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.