This is a site-curated anthology gathered from the discourses of the Pāli Canon whose teaching turns on inquisitiveness — asking, testing, and investigating. It is not a published book, but a reading path of graduated progress: it begins with the questions no one can opt out of — aging, illness, death, and loss — and then turns to how to question at all, which questions to set aside, how to investigate experience and the mind, how the training unfolds step by step, and finally quenching itself: the ending of greed, aversion, and delusion, which each person can check in their own mind.
The English translations to the discourses are provided by WordsOfTheBuddha.org project and based on the Pali texts of the connected discourses from the Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka Buddhavasse 2500 Pali Tipiṭaka in Roman script edition as made available by SuttaCentral.net.
1. The Questions We Avoid
1. On Raṭṭhapāla - MN 82 — a young man of means questions his way to ordination, then tells the king the four summaries of the Dhamma 2. Unobtainable States - AN 5.48 — aging, illness, death, and loss: how the learned disciple meets what no one can prevent 3. Kosala - AN 5.49 — a king grieves his queen; the Buddha contrasts self-torment with the practice that brings peace 4. Aging And Death - SN 3.3 — King Pasenadi asks whether, for one who is born, there is anything other than aging and death; not for the rich, and not even for arahants 5. Simile of the Mountain - SN 3.25 — old age and death roll in from the four quarters; no army, wealth, or spell turns them back 6. Delicate - AN 3.39 — the young Bodhisatta turns the disgust he sees in others at the aged, the sick, and the dead back onto himself, and the intoxications with youth, health, and life fall away 7. Subjects for Frequent Reflection - AN 5.57 — five subjects everyone shares, and one responsibility that is one’s own 8. Illness - AN 4.157 — rare even for a moment: freedom from mental illness, and how to train for it 9. Ageing - Snp 4.6 — all we call “mine” must be lost at death — the verse on not clinging 10. Piṅgiya’s Questions - Snp 5.16 — old, his eyes and ears failing, he asks not to perish confused along the way 11. Kappa’s Questions - Snp 5.10 — for those standing in the flood of aging and death, he asks for an island
2. The Spirit of Inquiry
1. The Noble Quest - MN 26 — the Buddha recounts his own search, the model inquirer at work 2. Don‘t Go by Authority Alone - AN 3.65 — the Kālāmas are told to test the teaching against their own experience 3. Hemaka’s Questions - Snp 5.8 — he sets aside the “so it was, so it will be” of earlier teachers as hearsay that only feeds speculation, and asks for the ending of craving 4. Trained in Questioning - AN 2.47 — two assemblies: one trained in empty talk, which memorizes poetry and never asks what it means; one trained in questioning, which learns the deep discourses and examines them — “How is this? What is the meaning of this?” — until the hidden is revealed and doubt is dispelled 5. Superficially - AN 3.5 — the fool and the wise differ in how they ask a question, how they answer one, and whether they approve a well-reasoned reply 6. Asking Questions - AN 5.165 — five reasons anyone asks a question, and the reason Sāriputta asks his 7. Investigating the Teacher - MN 95 — how to examine a teacher step by step, without blind faith or blind contempt 8. Examining - MN 47 — the Buddha himself lays out the method for investigating him: observe, question, and realize 9. Answering a Question - AN 4.42 — four ways a question is met: a categorical answer, an analysis, a counter-question, or setting it aside 10. Basis of Conversation - AN 3.67 — how a person handles questions shows whether they are fit to talk with; the purpose of talk is liberation of mind through non-clinging 11. Person of Integrity - AN 4.73 — the qualities that distinguish a person of integrity from one lacking it 12. Traits - AN 4.192 — a person’s true character is known only over time, to a wise and attentive observer 13. Fundamental Questions - AN 4.186 — a bhikkhu asks about the world, the mind, and wisdom, and receives a direct analysis
3. Questions and Answers
1. At Kaṇṇakatthala - MN 90 — King Pasenadi asks about omniscience, caste, and deities, and gets surprising answers 2. The Bāhitika Cloth - MN 88 — King Pasenadi asks Ānanda: is there any conduct of the Buddha the wise could criticize? 3. To Prince Abhaya - MN 58 — when does the Awakened One speak, and what makes speech worth hearing? 4. To Māgaṇḍiya - MN 75 — a critic calls sense restraint the destruction of spiritual growth; the Buddha dismantles the case 5. Ajita’s Questions - Snp 5.1 — by what is the world enveloped, why does it not shine, and what holds back the currents? 6. The Greater Series of Questions and Answers - MN 43 — Sāriputta and Mahākoṭṭhika press each other on wisdom, consciousness, feeling, perception, and the releases 7. The Shorter Series of Questions and Answers - MN 44 — the layman Visākha and bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā trade subtle questions on identity, the path, and attainment 8. Fetter - SN 41.1 — elders debate what the “fetter” is; the layman Citta settles it with two yoked oxen 9. The Brahmin Uṇṇābha - SN 48.42 — the five senses converge in the mind, but where does the mind take recourse? 10. The Greater Discourse on the Full Moon Night - MN 109 — ten questions on the aggregates, and one very subtle correction 11. Encounters with Māra 1. Delights - SN 4.8 2. Kingship - SN 4.20
4. Questions the Buddha Set Aside
1. The Lesser Discourse to Mālukyaputta - MN 63 — the simile of the poisoned arrow: why some questions must wait for others 2. Discourse on Fire with Vacchagotta - MN 72 — where did the fire go? The undeclared points, and the fire gone out 3. Anurādha - SN 22.86 — pressed on where a realized one is after death, he is shown that a realized one is not found in the aggregates even while alive 4. The Inconceivable - AN 4.77 — four domains where pondering does not arrive: the range of a Buddha, of absorption, of the results of action, and of the world
5. Views That Divide
1. The Incontrovertible Teaching - MN 60 — a guide for the undecided: which positions are safe in both this life and the next 2. Bases of Sectarian Views - AN 3.61 — three doctrines that, followed to the end, leave nothing to do: everything is caused by the past, by a creator, or by chance 3. To Dīghanakha - MN 74 — the view “nothing is acceptable to me” is itself a grasp, and it ends in dispute 4. Two Kinds of Wrong Views - Iti 49 — some get stuck in existence, some overreach into annihilation; those with vision see what has come to be 5. The Lesser Discourse on the Array of Views - Snp 4.12 — disputes arise not from diverse truths, but from clinging to views out of conceit 6. The Greater Discourse on the Array of Views - Snp 4.13 — among those insisting “This alone is truth,” the wise seek safety in non-dispute 7. The Various Sectarians (First) - Ud 6.4 — blind men each touch one part of an elephant and come to blows over what an elephant is 8. Sublime - Snp 4.5 — esteeming one’s view as supreme, one cannot cross over dispute 9. Nanda’s Questions - Snp 5.7 — is a sage known by knowledge or by a way of life? Neither view, learning, nor observance crosses birth and old age 10. Corrupt - Snp 4.3 — the nature of the corrupted mind and the cost of holding onto views 11. Cave - Snp 4.2 — eight verses on escaping the mire of delusion and the claim of “mine” 12. Root of Disputes - AN 6.36 — the six roots from which quarrels and contentions grow 13. Like minds flock together - Walking Back and Forth - SN 14.15, With Verses - SN 14.16 14. Brick House - SN 14.13 — Venerable Kaccāna traces how mistaken views about awakened beings arise 15. With Kaccānagotta - SN 12.15 — right view avoids the pair “everything exists” and “nothing exists”; the teaching goes by the middle
6. Investigating Experience
1. Before Full Awakening - AN 3.103 — the Bodhisatta’s own investigation: the gratification in the world, its drawback, and the escape 2. The City - SN 12.65 — “What is it that, when present, leads to aging and death?” Through radical attention the Bodhisatta questions back link by link, and finds an ancient path like a forgotten city 3. In the world - Gratification (First) - AN 3.104, Gratification (Second) - AN 3.105 4. In the aggregates - Gratification (First) - SN 22.26, Gratification (Third) - SN 22.28 5. The Greater Discourse on the Mass of Suffering - MN 13 — a full accounting of sensual pleasures, form, and feeling 6. Penetrating - AN 6.63 — sensuality, feeling, perception, the taints, action, and suffering, each taken through what it is, its origin, its diversity, its result, its ending, and the way 7. Why beings are infatuated - If There Were No - SN 14.33, Exclusively Unpleasant - SN 14.34 8. The chain of experience - Diversity of Perceptions - SN 14.7, Diversity of External Contacts - SN 14.9 9. Rooted - AN 10.58 — ten foundational dynamics: all phenomena rooted in desire, steered by attention, converging on feeling 10. Craving - AN 4.199 — the pervasive net: thirty-six modes of mental stirring dissected 11. Affection - AN 4.200 — how affection and aversion bind beings to the world 12. With a Basis - AN 2.77-86 — unwholesome qualities never arise out of nowhere; remove the basis, and they do not come to be 13. The roots of kamma - Cause (First) - AN 3.111, Cause (Second) - AN 3.112
7. Investigating the Mind
1. The Two Kinds of Thoughts - MN 19 — the Buddha‘s pre-awakening practice of categorizing his own thoughts 2. Shaping of Thoughts - MN 20 — five ways to meet an unwholesome thought, from replacing it to pressing it out 3. Honey Ball - MN 18 — from contact and feeling, perception and thought proliferate; Mahākaccāna unpacks the Buddha’s brief statement on how that chain ends 4. How feelings work - Rooted in Contact - SN 36.10, The Dart - SN 36.6, Pleasant - SN 36.2 5. The hindrances examined - Obstructions - AN 5.51, With Saṅgārava - AN 5.193, Mentor - AN 5.56 6. Feeding and starving the mind - Serving as a Basis - SN 46.23, Nutriment - SN 46.51, Fire - SN 46.53, Wished For - AN 10.73 7. The eight worldly winds - Worldly Conditions - AN 8.5, Worldly Conditions (Second) - AN 8.6 8. Resentment and its remedies - Grounds for Resentment - AN 10.79, Removing Resentment - AN 10.80, Removing Resentment (Second) - AN 5.162
8. The Graduated Training
1. For What Purpose - AN 11.1 — Ānanda asks the point of wholesome conduct; the answer cascades step by step to liberation 2. The organic sequence - Deliberate Intention - AN 11.2, Proximate Cause - AN 11.3 3. Proximate Causes - SN 12.23 — suffering has its conditions, and so does release: from suffering, faith, and on through joy, collectedness, and dispassion to knowledge 4. Relay Chariots - MN 24 — asked whether the spiritual life is lived for virtue, or mind, or view, Puṇṇa says each purification is only the chariot to the next 5. With Kuṇḍaliya - SN 46.6 — asked the purpose of the spiritual life, the Buddha traces one gradual path from sense restraint to the deathless 6. Sense Restraint - AN 6.50 — the foundational proximate cause, planted like a tree 7. Restraint - AN 4.14 — the four right strivings: restraint, abandoning, cultivating, protecting 8. Sense of Right and Wrong and Fear of Wrongdoing - AN 7.65 — the two guardian qualities at the root of the path 9. Three Things - AN 10.76 — from shamelessness to suffering, from prudence to liberation: one causal chain in both directions 10. Ignorance - AN 10.61 — ignorance has nutriments, and so does true knowledge — which are you feeding? 11. At Sedaka - SN 47.19 — the acrobat’s parable: protecting oneself protects others, and vice versa 12. With Gaṇakamoggallāna - MN 107 — asked whether the training is gradual, the Buddha details it from virtue to the heights of meditation 13. Ground of Mastery - MN 125 — why a life of indulgence is blind to the training — the taming of the royal elephant 14. To Poṭṭhapāda - DN 9 — the structured ascent of meditative perception, question by question 15. First Jhāna (First) - AN 6.73 — six qualities to abandon to dwell in the first jhāna 16. Beyond fame and gains - With Nāgita - AN 5.30, To Nāgita - AN 6.42
9. Seeing Deeply
1. Six Sets of Six - MN 148 — sensory experience deconstructed into six sets of six, arising and passing at every contact 2. The Simile of the Lump of Foam - SN 22.95 — form as foam, feeling as a bubble, perception as a mirage 3. Characteristics of Not-self - SN 22.59 — the five aggregates examined one by one, until the group of five is freed 4. At Pālileyya - SN 22.81 — personal-existence views, dogmas, and doubt seen as transient constructs 5. Anxiety Through Clinging - SN 22.7 — where anxiety comes from, and the freedom of non-clinging 6. The practice of seeing - According to Dhamma - SN 22.39, The Adze Handle - SN 22.101 7. Beings - SN 23.2 — scattering attachment to the aggregates ends the very notion of a “being” 8. The Many Kinds of Elements - MN 115 — the four frameworks the wise practitioner masters 9. Exposition on the Elements - MN 140 — a chance meeting: the Buddha, unrecognized, dismantles experience into elements 10. At the six sense doors - Koṭṭhika - SN 35.232, Dwelling Negligently - SN 35.97, Sheaf of Barley - SN 35.248, Delight in Forms - SN 35.136 11. To Bāhiya - Ud 1.10 — pressed for a teaching on the spot: in the seen, only the seen; in the heard, only the heard 12. Mogharāja’s Question - Snp 5.15 — how should one look upon the world so the King of Death does not see one? As empty, with the sense of self uprooted 13. The fleeting mind - Uninstructed - SN 12.61, Uninstructed (Second) - SN 12.62 14. The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness - MN 121 — Ānanda asks about the Buddha’s abiding in emptiness, and receives a graded map of it 15. A single auspicious night - A Single Auspicious Night - MN 131, Ānanda and A Single Auspicious Night - MN 132, Lomasakaṅgiya and A Single Auspicious Night - MN 134
10. The Fruit of Inquiry: Quenching
1. What quenching is 1. A Question On Nibbāna - SN 38.1 — asked “What is Nibbāna?”, Sāriputta answers: the wearing away of passion, aversion, and delusion; the way to it is the Noble Eightfold Path 2. Questions on Awakening - SN 38.2 — asked “What is arahantship?”, he gives the same answer 3. The Unconditioned - SN 43.12 — the unconditioned too is defined by what has ended: passion, aversion, and delusion 2. How the three arise and how they end 1. Who Follows Another Religion - AN 3.68 — passion arises from superficial attention to the beautiful, aversion from superficial attention to the aversive, and delusion from superficial attention itself; radical attention ends each 2. Root of the Unwholesome - AN 3.69 — with what is born of greed, aversion, and delusion cut off at the root, one attains Nibbāna in this very life 3. Greed and aversion stilled in seclusion 1. The Lesser Discourse on the Mass of Suffering - MN 14 — Mahānāma asks why greed, aversion, and delusion still invade his mind; seeing the drawback in sensual pleasures is not enough until one reaches the joy that is apart from them 2. First Jhāna (Second) - AN 6.74 — thoughts and perceptions of sensual desire, ill will, and harm are what must be given up to enter the first jhāna 4. Radical attention carried through to the end of delusion 1. Overcoming Of All The Taints - MN 2 — “Was I in the past? What am I?” is superficial attention and breeds views; radical attention to the four truths abandons the three fetters of stream-entry 2. Trainee (First) - Iti 16 — for one in training, no inner factor is as helpful as radical attention 3. Virtuous - SN 22.122 — “Which things should a virtuous bhikkhu radically attend to?” The same attention to the five aggregates leads to stream-entry, and on through each stage to arahantship 4. The Man from the Town of Aṭṭhaka - MN 52 — asked for one thing that frees the mind, Ānanda shows each jhāna seen as conditioned and intentionally constructed, and therefore impermanent and subject to ending 5. Jhāna - AN 9.36 — from within jhāna, the mind turns away from all five aggregates toward the deathless: the stilling of all intentional constructs 5. Checking it for oneself 1. Directly Visible with Upavāṇa - SN 35.70 — the Dhamma is directly visible when one knows “there is passion in me” and “there is no passion in me” 2. The Bhikkhus of Kosambi - MN 48 — seven knowledges a disciple examines in himself, among them “do I personally gain quenching?”, by which stream-entry is confirmed 3. Peril - AN 10.92 — with the five perilous animosities subsided and dependent co-arising radically attended to, a disciple may declare stream-entry of themselves 4. With Sāḷha - AN 3.66 — not by tradition but through “What do you think?”, greed, aversion, and delusion are seen to be harmful; with them gone, one lives quenched and cool in this very life 6. Directly Visible Dhamma - AN 9.46 — the Dhamma seen for oneself: provisionally in the attainments, definitively in cessation 7. Directly Visible Nibbāna - AN 9.47 — Nibbāna as something to be verified, not merely believed 8. Causes for Liberation - AN 5.26 — five ways inquiry matures into release — from hearing to reciting to reflecting 9. With Hatthaka - AN 3.35 — how can the Buddha sleep at ease in the open? The serene ease of the unburdened mind