The Middle Length Discourses (MLD) of the Buddha can serve as the primary resource book for Buddhists, meditators, mindfulness practitioners, yogis, social activists, academics, students and spiritual seekers, who share an interest in the teachings of the Buddha.
This 1070 pages containing the 152 discourses (suttas in Pali language, the language of the Buddha) reveal a wide variety of themes of importance for every thoughtful human being.
The first remarkable discourse, titled The Root of All Things sets the tone for all the remaining discourses. This sutta points out that perception and conception is at the root of everything we experience.
The way we conceive of experiences often gives rise to the notion of self and self’s relationship to those experiences, whether conventional, religious or spiritual.
You can perceive mention in the sutta as heaven as profoundly happy states of being and hell as profoundly unhappy, deeply problematic states of being. You can perceive Brahma as God the Creator. You can perceive the gods as those powerful forces in life having a major impact upon us. You can perceive rebirth as the rebirth of the ego and the end of rebirth as the end of the ego, namely holding/clinging to self-identity.
In the discourse, the Buddha inquired into virtually every kind of experience and stated what enlightenment means in the context of the range of experiences available to humanity.
This is a master discourse in about eight pages and less than 2000 words showing that all perceptions and conceptions remain subject to fading away, cessation and letting go of. Awakening reveals that there is nothing worth holding onto.
Do not imagine the first discourse or any other discourse is an easy read. Read slowly. Read out loud to get a sense of what the Buddha teaches. Pause and reflect.
Like other ancient religious texts, you read a page or two or just a few lines. You reflect on the significance for your daily life. In the passage of time, you will appreciate the Middle Length Discourses as a precious manual for spiritual practice, for wisdom and for an enlightened life.
Benefits of Middle Length Discourses
Since 2001 I have been facilitating our ongoing four-day Dharma Enquiry retreat in the Pauenhof Centre, near Dusseldorf and the Waldhaus Centre, near Andernacht in Germany.
We include in the retreat an exploration of a discourse to see and know the relevance and the depth of insights it offers. More than half the group have been involved in the Dharma Enquiry (formerly DFP) programme for more than 10 years. There is much appreciation for the sutta inquiry.
We explore different forms of sharing experiences (see www.dharmaenquiry.org). There is a consensus that the MLD contributes to our clarity and wisdom.
Many of us endeavour to keep alive in the West the long history of connection with the Buddha’s teachings as some of the teachings get swallowed up in psychology neuroscience and Western conceptions about a material reality.
Tibetan Mahayana and Zen traditions often rely upon the wisdom of the earlier generations of teachers/master/lamas in their lineages. Practitioners appreciate the long line of teachers and practices over many generations but would receive benefit from knowing the Buddha’s actual teachings in the MLD.
There is no central Buddhist book comparable to the Torah for practising Jews, The Koran for practising Muslims, the Bible for practising Christians or the Four Gospels for those practising the teachings of Jesus.
There is widespread literature in the Buddhist world of an enlightened life in the traditions.
We see the application of the name The Buddha applied appropriately to those people is in history regarded as fully awakened ones. Gotama (Gautama in Sanskrit), the best-known Buddha from the Sakya kingdom in north India, also referred to other Buddhas.
I believe all three Buddhist traditions, including teachers and practitioners, could adopt the Middle Length Discourses as the foundation book of the Buddha’s teachings. The book would quietly offer a pillar of support and insight for all the traditions and lineages without compromising the diversity of exploration and decentralisation, so loved in the world of the Buddha-Dharma.
Bhikkhu Bodhi and the late Bhikkhu Nanamoli, the Buddhist monk-scholars, have stayed as true as possible in their translation of MLD from Pali language to English. The 1412-page book contains a short summary of the discourses, a bibliography, 200 pages of notes, Pali-English glossary, Index of Subjects, Proper Names, Similes and Pali terms discussed in the Introduction and Notes.
The MLD has also been translated into German.
There are online translations into English of many of the Middle Length Discourses. These translators have often opted for a free style, contemporary interpretation rather than a classical translation staying as close to the text as possible.
What the Buddha Taught
The Buddha examined a wide variety of personal and social issues, especially suffering, its causes/conditions and the way to the resolution of suffering. His talks included (in alphabetical order):
- an enlightened life
- authority
- community
- compassion
- emptiness of ‘I’ and ‘my’/self-existence
- ethics
- happiness
- inequality
- inner and outer change,
- inquiry
- joy
- love
- liberation
- livelihood
- meditation,
- mindfulness
- non-harming
- pleasure
- power of the mind,
- reflection,
- religious beliefs
- right action,
- social issues
- suffering
- truth
- wisdom
You can find plenty of references to these important areas in daily life. The wisdom in the book matters not historical accuracy of events 2600 years ago.
A person deeply interested in the presumed words of the Buddha, or close to themes, can come to appreciate the depths and breadth of the teachings. The depth and breadth may not show in some contemporary teachings with a narrow view of liberation through offering a narrow approach. Sometimes the narrowest approach of all to life is from the self, who feels compelled to undermine and dismiss teachings, past and present, and identify with the inner perceptions and conceptions. That is a very small world for the individual, who appears cynical about every view except their own.
I believe that regular reading/reflection/discussion of the Middle Length Discourses would contribute to clarity of mind, insights and understanding. There would be less tendency to attribute statements to the Buddha that he did not say and would never say. (I have made a short list of 21 statements often mistakenly attributed to the Buddha. Please see next blog).
Please bear in mind that the reader does not attribute absolute authority to the text. The duality of the relationship matters – the reader and the read. The reader brings their experience and understanding to what he or she reads. We do not attribute ‘biblical authority’ to the Middle Length Discourses. As the Buddha said. ‘Squeeze the honey out.’
I also have Middle Length Discourses as an e-book on Kindle. The Search on Kindle allows the search for any particular word – virtue, concentration, greed, ill-will, generosity, doubt, pleasure, action, nibbana and so on.
I wanted to know how many times the word ‘mindfulness’ appears in the 152 suttas. Unfortunately, Kindle does not allow such a search of the full word. It gives every word starting with ’mind.’ There are 2039 results in the Search for the word mind/mindfulness in the MLD. It would take quite some time to find out the number of times the word ‘mindfulness’ appears in the 152 suttas. I suspect that it is not used that regularly. Index in the book indicates the word ‘mindfulness’ appears in around 20 discourses.
Final Point
There are practitioners comfortable with the label ‘Buddhist.’ There are practitioners, and more probably far more in the West, who never identify themselves as Buddhists. Many people of all backgrounds deeply love the Buddha’s humane, caring and thoughtful teachings.
The Middle Length Discourses can make a supportive contribution to wise living.
The book might show what supports and challenges your life and the steps you need to take to be fully awake and authentic.
That’s all you need to find out.
THE MIDDLE LENGTH DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA
translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi and Bhikkhu Nanamoli
1420 pages
Wisdom Publications,
199 Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144, USA.
info@wisdompubs.org