Pali audio

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

While staying overnight in a potter’s workshop, the Buddha has a chance encounter with a monk 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.

Achieving peace is no simple matter. The Buddha explains how to avoid conflict through contentment, right speech, understanding pleasure, and not insisting on local conventions.

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

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

Confronted with an overly simplistic version of his own teachings, the Buddha emphasizes the often overlooked nuances and qualifications in how karma plays out.

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

A monk who does not know the verses from MN 131 is encouraged by a deity to learn them.

The verses from MN 131 are explained in a different way by Venerable Mahakaccāna.

The same discourse as MN 131, but spoken by Venerable Ananda.

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.

Expanding on the previous sutta, this discourse contains the most detailed descriptions of the horrors of hell.

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

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

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

Venerable Bakkula, regarded as the healthiest of the mendicants, explains to an old friend his strict and austere practice. The unusual form of this discourse suggests it was added to the canon some time after the Buddha’s death.

Venerable Ānanda is invited by the Buddha to speak on the Buddha’s amazing qualities, and proceeds to list a series of apparently miraculous events accompanying his birth. The Buddha caps it off by explaining what he thinks is really amazing about himself.

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

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

The Buddha explains how one can make a wish to be reborn in different realms.

This focuses on the first aspect of mindfulness meditation, the observation of the body. This set of practices, simple as they seem, have far-reaching benefits.

Surrounded by many well-practiced mendicants, the Buddha teaches mindfulness of breathing in detail, showing how they relate to the four kinds of mindfulness meditation.

A discourse on the prerequisites of right samādhi that emphasizes the interrelationship and mutual support of all the factors of the eightfold path.

Reflecting on the changes that even geographical features undergo, the Buddha then recounts the names of sages of the past who have lived in Mount Isigili near Rājagaha.

Beginning by praising a wise person, the Buddha goes on to explain that one becomes wise by inquiring into the elements, sense fields, dependent origination, and what is possible and impossible.

The Buddha sets up a framework on things to be cultivated or avoided, and Venerable Sāriputta volunteers to elaborate.

The Buddha explains that a truly good person does not disparage others or feel superior because of their attainment.

If someone claims to be awakened, their claim should be interrogated with a detailed series of detailed questions. Only if they can answer them clearly should the claim be accepted.

The Buddha describes in technical detail the process of insight of Venerable Sāriputta. Many ideas and terms in this text anticipate the Abhidhamma

A good person is able to understand a bad person, but not vice versa.

On a lovely full moon night, one of the mendicants presents the Buddha with a series of questions that go to the heart of the teaching. But when he hears of the doctrine of not-self, another mendicant is unable to grasp the meaning.

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

The Buddha 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 Buddha can only show the way, and it is up to us to walk it.

Beginning with profound meditation absorption, the Buddha goes on to deeper and deeper levels, showing how insight on this basis leads to the detaching of consciousness from any form of rebirth.

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

Hearing of the death of the Jain leader Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, the Buddha encourages the Saṅgha to swiftly resolve any disputes. He lays down a series of seven methods for resolving disputes. These form the foundation for the monastic code.

The Buddha teaches the monks to not dispute about the fundamental teachings, but to always strive for harmony.

A middle length version of the more famous Brahmajala Sutta (DN1), this surveys a range of speculative views and dismisses them all.

The Buddha tackles a group of Jain ascetics, pressing them on their claim to be practicing to end all suffering by self-mortification. He points out a series of fallacies in their logic, and explains his own middle way.

Angered by the devotion of a brahmin lady, a brahmin visits the Buddha. He positions himself against traditionalists and rationalists, as someone whose teaching is based on direct experience.

Working hard is not valuable in and of itself; what matters is the outcome. And just as in lay life, spiritual practice may or may not lead to fruitful results.

Two brahmin students ask the Buddha about what makes a brahmin: birth or deeds? the Buddha points out that, while the species of animals are determined by birth, for humans what matters is how you chose to live. This discourse anticipates the modern view that there are no such things as clearly defined racial differences among humans.

A corrupt tax-collector is redeemed by his encounter with Venerable Sāriputta.

A brahmin claims that one deserves service and privilege depending on caste, but the Buddha counters that it is conduct, not caste, that show a person’s worth.

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

A brahmin denies that there is such a thing as a principled renunciate life, but Venerable Udena persuades him otherwise.

A precocious brahmin student is encouraged against his wishes to challenge the Buddha on the question of caste. His reluctance turns out to be justified.

A brahmanical ascetic named Keṇiya invites the entire Saṅgha for a meal. When the brahmin Sela sees what is happening, he visits the Buddha and expresses his delight in a moving series of devotional verses.