All Suttas

   Places that should be commemorated by kings and deciples.

   How consciousness, karma, and craving create and sustain future lives.

   Ānanda gets the Tathagata to talk about the scale of the universe.

   The endeavors to restrain, to give up, to develop, and to preserve.

  There are four developments of concentration. There is concentration that, when developed and cultivated, leads to living happily in the present life, concentration that leads to the attainment of knowing and vision, concentration that leads to mindfulness and full awareness, and concentration that leads to the destruction of the taints.

   Distortions of perception, mind, and view.

  There are four qualities are desirable, agreeable, and pleasing but hard to obtain in the world. Accomplishment in faith, accomplishment in virtue, accomplishment in generosity, and accomplishment in wisdom.

   Length of rebirth in various exalted realms.

   Rebirth in Brahmā realms from divine abiding meditations.

  Noble and ignoble searches.

   The five powers explained in detail.

   The hindrances are like the corruptions in gold.

  The Tathagata teaches the development of the noble five-factored right concentration.

   The five hindrances weaken wisdom like side-channels weaken a river’s flow.

   Topics that are worthy regularly reflecting on, whether as a lay person or a disciple.

  The Tathagata describes the five dangers that the Dhamma will face in the future. It will begin to decline, fade, and eventually become corrupted. With his teachings no longer being truly understood, and with no true practitioners left to pass on the Dhamma, people will struggle to practice effectively until eventually the teachings fade completely from memory.

   Even if a senior deciple has many good qualities, they can still lead people astray if they have wrong view.

   Supported by five factors, one who practices mindfulness of breathing will soon realize the unshakable.

   Five qualities to instill in recently ordained deciples.

   Five perceptions that train a desciple to shift their perception at will.

  The Tathagata encourages Anāthapiṇḍika to not rest short with generosity, but to practice meditation too.

   Many of those who practice mindfulness of death don’t do so urgently enough. Death might come to us at any moment.

   A method for recollecting one’s own death that leads to urgency, diligence, and joy.

   The six recollections are a way to escape from greed.

   When the Tathagata asks about the topics for recollection, a disciple reveals his ignorance. Ānanda then gives an unusual list of five recollections, which the Tathagata supplements with a sixth.

   A detailed analysis of several central themes, including sense perception, feeling, defilements, kamma, etc.

   A deciple who loves to socialize can’t find peace in meditation, but one who loves solitude can.

   Requirements for becoming a stream-enterer.

  Contemplating the seven perceptions leads to the deathless.

   Four areas where the Realized One has nothing to hide, and three ways he is irreproachable.

   Before his awakening, Moggallāna is struggling with sleepiness in meditation. The Tathagata visits him and gives seven ways to dispel drowsiness, and other important teachings.

  The Tathagata compares the factors of the practice to a well-fortified fortress that can’t be brought down by external foes or untrustworthy allies.

   The eight worldly conditions in detail: gain and loss, fame and disgrace, praise and blame, pleasure and pain.

   Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, the Tathagata’s foster mother, requests ordination from the Tathagata. He declines, until urged to relent by Ānanda. He allows Mahāpajāpatī to go forth on eight conditions.

   Mahāpajāpatī wishes to go on retreat, so the Tathagata teaches her eight principles that summarize the Dhamma in brief.

   A disciple asks for teachings before going on retreat, but the Tathagata rebukes him, as he has not practiced sincerely. Nevertheless, he persists, and the Tathagata teaches him meditation in detail.

   Mindfulness and situational awareness are a foundation for developing higher spiritual qualities leading to liberation.

   Beginning with good friendship, the Tathagata teaches nine things that give rise to the qualities that lead to awakening.

   Venerable Meghiya, while attending on the Tathagata, wants to go off and meditate in a forest alone. The Tathagata discourages him, but he goes anyway. When his meditation doesn’t go well, he returns chastened to the Tathagata, who teaches him about the benefits of good companions and other fundamentals of a balanced spiritual practice.

   The wealthy and devoted lay supporter Anāthapiṇḍika rather curiously says that only poor alms are given in his home. The Tathagata praises gracious and bounteous generosity. But meditation surpasses even the greatest offering.

   A householder who has eliminated the perils that come with breaking the five precepts, and possesses the four factors of stream-entry is freed from lower rebirths.

   Just as a foolish cow can get in trouble wandering the mountains, a foolish desciple can get lost practicing concentration if they do it wrongly.

   The ending of defilements happens due to the practice of concentration.

   The householder Tapussa reflects that it is renunciation that distinguishes a lay person from a disciple. The Tathagata responds by giving a long account of his practice of concentration before awakening.

   At Udāyī’s request, Ānanda explains an obscure verse spoken (in SN 2.7) by a deity. The nine progressive meditations are the escape from confinement.

  The ten dhammas that protect one from suffering.

   The root of all things, and similar principles.

   The disciple Girimānanda is sick. The Tathagata encourages Ānanda to visit him and teach him the ten perceptions.

   Even though ignorance has no discernible first point, it still has a cause.

  The Tathagata covers the different kinds of fuels for unwholesome and wholesome mental states.

  The 10 Thorns that prevent a disciple from a peaceful abiding.

  Anāthapiṇḍika explains to a group of sectarians why right view is a special form of view: Holding to other views, one is holding to stress, but using right view enables you to see the escape even from right view.

   The wanderer Uttiya asks the Tathagata a series of ten metaphysical questions as to whether the cosmos is finite, etc. The Tathagata responds by saying that he only teaches the end of suffering. Uttiya goes on to ask whether all beings will be liberated. The Tathagata is silent, and Ānanda answers on his behalf.

   When Upāli asks to go into retreat, the Tathagata warns him that secluded wilderness dwellings are hard to endure unless one is accomplished in meditation. He gives a long account of the training required before going into solitude, and ends by encouraging Upāli to stay in the Saṅgha.

   Good conduct leads to non-regret, to joy, and so on all the way to liberation.

   A virtuous person need not make a wish; it is natural for the path to flow on.

   The Tathagata tells Venerable Sandha to meditate like a trained thoroughbred, not like a wild colt. Doing so, they may attain a deep state.

   While others may praise or criticize the Tathagata, they tend to focus on trivial details. The Tathagata presents an analysis of 62 kinds of wrong view, seeing through which one becomes detached from meaningless speculations.

   The newly crowned King Ajātasattu is disturbed by the violent means by which he achieved the crown. He visits the Tathagata to find peace of mind, and asks him about the benefits of spiritual practice. This is one of the greatest literary and spiritual texts of early Buddhism.

   The Tathagata discusses with a wanderer the nature of perception and how it evolves through deeper states of meditation. None of these, however, should be identified with a self or soul.

  Shortly after the Tathagata’s death, Venerable Ānanda explains the core teachings of the gradual path.

   The Tathagata refuses to perform miracles, explaining that this is not the right way to inspire faith. He goes on to tell the story of a disciple whose misguided quest for answers led him as far as Brahmā.

   Rejecting Venerable Ānanda’s claim to easily understand dependent origination, the Tathagata presents a complex and demanding analysis, revealing hidden nuances and implications of this central teaching.

  This sutta covers many practices found throughout the canon, especially mindfulness of the body, and is one of the most comprehensive discourses on practicing the gradual path.

   In contrast with the brahmin’s self-serving mythologies of the past, the Tathagata presents an account of evolution that shows how human choices are an integral part of the ecological balance, and how excessive greed destroys the order of nature.

   The Tathagata encounters a young man who honors his dead parents by performing rituals. The Tathagata recasts the meaningless rites in terms of virtuous conduct. This is the most detailed discourse on ethics for lay people.

   The Tathagata encourages Venerable Sāriputta to teach the deciples, and he offers an extended listing of Buddhist doctrines arranged in numerical sequence.

  An exposition by the venerable Mahākaccāyana how the foundation of the teaching is established.

  Exposition on seventy-three kinds of knowing.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition regarding the discourse on knowledge.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition on Views.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition regarding mindfulness of breathing, the Anapanasati Sutta.

  Detailed Exposition on the Five Faculties

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition regarding liberation

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition on destiny.

  Exposition on the different kinds of Karma.

  Discourse on the four distortions of perception, distortions of mind, and distortions of view.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition regarding the path.

  Venerable Ānanda gives a discourse on the four types of paths to liberation.

  An exposition on the Four Noble Truths.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition regarding the factors of Enlightment.

  Discourse on the benefits of practicing Loving Kindness.

  Dispassion is the path, liberation is the fruit.

  The Discourse on Analytical Knowledge

  The discourse on the Dhamma wheel.

  The discourse on the transcendent.

  The discourse on powers, the five strengths.

  The discourse on emptiness.

  The great discourse on wisdom.

  There are four bases, four supports, eight factors, and sixteen roots for supernormal power.

  The importance of penetrating the Dharma with the mind.

  The importance of developing seclusion on the path in regards to virtue, tranquility and wisdom.

  Discussion on to eight types of conduct.

  The miracle of psychic power, the miracle of telepathy, and the miracle of instruction.

  The knowing of the head in the complete eradication and cessation of all phenomena is wisdom.

  The discourse on the foundations of mindfulness.

  A contemplation on Insight.

  Sariputta gives a detailed exposition on the path of discrimination.

  The Tathagata gives an exposition on the root of all suffering: the attachment to being and the self-views that arise from taking on a body as a being separate from the world. A liberated person, on the other hand, has destroyed the craving for being, let go of greed, aversion, delusion, and any sense of self, and has fully awakened to unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment.

  The Tathagata explains the different types of defilements and the seven methods that should be used to abandon them: seeing, restraining, using, avoiding, enduring, removing, and developing.

   According to the Tathagata, careful observance of ethical precepts is the foundation of all higher achievements in the spiritual life.

   The many different kinds of impurities that defile the mind are compared to a dirty cloth. When the mind is clean we find joy, which leads to states of higher consciousness. Finally, the Tathagata rejects the Brahmanical notion that purity comes from bathing in sacred rivers.

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

  This sutta covers many practices found throughout the canon, especially mindfulness of the body, and is one of the most comprehensive discourses on practicing the gradual path.

  The Tathagata explains that to attain liberation, one has to fully understand clinging, its origin, and its cessation. He covers the four different types of clinging.

   A disrobed disciple, Sunakkhatta, attacks the Tathagata’s teaching because it merely leads to the end of suffering. The Tathagata counters that this is, in fact, praise, and goes on to enumerate his many profound and powerful achievements.

   Challenged to show the difference between his teaching and that of other ascetics, the Tathagata points out that they speak of letting go, but do not really understand why. He then explains in great detail the suffering that arises from attachment to sensual stimulation.

   A lay person is puzzled at how, despite their long practice, they still have greedy or hateful thoughts. The Tathagata explains the importance of absorption meditation for letting go such attachments. But he also criticizes self-mortification, and recounts a previous dialog with Jain ascetics.

  Venerable Moggallāna raises the topic of admonishment, without which healthy community is not possible. He lists a number of qualities that will encourage others to think it worthwhile to admonish you in a constructive way.

   Challenged by a brahmin, the Tathagata gives an enigmatic response on how conflict arises due to proliferation based on perceptions. Venerable Kaccāna draws out the detailed implications of this in one of the most insightful passages in the entire canon.

  The Tathagata explains how to develop Right Intention by dividing thoughts into two kinds, wholesome and unwholesome, and how single-minded intention leads to Jhana, Right Concentration and then ultimately to letting go of all intention.

  The Tathagata describes five different approaches for letting go of unwholesome thoughts. Moving attention to a wholesome thought, seeing the danger in the thought, forgetting the thought, calming the thought or abandoning it through force.

   A discourse full of vibrant and memorable similes, on the importance of patience and love even when faced with abuse and criticism. The Tathagata finishes with the simile of the saw, one of the most memorable similes found in the discourses.

   One of the disciples denies that prohibited conduct is really a problem. The disciples and then the Tathagata subject him to an impressive dressing down. The Tathagata compares someone who understands only the letter of the teachings to someone who grabs a snake by the tail, and also invokes the famous simile of the raft.

   Venerable Sāriputta seeks a dialog with an esteemed disciple, Venerable Puṇṇa Mantāniputta, and they discuss the stages of purification.

   This is one of the most important biographical discourses, telling the Tathagata’s experiences from leaving home to realizing awakening. Throughout, he was driven by the imperative to fully escape from rebirth and suffering.

   The Tathagata cautions against swift conclusions about a teacher’s spiritual accomplishments, comparing it to the care a tracker would use when tracking elephants. He presents the full training of a monastic.

   Sāriputta gives an elaborate demonstration of how, just as any footprint can fit inside an elephant’s, all the Tathagata’s teaching can fit inside the four noble truths. This offers an overall template for organizing the Tathagata’s teachings.

   In a less confrontational meeting, the Tathagata and Saccaka discuss the difference between physical and mental development. The Tathagata gives a long account of the various practices he did before awakening, detailing the astonishing lengths he took to mortify the body.

  The great discourse on the destruction of craving starts out describing how consciousness is dependently originated and how to bring about the cessation of craving. It then describes in detail the gradual path.

   The Tathagata encourages the desciples to live up to their name, by actually practicing in a way that meets or exceeds the expectations people have for renunciants.

   A series of questions and answers between Sāriputta and Mahākoṭṭhita, examining various subtle and abstruse aspects of the teachings.

   The layman Visākha asks the nun Dhammadinnā about various difficult matters, including some of the highest meditation attainments. The Tathagata fully endorses her answers.

   Asked by a householder to teach a path to freedom, Venerable Ānanda explains no less than eleven states of abiding that may serve as doors to the deathless.

   When Potaliya got upset at being referred to as “householder”, the Tathagata quizzed him as to the true nature of attachment and renunciation.

   The Tathagata resolves a disagreement on the number of kinds of feelings that he taught, pointing out that different ways of teaching are appropriate in different contexts, and should not be a cause of disputes. He goes on to show the importance of pleasure in developing higher levels of abiding.

   The Tathagata tells Rāhula to contemplate on not-self, which he immediately puts into practice. Seeing him, Venerable Sāriputta advises him to develop mindfulness of breath, but the Tathagata suggests a wide range of different practices first.

   A little baby has no wrong views or intentions, but the underlying tendency for these things is still there. Without practicing, they will inevitably recur.

   Again raising the rule regarding eating, but this time as a reflection of gratitude for the Tathagata in eliminating things that cause complexity and stress. The Tathagata emphasizes how attachment even to little things can be dangerous.

   A third discourse that presents the health benefits of eating in one part of the day, and the reluctance of some deciples to follow this.

   Unlike many teachers, the Tathagata’s followers treat him with genuine love and respect, since they see the sincerity of his teaching and practice.

   A wanderer teaches that a person has reached the highest attainment when they keep four basic ethical precepts. The Tathagata’s standards are considerably higher.

   The reputed brahmin Caṅkī goes with a large group to visit the Tathagata, despite the reservations of other brahmins. A precocious student challenges the Tathagata, affirming the validity of the Vedic scriptures. The Tathagata gives a detailed explanation of how true understanding gradually emerges through spiritual education.

   Not all of those who claim to be awakened are genuine. The Tathagata teaches how true spiritual progress depends on an irreversible letting go of the forces that lead to suffering.

   The Tathagata teaches how to abide and dwell in deeper and deeper levels of concentration, showing how insight on this basis leads to the detaching of consciousness from any form of rebirth.

   The Tathagata compares the training of an accountant with the step by step spiritual path of his followers. But even with such a well explained path, the Tathagata can only show the way, and it is up to us to walk it.

  Amid rising military tensions after the Tathagata’s death, Venerable Ānanda is questioned about how the Saṅgha planned to continue in their teacher’s absence. As the Tathagata refused to appoint a successor, the teaching and practice that he laid down become the teacher, and the Saṅgha resolves issues by consensus.

  The Tathagata describes the process of insight as practiced by Venerable Sāriputta, detailing in great detail the different phenomena as they arise and pass away.

   A discourse on the prerequisites of right concentration that emphasizes the interrelationship and mutual support of all the factors of the eightfold path. It covers both the mundane and super mundane versions of the path.

   Surrounded by many well-practiced desciples, the Tathagata teaches mindfulness of breathing in detail, showing how it relates to the four kinds of mindfulness practice.

  This covers the first foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of the body and all the different practices.

   The Tathagata describes his own practice of the meditation on emptiness.

  The Tathagata teaches on the importance of seclusion in order to enter fully into emptiness.

   A young disciple is unable to persuade a prince of the blessings of peace of mind. The Tathagata offers similes based on training an elephant that would have been successful, as this was a field the prince was familiar with.

   A lay person becomes confused when encouraged to develop the “limitless” and “expansive” liberations, and asks Venerable Anuruddha to explain whether they are the same or different.

   A second discourse set at the quarrel of Kosambi, this depicts the Tathagata, having failed to achieve reconciliation between the disputing desciples, leaving the monastery. He spends time in the wilderness before encountering an inspiring community of practicing disciples. There he discusses in detail obstacles to practice that he encountered before awakening.

   This discourse opens with a short but powerful set of verses extolling the benefits of insight into the here and now, followed by an explanation.

   The Tathagata explains to a brahmin how your deeds in past lives affect you in this life.

   A detailed analysis of the six senses and the relation to emotional and cognitive processes.

   The Tathagata gives a brief and enigmatic statement on the ways consciousness may become attached. Venerable Mahākaccāna is invited by the deciples to draw out the implications.

   While staying overnight in a potter’s workshop, the Tathagata has a chance encounter with a disciple who does not recognize him. They have a long and profound discussion based on the four elements. This is one of the most insightful and moving discourses in the canon.

   Expanding on the Tathagata’s first sermon, Venerable Sāriputta gives a detailed explanation of the four noble truths.

   The disciple Channa is suffering a painful terminal illness and wishes to take his own life.

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

   The Tathagata teaches how to contemplate the six senses from six perspectives, and discern the unsubstantial nature of all of them.

   Explains how insight into the six senses is integrated with the eightfold path and leads to liberation.

   In discussion with a group of householders, the Tathagata helps them to distinguish those spiritual practitioners who are truly worthy of respect.

   The Tathagata crossed the flood of suffering by neither standing nor swimming.

   Five kings including Pasenadi are enjoying themselves and wonder which of the senses affords the highest pleasure. They ask the Tathagata, who replies that it is subjective, depending on a persons preferences. Inspired, the laymen Candanaṅgalika offers a verse in praise of the Tathagata.

   A wealthy man dies childless, having not enjoyed his riches. The Tathagata says that wealth should be properly enjoyed and shared.

   A brahmin who loves to contradict everyone approaches the Tathagata thinking to challenge him. But when he hears the Tathagata speak, he cannot find anything to contradict.

   A desciple plagued by bad thoughts is encouraged by a deity.

   The famous twelve links of dependent origination are spelled out, showing the origin and cessation of suffering dependent on ignorance.

   The Tathagata gives definitions for each of the twelve links. These are general definitions that apply wherever the twelve links are mentioned.

   Venerable Kaccānagotta asks the Tathagata about right view, and the Tathagata answers that right view arises when one sees the origin and cessation of "The World", the Five Aggregates, and is free of clinging.

   Both the wise and the foolish have been reborn in this life due to their deeds conditioned by ignorance in past lives. But a fool continues to make the same mistakes and is reborn yet again, whereas a wise person does not.

  The ending of defilements comes only when the truth is seen. But seeing the truth comes about due to a vital condition. In this way, twelve factors leading to freedom are united with the twelve factors leading to suffering.

   Sāriputta is asked by Venerable Bhūmija as to the origin of pleasure and pain. He replies that the Tathagata teaches that pleasure and pain originate by conditions. Moreover, all those who offer opinions on this question are themselves part of the web of conditions, as they cannot state their views without contact.

   Intentions or choices are the force that propels consciousness from one life to the next.

   A noble disciple who is a layperson has eliminated the fear that comes from breaking precepts, possesses the four factors of stream-entry, and understands dependent origination.

   The origin and ending of the world are explained in terms of sense experience giving rise to craving and suffering.

  A desciple should thoroughly investigate the causes of suffering in accordance with dependent origination. If someone who still has ignorance makes a choice, their consciousness fares on to a suitable state of existence. But one who has eradicated ignorance is detached and is not reborn anywhere.

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

   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 less changeable than the mind, which jumps about like a discipleey.

   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 less changeable than the mind. But a noble disciple reflects on dependent origination.

   The Tathagata 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.

   The Tathagata 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.

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

   For someone who has seen the truth, the suffering eliminated in future lives is like the great earth; what remains is like the dirt under a fingernail.

   A rare group of seven elements: light, beauty, the four formless states, and the attainment of cessation. Each of these is known due to the negation of something: light vs. darkness, beauty vs. ugliness, and so on.

   A great mountain would erode before the end of the eon.

   When you see someone suffer, know that you too have experienced that.

   Moggallāna reflects that second absorption is the true noble silence, and the Tathagata encourages him to develop it.

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

  A desciple should develop concentration in order to truly understand the origin and ending of the five aggregates.

   The distinction between “five aggregates” and “five grasping aggregates”.

   Consciousness stands dependent on the other four aggregates, and this attachment is what fuels the cycle of rebirth.

   Consciousness is like a seed that is planted in the soil of the other four aggregates and watered with craving.

   To be fully accomplished, a desciple should investigate the five aggregates in light of the four noble truths, as well as their gratification, drawback, and escape. In addition, they should investigate the elements, sense fields, and dependent origination.

   In the Deer Park at Varanasi the Tathagata teaches the famous second discourse, on not-self with regard to the aggregates, to the group of five disciples. At the conclusion, they become perfected ones.

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

   One of the most extensive discourses in this collection begins with the Tathagata saying that when anyone recollects a past life, all they are recollecting is the five aggregates. He then gives a distinctive set of definitions of the aggregates in terms of their functions, and discusses them from various aspects.

   On a sabbath day with the Sangha at Sāvatthi, the Tathagata answers a series of ten questions on the aggregates.

   Venerable Yamaka had the wrong view that one whose defilements have ended is annihilated at death. The disciples ask Sāriputta to help, and he asks Yamaka whether the Realized One in this very life may be identified as one of the aggregates, or apart from them. Convinced, Yamaka lets go of his view and sees the Dhamma.

   Venerable Assaji is ill, and asks the Tathagata to visit him. The Tathagata does so, and learns that Assaji has difficulty maintaining his meditation. The Tathagata encourages him to contemplate the impermanence of the aggregates.

   The Tathagata doesn’t dispute with the world; the world disputes with him. He has understood the five aggregates and explains them. Like a lotus, he was born in the swamp, but rises above it.

   The Tathagata 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.

   A desciple asks whether anything in the aggregates has even the tiniest bit of stability or permanence. The Tathagata answers using the simile of a little dirt under his fingernail.

   Transmigration has no knowable beginning; even the oceans, mountains, and this great earth will perish. But like a dog on a leash running around a post, beings remain attached to the aggregates.

   Contemplating the arising and falling away of the Five Aggregates leads to knowing and liberation, but this may not be immediately apparent. The Tathagata illustrates this with similes of a hen brooding on her eggs, the wearing away of an axe handle, and the rotting of a ship’s rigging.

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

   Mahākoṭṭhita asks what an ethical desciple should focus on, and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer. A stream-enterer contemplating in the same way may become a non-returner, a once-returner, and a perfected one.

   Mahākoṭṭhita asks what an educated deciple should focus on, and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer. A stream-enterer contemplating in the same way may become a non-returner, a once-returner, and a perfected one.

   The Tathagata explains to a desciple that ignorance is not knowing the Five Aggregates in terms of arising and passing away.

   Sāriputta explains to Mahākoṭṭhita that ignorance is not understanding the aggregates in terms of arising and ceasing.

   One with faith in the teachings on the six interior sense fields is called a “follower by faith”, while someone with conceptual understanding is called a “follower of the teachings”. But someone who sees them directly is called a stream-enterer.

   One with faith in the teachings on the five aggregates is called a “follower by faith”, while someone with conceptual understanding is called a “follower of the teachings”. But someone who sees them directly is called a stream-enterer

   Beings are attached to the six interior sense fields due to gratification, repelled due to drawbacks, and find escape because there is an escape.

   Beings are attached to the six exterior sense fields due to gratification, repelled due to drawbacks, and find escape because there is an escape.

   The arising of the six interior sense fields is the arising of suffering.

   The arising of the six exterior sense fields is the arising of suffering.

   The “all” consists of the six interior and exterior sense fields.

   The “all” consisting of the six interior and exterior sense fields should be given up.

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

   Venerable Migajāla asks how one lives alone, and how with a partner. The Tathagata says that so long as one is bound by desire to the senses, one lives with a partner. A desciple free of such desire dwells alone, even if they live in close association with worldly people.

   Hearing that a newly-ordained desciple was sick, the Tathagata visited him to offer support and Dhamma encouragement.

   Through giving up ignorance, knowledge arises. To do this, contemplate the six senses as impermanent. Then a desciple truly understands, and sees everything differently.

   Ānanda asks for a teaching to take on retreat. The Tathagata teaches him that the senses are impermanent, etc.

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

   When a desciple lives without restraint regarding the senses, they are negligent. If they have restraint, they are diligent.

   Non-restraint is delighting in the senses, restraint is not delighting in them.

   While practicing for awakening, the Tathagata reflected that he should be diligent when his mind strayed to sense pleasures of the past, future, or present. He urges the desciples to realize that place where the senses completely cease, and they ask Ānanda to explain this to them.

   If anyone asks why we live the holy life, it is for the ending of suffering.

   Identity view arises due to grasping the process of sense experience.

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   A parable of a jackal who fails to eat a tortoise who stays still, with limbs retracted, like a deciple guarding the senses.

   The Tathagata is invited to teach in a new hall in Kapilavatthu. Late at night, after teaching the Sakyans, the Tathagata invites Moggallāna to teach. He speaks on the mental corruption that flows from attachment to the senses.

  The senses are like a snake, a crocodile, a bird, a dog, a jackal, and a monkey all tied up together, pulling in all directions towards their natural habitat. Mindfulness is like a post that keeps them grounded.

   Both ordinary and awakened people experience the three feelings. The difference is that when an ordinary person is stricken with feeling, they react, creating more suffering, whereas an awakened person responds with equanimity.

   A desciple should await their death mindful and aware. They should bear the feelings of approaching death with wisdom and equanimity.

   A deciple wonders how there can be three kinds of feeling, yet all of them are suffering.

   Moggallāna speaks to the deciples of a time when his practice of the first absorption was faltering. He expresses his gratitude for the Tathagata, who urged him to stabilize that attainment.

   "Citta asks Kāmabhū about the different kinds of processes (saṅkhāra) in a series of questions that lead to the most profound of meditation experiences. "

   Venerable Godatta asks Citta whether the liberations of measurelessness, nothingness, emptiness, and signlessness are different states, or just different words for the same thing. Citta explains that they are both: they are terms for different meditation experiences, but may also be used of perfection or arahantship.

   Talapuṭa the head of a troupe of performers asks the Tathagata whether the belief that performers have a good rebirth is correct. The Tathagata tries to dissuade him, but ultimately reveals that by inciting lust they head to a bad rebirth. Talapuṭa is distressed and asks to ordain.

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   The wanderer Vacchagotta reports to the Tathagata a conversation among ascetics on the views of the six heretical teachers as to where a perfected one is reborn. Unsure of what the Tathagata’s position was, he asks how it is to be understood. The Tathagata says it is like a flame that burns dependent on fuel, and goes out when that fuel is extinguished.

   Ānanda sees the brahmin Jāṇussoṇi resplendent on his all-white chariot. He asks the Tathagata whether there is a similarly divine vehicle in Buddhism. The Tathagata responds by drawing a detailed set of analogies between the eightfold path and a chariot.

   The Tathagata presents the eightfold path together with a detailed analysis of each factor. It should be assumed that these explanations apply wherever the eightfold path is taught.

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   Just as the body depends on food, the awakening factors depend on nutriment. The Tathagata gives specific conditions for each of the factors.

   Here the awakening factors are described in the context of hearing the teachings and reflecting on them. This leads to full enlightenment, or at least to some lesser attainment.

   The various awakening factors can be donned at different times of the day, like a man who puts on bright colored clothes whenever he wants.

   The wanderer Kuṇḍaliya points out that some ascetics argue for the sake of winning debates. But the Tathagata says his path is for the sake of liberation. Kuṇḍaliya asks what leads to liberation, and the Tathagata traces a sequence of conditions back to sense restraint.

   Sāriputta asks Upavāṇa how one can reflect and see the awakening factors in oneself.

  The awakening factors lead to the ending of craving.

  Improper attention promotes the hindrances; proper attention promotes the awakening factors.

   The Tathagata spells out in detail the factors that nourish the hindrances, and those that nourish the awakening factors.

   Some wanderers tell some Buddhist desciples that they, too, teach the five hindrances and the seven awakening factors, so what is the difference? The Tathagata explains by giving a detailed analytical treatment that he says is beyond the scope of the wanderers.

   Which awakening factors should be developed when the mind is tired, and which when it is energetic? And what is always useful?

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

   The brahmin Saṅgārava asks why sometimes verses stay in memory while other times they don’t. The Tathagata replies that it is due to the presence of either the hindrances of awakening factors. He gives a set of similes illustrating each of the hindrances with different bowls of water.

   A series of passages on the benefits of meditating on a skeleton. Some editions treat the sections as separate suttas.

   Newly ordained deciples should practice the four kinds of mindfulness meditation; trainees are practicing them, and perfected ones have perfected the practice.

   The parable of the quail and the hawk. When the quail ventured outside her ancestral territory, she became vulnerable. And what is a desciple’s ancestral territory? The four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

  The parable of the cook. The cook prepares different kinds of dishes for the king and keeps track and observes which ones the king likes at different times and on different occasions. In the same way, a disciple observes what the mind needs at that time and gives it an appropriate practice.

   The Tathagata decides to spend his final rains retreat at Vesālī in Beluvagāmaka. During the retreat he becomes very ill, but later recovers. Ānanda wonders who will guide the Saṅgha when the Tathagata dies, but the Tathagata says they should be their own refuge, grounded on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

  Sāriputta dies of illness, and the novice Cunda together with Ānanda take his bowl and robes and report the sad news to the Tathagata. The Tathagata dispels Ānanda’s sadness by speaking of the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

   When Venerable Uttiya asks for a teaching to take on retreat, the Tathagata teaches the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, well grounded on ethics.

  The Simile of the Beauty Queen demonstrates the right mind state and the real-time attention needed to practice Right Mindfulness when walking. When one is faced with extreme danger from all sides, the mind cannot be hampered or cling to self and its formations, which would obscure true seeing. All attention is on awareness itself, the Five Aggregates.

  Venerable Bhadda asks Ānanda about the ethical virtues encouraged by the Tathagata—what is their purpose? To develop the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

   A brahmin asks the Tathagata about the conditions under which the true teaching lasts long or does not last long after the Tathagata’s passing. The Tathagata says it depends on whether the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are practiced.

   Mindfulness is the four kinds of mindfulness meditation. Situational awareness is watching the arising and passing of feelings, thoughts, and perceptions.

   The four kinds of mindfulness meditation lead to realizing the deathless.

   The Tathagata teaches the simple passage on the four kinds of mindfulness meditation and an advanced analysis, which involves contemplating them as impermanent.

   The causes for the origination and cessation of the phenomena upon which the four kinds of mindfulness practice are grounded.

   The Tathagata gives a detailed explanation of each of the five faculties.

   The five faculties of pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity are analyzed in detail. In addition, each is to be seen in one of the three feelings.

   The five faculties of pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity are taught in a detailed exposition that treats them in an unusual order. The abandoning of each is related to the attainment of a particular meditative absorption.

   How does someone recognize that they are a trainee? By understanding the four noble truths and the five faculties. But only a perfected one fully embodies these qualities.

   An analysis of the four bases of psychic power showing how enthusiasm, energy, higher consciousness, and inquiry work in the context of advanced meditation.

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

   Before his awakening, the Tathagata reflected on the path for developing the bases of psychic power.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. It is developed by going into seclusion, establishing mindfulness on the breath, and proceeding through sixteen stages.

   Mindfulness of the breath is very beneficial. It is developed together with the seven factors of awakening.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. It is developed by going into seclusion, establishing mindfulness on the breath, and proceeding through sixteen stages.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. When developed it leads to perfection or non-return.

   Breath meditation is very beneficial. When developed it leads to perfection or one of the lesser attainments.

   When the Tathagata asks Venerable Ariṭṭha about breath meditation, his answer, while not incorrect, does not do full justice to the practice.

   The Tathagata sees Venerable Mahākappina meditating nearby and points out that his steadiness and tranquility are due to practicing breath meditation.

   Before his awakening the Tathagata generally practiced mindfulness of the breath, which kept him alert and peaceful and led to the ending of defilements. One who wishes for any of the higher fruits of the renunciate life should practice the same way.

   The Tathagata taught the contemplation on the ugliness of the body, then left to go on retreat. However, many disciples, misconstruing the teachings, ending up killing themselves. The Tathagata taught mindfulness of breath breath as a peaceful and pleasant abiding.

   The Tathagata goes on a three month retreat, and later says that during that time he mostly practiced breath meditation.

   Venerable Lomasavaṅgīsa explains to Mahānāma that the difference between a trainee and the Realized One is that the trainees practice to give up the hindrances, whereas the Realized One has already ended all defilements.

   Answering Ānanda, the Tathagata explains how one thing fulfills four things, four things fulfill seven things, and seven things fulfill two things.

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   The Tathagata 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 “stream-enterer”. Keep in mind however that the only way to hear the Dharma at that time was through association with a noble one.

   The famous first discourse, taught at Varanasi to the group of five ascetics. It begins by rejecting the extremes of asceticism and indulgence and recommends the middle way of the eightfold path. Then it defines the four noble truths and analyzes them in twelve aspects. It ends with Venerable Kondañña becoming the first person apart from the Tathagata to realize the Dhamma.

   Ignorance is not knowing the four noble truths.

   Understanding is knowing the four noble truths.

   The first truth is to be understood; the second is to be given up; the third is to be realized; and the fourth is to be developed.

   The Tathagata takes the desciples to a steep precipice, and points out that those who do not understand the four noble truths fall into a still deeper precipice.