• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

25. Nivāpa Sutta: The Bait. The Buddha uses the analogy of deer-trappers to make known to the bhikkhus the obstacles that confront them in their effort to escape from Māra’s control.

26. Ariyapariyesanā Sutta: The Noble Search. The Buddha gives the bhikkhus a long account of his own quest for enlightenment from the time of his life in the palace up to his transmission of the Dhamma to his first five disciples.

27. Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint. Using the analogy of a woodsman tracking down a big bull elephant, the Buddha explains how a disciple arrives at complete certainty of the truth of his teaching. The sutta presents a full account of the step-by-step training of the Buddhist monk.

28. Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint. The venerable Sāriputta begins with a statement of the Four Noble Truths, which he then expounds by way of the contemplation of the four elements and the dependent origination of the five aggregates.

29. Mahāsāropama Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Heartwood.

30. Cūḷasāropama Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Heartwood. These two discourses emphasise that the proper goal of the holy life is the unshakeable deliverance of the mind, to which all other benefits are subsidiary.

31. Cūḷagosinga Sutta: The Shorter Discourse in Gosinga. The Buddha meets three bhikkhus who are living in concord, “blending like milk and water,” and inquires how they succeed in living together so harmoniously.

32. Mahāgosinga Sutta: The Greater Discourse in Gosinga. On a beautiful moonlit night a number of senior disciples meet together in a sāla-tree wood and discuss what kind of bhikkhu could illuminate the wood. After each has answered according to his personal ideal, they go to the Buddha, who provides his own answer.

33. Mahāgopālaka Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Cowherd. The Buddha teaches eleven qualities that prevent a bhikkhu’s growth in the Dhamma and eleven qualities that contribute to his growth.

34. Cụ̄agopālaka Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Cowherd. The Buddha explains the types of bhikkhus Cowherd. The Buddha explains the types of bhikkhus who “breast Māra’s stream” and get safely across to the further shore.

35. Cụ̄asaccaka Sutta: The Shorter Discourse to Saccaka. The debater Saccaka boasts that in debate he can shake the Buddha up and down and thump him about, but when he finally meets the Buddha their discussion takes some unexpected turns.

36. Mahāsaccaka Sutta: The Greater Discourse to Saccaka. The Buddha meets again with Saccaka and in the course of a discussion on “development of body” and “development of mind” he relates a detailed narrative on his own spiritual quest.

37. Cụ̄ataṇhāsankhaya Sutta: The Shorter Discourse on the Destruction of Craving. The venerable Mahā Moggallāna overhears the Buddha give a brief explanation to Sakka, ruler of gods, as to how a bhikkhu is liberated through the destruction of craving. Wishing to know if Sakka understood the meaning, he makes a trip to the heaven of the Thirty-three to find out.

38. Mahātaṇhāsankhaya Sutta: The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving. A bhikkhu named Sāti promulgates the pernicious view that the same consciousness transmigrates from life to life. The Buddha reprimands him with a lengthy discourse on dependent origination, showing how all phenomena of existence arise and cease through conditions.

39. Mahā-Assapura Sutta: The Greater Discourse at Assapura. The Buddha elucidates “the things that make one a recluse” with a discourse covering many aspects of the bhikkhu’s training.

40. Cūḷa-Assapura Sutta: The Shorter Discourse at Assapura. The Buddha explains “the way proper to the recluse” to be not the mere outward practice of austerities but the inward purification from defilements.

41. Sāleyyaka Sutta: The Brahmins of Sālā.

42. Verañjaka Sutta: The