Majjhima Nikāya
The Middle-Length Discourses — the core teachings, in narrative discourses.
The discourses
111 texts
MN 1 · The Root Sequence (Mūlapariyāya Sutta)
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Warns against the conceit of positing an underlying ground of all phenomena, contrasting ordinary conceiving with an arahant's freedom from it.
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MN 2 · All the Effluents (Sabbāsava Sutta)
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Teaches seven methods for abandoning the mind's effluents—through seeing, restraint, use, endurance, avoidance, elimination, and development.
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MN 4 · Fear & Terror (Bhaya-bherava Sutta)
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The Buddha recounts conquering fear and terror alone in the wilderness through purified virtue, seclusion, and the four jhānas.
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MN 5 · Unblemished (Anaṅgaṇa Sutta)
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Sāriputta distinguishes those who recognize their own inner blemishes of desire from those who remain unaware of them.
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MN 6 · If One Would Wish (Ākaṅkheyya Sutta)
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Lists aspirations a monk might hold—respect, requisites, supernormal attainments—showing how virtue, concentration, and insight fulfill each one.
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MN 7 · The Simile of the Cloth (Vatthūpama Sutta)
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Uses the simile of dyeing cloth to show how mental defilements, and their removal, determine one's destination after death.
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MN 9 · Right View (Sammādiṭṭhi Sutta)
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Sāriputta unpacks right view through several lenses, including skillful and unskillful action, nutriment, and the four noble truths.
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MN 10 · The Establishing of Mindfulness Discourse (Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta)
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Presents the four frames of reference—body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities—as the direct path for establishing mindfulness.
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MN 11 · The Shorter Lion’s Roar Discourse (Cūḷasīhanāda Sutta)
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Distinguishes the Buddha's teaching from rivals' through its account of views of self and its full comprehension of all forms of clinging.
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MN 12 · The Great Lion’s Roar Discourse (Mahāsīhanāda Sutta)
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In reply to a disparaging former disciple, the Buddha details his unique powers, confidences, and ascetic attainments as a Tathāgata.
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MN 13 · The Great Mass of Stress (Mahā Dukkhakkhandha Sutta)
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Examines the allure, drawback, and escape from sensuality, form, and feeling, surpassing rival ascetics' partial understanding of craving.
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MN 14 · The Lesser Mass of Stress (Cūḷa Dukkhakkhandha Sutta)
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Explains to Mahānāma why greed, aversion, and delusion still arise despite intellectual understanding, and critiques self-mortification as purification.
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MN 17 · Forest Hinterlands (Vanapattha Sutta)
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Criteria for judging whether a forest dwelling supports a monk's mindfulness, concentration, and material needs, or should be abandoned.
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MN 18 · The Ball of Honey (Madhupiṇḍika Sutta)
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How sensory contact gives rise to perception, thought, and papañca—conceptual proliferation—that spirals into dispute and conflict.
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MN 19 · Two Sorts of Thinking (Dvedhāvitakka Sutta)
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The Buddha's pre-awakening practice of sorting thoughts into unskillful (sensuality, ill will, harm) and skillful (renunciation, goodwill, harmlessness) categories.
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MN 20 · The Relaxation of Thoughts (Vitakkasaṇṭhāna Sutta)
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Five methods for a meditator to abandon distracting, unskillful thoughts and steady the mind during meditation.
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MN 21 · The Simile of the Saw (Kakacūpama Sutta)
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Patience and non-retaliation under any provocation, even mutilation, taught through the simile of being sawn limb from limb.
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MN 22 · The Water-Snake Simile (Alagaddūpama Sutta)
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The danger of misgrasping the Dhamma, illustrated by a wrongly grabbed water-snake, and the raft simile for letting go of views once they've served their purpose.
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MN 24 · Relay Chariots (Ratha-vinīta Sutta)
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Seven stages of purification that relay one another toward Nibbana, none final in itself, likened to relay chariots on a journey.
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MN 25 · Poison-grass (Nivāpa Sutta)
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Sensual pleasures as bait set by Māra, and four types of practitioners who succeed or fail to escape his domain through jhāna.
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