Pali audio

MN 35 The Shorter Discourse with Saccaka

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

MN 34 The Shorter Discourse on the Cowherd

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.

MN 33 The Longer Discourse on the Cowherd

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.

MN 32 The Longer Discourse at Gosingha

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.

MN 31 The Shorter Discourse at Gosingha

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 kindly eyes.” And when people anywhere at any time want to live peacefully together they should take...

MN 30 The Shorter Simile of the Heartwood

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 ratiocination) is not reliable, while an enlightened Teacher is simply not interested in such abstract qu...

MN 29 The Longer Simile of the Heartwood

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.

MN 28 The Longer Simile of the Elephant's Footprint

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.

MN 27 The Shorter Simile of the Elephant's Footprint

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.

MN 26 The Noble Search

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.

MN 25 Fodder

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.

MN 24 Discourse on the Relays of Chariots

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

MN 23 The Anthill

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

MN 22 The Simile of the Snake

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.

MN 21 The Simile of the Saw

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.

MN 20 The Stilling of Thoughts

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.

MN 19 Two Kinds of Thought

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.

MN 18 Discourse of the Honey Ball

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

MN 17 Jungle Thickets

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 forest, no doubt the most suitable place for developing the mind, but not all find the life ther...

MN 16 Emotional Barrenness

The Buddha explains various ways one can become emotionally cut off from one’s spiritual community.

MN 15 Measuring Up

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.

MN 14 The Shorter Discourse on the Mass of Suffering

A lay person is puzzled at how, despite their long practice, they still have greedy or hateful thoughts. The Buddha 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.

MN 13 The Longer Discourse on the Mass of Suffering

MN 12 The Longer Discourse on the Lion's Roar

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

MN 11 The Shorter Discourse on the Lion's Roar

The Buddha declares that only those following his path can genuinely experience the four stages of awakening. This is because, while much is shared with other systems, none of them go so far as to fully reject all attachment to the idea of a self.

MN 10 Satipatthāna sutta

The Satipaṭṭhāna sutta is a most highly revered sutta setting out mindfulness as the one way to overcome suffering. The Buddha sets out in clear terms the four contemplations that constitute “establishing mindfulness” watching the body, feeling, mind and qualities. The sutta closes with an extended statement on the result of establishing mindfulness – enlightenment or something very close to enlightenment.

MN 9 Right View

In this sutta the Venerable Sāriputta explains how right view can be understood in a number of different ways.

MN 8 Self Effacement

The Buddha differentiates between peaceful meditation and spiritual practices that encompass the whole of life. He lists forty-four aspects, which he explains as “effacement”, the wearing away of conceit.

MN 7 The Simile of the Cloth

"Dirty stained cloth takes dye badly, like a dirty stained mind takes one to low states of birth full of suffering. New cloth well washed, on the other hand takes dye well, likewise when a pure mind when good rebirth can be expected. What are the dirt and stains of the mind? Things we know well like covetousness and unrighteous greed, ill will, anger, revenge and so on – these are our stained and dirty states on mind. Getting to know them is good for then they are seen as a source of trouble...

MN 6 If a Bhikkhu should wish

In this discourse the Buddha teaches how, by keeping the precepts, devotion to internal serenity of mind, meditation, insight and seclusion various wishes can be obtained.

MN 5 Unblemished

The Buddha’s chief disciples, Sāriputta and Moggallāna, use a simile of a tarnished bowl to illustrate the blemishes of the mind and conduct. They emphasize how the crucial thing is not so much whether there are blemishes, but whether we are aware of them.

MN 4 Fear and Dread

The Buddha describes what it would be like to live in solitude in a remote jungle resting place free from fear and dread.

MN 3 Heirs in the Teaching

Some of the Buddha’s students inherit from him only material profits and fame. But his true inheritance is the spiritual path, the way of contentment. Venerable Sāriputta explains how by following the Buddha’s example we can experience the fruits of the path.

MN 2 All the Taints

Everyone has troubles and difficulties in this life - all the various aspects of dukkha and these troubles the Buddha shows should be dealt  with in appropriate ways. A Buddhist who knows the Dhamma can thus practice so to rid himself of these troubles in a way which will lead him out if complications, not further into difficulties. No doubt this discourse is directed to those who have most time for Dhamma practice - the bhikkhus and nuns, but lay people can learn much from the Buddha’s word...

MN 1 The Root of all Things

In this sutta the Buddha analyses the thinking process of four different types of people, the untaught ordinary person, the Disciple in higher training the Arahant and the Tathagata. The sutta details the progression from perception and delight because of misunderstanding the true nature of perception to directly knowing, dispassion and release through full understanding.