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All Suttas

All 80 translations, grouped by collection. If you would rather be guided, use Start Here.

Dīgha Nikāya (DN) — the long discourses

  • What Does a Renunciant Gain? — DN 2 · Sāmaññaphala Sutta · about 39 min · 6,955 words · Set 3. A king asks what a renunciant actually gets out of the life.
  • Dependent Arising in Depth — DN 15 · Mahānidāna Sutta · about 25 min · 4,439 words · Set 4. The deepest and longest exposition of dependent arising in the set.

Majjhima Nikāya (MN) — the middle-length discourses

  • The Root of All Things — MN 1 · Mūlapariyāya Sutta · about 22 min · 3,939 words · Set 5. "The root of all things."
  • Seven Ways to Handle What Erodes the Mind — MN 2 · Sabbāsava Sutta · about 13 min · 2,188 words · Set 3. Seven concrete methods for handling what erodes the mind: restraint, use, endurance, avoidance, removal, development.
  • The Dirty Cloth — MN 7 · Vattha Sutta · about 11 min · 1,911 words · Set 2. A mind is like cloth: dye it while it is dirty and the colour comes out wrong.
  • Right View from Many Angles — MN 9 · Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta · about 14 min · 2,493 words · Set 4. Right view examined through more than a dozen different doctrinal lenses in one text.
  • The Four Foundations of Remembering — MN 10 · Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta · about 16 min · 2,830 words · Set 3. The four foundations of remembering, and the longest, densest text so far.
  • Who Counts as a Genuine Practitioner? — MN 11 · Cūḷasīhanāda Sutta · about 11 min · 1,845 words · Set 5. Who counts as a genuine practitioner?
  • How Thought Snowballs — MN 18 · Madhupiṇḍika Sutta · about 9 min · 1,468 words · Set 5. The honey-ball sutta, on how recognition snowballs into proliferating thought.
  • Two Kinds of Thinking — MN 19 · Dvedhāvitakka Sutta · about 10 min · 1,774 words · Set 3. Sorting thoughts into two bins and learning what to do with each.
  • The Snake and the Raft — MN 22 · Alagaddūpama Sutta · about 24 min · 4,189 words · Set 4. The snake simile and the raft simile carry genuinely difficult not-self doctrine on strong enough imagery that it stays followable.
  • The Two Searches — MN 26 · Pāsarāsi Sutta · about 31 min · 5,426 words · Set 1. The Buddha's own account of leaving home, studying under two teachers, and finding them insufficient.
  • Could This Be the Path to Awakening? — MN 36 · Mahāsaccaka Sutta · about 36 min · 6,330 words · Set 3. A debater says some people train the body and others the mind.
  • Does the Same Consciousness Continue? — MN 38 · Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta · about 31 min · 5,430 words · Set 4. A monk holds a wrong view: that the same consciousness travels on unchanged.
  • What Makes a Genuine Renunciant? — MN 39 · Mahā-Assapura Sutta · about 19 min · 3,343 words · Set 3. What actually makes someone a genuine renunciant, as opposed to someone who merely looks like one.
  • The Longer Questions and Answers — MN 43 · Mahāvedalla Sutta · about 17 min · 2,897 words · Set 5. The longer companion to MN 44, and the same format: two senior disciples working through the vocabulary point by point.
  • Questions and Answers on the Teaching — MN 44 · Cūḷavedalla Sutta · about 14 min · 2,446 words · Set 5. A systematic question-and-answer exchange between two disciples, covering a wide sweep of doctrine efficiently.
  • The Water Vessel — MN 61 · Ambalaṭṭhikarāhulovāda Sutta · about 13 min · 2,169 words · Set 3. The Buddha teaches his son Rāhula with a water vessel, emptied and turned upside down, and then a war elephant.
  • The Man Struck by a Poisoned Arrow — MN 63 · Cūḷamālukya Sutta · about 11 min · 1,801 words · Set 1. Why the teaching refuses to answer certain metaphysical questions.
  • The Five Lower Fetters — MN 64 · Mahāmālukya Sutta · about 14 min · 2,401 words · Set 5. The five lower fetters, and the companion piece to MN 63 — same disciple, later in his practice.
  • Household Life or Renunciant Life? — MN 99 · Subha Sutta · about 22 min · 3,852 words · Set 5. A dialogue defending renunciant life against a brahmin's claim that household life is better.
  • The Good Person and the Bad Person — MN 113 · Sappurisa Sutta · about 21 min · 3,699 words · Set 3. Twenty-six things a monk might be proud of, from family to deep meditation, and how a good person refuses to rank themselves by them.
  • The Eightfold Path in Detail — MN 117 · Mahācattārīsaka Sutta · about 12 min · 2,122 words · Set 5. A technical analysis of the eightfold path, factor by factor.
  • Remembering the Dhamma While Breathing In and Out — MN 118 · Ānāpānasati Sutta · about 12 min · 2,029 words · Set 3. Step-by-step instructions for remembering the Dhamma while breathing in and out.
  • Remembering Directed to the Body — MN 119 · Kāyagatāsati Sutta · about 12 min · 2,083 words · Set 3. A long practice sequence directing remembering to breathing, movement, the body's contents and fate, deep unification of mind, resilience, and ten claimed results.
  • Emptiness, Step by Step — MN 121 · Cūḷasuññata Sutta · about 12 min · 2,069 words · Set 3. Emptiness, step by step: each time, notice what has dropped away and what remains, until only this living body remains.
  • Dwelling in Emptiness — MN 122 · Mahāsuññata Sutta · about 19 min · 3,242 words · Set 3. The Buddha's own way of dwelling in emptiness.
  • Don't Chase the Past or Long for the Future — MN 131 · Bhaddekaratta Sutta · about 6 min · 1,057 words · Set 4. Do not chase the past or long for the future — but do not mistake that for a slogan about living in the moment.
  • The Six Fields of Experience — MN 137 · Saḷāyatanavibhaṅga Sutta · about 14 min · 2,424 words · Set 5. A technical analysis of the six fields of experience.
  • The Four Truths in Detail — MN 141 · Saccavibhaṅga Sutta · about 9 min · 1,494 words · Set 5. The four noble truths again, now in full analytical detail rather than the compressed form from Stage 2.
  • Not-Self at the Six Sense Doors — MN 148 · Chachakka Sutta · about 18 min · 3,105 words · Set 4. A systematic, almost mechanical working-through of not-self across every sense door.

Saṁyutta Nikāya (SN) — the connected discourses

  • How Do You Cross the Flood? — SN 1.1 · Oghataraṇa Sutta · about 1 min · 170 words · Set 2. A deity asks how the Buddha crossed a flood.
  • Dependent Arising, Term by Term — SN 12.2 · Paṭiccasamuppāda-vibhaṅga Sutta · about 6 min · 907 words · Set 4. The standard formula of dependent arising, defined term by term.
  • What Keeps a Life Going — SN 12.11 · Āhāra Sutta · about 4 min · 676 words · Set 4. Four things that keep a life going, traced back to wanting and then all the way back along the chain.
  • Between 'It Exists' and 'It Doesn't' — SN 12.15 · Kaccānagotta Sutta · about 3 min · 432 words · Set 4. One page, defining right view as the middle between "it exists" and "it doesn't."
  • Discovered, Not Invented — SN 12.20 · Paccaya Sutta · about 4 min · 572 words · Set 4. Dependent arising as a pattern that holds whether or not anyone discovers it, kept apart from the changing things it runs through.
  • From Dissatisfaction to Freedom — SN 12.23 · Upanisa Sutta · about 8 min · 1,294 words · Set 4. The positive chain, dissatisfaction leading step by step to freedom, mirroring the well-known negative chain.
  • How the World Arises—and Ends — SN 12.44 · Loka Sutta · about 2 min · 345 words · Set 4. How the lived world grows through the six senses into wanting, taking experience personally, and dissatisfaction.
  • Body and Mind Keep Changing — SN 12.61 · Assutavā Sutta · about 5 min · 741 words · Set 4. An argument that runs the opposite way from what you expect.
  • Putting Down the Burden — SN 22.22 · Bhāra Sutta · about 2 min · 303 words · Set 4. The five heaps as a burden, ignorant wanting as picking it up, and its fading as putting it down.
  • What the Heaps Offer, and the Way Out — SN 22.26 · Assāda Sutta · about 4 min · 559 words · Set 4. Before awakening, the Buddha asks three things of each of the five heaps: its appeal, its danger, and the way out.
  • The Five Heaps — SN 22.48 · Khandha Sutta · about 3 min · 363 words · Set 4. What the five heaps actually are, stated directly.
  • What Is Fit to Call Self? — SN 22.59 · Anattalakkhaṇa Sutta · about 6 min · 1,016 words · Set 4. The second sermon.
  • Can You Pin Down the Tathāgata? — SN 22.86 · Anurādha Sutta · about 7 min · 1,218 words · Set 4. Anurādha tries to place the Tathāgata outside four claims about what happens after death.
  • The Lingering Sense of 'I Am' — SN 22.89 · Khemaka Sutta · about 12 min · 2,062 words · Set 4. A subtler point: even someone who has genuinely seen not-self can still carry a faint, hard-to-locate sense of "I am."
  • The Fire Sermon — SN 35.28 · Āditta Sutta · about 4 min · 689 words · Set 5. The fire sermon.
  • One Arrow, Not Two — SN 36.6 · Salla Sutta · about 5 min · 783 words · Set 2. The one-arrow/two-arrows teaching: physical pain versus the added mental suffering piled on top of it.
  • Good Friendship Is the Whole Path — SN 45.2 · Upaḍḍha Sutta · about 2 min · 331 words · Set 1. Ānanda calls good friendship half the spiritual life; the Buddha calls it the whole.
  • What the Eightfold Path Means — SN 45.8 · Vibhaṅga Sutta · about 3 min · 532 words · Set 2. The eightfold path unpacked one factor at a time: how to understand, speak, act, work, train, remember, and unify the heart.
  • Conduct Is Where Practice Grows — SN 46.1 · Himavanta Sutta · about 2 min · 306 words · Set 3. Nāgas grow big enough for the ocean by first growing on a mountain.
  • What Feeds and Starves the Hindrances — SN 46.51 · Āhāra Sutta · about 9 min · 1,522 words · Set 3. What feeds the hindrances that block practice, and what starves them.
  • The Five Faculties — SN 48.10 · Dutiyavibhaṅga Sutta · about 4 min · 643 words · Set 5. Five definitions, one per faculty, each written as something a person does rather than something they have.
  • The Four Bases of Power — SN 51.13 · Chandasamādhi Sutta · about 3 min · 493 words · Set 5. One short formula, stated four times, defining the four bases of power.
  • Four Steps That Lead to the Path — SN 55.5 · Dutiyasāriputta Sutta · about 2 min · 256 words · Set 2. What leads to the path, in four ordinary steps: find good company, hear the teaching, attend to it carefully, then practise in line with it.
  • The First Teaching — SN 56.11 · Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta · about 7 min · 1,206 words · Set 2. The first sermon: the four noble truths and the eightfold path, stated directly.
  • What Ignorance Means — SN 56.17 · Avijjā Sutta · about 1 min · 99 words · Set 2. A bhikkhu asks what ignorance means.

Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN) — the numbered discourses

  • What Keeps the World Human — AN 2.9 · Cariya Sutta · about 1 min · 109 words · Set 2. Two bright qualities protect the human world: conscience, the inward sense of integrity, and moral caution about harm and consequences.
  • How to Test a Teaching — AN 3.65 · Kesamutta Sutta · about 10 min · 1,790 words · Set 1. A practical starting point for judging a teaching: tradition, reasoning, and a teacher's authority are not sufficient on their own.
  • What Drives Harm—and What Ends It — AN 3.69 · Akusalamūla Sutta · about 7 min · 1,217 words · Set 2. The text traces greed, aversion, and delusion from their roots to their effects on action, speech, power, and the heart.
  • Three Trainings Cover Everything — AN 3.88 · Tatiyasikkhā Sutta · about 3 min · 367 words · Set 2. More than 150 monastic rules, gathered into three trainings: conduct, the mind, and discernment.
  • True Whether or Not a Buddha Appears — AN 3.136 · Uppāda Sutta · about 2 min · 207 words · Set 2. Three short claims about everything that has been put together, and a frame that says they hold whether or not a Buddha ever appears.
  • Going With the Stream—or Against It — AN 4.5 · Anusota Sutta · about 3 min · 416 words · Set 2. Four ways of meeting the current: drifting with it, struggling against it, standing firm, and completing the crossing to dry land.
  • Four Horses — AN 4.113 · Patoda Sutta · about 5 min · 799 words · Set 2. Four kinds of horses, four kinds of people, and what it takes to move someone to practice.
  • The Five Strengths — AN 5.14 · Vitthata Sutta · about 3 min · 403 words · Set 5. The five strengths named and defined, in the same words SN 48.10 uses for the five faculties.
  • Recollecting Death, One Breath at a Time — AN 6.19 · Maraṇassati Sutta · about 5 min · 773 words · Set 3. Six monks say how they recollect death, each with less time than the last.
  • Six Things Examined — AN 6.63 · Nibbedhika Sutta · about 11 min · 1,976 words · Set 5. One analytical frame applied six times over, to sensuality, feeling, recognition, the outflows, action, and dissatisfaction.
  • When Life Goes Up and Down — AN 8.6 · Dutiyalokadhamma Sutta · about 5 min · 824 words · Set 2. Gain and loss, praise and blame, pleasure and pain happen to everyone.
  • Eight Streams of Benefit — AN 8.39 · Abhisanda Sutta · about 5 min · 732 words · Set 2. The five precepts seen from the other side.
  • Living Like an Arahant for a Day — AN 8.41 · Saṅkhittūposatha Sutta · about 5 min · 802 words · Set 2. The eight factors of the observance day: for one night and day, a lay disciple lives as the arahants live for life.
  • A Good Life Now and Later — AN 8.54 · Dīghajāṇu Sutta · about 7 min · 1,147 words · Set 2. A householder asks how to live well now and later.
  • Ten Recognitions for a Sick Monk — AN 10.60 · Girimānanda Sutta · about 9 min · 1,456 words · Set 3. Ten recognitions taught to a sick monk.
  • Think Like a Thoroughbred — AN 11.9 · Saddha Sutta · about 7 min · 1,252 words · Set 2. A wild colt tied to its trough can think of nothing but "Fodder, fodder!"
  • Six Things to Remember Anywhere — AN 11.12 · Dutiyamahānāma Sutta · about 4 min · 552 words · Set 3. Mahānāma asks how to practice in ordinary life while the Buddha is away.

Itivuttaka (Iti) — the short sayings, in the Khuddaka Nikāya

  • The Two Nibbāna Elements — Iti 44 · Nibbānadhātu Sutta · about 2 min · 345 words · Set 5. A short reference text defining the two nibbāna elements.
  • Taken Over by Views — Iti 49 · Diṭṭhigata Sutta · about 2 min · 309 words · Set 4. Two views can take over: clinging to continued becoming, or treating annihilation as peace.

Udāna (Ud) — the inspired sayings, in the Khuddaka Nikāya

  • Why There Is a Way Out — Ud 8.3 · Tatiyanibbānapaṭisaṁyutta Sutta · about 1 min · 139 words · Set 5. One minute, and one argument: there would be no way out of what is born, made and conditioned unless there were something that is not.

Dhammapada (Dhp) — the verses on the Dhamma, in the Khuddaka Nikāya

  • Heedfulness Is the Path to the Deathless — Dhp 21-32 · Appamādavagga · about 2 min · 303 words · Set 2. Twelve verses on one quality: heedfulness, the path to the deathless.
  • The Teaching of the Buddhas — Dhp 179-196 · Buddhavagga · about 3 min · 459 words · Set 2. Eighteen verses on the Buddha, including the four-line summary of the whole teaching and what a real refuge is.
  • The Path — Dhp 273-289 · Maggavagga · about 3 min · 461 words · Set 2. Seventeen verses on the path: you must make the effort yourself, and seeing impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self is the way.

Sutta Nipāta (Snp) — the collection of discourses, in the Khuddaka Nikāya

  • May All Beings Be Happy — Snp 1.8 · Metta Sutta · about 2 min · 267 words · Set 2. Ten verses on friendliness: the character it starts from, the wish for all beings to be happy, and a mother's care for her only child.