What the Buddha really taught

what-the-Buddha-really-taught.md

Based on the earliest ancient Buddhist texts and oral tradition.

Will revolve around this text, MN 107, ordered in a Gradual Approach.

"Why do I, being liable to be reborn, grow old, fall sick, sorrow, die, and become corrupted, seek things that have the same nature? Why don’t I seek the unborn, unaging, unailing, undying, sorrowless, uncorrupted supreme sanctuary from the yoke, extinguishment?’

Some time later, while still black-haired, blessed with youth, in the prime of life—though my mother and father wished otherwise, weeping with tearful faces—I shaved off my hair and beard, dressed in ocher robes, and went forth from the lay life to homelessness.

Once I had gone forth I set out to discover what is skillful, seeking the supreme state of sublime peace."

Curated List.

The Guiding Framework: The Gradual Training

The Buddha's path is presented as a progressive sequence. The following list is organized according to this classic framework, which is explicitly detailed in suttas like the Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) and the Kandaraka Sutta (MN 51). It moves systematically from foundational motivation and virtue to the highest wisdom.

I. Foundational Motivation & Right View

1. The Buddha & The Quest: Reflecting on the teacher, the path, and the goal (MN 26, AN 3.22, AN 7.50, MN 12, DN 16).
2. The Engine of Practice - The Five Faculties: Understanding the interplay of Faith, Energy, Mindfulness, Concentration, and Wisdom (SN 48.10).
3. The Nature of Samsara: The suffering of endless rebirth and the urgency it creates (SN 15.3, SN 22.80).
4. Renunciation: Using desire to give up desire, and reflecting on the reasons for "Going Forth" (SN 51.15, AN 4.159, MN 82).
5. Taking Refuge in Yourself: Relying on the Dhamma as your island (DN 16 at 2.26, SN 22.43, SN 47.13).
6. Kamma, not Prayer: Understanding that actions, not prayers or rituals, shape our destiny (AN 3.61, SN 42.6).
7. Foundational Right View: The middle way between extremes, free from attachment to views (SN 12.15, MN 76, AN 3.65).
8. Discerning a True Teacher: How to know a person and avoid spiritual predators (AN 4.192, AN 5.250, DN 2).
9. The Path of Truth & Blessings: The core tenets and highest protections (The Dhammapada, Snp 2.4).
10. The Five Daily Reflections: For all followers, lay and ordained (AN 5.57).
11. Six Contemplations: Recollections of the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, virtue, generosity, and devas (AN 11.13).
12. The Eight Worldly Winds: Facing praise and blame, gain and loss with equanimity (AN 8.6).

II. Virtue (Sīla) & Right Conduct

1. The Five Precepts & The Golden Rule: The foundation of all Buddhist ethics (AN 8.39, SN 55.7).
2. The Householder's Path: Guidance on wealth, responsibilities, and happiness for lay practitioners (DN 31, AN 8.54, AN 4.62).
3. Generosity (Dāna): The practice and rewards of giving (AN 5.34, AN 7.52, AN 3.57).
4. Right Speech: Avoiding false, harsh, divisive, and idle speech. White lies are still lies. (MN 61, AN 10.69).
5. Right Action: The sanctity of life. Intentionally ending a life—including abortion, post-conception contraception, and euthanasia—is a breach of the first precept (Pārājika 3).
6. Right Livelihood: Avoiding trades that cause harm, such as those involving weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants, or poisons (AN 5.177). Includes avoiding life as a soldier (SN 42.3).
7. The Roots of Evil: Greed, hatred, and delusion (AN 3.69).
8. The Monastic Stance on Meat-Eating: The "threefold rule" for monastics—not seen, heard, or suspected to be killed for them—is about not creating demand, not a universal dietary law (MN 55, Snp 2.2).
9. Karma: The law of cause and effect, and the analysis of actions (MN 135, AN 10.211).
10. Goodwill & Compassion: The divine abidings as a basis for ethical action (MN 21, Snp 1.8).
11. Uposatha Observance: Observing the Eight Precepts on new and full moon days (AN 3.70, Ud 5.5).
12. Gratitude to Parents: One of the highest forms of mundane merit (AN 2.33, AN 3.31).

III. Restraint (Saṃvara) & Contentment (Santuṭṭhi)

1. Restraint of the Senses: The foundational practice of guarding the "six sense doors" (MN 2, MN 152).
2. The Dangers of Sensuality: Similes of the pit of coals, borrowed goods, etc. (MN 13, MN 54, MN 75).
3. Moderation in Eating: The benefits of eating once a day for health and clarity (MN 65, SN 3.13).
4. Dedication to Wakefulness: Overcoming sleepiness and dullness (Snp 2.10, AN 7.61).
5. The Renunciate's Approach to Sensual Attachment: For celibates, seeing the danger in attachment is key. The object of danger (male or female form) depends on the practitioner (AN 1.1, SN 37.3, AN 7.51).
6. Contentment: Finding joy in simplicity; the simile of the cloth (MN 7).

IV. Overcoming the Hindrances (Nīvaraṇa)

1. The Five Hindrances: Sensual desire, ill-will, dullness & drowsiness, restlessness & remorse, and doubt (AN 5.51, SN 46.51).
2. Similes for the Hindrances: As debt, sickness, imprisonment, slavery, and a desert journey (MN 39).
3. Five Methods to Stop Intrusive Thoughts: The carpenter's techniques for removing a bad peg (MN 20).
4. Developing Skillful Thoughts: The simile of the cowherd; replacing unskillful thoughts with skillful ones (MN 19).
5. Conquering Fear & Dread: How the Buddha overcame fear in the wilderness (MN 4).

V. Meditation (Samādhi) & The Jhanas

1. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness: The direct path for the purification of being (MN 10).
   • Mindfulness of the Body (MN 119, AN 10.60)
   • Mindfulness of Feeling (SN 36.22)
   • Mindfulness of Mind
   • Mindfulness of Dhammas
2. Mindfulness of Breathing: A complete practice for developing calm and insight (MN 118).
3. The Seven Factors of Awakening: The fruits of well-developed mindfulness: Mindfulness, Investigation, Energy, Joy, Tranquility, Concentration, Equanimity (SN 46.14, SN 46.53).
4. The Four Jhanas (Meditations): The states of deep, blissful concentration that form the heart of Right Composure (AN 5.28, AN 4.41).

VI. Wisdom (Paññā) & The Higher Knowledges

1. The Four Noble Truths: The first sermon and the core of the Buddha's teaching (SN 56.11, MN 141).
2. The Noble Eightfold Path: The practical path to the cessation of suffering (MN 117).
3. Balanced Effort (The Lute Simile): Energy that is neither too tense nor too lax (AN 6.55).
4. Dependent Origination (Paṭiccasamuppāda): The causal chain that explains the arising and ceasing of suffering (DN 15, SN 12.1).
5. The Three Characteristics of Existence: The ultimate truths of Impermanence (Anicca), Unsatisfactoriness (Dukkha), and Not-Self (Anattā).
   • The Fire Sermon: The All is ablaze with the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion (SN 35.28).
   • The Discourse on Not-Self: Deconstructing the "I" by analyzing the five aggregates (SN 22.59).
6. Emptiness (Suññatā): Seeing the world as empty of a self or permanent substance (MN 121, Snp 5.16).
7. Analysis and Penetration: Advanced analytical meditations (MN 140, MN 148).

VII. The Unconditioned: Nibbāna

1. "In the Seen, only the Seen": The instruction to Bāhiya, a formula for non-identification and liberation (Ud 1.10).
2. The Cessation: Where name-and-form, consciousness, and the elements cease without remainder (Ud 8.1, DN 11).
3. The Unborn, Unbecome, Unmade, Unconditioned: The most famous description of the nature of Nibbāna as the escape from the conditioned world (Ud 8.3).
4. The Destruction of the Taints: The declaration of Arahantship: "Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world." (MN 39).

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