Vinaire's Blog

Reference: Course on Subject Clearing

Abbreviations:
MN = Majjhima_Nikaya (Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha)
SN = Saṃyutta Nikāya (Connected Discourses of the Buddha)
AN = Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha)
DN = Dīgha Nikāya (Long Discourses of the Buddha)

The following course on Buddhism is based on the text The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. This course was recently suggested to me by my old friend Chuck Beatty. I plan to subject clear this course and record my thoughts.

In doing this course, it is important to have the following references handy.

TEXT: Majjhima_Nikaya

1. Contents
2. List of Abbreviations
3. Summary of Sutta
4. Notes on Sutta
5. Glossary

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The Course

A Systematic Study of the Majjhima Nikaya

MN 26:13 = Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 26 Section 13
MN 26 (1 – 4) = MN 26:1 to MN 26:4

I.  The Buddha’s Enlightenment

• MN 26 The Noble Search
• MN 4 Fear and Dread
• MN 36 The Greater Discourse to Saccaka
• MN 12 The Greater Discourse on the Lion’s Roar

II. Approaching the Dhamma

1. Making wise choices
   • AN 3.65 Kalama Sutta: To the Kalamas (handout)
   • MN 60 The Incontrovertible Teaching (handout)
2. Test the Buddha himself
   • MN 47 The Inquirer 
3. Faith, practice, and attainment
   • MN 95 With Cankī

III.  The Ethical Life

1. Four ways of life
   • MN 46 The Greater Discourse on Ways of Undertaking Things
2. Karma and its results
   • MN 57 The Dog-Duty Ascetic
   • MN 135 The Shorter Exposition of Action (handout)
3. The path to a higher rebirth
   • MN 41 The Brahmins of Sālā
   • MN 120 Reappearance by Aspiration
4. Right speech and patience
   • MN 61 Advice to Rāhula at Ambalaṭṭhikā
   • MN 21 The Simile of the Saw

IV. Deepening One’s Perspective on the World

1. The faults of the worldly life
   • MN 13 The Greater Discourse on the Mass of Suffering
2. The shortcomings in sensual pleasures
   • MN 54 To Potaliya
   • MN 75 To Māgandiya
3. The misery of saṃsāra
   • SN 15 Connected Discourses on Without Discoverable Beginning (handout)
4. Raṭṭhapāla and the call to renunciation
   • MN 82 On Raṭṭhapāla

V.  The Path to Liberation (General)

1. The purpose of the spiritual life
   • MN 63 The Shorter Discourse to Mālunkyāputta
   • MN 29 The Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Heartwood
2. The gradual training
   • MN 27 The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint (handout-1,handout-2,handout-3)
   • MN 39 The Greater Discourse at Assapura
3. What makes one a monk?
   • MN 40 The Shorter Discourse at Assapura
4. The benefits of virtue
   • MN 6 If a Bhikkhu Should Wish
5. Purifying the mind
   • MN 19 Two Kinds of Thought
   • MN 20 The Removal of Distracting Thoughts
   • MN 7 The Simile of the Cloth (handout)
   • MN 8 Effacement
6. Eliminating the taints
   • MN 2 All the Taints (handout)

VI. The Practice in Detail

1. The Noble Eightfold Path
   • MN 117 The Greater Forty
2. The way of mindfulness
   • MN 10 The Foundations of Mindfulness (handout-1, handout-2, handout-3, handout-4)
3. Mindfulness of breathing
   • MN 118 Mindfulness of Breathing
4. The aids to enlightenment, etc.
   • MN 77 The Greater Discourse to Sakuludāyin

VII.  The Cultivation of Wisdom

1. Right view
   1. MN 9 Right View (handout)
   2. MN 11 The Shorter Discourse on the Lion’s Roar
   3. MN 22 The Simile of the Snake
   4. MN 38 The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving (handout)
2. Penetrative insight
   1. MN 148 The Six Sets of Six
   2. MN 146 Advice from Nandaka
   3. MN 149 The Great Sixfold Base
   4. MN 28 The Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint
   5. MN 64 The Greater Discourse to Mālunkyāputta
3. Final realization
   1. MN 52 The Man from Aṭṭhakanāgara (handout-1, handout-2)
   2. MN 140 The Exposition of the Elements
4. A typology of persons
   1. MN 1 The Root of All Things (handout)
5. A typology of noble disciples
   1. MN 70 At Kīṭāgiri (part) (handout)

VIII.  The Tathāgata

1. MN 12 The Greater Discourse on the Lion’s Roar

IX. Life in the Sangha

1. Monks living in harmony
   • MN 31 The Shorter Discourse on Gosinga
2. The ideal monk
   • MN 32 The Greater Discourse on Gosinga
3. A recalcitrant monk
   • MN 65 To Bhaddāli
4. Guidelines for future harmony
   • MN 104 At Sāmagāma
5. After the Buddha’s parinibbāna
   • MN 108 With Gopaka Moggallāna

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SUMMATION

1. Introduction to Comments
2. Grade Chart of Buddhism

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