The Long Discourses of the Buddha

A Translation of the Digha Nikaya

Maurice Walshe

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780861711031
• eBook ISBN: 9780861719792
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

This book offers a complete translation of the Digha Nikaya, the long discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pali Canon, the authorized scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This collection--among the oldest records of the historical Buddha's original teachings, given in India two and a half thousand years ago--consists of thirty-four longer-length suttas, or discourses, distinguished as such from the middle-length and shorter suttas of the other collections.

These suttas reveal the gentleness, compassion, power, and penetrating wisdom of the Buddha. Included are teachings on mindfulness (Mahasatipatthana Sutta); on morality, concentration, and wisdom (Subha Sutta); on dependent origination (Mahanidrana Sutta); on the roots and causes of wrong views (Brahmajala Sutta); and a long description of the Buddha's last days and passing away (Mahaparinibbana Sutta); along with a wealth of practical advice and insight for all those travelling along the spiritual path.

Venerable Sumedho Thera writes in his foreword: "[These suttas] are not meant to be 'sacred scriptures' that tell us what to believe. One should read them, listen to them, think about them, contemplate them, and investigate the present reality, the present experience, with them. Then, and only then, can one insightfully know the truth beyond words."

Introduced with a vivid account of the Buddha's life and times and a short survey of his teachings, The Long Discourses of the Buddha brings us closer in every way to the wise and compassionate presence of Gotama Buddha and his path of truth.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

1 The Buddha’s dates are doubtful. Lamotte (1958) took 566-486 B.C. as a working hypothesis, but recently many scholars have argued for a later dating, though with no exact consensus. Perhaps ‘ca. 480-400’ would be a reasonable guess. Lamotte’s dating is not impossible, but the Sri Lankan tradition of 623-543 and other even earlier Oriental datings seem ruled out.

2 Sutta. There is no satisfactory English translation for this, and ‘discourse’ is used as a makeshift rendering. It is virtually synonymous with suttanta, favoured in volumes ii and iii by Rhys Davids and Carpenter. The literal meaning is ‘thread’, and the Sanskrit form is sūtra. Typically, a Sutta, which may be all or partly in verse, though prose is the norm, gives a discourse by the Buddha or one of his leading disciples, set within a slight narrative framework and always introduced by the words ‘Thus have I heard’, having supposedly been thus recited by the Ven. Ānanda at the First Council. Mahāyāna sūtras are normally much longer and more elaborate.

3 Hīnayāna. This term, meaning ‘lesser vehicle or career’, is sometimes used polemically by Mahāyāna writers for those Buddhists who do not accept their doctrines. Hence it has come in modern times to be applied to the Theravāda school, though it was originally applied to a now extinct school called the Sarvāstivādins. There is therefore no justification for applying it to the Buddhism of the south-east Asian countries using the Pali Canon.

4 Sankhāra. The various meanings of this word are well set out in BDic, the most important being that of ‘formations’ (the Ven. Nyāṇatiloka’s word) in various senses. Here it means ‘anything formed or compounded’ in the most general sense. In the formula of dependent origination (q.v.) the term is rendered ‘Karma-formations’, and denotes the karmic patterns, good or bad, produced by past ignorance, which go to shape the character of the new individual. As one of the five groups of aggregates (khandhas) the sankhāras are ‘mental formations’, including some functions that are not karmic.

5 As, for instance, in the often quoted story of the thirty young men told to seek ‘themselves’ (attānaṁ) (Vinaya, Mahāvagga 14.3). Though the word used here is accusative singular, there is no justification for interpreting it as ‘the Self’.

6 The difficulty of translating Pali (even when one thinks one knows the meaning!) is sometimes considerable. The structure of Pali somewhat resembles that of classical Latin, though with even greater complications and a particular propensity for participial constructions. The problem can be illustrated by a typical example. Sutta 28 opens:

Evaṁ me sutaṁ. Ekaṁ samayaṁ Bhagavā Naḷandāyaṁ viharati Pāvârikambavane. Atha kho āyasmā Sāriputto yena Bhagavā ten’ upasaṁkami, upasaṁkamitvā Bhagavantaṁ abhivādetvā ekamantaṁ nisīdi. Ekamantaṁ nisinno kho āyasmā Sāriputto Bhagavantaṁ etad avoca . . .

Literally:

Thus by-me [was] heard. One time Blessed-One at-Nāḷandā stays in-Pāvārika’s-mango-grove. Then too Venerable Sāriputta where Blessed-One [was] there approached, having-approached Blessed-One having-saluted to-one-side sat-down. To-one-side having-sat-down too Venerable Sāriputta to-Blessed-One this said . . .

We render this more economically:

‘Thus have I heard. Once the Lord was staying at Nāḷānda in Pāvārika’s mango-grove. And the Venerable Sāriputta came to see the Lord, saluted him, sat down to one side and said . . .’

It only remains to add that, as far as verse-passages are concerned, I have done my best. I have made no attempt to reproduce original metrical patterns. Here, too, taste has changed since the days of the earlier translators.

7 Sometimes there is doubt about the original form of a word. Thus in the Pali Canon, Gotama before his enlightenment is referred to as the Bodhisatta: a term much better known, with some doctrinal development, in its Sanskrit form of Bodhisattva, ‘enlightenment-being’. But it has been suggested that the element -satta in Pali here stands not for sattva ‘being’ but for sakta ‘intent on’. In this case Bodhisatta would mean ‘one intent on enlightenment’. On philological grounds alone, at least, we cannot be sure which explanation is right.

8 This edition has its faults, being based on the somewhat fortuitous collection of manuscripts available at the time. Other and probably better editions ex...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Technical Notes
• Introduction
• A Summary of the Thirty-Four Suttas
• The Long Discourses of the Buddha
• Division One: The Moralities
• Division Two: The Great Division
• Division Three: The Pāṭika Division
• A Select Annotated Bibliography
• List of Abbreviations
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright