Majjhima Nikāya
The Middle-Length Discourses — the core teachings, in narrative discourses.
The discourses
111 texts
MN 26 · The Noble Search (Ariyapariyesana Sutta)
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The distinction between the ignoble search for what is subject to aging and death and the noble search for the unborn, unaging Nibbana, recounting the Buddha's renunciation and awakening.
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MN 27 · The Shorter Elephant Footprint Simile (Cūḷa Hatthipadopama Sutta)
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The graduated training from conviction and going forth through virtue, sense restraint, jhāna, and the three knowledges, encompassing the path as the elephant's footprint encompasses all others.
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MN 28 · The Great Elephant Footprint Simile (Mahā Hatthipadopama Sutta)
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How the four noble truths contain all skillful qualities, unpacked through analysis of the four elements and dependent origination of the clinging-aggregates.
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MN 29 · The Longer Heartwood Simile Discourse (Mahā Sāropama Sutta)
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Gain, honor, virtue, concentration, and even psychic power are not the holy life's heartwood; unshakable freedom of mind is the true goal.
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MN 30 · The Shorter Heartwood Simile Discourse (Cūḷa Sāropama Sutta)
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The holy life's heartwood is unshakable liberation, not the gain, honor, virtue, concentration, or knowledge and vision mistaken for its goal.
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MN 31 · The Shorter Gosiṅga Sāla-tree Discourse (Cūḷagosiṅgasāla Sutta)
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Three monks living in concord describe mutual respect, care, and diligence as the ground of their shared meditative attainments.
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MN 33 · The Greater Cowherd Discourse (Mahā Gopālaka Sutta)
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Eleven qualities a monk needs to progress and flourish in the Dhamma, likened to eleven skills required of a good cowherd.
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MN 35 · The Shorter Discourse to Saccaka (Cūḷa Saccaka Sutta)
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The Buddha refutes the debater Saccaka's claim that the five aggregates constitute a controllable self, demonstrating their impermanence and non-self.
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MN 36 · The Longer Discourse to Saccaka (Mahā Saccaka Sutta)
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The Buddha recounts his failed ascetic austerities and describes attaining the four jhānas and the three knowledges on the night of his awakening.
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MN 37 · The Shorter Craving-Destruction Discourse (Cūḷa Taṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta)
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Liberation through non-clinging to any phenomenon, taught to Sakka and confirmed when Moggallāna tests his understanding through a feat of psychic power.
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MN 38 · The Greater Craving-Destruction Discourse (Mahā Taṇhāsaṅkhaya Sutta)
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A correction of the view that consciousness transmigrates unchanged, teaching that consciousness arises only dependent on conditions, not as a persisting self.
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MN 39 · The Greater Discourse at Assapura (Mahā Assapura Sutta)
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The qualities that make one a true contemplative—shame, restraint of the senses, purified conduct, jhāna, and the three knowledges of awakening.
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MN 40 · The Shorter Discourse at Assapura (Cūḷa-Assapura Sutta)
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True contemplative practice lies in abandoning inner defilements through virtue, restraint, and mindfulness, not in outward ascetic observances alone.
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MN 41 · (Brahmans) of Sāla (Sāleyyaka Sutta)
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The ten unskillful and ten skillful courses of action in body, speech, and mind, and how each shapes rebirth in lower or higher states.
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MN 43 · The Greater Set of Questions & Answers (Mahā Vedalla Sutta)
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Sāriputta answers Mahā Koṭṭhita's detailed questions on discernment, consciousness, and feeling, and how these mental factors are bound together.
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MN 44 · The Shorter Set of Questions & Answers (Cūḷa Vedalla Sutta)
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The nun Dhammadinnā explains self-identification, the clinging-aggregates, the eightfold path, and the nature of concentration and feeling to the layman Visākha.
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MN 45 · The Shorter Discourse on Taking on Practices (Cūḷa Dhammasamādāna Sutta)
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Four ways of undertaking practices, classed by whether they are pleasant or painful now and yield pleasure or pain later, favoring present hardship for future good.
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MN 48 · In Kosambī (Kosambiyā Sutta)
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Six qualities for harmony among quarreling monks, and the four factors of stream-entry realized through direct knowledge of dependent origination.
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MN 49 · The Brahmā Invitation (Brahma-nimantanika Sutta)
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The Buddha confronts the Brahmā Baka's delusion of eternal supremacy and outwits Māra's attempts to keep beings trapped in wrong view.
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MN 51 · To Kandaraka (Kandaraka Sutta)
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Four types of ascetic practice are classified by self-mortification and mortifying others, with the full training of a rightly practicing monk.
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