiddhi presented an poorly distilled summary of the Buddha’s teachings to an outsider (saying that all deeds ultimately result in suffering), the Buddha corrected him by emphasizing the nuances of how karma can play out over multiple lifetimes.

It smashes the mechanism of deeds,
And drops the thunderbolt of knowledge
On the taking up of consciousnesses.

A poem extolling the virtues of the Noble Eightfold Path.

Let him be able, and upright and straight,
Easy to speak to, gentle, and not proud…

“What should be done” by us Buddhists.

Those who thus abide, ever remain invincible, in happiness established. These are the greatest blessings.

I’ll stay in the grove.

What, bhikkhus, is old kamma? The eye is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition…

I saw this population flounder,
like a fish in a little puddle.
Seeing them fight each other,
fear came upon me.

The Buddha speaks in poignant terms of the saṁvega that led him to leave the household life. He concludes with recommendations for practice and a description of the person who has attained the goal.

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?

Mendicants, do you see Sāriputta walking together with several mendicants? … All of those mendicants have great wisdom.

Beings come together because of a common element.

I cleared my divine eye and divine ear element to communicate with the Blessed One.

Moggallāna tells Sāriputta about his day’s practice.

A faithful laywoman with a dear and beloved only son would rightly appeal to him: …

Venerable Vaṅgīsa thought, ‘This Venerable Sāriputta is educating the mendicants…’

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.

The well-behaved have many friends,
because of their self-restraint.
But one lacking ethics, of bad conduct,
drives away their friends.

Ethical conduct is the starting point and foundation;
the mother at the head
of all good things:
that’s why you should purify your ethics.

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, meditate in retreat. A mendicant in retreat truly understands.

Mendicants, a mendicant practicing mindfulness of breathing who has five things will soon penetrate the unshakable.

Get up and meditate!
What’s the point in your sleeping?

Don’t let an opportunity for practice pass you by.

The meditator skilled in immersion and in remaining in it is the foremost…

Here, with the subsiding of thought and examination, a bhikkhu enters and dwells in the second jhana, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without thought and examination, and has rapture and happiness born of concentration. This is called noble silence.

Moggallāna reflects that the second absorption—where thought stops—is the true “noble silence,” and the Buddha encourages him to develop it.

Giving and moral conduct,
developing a mind of love…

The three grounds for meritorious activity.

One is unripe but seems ripe,
One is ripe but seems unripe…

Four people similar to mangoes.

If you don’t answer me, I’ll drive you insane…

The famous story of the spirit Āḷavaka, who tries to bully the Buddha, but is soon converted through a surprisingly insightful series of questions and answers. This discourse provided the background for several elaborate legends in the later traditions.

Bhikkhus, those beings are thoroughly deprived who are deprived of noble wisdom.

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.

Just now, reverend, as I was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain I saw a skeleton flying through the air.

While walking for alms down Vulture’s Peak, Venerable Moggallāna smiled at something invisible. The Buddha confirmed that the man he had seen had been a butcher in his past life.

Beings go to a bad bourn
Because of mind’s corruption.

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.

Being censured in this way by the Teacher, by wise companions in the holy life, by gods, and by himself, he realises no superhuman state, no distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones. Why is that? That is how it is with one who does not fulfil the training in the Teacher’s Dispensation.

Venerable Bhaddāli refuses to follow the rule forbidding eating after noon, but is eventually filled with remorse and confesses to the Buddha who stresses the importance of following the monastic rules before forgiving him.

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 wise person would not be too sure of themselves,
Until they have attained the end…

Someone who formerly lived alone
and then resorts to sex
is like a chariot careening off-track;

The drawbacks of falling away from the celibate life.

One such as that is
like a sewer
brimful with years of filth
for it’s hard to clean one full of grime.

The Buddha encourages the monks to just expell those who are wicked and stubborn.

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.

Again & again farmers plow the fields.
Again & again grain comes to the kingdom.

The Buddha is invited to return home after his enlightenment.

When mindfulness of breathing is well-established internally in front of you, there will be no distressing external thoughts or wishes. When you meditate observing the impermanence of all conditions, ignorance is given up and knowledge arises.

A pithy summary of the path.

The fleshly eye, the divine eye, and the wisdom eye. These, bhikkhus, are the three eyes.

You are my children, my sons, born from my mouth, born of the Dhamma…

The Buddha compares himself and his disciples to the Brahmins, and encourages his community to be as open-handed with the Dhamma as he was.

Devadatta,
–regarded as wise, composed,
incandescent with honor–
in the thrall of heedlessness
assaulted the Tathāgata…

Conquered by three forms of false Dhamma, Devadatta was incurably doomed to hell.

Bhikkhus, the formless is more peaceful than the form realm, and cessation is more peaceful than the formless.

Mendicants, don’t fear good deeds. For ‘good deeds’ is a term for happiness…

The Buddha recalls the results he himself has experienced from doing meritorious deeds.

Walking together, dwelling as one,
the knowledge master mixes with foolish folk.

One of the Buddha’s attendants learns to listen to the Buddha’s advice.

He should dedicate an offering
To the deities there.
Venerated, they venerate him

A few verses on how to become “beloved of the gods” get a framing narrative glorifying the Magadha Kingdom.

Many Buddhist kingdoms (down to the present day) create (or promote) apocryphal stories to justify their Buddhist bona fides, and this sutta may be such an example from King Ashoka’s time.

The Nibbāna element with residue remaining (Sōpādisesa Nibbāna) and the Nibbāna element with no residue remaining (Anupādisesa Nibbāna).

The accumulation
of a single person’s
bones for an eon
would be a heap
on a par with a mountain

It’s hard to see the unaffected…

Then the Blessed One, realizing his own abandoning of the perceptions & categories of objectification, on that occasion exclaimed…

Then at that time many moths rushing and falling down into those oil lamps, were coming to grief, were coming to ruin.

Like moths to the flame, living beings are draw to appearances at their own peril.

Then at that time the Gracious One was sitting reflecting on his own abandonment of countless bad, unwholesome things, and how through development countless wholesome things had come to fulfilment.

..accepting gold and money, it’s hard for you to know who is perfected or on the path to perfection.

How to judge another person’s spiritual character.

False pundits, totally muddled…

Evil, for the evil, is easy to do.

Devadatta announces that he will cause a split in the Sangha.

A wise man in the world of the living should avoid bad deeds.

Reflection Questions:

1. What was the cause of this man’s leprosy?
2. How does the Buddha treat him?
3. What attitude towards lepers does this sutta encourage us to have?

this not being, that is not;
from the cessation of this, that ceases.

Dependent Origination is the answer to this famously pithy Dharma summary.

This not being, that is not;
from the cessation of this, that ceases.

The Buddha, soon after awakening, utters this famous and pithy summary of the Dhamma.

All his doubts then vanish since he understands
Each thing along with its cause.

The Buddha, soon after awakening, summarizes what it is he awakened to.

I have taught the Dhamma, Ānanda, without making a distinction between inside and outside. The Tathagata has no closed fist of a teacher in regard to the teachings.

The Buddha overcomes an illness and gives Ānanda a sermon on how he leads the Saṅgha—and how the Saṅgha should function after he’s gone.

The compassionate one, who sees the ending of rebirth,
understands the one-way path.

Just after the Buddha’s awakening, Brahmā Sahampati supports the Buddha’s reflection that the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are the way to nibbāna.

Whatever Arahants, Perfectly Enlightened Ones arose in the past, all those Blessed Ones had first abandoned the five hindrances, corruptions of the mind and weakeners of wisdom; and then, with their minds well established in the four establishments of mindfulness, they had developed correctly the seven factors of enlightenment; and thereby they had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment.

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.

This sutra builds on themes found in Early Buddhist texts such as the Natha Sutta (AN 10.17) giving an example of how later Buddhists texts evolved from earlier ones.

One who does not seek delight in suffering, I say, is freed from suffering.

If you enjoy the six senses, you enjoy suffering.

Since thoughts are produced by what is not-self, how could they be self?

I do not dispute with the world; rather, it is the world that disputes with me.

The Buddha explains that he doesn’t teach that nothing exists.

Friends, even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters, still, in relation to the five aggregates subject to clinging, there lingers in him a residual conceit ‘I am,’ a desire ‘I am,’ an underlying tendency ‘I am’ that has not yet been uprooted.

Venerable Khemaka is ill, and some senior mendicants ask Dāsaka to convey their concern to him. There follows a series of exchanges mediated by Dāsaka until eventually Khemaka, despite his illness, goes to see the other mendicants himself.

… freed by not grasping: they are well freed. Those who are well freed are consummate ones. For consummate ones, there is no cycle of rebirths to be found.

How the Four Noble Truths illuminate the Five Aggregates.

Seeing rightly, they grow disillusioned. When relishing ends, greed ends.

Right view is seeing the aggregates as they are: impermanent.

With the fading away of ignorance and the arising of true knowledge, ‘I am’ does not occur to him; ‘I am this’ does not occur to him; ‘I will be’ and ‘I will not be’…

When you identify anything as self, you always identify one or another of the five aggregates.

When one holds no more views concerning the past, one holds no more views concerning the future.

How penetrating the aggregates leads to liberation.

What is the gratification, what is the danger, what is the escape in the case of feeling … perception … volitional formations … consciousness?

How the Buddha investigated the aggregates.

‘What does your teacher say, what does he teach?’ Being asked thus, friends, you should answer: ‘Our teacher, friends, teaches the removal of desire and lust.’

A number of mendicants are heading for lands West, but the Buddha advises them to speak with Sāriputta before they go. Sāriputta teaches them how to reply to inquiries into their beliefs.

Just as, Kassapa, gold does not disappear so long as counterfeit gold has not arisen in the world, but when counterfeit gold arises then true gold disappears, so the true Dhamma does not disappear so long as a counterfeit of the true Dhamma has not arisen in the world, but when a counterfeit of the true Dhamma arises in the world, then the true Dhamma disappears.

Kassapa asks the Buddha why there are now more rules but fewer awakened mendicants. The Buddha explains the five factors that lead to the decline of the religion.

‘Your outer robe of patches is soft, Kassapa.’–‘Venerable sir, let the Blessed One accept my outer robe of patches, out of compassion.’–‘Then will you wear my worn-out hempen rag-robes? ’–‘I will, venerable sir.’ Thus I offered the Blessed One my outer robe of patches and received from him his worn-out hempen rag-robes.

When several of Ānanda’s students disrobe, Kassapa admonishes him, calling him “boy”. The nun Thullanandā hears of this and criticizes Kassapa, claiming he formerly followed another teacher. But Kassapa refutes this, and gives an account of his going forth and encounter with the Buddha.

But that which is called ‘mind’ and ‘sentience’ and ‘consciousness’ arises as one thing and ceases as another by day and by night.

An ignorant person might become free of attachment to their body, but not their mind. Still, it would be better to attach to the body, as it is at less changeable than the mind, which jumps about like a monkey.

Bhikkhus, I will teach you the origin and the passing away of suffering. Listen to that and attend closely, I will speak.

Sense contact gives rise to craving… or to cessation.

Kassapa, if one thinks, ‘The one who acts is the same as the one who experiences the result,’ then one asserts with reference to one existing from the beginning: ‘Suffering is created by oneself.’ When one asserts thus, this amounts to eternalism.

A naked ascetic named Kassapa approaches the Buddha while he is on alms round and asks whether suffering is created by oneself, by another, by both, or by chance. Explaining why he rejects all these options, the Buddha asserts that suffering arises due to impersonal conditions.

Rāhula, what do you think? Is the eye permanent or impermanent?

The Buddha takes Rāhula with him to a secluded spot in order to lead him on to liberation.

What if I were to dwell in dependence on this very Dhamma to which I have fully awakened, honoring & respecting it?

What a Buddha bows to.

Open are the doors to the deathless!
Let those with ears show their faith

After his awakening, the Buddha hesitated to teach, thinking that the Dhamma is too subtle for people to understand. But Brahmā Sahampati appears and encourages him to teach, pointing out that there are those with “little dust in their eyes” who will understand the teachings.

Take a golden mountain,
made entirely of gold, and double it—
it’s still not enough for one!

The Buddha wonders whether it is possible to rule justly, without violence. Māra appears and encourages the Buddha to try it.

Then Mara the Evil One, in the presence of the Blessed One, recited these verses of disappointment…

He laments his failure with the similes of a crab whose limbs are smashed and a crow who tried to eat a stone.

You can get to know a person’s ethics by living with them. But only after a long time, not casually; only when attentive, not when inattentive; and only by the wise, not by the witless.

A diverse group of ascetics passes by, and Pasenadi asks the Buddha if any of them are perfected.

Of these Four Noble Truths, there is one to be completely understood, one to be abandoned, one to be realized, and one to be developed.

The seer of the destruction of birth,
Compassionate, knows the one-way path

Brahma Sahampati praises the Buddha’s reflections on the power of Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation.

Bhikkhus, I will teach you the origination and the passing away of the four establishments of mindfulness. Listen…

A profound sutta helping us understand what the Buddha meant by the four satipaṭṭhāna.

They’d look because of grasping, not by not grasping. In the same way, the notion “I am” occurs because of grasping form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness, not by not grasping.

Ānanda praises Venerable Puṇṇa Mantāniputta, and says that it was when hearing his teaching on the aggregates that he broke through to the Dhamma.

And why, bhikkhus, do you call it form? ‘It is deformed,’ bhikkhus, therefore it is called form.

The Buddha explains how to view rebirth.

But the single mass of water at that time was utterly dark. The moon and sun were not found, nor were stars and constellations, day and night, months and fortnights, years and seasons, or male and female. Beings were simply known as ‘beings’. After a very long period had passed, the earth’s substance curdled in the water. It appeared just like the curd on top of hot milk-rice as it cools. It was beautiful …

In contrast with the brahmin’s self-serving mythologies of the past, the Buddha presents an account of evolution that shows how our choices are an integral part of the world.

These four noble truths are real, not unreal, with no alteration. That is why they are called ‘noble truths.’

‘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.”

Remote jungle-thicket resting places in the forest are hard to endure, seclusion is hard to practise, and it is hard to enjoy solitude.

The Buddha explains the difficulties of living in the wilderness, and how they are overcome by purity of conduct and meditation. He recounts some of the fears and obstacles he faced during his own practice and how he overcame them all.

Why am I afraid of that pleasure that has nothing to do with sensual pleasures and unwholesome states?

The Buddha responds to a follower of another religion with a long account of the various austerities he practiced before awakening, detailing the astonishing lengths he took to learn the truth of the body and feelings.

Though many creatures crawl about,
Many terrors, flies, serpents,
The great sage gone to his empty hut
Stirs not a hair because of them.

Māra manifests as a huge serpent, but the Buddha remains unshaken.

The nights and days do not afflict me,
I see for myself no decline in the world.

The Buddha rests after being struck by stone splinters, and though Māra criticizes him for being lazy, the Buddha rests easy.

Where name-and-form ceases,
Stops without remainder,
And also impingement and perception of form:
It is here this tangle is cut.

This generation is all tangled up like a nest of matted hair. Who can untangle this mess and how?

When those seven days have passed, having emerged from their hiding places and embraced each other, they will come together and cry in one voice, ‘Fantastic, dear foe, you live!’

In illustration of his dictum that one should rely on oneself, the Buddha gives a detailed account of the fall of a kingly lineage of the past, and the subsequent degeneration of society. This process, however, is not over, as the Buddha predicts that eventually society will fall into utter chaos. But far in the far future, another Buddha, Metteyya, will arise in a time of peace and plenty.

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.

Bhikkhus, this body is not yours, nor does it belong to others. It is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt.

Formerly, Anurādha, and also now, I teach just suffering and the cessation of suffering.

Venerable Anurādha is questioned by a number of ascetics, and ends up by saying that the Realized One is described in terms other than “existing after death” and so on. The wanderers say he’s a fool, so he checks with the Buddha, who says that a Realized One is not even apprehended in this life, so how can he be described after death?

Ven. Sunyo on D&D makes a compelling argument that the Buddha’s final statement here is meant categorically, not pedagogically.

The grass, sticks, branches, and leaves of India would run out before that person’s mothers and grandmothers.

Saṃsāra has been going round for a long, long time.

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.

Is this venerable one restrained without fear, not restrained by fear, and does he avoid indulging in sensual pleasures because he is without lust through the destruction of lust?

The Buddha gives a thorough and exacting method for those who wish to investigate his qualifications as a spiritual teacher.

The wardens of hell punish them with the five-fold crucifixion. They drive red-hot stakes through the hands and feet, and another in the middle of the chest. And there they feel painful, sharp, severe, acute feelings—but they don’t die until that bad deed is eliminated.

A fool suffers both in this life and the next, while the astute benefits in both respects.

who has confidence in the Saṅgha,
and correct view:
they’re said to be prosperous,
their life is not in vain.

The four factors of stream entry.

What do you think, mendicants? Which is more: the little bit of dirt under my fingernail, or this great earth?

The Buddha explains the fruit of Stream Entry.

When a noble disciple has wisdom, the faith, energy, mindfulness, and immersion that follow along with that become stabilized.

Having developed wisdom a mendicant is awakened.

dwell with a mind in which conceit has been struck down

The six senses are like a sheaf of barley struck with six flails; and the desire for rebirth is a seventh. The Buddha goes on to speak of a cunning trap set by the gods; but the trap of Māra is even more subtle still.

He should not conceive [I am] the all, should not conceive [I am] in all, should not conceive [I come] from the all, should not conceive, ‘All is mine.’

Being stirred by craving is painful, so the Realized One lives unstirred, not identifying with any aspect of sense experience.

There is no eye, Phagguna, by means of which one describing the Buddhas of the past could describe them…

Worth keeping in mind that the suttas (like Iti 61) enumerate three kinds of eye: “The flesh eye, the divine eye, and the eye of wisdom.” The Buddha here says that not even the heavenly eye or the dhamma eye can describe the past Buddhas.

What is the cause, sir, what is the reason why some sentient beings aren’t fully extinguished in the present life?

If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them, their consciousness relies on that and grasps it. A mendicant with grasping does not become extinguished.

… body and mind are impermanent, decaying, and perishing. Someone who has faith and confidence in these teachings is called a follower by faith.

They can’t die without realizing the fruit of stream-entry.

The Buddha defines the two types of “little stream winners”: the faith follower and the dhamma follower.

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.

Householder, the limitless release of the heart, and the release of the heart through nothingness, and the release of the heart through emptiness, and the signless release of the heart: do these things differ in both meaning and phrasing? Or do they mean the same thing, and differ only in the phrasing?

Venerable Godatta asks Citta the householder a difficult question about the meditative attainments.

[He] who is released through right gnosis often dwells with a mind well-established in these four establishings of mindfulness.

Sāriputta asks why Anuruddha looks so bright, and he replies that it is due to developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, explaining that (and demonstrating why) even Arahants continue to practice the Four Satipaṭṭhāna.

[He dwells] by night as by day, and by day as by night. By means of an awareness thus open & unhampered, he develops a brightened mind.

The Buddha teaches the bases for psychic power and analyzes them in detail.

They formerly had the desire to attain perfection, but when they attained perfection the corresponding desire faded away.

The Venerable Ānanda explains to the Brahmin Uṇṇābha how the right kind of desire leads to the end of desire.

Just as I must eventually forsake this life,
So too must I take leave of relatives and friends.
When I must go alone on death’s uncertain journey,
What concern to me are all these enemies and allies?

A verse translation of chapter 2 from the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra on confessing to the wider universe of enlightened beings.

I declare, Vaccha, rebirth for one with fuel, not for one without fuel.

The Buddha explains his position on rebirth, including how the state between rebirths is possible.

All dhammas are unworthy of attachment.

He sees forms as something separate. He sees eye-consciousness as something separate. He sees eye-contact as something separate. And whatever arises in dependence on eye-contact—experienced either as pleasure, as pain, or as neither-pleasure-nor-pain—that too he sees as something separate.

A meditator must overcome ignorance directly.

The eye is yours, Evil One, forms are yours, eye-contact and its base of consciousness are yours; but, Evil One, where there is no eye, no forms, no eye-contact and its base of consciousness—there is no place for you there

While the mendicants are listening to the teachings, Māra takes the form of a farmer looking for lost oxen.

Mara the Evil One manifested himself in the form of an ox and approached those almsbowls.

Which is more valuable? An almsbowl, or a teaching from the Buddha?

someone who has gained a footing
and stands on dry land
need not strive

Dāmali the god suggests that a true brahmin must strive to abandon desire. The Buddha disagrees, saying that a true brahmin already has.

Once upon a time, I was a seer called Rohitassa of the Bhoja people. I was a sky-walker with psychic powers. I was as fast as a light arrow easily shot across the shadow of a palm tree…

… there’s no making an end of suffering without reaching the end of the world. For it is in this fathom-long carcass with its perception and mind that I describe the world, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.

For Venerable Ānanda’s exegesis of this sutta, see SN 35.116.

… he understands: ‘I feel a feeling terminating with life.’ He understands: ‘With the breakup of the body, following the exhaustion of life, all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here; mere bodily remains will be left.’

A mendicant (whether enlightened or not!) should thoroughly investigate the causes of their suffering until they see for themselves how it is dependently arisen.

Some suffering ceases with nibbāna, but all with parinibbāna.

‘All exists’: this is the oldest cosmology, brahmin.

The Buddha rejects all such views as too extreme.

Bhikkhus, what one intends, and what one plans, and whatever one has a tendency towards: this becomes a basis for the maintenance of consciousness.

When, bhikkhus, a noble disciple has clearly seen with correct wisdom as it really is this dependent origination and these dependently arisen phenomena, it is impossible that he will run back into the past, thinking: ‘Did I exist in the past? Did I not exist in the past? What was I …’

How is it, Master Gotama: are pleasure and pain created by oneself?

The Buddha wins over a wanderer by giving a more nuanced understanding of karma.

In a dramatic continuation of the story, Ven. Vakkali is then taken to the Black Rock on Isigili, where he declares that he has no attachment to the aggregates and proceeds to take his own life.

Now on that occasion the following pernicious view had arisen in a bhikkhu named Yamaka: “As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, a bhikkhu whose taints are destroyed is annihilated and perishes with the breakup of the body and does not exist after death.”

Convinced by the Venerable Sāriputta that the aggregates are already not-self, Yamaka lets go of his mistaken view and sees the Dhamma.

Bhikkhus, this is the lowest form of livelihood, that is, gathering alms. In the world this is a term of abuse: ‘You alms-gatherer; you roam about with a begging bowl in your hand!’ And yet, bhikkhus, clansmen intent on the good take up that way of life for a valid reason.

The Buddha reminds a group of wayward monks why they went forth.

Bhikkhus, one who is engaged is unliberated.

It was with the ambrosia of such a Dhamma talk, venerable sir, that the Blessed One anointed me.

The householder Nakulapitā asks the Buddha for help in coping with old age. The Buddha says to reflect: “Even though I am afflicted in body, my mind will be unafflicted.” Later Sāriputta explains this unattachment to the five aggregates.

… what is that due to apart from seeing things as they really are?

The Buddha teaches a householder named Soṇa about the nature of the five aggregates and conceit.

… the suffering that’s over and done with is more, what’s left is tiny.

For someone who has seen the truth (i.e. attained Stream Entry), the suffering eliminated is comparable to the Himalayas; what remains is just seven bits of gravel.

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.

For the independent there’s no agitation. When there’s no agitation there is tranquility.

Nibbāna is true independence.

… no coming or going or remaining or passing away or reappearing. It is not established, does not proceed, and has no support. Just this is the end of suffering.

The nature of Nibbāna especially as differentiated from the (other) attainments of Samādhi.

Meghiya, when the heart’s release is not ripe, five things help it ripen. What five? Firstly, a mendicant has good friends…

A monk leaves the Buddha to go into solitude, only to find his mind overcome by unskillful thoughts. When he asks the Buddha about this, he gets a heartfelt summary of the entire path.

Of the ascetics and brahmins who say that through annihilation of existence one escapes from continued existence, none have themselves escaped from continued existence, I say.

Shortly after awakening, the Buddha contemplates rebirth.

May the Buddha not be hot or cold, nor be bothered by flies …

Shortly after the Buddha’s awakening, Nāga Mucalinda protects him from a storm—a striking image that would inspire artists for thousands of years.

Sensual search, the search for being,
The search for a holy life …

searches
And the origin of searches,
Where they cease and the path…

… by not grasping anything he should remain undisturbed.

The Buddha’s pithy instructions to samma-samādhi.

But by fully understanding what is expressed
One does not misconceive the speaker.

Four translations of this sutta from John Ireland, Ajahn Geoff, SuttaFriends, and Bhante Sujato respectively showing how Pāḷi poetry can often be translated in various ways.

Greed is that one thing, bhikkhus. Abandon that and I guarantee you non-return.

Abandoning greed is most, though not all, of the path.

Bhikkhus, held by two kinds of views, some devas and human beings hold back and some overreach; only those with vision see.

How craving for being or annihilation blind us to dependent origination.

A ‘position,’ Vaccha, is something that a Tathāgata has done away with.

Refusing to take a stance regarding useless metaphysical speculations, the Buddha illustrates the spiritual goal with the simile of a flame going out.

But because it is known by me, seen, found, realised, contacted by wisdom thus: ‘Here, when someone feels a certain kind of pleasant feeling, unwholesome states increase in him and wholesome states diminish,’ that I therefore say: ‘Abandon such a kind of pleasant feeling.’

The Buddha admonishes a group of monks who refused to give up eating in the afternoon with a unique teaching on the stages of the path.

… for a long time you have learned the teachings, remembering them, reciting them, mentally scrutinizing them, and comprehending them theoretically. But a disciple should value following the Teacher, even if asked to go away …

A group of mendicants have taken to socializing too much, so the Buddha teaches on the importance of seclusion in order to enter into emptiness.

Surely, venerable sir, we are living in concord, with mutual appreciation, without disputing, blending like milk and water, viewing each other with kindly eyes.

The Buddha comes across three mendicants practicing diligently and harmoniously, and asks them how they do it. They explain how they skillfully deal with the practical affairs of living together. Only when pressed by the Buddha do they reveal their attainments.

With craving his companion, a man
wanders on a long, long time.

What can cause a monk to be reborn?

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?

King Pasenadi entered the dwelling. He prostrated himself at the Blessed One’s feet, and then he covered the Blessed One’s feet with kisses, caressing them with his hands and pronouncing his name…

King Pasenadi, near the end of his life, visits the Buddha, and pronounces the reasons for his devotion.

What kind of person does not torment himself, not being interested in self-torture, and does not torment others, not being interested in torturing others?

Contrasting the openness of animals with the duplicity of humans, The Buddha explains how to lead the religious life in a way that is truly admirable.

There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is pleasant now and ripens in the future as pain. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is painful now and ripens in the future as pain. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is painful now and ripens in the future as pleasure. There is a way of undertaking dhammas that is pleasant now and ripens in the future as pleasure.

The Buddha explains how taking up different practices can have different results. The memorable simile of the creeper shows how insidious temptations can be.

For Māra’s stream is breasted now
And nullified, its reeds removed;
Rejoice then, bhikkhus, mightily
And set your hearts where safety lies.

Drawing parallels with a cowherd guiding his herd across a dangerous river, the Buddha presents the various kinds of enlightened disciples who cross the stream of transmigration.

… he cuts its inner bark and takes it away, thinking it is heartwood; and so whatever it was he had to make with heartwood, his purpose will not be served.

After the incident with Devadatta, the Buddha cautions the mendicants against becoming complacent and points to liberation as the true heart of the teachings.

… all fixation is annihilated,
and the mass of darkness destroyed.

They had come to him glittering with beauty—
Taṇha, Arati, and Raga—
But the Teacher swept them away right there
As the wind, a fallen cotton tuft.

Depressed, Māra laments to his three daughters of his failure to distract the Buddha. So they take on the task themselves and assume a variety of sensuous forms to tempt him. But they fail too, and Māra castigates them for being so presumptuous

But those who have abandoned craving…

The three cravings and what it’s like to be beyond their grasp.

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.

When a bhikkhu dwells thus, he overwhelms forms; forms do not overwhelm him. He overwhelms sounds; sounds do not overwhelm him…

The Buddha is invited to teach in a new hall in Kapilavatthu. Late at night, after teaching the Sakyans, the Buddha invites Moggallāna to teach the monks, so he explains how to conquer Māra.

Bhikkhus, whether for a layperson or one gone forth, I praise the right way.

The wrong eightfold path is the wrong way; the right eightfold path is the right 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.

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.

… most of the people in Sāvatthī were excessively attached to sensual pleasures…

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.

Again & again one wearies & trembles.
Again & again the dullard goes to the womb.

A brahmin complains when the Buddha visits for alms many days in a row. The Buddha takes the chance to point out that all natural phenomena repeat in cycles, and only an awakened one escapes the cycle of rebirth.

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.

A newly ordained monk who entered the Buddha’s path out of faith, abandoning the home life, should live in the midst of monks. He should learn the code of conduct well.

… 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.

See how troubled are those with attachments…

… praised in this life by the astute,
they depart to rejoice in heaven.

The Buddha gives encouragement to a brahmin seeking alms for his parents.

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?

A diligent layperson observing these duties
Ascends to the gods called Self-luminous.

The proper code of conduct for followers of the Dhamma.

Abstaining from perceptions of sensuality,
overcoming all fetters,
having totally ended delight in becoming,
one doesn’t sink
into the deep.

The Buddha explains to a yakkha how one crosses over the flood.

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.

You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have
fourteen oxen
missing …

A brahmin is searching for his lost oxen when he sees the Buddha meditating peacefully in the forest. He laments the many sorrows of his life, celebrating the Buddha’s happiness and freedom from worldly sorrows.

A faithful laywoman with a dear and beloved only daughter would rightly appeal to her, ‘My darling, please be like the laywomen Khujjuttarā and Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda’s mother.’

Neither laywomen nor nuns should wish for possessions, honor, or fame.