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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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!

Wherever the mind feels confidence, great king.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

No ties torment one who has nothing

A series of Satullapa gods address the Buddha in verse.

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.

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.

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

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…’

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

… 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.

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.

The astute praise diligence in making merit.

Pasenadi asks the Buddha if there is one thing that secures benefit both in this life and the next.

The Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. It’s not easy to make it slant, slope, and incline to the west.

Even if kings beg them to disrobe, a mendicant who has developed the four kinds of mindfulness meditation is unmoved. Their mind flows to Nibbāna.

Mendicants, all the hard work that gets done depends on the earth…

… based upon virtue, established upon virtue, a bhikkhu develops and cultivates the seven factors of enlightenment…

Dragons nurture their strength in the Himalayas, then enter the rivers and reach the ocean. So too, a mendicant nurtures ethics and then develops the seven awakening factors to reach nibbāna.

Bhikkhus, suppose there is a guest house. People come from the east, west, north, and south and lodge there; khattiyas, brahmins, vessas…

Compare and contrast this sutta with the famous Rumi poem (translated by Coleman Barks) of the same title. Does the poem illuminate anything about the sutta? How does the sutta go beyond the poem?

When a bhikkhu develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path, his fetters easily collapse and rot away.

… when a bhikkhu develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path, whenever evil unwholesome states have arisen, he intercedes to disperse and quell them.

…when a bhikkhu develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path, whenever evil unwholesome states arise, he disperses them and quells them on the spot.

So too, bhikkhus, that a bhikkhu with a rightly directed view, with a rightly directed development of the path, could pierce ignorance…

Bhikkhus, just as a pot that has been turned upside down gives up its water and does not take it back…

A bhikkhu who develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path slants, slopes, and inclines towards Nibbāna.

Bhikkhus, based upon the Himalayas, the king of mountains, the nagas nurture their bodies and acquire strength.

And how, bhikkhus, does a bhikkhu, based upon virtue, established upon virtue, develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path?

… in the autumn, when the sky is clear and cloudless, the sun, ascending in the sky, dispels all darkness from space as it shines and beams…

See the first sutta in this repetition series for how to expand the ellipses in this sutta.

Of all kinds of fragrant flower, jasmine is said to be the best…

See the previous sutta and the one before that for how to expand the ellipses in this text, and see the next sutta for the continuation of this repetition series.

… the elephant’s footprint is declared to be the chief among them, that is, with respect to size, so too whatever wholesome states there are, they are all rooted in diligence…

See the previous sutta for how to expand the ellipses in this one, and see the next sutta for the continuation of this repetition series.

… 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

… with liberation as proximate cause, the knowledge of destruction.

A “tremendously important” sutta showing how liberation is also governed by the law of Dependent Origination.

For Bhikkhu Bodhi’s commentary on this sutta, see Transcendental Dependent Arising.

… seeking an argument, searching for an argument, thinking: ‘I will refute his thesis,’ it is impossible that he could make that bhikkhu shake…

No-one can refute you if you are well grounded in the four noble truths.

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…

Therefore, bhikkhus, an exertion should be made to understand…

As the dawn precedes the sunrise, right view precedes the penetration of the four noble truths.

Still, bhikkhus, the gross creatures in the ocean would not be exhausted even after all the grass, sticks, branches, and foliage in Jambudipa had been used up and exhausted. […] So vast, bhikkhus, is the plane of misery.

Your rebirths are more numerous than the leaves in India.

Rather, the breakthrough to the Four Noble Truths is accompanied only by happiness and joy.

Even more than if you’re being tortured with spikes, you should make an effort to realize Nibbāna.

And how does a bhikkhu who has a good friend develop and cultivate the Noble Eightfold Path?

Bhikkhus, if one’s clothes or head were ablaze, what should be done about it?

Even more than if your clothes are on fire, you should make an effort to understand the four noble truths.

Bhikkhus, just as a stick thrown up into the air falls now on its bottom, now on its top, so too beings roam and wander on…

Beings who have not seen the four noble truths roam on from one birth to another, like a stick thrown end over end.

Having made a basket of acacia leaves or of pine needles or of myrobalan leaves, I will bring water…

What do you think, bhikkhus, which is more numerous: these few siṁsapa leaves that I have taken up in my hand or those in the siṁsapa grove overhead?

The Buddha taught only a fraction of what he knows.

Suppose a stick was tossed up in the air. Sometimes it’d fall on its bottom, sometimes the middle, and sometimes the end. It’s the same for sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving.

Bhikkhus, there are huge trees with tiny seeds and huge bodies, encirclers of other trees, and the trees which they encircle become bent, twisted, and split.

… when some clansman here has left behind sensual pleasures and gone forth from the household life into homelessness, he becomes bent, twisted, and split because of those same sensual pleasures, or because of others worse than them.

The hindrances ensnare and ruin the mind.

Iron is a corruption of gold, corrupted by which gold is neither malleable nor wieldy nor radiant but brittle and not properly fit for work.

Hindrances sully the mind like impurities in gold.

When there are no bhikkhus who are exhorters: this is a case of decline.

The Buddha invites Kassapa to teach the mendicants, but he is reluctant, saying that the monks have become stubborn and their good qualities are in decline.

‘The straight way’ that path is called,
And ‘fearless’ is its destination.

To escape from the Forest of Delusion, one needs the vehicle of the Dhamma.

Tell me how you’re a farmer when asked:
how am I to recognize your farming?

A brahmin farmer criticizes the Buddha for failing to be productive, merely living off the work of others, so the Buddha explains his line of work.

That’s how it is for one who is not without passion for fabrications.

The Venerable Tissa is roused by an interview with the Buddha.

In the same way, a noble disciple has experiential confidence in the Buddha…

Like rain falling on the mountain top, the four factors of stream-entry flow on to the ending of defilements.

Consciousness together with its nutriment should be seen as like the five kinds of seeds.

They are watered by craving.

Mendicants, sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts arise for a reason…

…the lakes surging cause the pools to surge. So too, ignorance surging causes volitional formations to surge…

…when one dwells contemplating danger in things that can fetter, there is no descent of consciousness…

Rebirth illustrated with the simile of a tree.

Bhikkhus, when one dwells contemplating gratification in things that can fetter, there is a descent of name-and-form.

The mental and physical organism is reborn when you linger on pleasing things which stimulate the fetters, illustrated with the simile of a tree.

Sustained by that care, nourished by it, that sapling would attain to growth, increase, and expansion. So too, when one dwells contemplating gratification in things that can fetter, craving increases.

Illustrated with the simile of a sapling.

Suppose, bhikkhus, there was a great tree. Then a man would come along bringing a shovel and a basket. He would cut down the tree at its foot, dig it up, and pull out the roots…

Craving increases when you linger on pleasing things that stimulate grasping.

Thus, sustained by that oil, fuelled by it, that oil lamp would burn for a very long time. So too, when one lives contemplating gratification in things that can fetter, craving increases…

Craving increases when you linger on pleasing things that stimulate fetters, illustrated with the simile of a lamp.

Bhikkhus, when one dwells contemplating gratification in things that can be clung to, craving increases.

Illustrated with the simile of a bonfire.

If, bhikkhus, there is lust for contact…

The Buddha defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness, showing how they lead to suffering according to dependent origination.

… by eating their son’s flesh they would cross the rest of the desert.

It is in such a way, bhikkhus, that I say nutriment should be seen.

The Buddha defines the four kinds of “food” or “nutriment”, which include edible food, contact, intention, and consciousness. He illustrates them with a series of powerful and horrifying similes.

If, bhikkhus, that log does not veer towards the near shore, does not veer towards the far shore, does not sink in mid-stream, does not get cast up on high ground, does not get caught by human beings, does not get caught by nonhuman beings, does not get caught in a whirlpool, and does not become inwardly rotten, it will slant, slope, and incline towards the ocean.

A cowherd named Nanda overhears a teaching by the Buddha.

A mendicant should collect their thoughts
as a tortoise draws its limbs into its shell.

A jackal who fails to eat a turtle.

Is the eye the fetter of forms or are forms the fetter of the eye?

Kāmabhū asks Ānanda about the senses.

There exists in the Blessed One the eye, the Blessed One sees a form with the eye, yet there is no desire and lust in the Blessed One; the Blessed One is well liberated in mind.

Mahākoṭṭhita asks Sāriputta whether the interior and exterior sense fields are the fetters of each other. No; it is desire that is the fetter, like the yoke that binds two oxen. One with no desire still experiences the senses but without being fettered.

… even trifling forms that enter into range of the eye obsess the mind, not to speak of those that are prominent. For what reason? Because lust still exists

Like a tree that yields sap when cut, so long as desire is present it can be activated by the senses.

And if a person who was being swept along by the current grabbed the wild sugarcane, kusa grass, reeds, vetiver, or trees, it’d break off, and they’d come to ruin because of that.

If you grasp at the aggregates as a self, you will meet with calamity, like a man swept down by a mountain river.

Thinking, ‘I will free both hands,’ he seizes it with his foot; he gets caught there.

The parable of the foolish monkey who gets trapped in tar when it ventures outside its ancestral territory. And what is a mendicant’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

Allow me, venerable sir, to answer Citta the householder’s question.

Discussion questions:

1. What does this sutta reveal about (Theravāda) monastic etiquette?
2. Why do you think the sutta ends the way it does?

That perplexity, doubtfulness, indecisiveness in regard to the true Dhamma is a formation. That formation—what is its source, what is its origin, from what is it born and produced?

A beautiful and deep sutta which gives some insight into how to see—and untangle—Dependent Arising.

Nothing better than patience is found.

The demon lord Vepacitti proposes to Sakka that they engage in a battle of wits rather than war.

… as a reed is destroyed by its own fruit.

Pasenadi asks of the things that cause suffering when they arise from within.

It is in such a way, Elder, that dwelling alone is fulfilled…

A monk named “Senior” likes to live alone, but the Buddha questions whether it is true solitude.

This divine vehicle unsurpassed
Originates from within oneself.
The wise depart from the world in it,
Inevitably winning the victory.

Ānanda sees the brahmin Jāṇussoṇi resplendent on his all-white chariot. He asks the Buddha whether there is a similarly divine vehicle in Buddhism.

Mendicants, there are these three searches. What three? The search for sensual pleasures, the search for continued existence, and the search for a holy life.

… when that bhikkhu is developing and cultivating the Noble Eightfold Path, it is impossible that he will give up the training and return to the lower life.

… they do not look up at the face of another ascetic or brahmin, thinking: ‘This worthy is surely one who really knows, who really sees.’ For what reason? Because, bhikkhus, they have clearly seen the Four Noble Truths.

One who has not seen the Dhamma is fickle and easily misled.

What is the mind’s stand?

Someone without the eightfold path is easily knocked over, like a pot without a stand.

…the seven factors of enlightenment go to fulfilment by development.

… based upon virtue, established upon virtue, a bhikkhu develops and cultivates the Noble Eightfold Path

… a bhikkhu develops right view, which is based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, maturing in release

On the kind of right view necessary to attain Nibbāna.

For what purpose, friends, is the holy life lived under the ascetic Gotama?

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.

… the limbs are flabby & wrinkled; the back, bent forward

When Ānanda sees the Buddha’s sense faculties fading, the Buddha speaks on the decrepitude of old age.

A prince or princess in the royal family, a snake, a fire, and a monk. These four things should not be looked down on or belittled because they are young.

King Pasenadi meets the Buddha for the first time. He wonders how the Buddha can claim to be awakened when he is still so young. The Buddha teaches him four things that should not be looked down on for their youth.

… people collected it and drank it and bathed in it and used it for their own purpose. Since that water was properly utilized, it’s used, not wasted.

In which the Buddha encourages us to take advantage of the abundance we’ve received.

Bhikkhus, do not engage in disputatious talk

Don’t argue. Instead, converse on the four noble truths.

… what fuels and what starves the five hindrances and the seven awakening factors

What is the one thing whose killing you approve?

The god Māgha asks the Buddha about what one should slay in order to sleep well.

if you’re patient, mindful and calm,
then you act for the good of both
for yourself and the other person

A brahmin visits the Buddha and abuses him, but the Buddha responds with patience.

Then, dear sirs, he must be an anger-eating yakkha.

When an ugly spirit takes Sakka’s throne, the gods were outraged. But the more they complained, the prettier he became. Sakka realized this was the so-called “anger-eating demon”, and defeated him by treating him with kindness and respect instead.

Suppose a tree were leaning toward the east… When its root is cut, which way would it fall?

Mahānāma the Sakyan expresses his fear that if he dies unmindful he may be reborn into a lower realm. The Buddha tells him not to worry, as he will definitely go to a good place, having established the four factors of stream-entry.

… though I have clearly seen as it really is with correct wisdom, ‘Nibbāna is the cessation of existence,’ I am not an arahant

Venerable Saviṭṭha questions Venerable Musīla about his attainments, and mistakenly concludes his answer implies he’s an arahant. Venerable Nārada steps in to explain for his (and our!) benefit.

This is how a disciple of the noble ones dwells

… the person in whom the factors of stream entry are altogether and in every way lacking I call an outsider

The faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom are the five faculties.

One who has developed the five faculties fully is a perfected one. Developing them to a lesser degree, one reaches lesser attainments.

When a noble disciple has these four streams of merit […] his merit simply is incalculable

The four factors of stream-entry—with wisdom as the fourth—are called streams of merit.

… a noble disciple who has four things is said to be rich, prosperous, and wealthy.

The four factors of stream-entry are said to be true prosperity.

… the ascetic life and the fruits of the ascetic life

The eightfold path is the ascetic life. Its fruits are stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and perfection.

Association with people of integrity, lord, is a factor for stream entry.

The Buddha asks Sāriputta about the four factors for stream-entry: association with good people, hearing the teaching, proper attention, and right practice. He also defines the “stream” and the “Sotāpanna” in this omnibus sutta on Sotāpatti.

If they listen to your advice, you should establish them in the four factors of stream-entry.

You should encourage your friends in the Dhamma.

… mendicants, gaining these four continents is not worth a sixteenth part of gaining these four things.

Even a universal monarch may have a bad rebirth, but someone who has attained Stream Entry is freed from such unfortunate destinies.

You, a person:
subdue your desire for people.

A monk in the forest lets his mind drift to thoughts of the lay life, and is exhorted by a local deity.

… why bother a renunciate?

When a mendicant falls asleep in the middle of the day, a deity tries to rouse them. But not all is at it seems.

Possessions, honor, and popularity are brutal, bitter, and harsh.

Even someone who would not lie for the sake of their mother could do so when corrupted by material possessions.

Once upon a time, mendicants, a battle was fought between the gods and the demons…

Fleeing the demon host, Sakka’s chariot risks endangering the nests of little birds in the forest. Rather than render the birds homeless, Sakka instructs his charioteer to turn back, even at the cost of his life.

… when Sakka, lord of the devas, was a human being, he adopted and undertook seven vows

Where dreadful serpents slither,
where the lightning flashes and the sky thunders
in the dark of the night;
there meditates a mendicant

Brahmā Sahampati appears to the Buddha and speaks in praise of the renunciates staying fearless in the deep forest, and celebrates the many who have found freedom.

Even in a confining place they find it,
the Dhamma for the attainment of unbinding.

Pañcālacaṇḍa praises the Buddha for finding the opening amid the confinement of the world. But the Buddha affirms that anyone with mindfulness and stillness may find such an escape.

… the god Kāmada said to the Buddha, “It’s too hard, Blessed One! It’s just too hard!”

The deity Kāmada addresses the Buddha with a series of cryptic statements lamenting the difficulty of spiritual practice. The Buddha agrees, but points out that true practitioners do it even though it’s hard.

Witless fools behave
like their own worst enemies,
doing wicked deeds…

The deity Khema utters a series of verses in praise of good deeds. The Buddha responds with a simile for someone who departs the path of the good.

This is indeed that Jeta’s Grove,
frequented by the Saṅgha of hermits…

A deity who had been the Buddha’s supporter Anāthapiṇḍika in his former life comes to the Buddha and speaks verses in celebration of the Jeta’s Grove, good deeds, the Dhamma, and Venerable Sāriputta.

What here is a man’s best treasure?

A series of questions on what is best.

Standing to one side, that deity recited this verse…

We think our attachments bring us happiness, but they really bring sorrow.

By not halting, friend, and by not straining I crossed the flood.

How the Buddha crossed the flood of suffering.

What should one who desires the good not give away?
What should a mortal not reject?

What is good all the way through old age?

These brighten up the heavens
Where they’ve been reborn.

The Buddha is asked about the future destiny of people who are generous—and not.

One should not pursue a course
That is painful and harmful.

Kokanada gives a pithy teaching in verse.

Should one rein in the mind from everything…

Or only from what is unwholesome?

Mendicants, don’t engage in all kinds of low talk, such as…

I recollect ninety eons back but I’m not aware of any family that’s been ruined merely by offering some cooked almsfood.

Mahāvīra asks Asibandhakaputta to refute the Buddha on behalf of the Jains. He suggests to try to trap the Buddha with a dilemma: he claims to have compassion for householders, yet visits them with a large Saṅgha in a time of scarcity. But the Buddha claims no family is harmed by this.

… mendicants, live as your own island, your own refuge, with no other refuge. Let the teaching be your island and your refuge

After the passing of Sāriputta and Moggallāna (whose actual death is unrecorded in the canon), the Buddha says the Saṅgha looks empty; yet he is not sad.

… all beings are subject to death. Death is their end

Pasenadi laments the death of his aged grandmother.

Man is born
with an axe in his mouth.

Brahmā Tudu tries to persuade Kokālika to have faith in Sāriputta and Moggallāna.

By what is the world afflicted?
By what is it enveloped?

The world is burning with desire.

When one’s house is ablaze
The vessel taken out
Is the one that is useful,
Not the one left burnt inside.

A deity recites some verses to the Buddha.

A noble disciple who has these four things is a stream-enterer

One of the few suttas in the Canon where the Buddha directly teaches Bhikkhunīs.

… speech that has four factors is well spoken

For Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation of this sutta, see Snp 3.3.

… how is the liberation of the mind by lovingkindness developed? What does it have as its destination, its culmination, its fruit, its final goal?

Some wanderers tell some Buddhist mendicants that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the four Brahmā meditations, so what is the difference? The Buddha explains the detailed connection between the Brahmā meditations and the awakening factors, which taken together lead to liberation.

The mindful one grows better each day
but isn’t totally freed from animosity.

The spirit Maṇibhadda speaks in praise of mindfulness, opining that a mindful one is free of hate. The Buddha responds that yes, mindfulness is wonderful, but only through developing love is one free of hate.

Wherever he goes, stands, sits, or lies down he meets with tragedy

Obsession with wealth, fame, and honor is like being a jackal with mange.

… not understanding and not comprehending the Noble Truth of suffering, both you and I have wandered and journeyed in this cycle of birth and death for a very long time

Note: The PDF linked above is from Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation, courtesy of SuttaCentral.

Concentration through mindfulness of in-&-out breathing, when developed & pursued, brings the four establishings of mindfulness to completion. The four establishings of mindfulness, when developed & pursued, bring the seven factors for awakening to completion. The seven factors for awakening, when developed & pursued, bring clear knowing & release to completion.

For the longer (and more famous) sutta on mindfulness of breathing, see MN 118.

… dwell with yourselves as your own island, with yourselves as your own refuge

For the conclusion, read the very next sutta: SN 47.14.

Restraint of the sense faculties, Kuṇḍaliya, when developed and cultivated, fulfils the three kinds of good conduct.

On the pivotal role of sense restraint in establishing both virtuous conduct and mindfulness.

For an even more detailed analysis, see MN 117.

… what now is feeling?

A mendicant asks the Buddha to explain how feelings relate to the four noble truths.

… consciousness exists dependent on duality

Consciousness arises from the dyad of the interior sense organ with its corresponding exterior sense stimulus. Both are conditioned, impermanent, and falling apart.

If anyone, bhikkhus, should speak thus: ‘Having rejected this all, I shall make known another all’—that would be a mere empty boast on his part.

The Buddha makes clear that the senses are really “all” there is.

What others say is happiness
the noble ones say is suffering.
What others say is suffering
the noble ones know as happiness.

… consciousness exists dependent on duality

It is interesting to compare this sutta to AN 5.71 which seems to compare Enlightenment with tearing down a city.

… for one who sees the origin of the world as it really is with correct wisdom, there is no notion of nonexistence in regard to the world. And for one who sees the cessation of the world as it really is with correct wisdom, there is no notion of existence in regard to the world.

Venerable Kaccānagotta asks the Buddha about right view.

This sutta, brief but profound, became renowned as the only canonical reference named in Nāgārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, perhaps the most famous philosophical treatise in all of later Buddhism.

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.

For one reducing suffering like this nibbāna is said to be near.

Venerable Māluṅkyaputta asks for a teaching to take on retreat. The Buddha wonders how to teach an old monk like him, then questions him on his desire for sense experiences that have been or might be, and encourages him to simply let sense experiences be. Māluṅkyaputta says he understands, and expands on the Buddha’s teaching in a series of verses.

The Faculty of Faith, the Faculty of Energy, the Faculty of Mindfulness, the Faculty of Concentration, the Faculty of Wisdom.

A sutta good to contemplate or chant, the analysis of the five spiritual faculties provides a fascinating alternative perspective on the path to awakening.

What’s going on here? What’s wrong with cows?

Bhante Sujato explains how this pair of verses relates the concerns of Axial Age India.

… when the perception of impermanence is developed and cultivated it eliminates all desire for sensual pleasures, for rebirth in the realm of luminous form, and for rebirth in a future life. It eliminates all ignorance and eradicates the conceit ‘I am’

The perception of impermanence eliminates lust, ignorance, and conceit. Illustrated with a long series of similes.

Though some may say, ‘[Sensual pleasure] is the supreme pleasure and joy that beings experience,’ I would not concede this to them. Why is that? Because there is another kind of happiness more excellent and sublime than that

The carpenter Pañcakaṅga disagreed with Venerable Udāyī about how many kinds of feeling the Buddha taught. The Buddha affirms that each has a genuine teaching, valid in different contexts.

… individual Brahmās (Sahāṃpati, Baka and an unnamed Brahmā) have different characters … lower than the Buddha and his great disciples[, their] individual names are a new design, not shared in the Vedic tradition of Brahmanism.

They do not know bliss
Who have not seen Nandana

A deva thinks his pleasures are supreme.

… who can untangle this tangle?

A brahmin with matted hair asks the Buddha how we can become disentangled. This short set of verses became one of the most important in all of Theravāda Buddhism when it was used as the cornerstone of Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga.

… what is the reason why these various misconceptions arise in the world?

The wanderer Vacchagotta asks the Buddha why the various speculative views come to be. The Buddha replies that it is because of not knowing activity.

How is a sentient being defined?

Rādha asks the Buddha, who compares craving and rebirth to a child playing with sandcastles.

… how a wise lay follower should advise another wise lay follower who is sick

Ending with a rather unusual description of the path as turning the mind progressively higher.

More than 800 of the individual translations from the collection are available for free distribution and have been collected into this open source ebook for your convenience. The rest of the book can be read on the publisher’s website for free (by signing up for an account).

Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?

Who, concentrated, leaves conceits behind,
His heart and mind set fair, and wholly freed,
Heedful dwelling in the woods alone,
Shall indeed escape the realm of death.

Joy is verily for him who is sad
Sadness is verily for the joyous one.
But as for the monk–know this, O friend
He is neither joyful nor is he sad.

The world is led by craving,
By craving it is defiled,
And craving is that one thing
Controlled by which all follow.

One to whom it might occur,
‘I’m a woman’ or ‘I’m a man’
Or ‘I’m anything at all’–
Is fit for Māra to address.

Shrines in parks and woodland shrines,
Well-constructed lotus ponds:
These are not worth a sixteenth part
Of a delightful human being.

Whether in a village or forest,
In a valley or on the plain–
Wherever the arahants dwell
Is truly a delightful place.

Sakka asks what place is truly delightful and the Buddha replies.

Insofar as it disintegrates, it is called the ‘world.’

Mister, that man attacked the king’s enemy and killed them. The king was delighted and gave him this reward.

The Buddha clears a layman’s doubts and confusion about the correct way to understand the law of karma.

Also includes a fascinating description of the Koliyan police — apparently known for their floppy hats and thuggish ways.

Protecting oneself, bhikkhus, one protects others; protecting others, one protects oneself.

A reading of SN 47.19.

The people of Sunāparanta are wild and rough, Puṇṇa. If they abuse and insult you, what will you think of them?

Venerable Puṇṇa goes to the Buddha and asks for a teaching before he immigrates to a foreign land. The Buddha warns him that folk there are fierce, and questions whether he is ready for such a difficult assignment.

Move in your own resort, bhikkhus, in your own ancestral domain. Mara will not gain access to those who move in their own resort.

The parable of the quail and the hawk.

“Possessions, honor, and popularity are brutal, bitter, and harsh. They’re an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary.
So you should train like this: ‘We will give up arisen possessions, honor, and popularity, and we won’t let them occupy our minds.’

In which the Buddha compares attachment to wealth to a dung beetle proud of her dung.

Take a person who kills living creatures. If we compare periods of time during the day and night, which is more frequent: the occasions when they’re killing or when they’re not killing?

The Buddha rejects the poorly phrased fatalism of a Jain follower and gives an alternative method for overcoming bad karma.

What do you think, chief? Could a broad rock rise up or float because of prayers?

The Buddha excoriates a chief for believing that prayers can send someone to heaven.

… sensual pleasures are time-consuming, full of suffering and despair, and the danger in them is greater still

A deva tried to convince a young monk to enjoy sensual pleasures and the Buddha rebukes the angel with a series of verses explaining that this young monk is already an arahant.

I say it’s not possible to know, see or reach the end of the world by traveling. But I also say there’s no making an end of suffering without reaching the end of the world.

The mendicants ask Ānanda to explain this enigmatic statement derived from the famous story of Rohitassa.

See also AN 5.197 for a discussion on the causes of the weather!

… if one has an underlying tendency towards something, then one is measured in accordance with it; if one is measured in accordance with something, then one is reckoned in terms of it.

The Buddha teaches a pithy discourse to a mendicant who wants to go on retreat.

Tucked away in the Samyutta Nikāya among the “connected sayings on causality” is a short formalized text entitled the Upanisa Sutta, the “Discourse on Supporting Conditions.” Though at first glance hardly conspicuous among the many interesting suttas in this collection, this little discourse turns out upon repeated examination to be of tremendous doctrinal importance.

It is, Ānanda, because it is empty of self and of what belongs to self that it is said, ‘Empty is the world.’

One should rein in the mind thus

One should restrain the senses like a farmer watching over a field. The Buddha gives the parable of a man bewitched when he first hears a lute. He takes apart the instrument in search of the sound, but is disillusioned when no sound is found.

Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope.

A mendicant goes to a series of teachers and asks how vision is purified. Dissatisfied with all their answers, he complains to the Buddha, who illustrates his quandary with the famous simile of the Kiṁsuka tree.

Now suppose that in the autumn—when it’s raining in fat, heavy drops—a water bubble were to appear & disappear on the water, and a man with sight were to see it. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a bubble? In the same way, a man with wisdom sees a feeling. To him it would appear empty, void, without substance: for what substance could there be in a feeling?

The Buddha gives a series of similes for the aggregates: physical form is like foam, feeling is like a bubble, perception is like a mirage, choices are like a coreless tree, and consciousness is like an illusion.

Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu understands form, its origin, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation; he understands the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of form.

To be fully accomplished, a mendicant should investigate these Dhammas.

Bhikkhus, develop concentration. A bhikkhu who is concentrated understands things as they really are.

Reverend Sāriputta, what things should an ethical mendicant properly attend to?

Mahākoṭṭhita asks and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on the aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer.

You must carry around this bowl of oil filled to the brim between the crowd and the most beautiful girl of the land. A man with a drawn sword will be following right behind you, and wherever you spill even a little of it, right there he will fell your head.

Now that’s mindfulness!

Protecting oneself, bhikkhus, one protects others; protecting others, one protects oneself.

For an audio recording of this sutta, see this entry.

Just as two sheaves of reeds might stand leaning against each other, so too, with name-and-form as condition, consciousness comes to be; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form comes to be.

Venerables Mahākoṭṭhita and Sāriputta discuss whether the factors of dependent origination are created by oneself, another, both, or by chance.

Why now do you assume ‘a being’? Mara, is that your speculative view? This is a heap of sheer formations: Here no being is found.

Māra asks the nun Vajirā about who has created this being. Recognizing him, she points out that the word “being” is nothing more than a convention used to designate the aggregates, just as the word “cart” is used when its parts are assembled.

“Is what is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change fit to be regarded thus: ‘This is mine, this I am, this is my self’?”–“No, venerable sir.”

In the Deer Park at Varanasi the Buddha teaches the famous second discourse, on not-self with regard to the aggregates, to the group of five monks. At the conclusion, they become fully enlightened.

If a bhikkhu seeks delight in [the senses], welcomes them, and remains holding to them, he is called a bhikkhu who has swallowed Mara’s hook. He has met with calamity and disaster, and the Evil One can do with him as he wishes.

Sense pleasures are like a baited hook.

“What meditation does Venerable Anuruddha practice so that physical pain doesn’t occupy his mind?”

“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.

There is carnal happiness, there is spiritual happiness, and there is happiness more spiritual than the spiritual.

Monks! All is aflame!

The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields, that is. This is the famous “third sermon” taught at Gayā’s Head to the followers of the three Kassapa brothers.

Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope…

The senses are like a snake, a crocodile, a bird, a dog, a jackal, and a monkey all tied up together, pulling this way and that. Mindfulness is like a post that keeps them grounded.

Suppose a trustworthy and reliable man were to come from the east. He’d approach you and say: ‘Please sir, you should know this. I come from the east. There I saw a huge mountain that reached the clouds. And it was coming this way, crushing all creatures.’

Old age and death roll in upon all like mountains approaching from the four directions, crushing all in their path.

What is the one thing, O Gotama, Whose killing you approve?

“It’s incredible, it’s amazing! Who can’t become a stream-enterer these days?”

It’s never too late to practice.

See SN 45.49 for how to use a good friend to advance on the path.

When, bhikkhus, a carpenter or a carpenter’s apprentice looks at the handle of his adze, he sees the impressions of his fingers and his thumb, but he does not know: ‘So much of the adze handle has been worn away today, so much yesterday, so much earlier.’ But when it has worn away, the knowledge occurs to him: it has worn away.

Liberation happens naturally as the result of cultivating the Path.