Buddhism

in Translations

Passages Selected from the Buddhist Sacred Books
and Translated from the Original PĪli into English by

Henry Clarke Warren

With the Dedication:
To My Friend and Teacher
Charles Rockwell Lanmann
This Volume Is Dedicated

 

Origianlly Published by Harvard University Press 1896

Public Domain
This work has been reformatted for presentation here.
Thanks to J.B. Hare's Internet Sacred Text Archives for originally posting this material
Digitized and formatted for Internet Sacred Text Archives by Cristopher M. Weimer

 

 

Contents

Abbreviations
The Three Characteristics
General Introduction xi

 

Chapter I.
THE BUDDHA.
Page
Introductory Discourse 1
§ 1. The Story of Sumedha 5
2. A List of former Buddhas 32
3. The Characteristics of a Future Buddha 33
4. The Birth of The Buddha 38
5. The Young Gotamid Prince 48
6. The Great Retirement 56
7. The Great Struggle 67
8. The Attainment of Buddhaship 71
9. First Events after the Attainment of Buddhaship 83
10. The Conversion of SĪriputta and MoggallĪna 87
11. The Buddha's Daily Habits 91
12. The Death of The Buddha 95

 

Chapter II.
SENTIENT EXISTENCE.
Page
Introductory Discourse 111
§ 13. Questions Which Tend Not to Edification 117
14. King Milinda and NĪgasena Come to an Understanding 128
15. There is no Ego 129
16. All Signs of an Ego are Absent 146
17. No Continuous Personal Identity 148
18. The Mind Less Permanent Than the Body 150
19. What is Unity or One? 153
20. Analyis of the Human Being 155
21. The Composition of the Body 157
22. On Getting Angry 159
23. The Origin and Cessation of the Human Being 159
24. Inanimate Nature 164
25. The Middle Doctrine 165
26. Ignorance 170
27. Karma 179
28. Consciousness 182
29. Name and Form 184
30. The Six Organs of Sense 186
31. Contact 186
32. Sensation 187
33. Desire 187
34. Attachment 189
35. Existence 194
36. Birth etc. 201
37. Discussion of Dependent Origination 202

 

Chapter III.
KARMA AND REBIRTH.
Page
Introductory Discourse 209
§ 38. Be A Friend to Yourself 213
39. The Cause of Inequality in the World 214
40. Fruitful and Barren Karma 215
41. The Death of MoggallĪna 221
42. Good and Bad Karma 226
43. How to Obtain Wealth, Beauty, and Social Position 228
44. The Round of Existence 232
45. Cause of Rebirth 232
46. Is This To Be My Last Existence? 233
47. Rebirth is not Transmigration 234
48. Reflections on Existence 242
49. Different Kinds of Death 252
50. How Existence in Hell is Possible 253
51. Death's Messengers 255
{51b.} "The Three Warnings" 259
52. The Ass in the Lion's Skin 262
53. The Devoted Wife 264
54. Friendship 267
55. Virtue Is Its Own Reward 269
56. The Hare-mark in the Moon 274

 

Chapter IV.
MEDITATION AND NIRVANA.
Page
Introductory Discourse 280
§ 57. The Way of Purity 285
58. Concentration 288
59. The Thirty-one Grades of Being 289
60. The Forty Subjects of Meditation 291
61. The Earth-kasina 293
62. Beauty is but Skin-deep 297
63. The Conversion of Animals 301
64. Love for Animals 302
65. The Six High Powers 303
66. Spiritual Law in the Natural World 306
67. Going Further and Faring Worse 308
68. SĪriputta and the Two Demons 313
69. World-cycles 315
70. Wisdom 330
71. The Summum Bonum 331
72. MĪra as Plowman 349
73. The Fire-Sermon 351
74. The Four Intent Contemplations 353
75. The Attainment of the Paths 376
76. Nirvana To Be Attained at Death 380
77. The Attainment of Nirvana by Godhika 380
78. The Trance of Cessation 383
79. The Attainment of Nirvana 389

 

Chapter V.
THE ORDER.
Page
Introductory Discourse 392
§ 80. Conduct 393
81. The Admission and Ordination Ceremonies 393
82. The Serpent Who Wanted To Be A Priest 401
83. The Buddhist Confession of Priests 402
84. The Order Receive Leave To Dwell in Houses 411
85. Residence During the Rainy Season 414
86. The Mendicant Ideal 417
87. The Value of Training in Religion 420
88. The Colorless Life 421
89. Can the Saint suffer? 422
90. The Body is an Open Sore 423
91. Heaven Not the Highest Good 424
92. The Saints Superior to the Gods 424
93. The Anger-eating Demon 426
94. Contentment is Riches 428
95. The Story of a Priest 430
96. The Young Stone-Thrower 432
97. "And Hate Not His Father and Mother" 434
98. No Buddhist Should Commit Suicide 436
99. The Admission of Women to the Order 441
100. A Family of Magicians 448
101. The Story of VisĪkhĪ 451
102. The Buddhist Apocalypse 481

 

Appendix
Page
§ 103. The Five Groups 487

 

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