Majjhima Nikaya
The Middle-length Discourses

The Majjhima Nikaya, or "Middle-length Discourses" of the Buddha, is the second of the five nikayas (collections) of the Sutta Pitaka .

This nikaya consists of 152 discourses by the Buddha and his chief disciples, which together constitute a comprehensive body of teaching concerning all aspects of the Buddha's teachings.

An excellent modern translation of the complete Majjhima Nikaya is The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, translated by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi (Boston: Wisdom Publications , 1995). [1] The Introduction to that book contains an extraordinary synopsis of the Buddha's teachings in general, and of their expression in the Majjhima in particular. A fine anthology of selected suttas is Handful of Leaves (Vol. 1), by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (distributed by Metta Forest Monastery ).

The translator appears in the square brackets []. The braces {} contain the volume and starting page number in the Pali Text Society 's romanized Pali edition.

The sutta summaries appearing below that are marked " [BB] " were adapted from Bhikkhu Bodhi's summaries (in The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha) and are used with permission. Those marked " [TB] " were provided by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The rest were written by the ATI editor.

Note

1 .
Owners of this book will find this printable table of contents [PDF icon] very helpful. It is designed to be cut in half and stuck inside the cover. It was prepared by Bhikkhu Kumara & Tahn Varado.