Majjhima Nikāya
The Middle-Length Discourses — the core teachings, in narrative discourses.
The discourses
111 texts
MN 78 · Muṇḍika the Contemplative (Samaṇa-Muṇḍika Sutta)
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Refutation of a wanderer's shallow criteria for skillful conduct, defining true skillfulness as abandoning unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental action and intention.
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MN 82 · About Raṭṭhapāla (Raṭṭhapāla Sutta)
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Raṭṭhapāla's renunciation against his parents' wishes, and his four summaries of the world taught to a king: it is swept away, shelterless, not one's own, and insatiable.
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MN 85 · Prince Bodhi (Bodhirājakumāra Sutta)
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The Buddha recounts his quest for awakening, his practice under two teachers, extreme asceticism, and discovery of the middle way through jhāna, to Prince Bodhi.
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MN 86 · About Aṅgulimāla (Aṅgulimāla Sutta)
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The murderous bandit Aṅgulimāla's conversion, ordination, and attainment of arahantship, including his declaration that he has never intentionally killed since his noble birth.
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MN 87 · From One Who Is Dear (Piyajātika Sutta)
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A grieving father's loss teaches that sorrow, lamentation, and pain arise from those who are dear to us.
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MN 90 · At Kaṇṇakatthala (Kaṇṇakatthala Sutta)
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King Pasenadi questions the Buddha on caste equality, the gods, and whether one mind can grasp all things at once.
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MN 91 · To Brahmāyu (Excerpt) (Brahmāyu Sutta)
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The brahmin Brahmāyu verifies the Buddha's bodily marks and impeccable conduct, then embraces the teaching and attains non-return.
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MN 92 · = Sn 3:7
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The brahmin Sela examines the Buddha's marks of a great man, then goes forth with his followers and attains arahantship.
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MN 93 · With Assalāyana (Assalāyana Sutta)
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Against the brahmin Assalāyana, the Buddha refutes claims that caste by birth determines purity, virtue, or spiritual worth.
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MN 95 · With Caṅkī (Caṅkī Sutta)
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To the brahmin Caṅkī's pupil, the Buddha explains how to safeguard, discover, and finally realize truth without dogmatic clinging to belief.
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MN 97 · To Dhanañjānin (Dhanañjānin Sutta)
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Sāriputta guides the dying brahmin Dhanañjāni toward the Brahmā realms, though the Buddha later faults him for stopping short of full liberation.
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MN 98 · = Sn 3:9
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True brahminhood is defined by ethical conduct and realization, not by birth, lineage, or claims of pure ancestry.
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MN 101 · At Devadaha (Devadaha Sutta)
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Against the Jain doctrine that all present pain stems from past karma, the Buddha explains right effort and the actual causes of suffering.
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MN 102 · Five & Three (Pañcattaya Sutta (MN 102))
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An analysis of five speculative doctrines about self and world after death, and three ways of conceiving an ultimate, unbinding state.
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MN 105 · To Sunakkhatta (Sunakkhatta Sutta)
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Criteria for testing whether a claim to enlightenment is genuine, warning that misusing such claims to excuse indulgence is deadly.
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MN 106 · Conducive to the Imperturbable (Āneñja-sappāya Sutta)
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The drawbacks of sensuality and a graduated path of concentration attainments leading toward the imperturbable and ultimately toward liberation.
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MN 107 · To Gaṇaka Moggallāna (Gaṇaka Moggallāna Sutta)
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The Buddha compares monastic training to a craftsman's stepwise apprenticeship, describing the gradual path from virtue to liberation.
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MN 108 · Moggallāna the Guardsman (Gopaka Moggallāna Sutta)
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Ānanda explains, soon after the Buddha's passing, that no single successor was named and describes the qualities of a true teacher.
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MN 109 · The Great Full-Moon Night Discourse (Mahā Puṇṇama Sutta)
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A thorough exposition of the five clinging-aggregates, their origin and cessation, and how misunderstanding them causes suffering.
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MN 110 · The Shorter Full-Moon Night Discourse (Cūḷa Puṇṇama Sutta)
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Signs that distinguish a person of no integrity from a person of integrity, through their views, intentions, and speech.
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