The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [1]
123 - Acchariya-abbhūta Sutta
124 - Bakkula Sutta
125 - Dantabhūmi Sutta
126 - Bhūmija Sutta
127 - Anuruddha Sutta
128 - Upakkilesa Sutta
129 - Bālapaṇḍita Sutta
130 - Devadūta Sutta
Chapter 4 - The Division of Expositions
131 - Bhaddekaratta Sutta
132 - Ānandabhaddekaratta Sutta
133 - Mahākaccānabhaddekaratta Sutta
134 - Lomasakangiyabhaddekaratta Sutta
135 - Cūḷakammavibhanga Sutta
136 - Mahākammavibhanga Sutta
137 - Saḷāyatanavibhanga Sutta
138 - Uddesavibhanga Sutta
139 - Araṇavibhanga Sutta
140 - Dhātuvibhanga Sutta
141 - Saccavibhanga Sutta
142 - Dakkhiṇāvibhanga Sutta
Chapter 5 - The Division of the Sixfold Base
143 - Anāthapiṇḍikovāda Sutta
144 - Channovāda Sutta
145 - Puṇṇovāda Sutta
146 - Nandakovāda Sutta
147 - Cūḷarāhulovāda Sutta
148 - Chachakka Sutta
149 - Mahāsaḷāyatanika Sutta
150 - Nagaravindeyya Sutta
151 - Piṇḍapātapārisuddhi Sutta
152 - Indriyabhāvanā Sutta
Bibliography
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Pali-English Glossary
Index of Subjects
Index of Proper Names
Index of Similes
Index of Pali Terms Discussed in Introduction and Notes
About the Translators
The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies
Wisdom Publications
Copyright Page
Preface
THE PRESENT WORK OFFERS a complete translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections in the Sutta Piṭaka or “Basket of Discourses” belonging to the Pali Canon. This vast body of scriptures, recorded in the ancient Indian language now known as Pali, is regarded by the Theravāda school of Buddhism as the definitive recension of the Buddha-word, and among scholars too it is generally considered our most reliable source for the original teachings of the historical Buddha Gotama.
This translation is an extensively revised version of an original draft translation made by the distinguished English scholar-monk Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli (1905–1960). During his eleven years’ life in the Buddhist Order, passed entirely at the Island Hermitage in south Sri Lanka, Ven. Ñāṇamoli had rendered into English some of the most difficult and intricate texts of Pali Buddhism, among them the encyclopaedic Visuddhimagga. Following his premature death at the age of fifty-five, three thick, hand-bound notebooks containing a handwritten translation of the entire Majjhima Nikāya were found among his effects. However, although all 152 suttas of the Majjhima had been translated, the work was obviously still in an ongoing process of revision, with numerous crossouts and overwritings and a fair number of unresolved inconsistencies. The translation also employed an experimental scheme of highly original renderings for Pali doctrinal terms that Ven. Ñāṇamoli had come to prefer to his earlier scheme and had overwritten into the notebooks. He had used this new set of renderings in several of his final publications, offering an explanation for his choices in an appendix to The Minor Readings and The Illustrator of Ultimate Meaning, his translation of the Khuddakapāṭha and its commentary.
In 1976 Bhikkhu Khantipālo made a selection of ninety suttas from the notebooks, which he edited into a fairly consistent and readable version rearranged according to a topical sequence he himself devised. This was published in Thailand in three volumes under the title A Treasury of the Buddha’s Words. In this edition Ven. Khantipālo had endeavoured to make as few changes as possible in the original translation by Ven. Ñāṇamoli, though he inevitably found it desirable to replace some of the latter’s innovative renderings with better-known equivalents, generally choosing the terminology that Ven. Ñāṇamoli had used in The Path of Purification, his excellent translation of the Visuddhimagga.
The present work contains finished translations of all 152 suttas. In editing the ninety suttas selected by Ven. Khantipālo, I have worked from the version found in A Treasury of the Buddha’s Words, referring to