Hi I am Rattan. In this podcast I will be summarizing each episode of the MN (Majjhima Nikaya). I discovered the MN in 2015 during a trip I took to the residence of a retired Professor in Brahmanism and Buddhism. As he was taking me around his extensive collection of buddhist scriptures and books, he suddenly came to a standstill near the MN, and jumped, ‘this is the book you should read’, ‘this is the greatest work by the Bhikku, and if you absorbed this it will cure your of your existential malaise’. The MN is the second part of the Buddhist Pali canon. 


Sutra # 1 Majjhima Nikaya

In this Sutra the question is about ‘taints’. As a matter of fact the title is ‘All the taints’. There is a delicate dissection of the root of evil in Man or Woman. Taints he advises should be erased by exercising control of seeing, restaining, abandoning, avoiding, and removing and developing. A recognition should start in the disciple of what is ‘fit for attention’ and what is ‘not fit for attention’. The Buddha first start by calling out that the taint of sensual desire is to be watched and controlled. This is according to him what permeates into ignorance. Assuming someone does not attend to sensual desire then the six views arises in him which means his senses go absolutely haywire. He starts confusion things and the ego gives him/her a false sense of identity. This is where the enslavement by the ‘I’ starts.

Sutra # 2 Majjhima Nikaya

In Sutra # 3 the Dhammadayada sutra the Buddha is staying at Anathapindika park. One gets the strange feeling on reading this sutra that the Buddha is fast approaching his end and hence the words, ‘How shall my disciples be my heirs  in Dhamma and not my heirs in material things? If you are my heirs in material things you will be reproached thus…’. I got a strange feeling on reading the sutra that on his departure into Nirvana the Buddha actually died a pauper, he had nothing exept his bowl, his garment, but he was in fact the King of Wisdom, the turner of the wheel of Dharma which consequently has saved many thousands from the cycle of suffering. Isn`t this strange that the Buddha dies a pauper whilst somerich people died with billions which they leave behind without really achieving much.

Sutra # 3 Majjhima Nikaya

This is a very interesting sutra for many reasons and was expounded at Savatthi at the Jeta`s grove, Anathapindika park. In walks a brahmin by the name of Janussoni, who asks a very direct modern question of amazing practicality to the Buddha. He says and I quote, ‘But master Gotama, remote jungle thicket resting places in the forest are hard to endure, seclusion is hard to practise, and it is hard to enjoy solitude. One would think the jungles must rob aa bhikku of his mind, if he has no concentartion’ This is a very fair question and practical one with regards to homelessness. In brief the brahmin is still unclear how one would still be able to concentrate on the supreme if  one is subject to all forms of hardship in the deep forests. 

Rattan Gujadhur

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