Pali audio

The Buddha explains to a group of brahmins the conduct leading to rebirth in higher or lower states, including detailed explanations of the ten core practices which lay people should undertake, and which also form the basis for liberation.

The labels of being a spiritual practitioner don’t just come from external trappings, but from sincere inner change.

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

To counter the wrong view that a self-identical consciousness transmigrates from one life to the next, the Buddha teaches dependent origination, showing that consciousness invariably arises dependent on conditions.

Moggallāna visits the heaven of Sakka, the lord of gods, to see whether he really understands what the Buddha is teaching.

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

Saccaka was a debater, who challenged the Buddha to a contest. Despite his bragging, the Buddha is not at all perturbed at his attacks.

Drawing parallels with a cowherd guiding his herd across a dangerous river, the Buddha presents the various kinds of enlightened disciples who cross the stream of transmigration.

For eleven reasons a cowherd is not able to properly look after a herd. The Buddha compares this to the spiritual growth of a mendicant.

Several senior mendicants, reveling in the beauty of the night, discuss what kind of practitioner would adorn the park. They take their answers to the Buddha, who praises their answers, but gives his own twist.

A Sutta which shows the good practice of Vinya and Dhamma by the bhikkhus of those days. Many of the practices here can be compared with present-day bhikkhu life in the forest Wats (monastries) of N.E. Thailand. The same spirit prevails both in this ancient document and in the modern forest wat: “you all live in concord and agreement, as undisputing as milk with water, viewing each other with kind...

Notice the treatment of the brahmin Pingalakoccha’s question by the Buddha. When this question of “Are there other teachers also enlightened?” was put to him on other occasions, he has answered it in the same way: “Let that be, I shall teach you the Dhamma.” This question often comes up today with the multitude of teachings and teachers but an affirmative answer (if given on the basis of ratiocina...

Following the incident with Devadatta, the Buddha cautions the mendicants against becoming complacent with superficial benefits of spiritual life and points to liberation as the true heart of the teaching.

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

The Buddha 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.

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

The Buddha compares getting trapped by Māra with a deer getting caught in a snare, illustrating the ever more complex strategies employed by hunter and hunted.

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

In a curious discourse laden with evocative imagery, a deity presents a riddle to a mendicant, who seeks an answer from the Buddha.

The sutta falls into two parts. The first part concerns the monk Arittha who has wrong views concerning the teaching. The Buddha reprimands Arittha and gives two similes (of the snake and raft) which illustrate different ways in which someone might miss the point of his teachings. The second part of the sutta details issues connected with views of the self.

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

This short sutta is one of relatively few that give specific advice on the techniques of meditation practice. The sutta offers five approaches to overcoming distracting thoughts.

The Buddha describes two kinds of thoughts. Firstly thoughts of sensual desire, ill will and cruelty and secondly thoughts of renunciation, thoughts of non ill will and non cruelty.

The Buddha praises an explanation elucidated by the venerable Mahā Kaccāna on the causal process that gives rise to papanca (mental proliferation) which can easily lead on to conflicts

Why does a bhikkhu who is developing his mind stay in one place but not in another? In this Sutta the answer is given: he stays where he progresses in Dhamma but does not stay where he makes no progress. And he takes no account of whether material support is good or not, for he did not go forth to homelessness just to get material support. The first four paragraphs speak of bhikkhus living in the...