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Study Path

This sequence moves from the problem the Buddha addresses to the training and its culmination. Reading every linked discourse is better than memorizing the summary alone.

Stage 1 — Orientation

  1. SN 56.11 — four noble truths and the middle way.
  2. MN 141 — detailed analysis of the truths.
  3. SN 45.8 — definitions of the eight path factors.
  4. Read:
  5. Four Noble Truths
  6. Noble Eightfold Path

Question to carry: What is to be understood, abandoned, developed, and realized?

Stage 2 — Training

  1. MN 107 and MN 39 — gradual training.
  2. MN 61 — truthfulness and reflection on action.
  3. DN 31 — reciprocal responsibilities in lay life.
  4. Read:
  5. Gradual Training
  6. Ethics and Lay Life

Question to carry: Which actions agitate the mind, and which make clarity possible?

Stage 3 — Analyze experience

  1. SN 22.59 — the five aggregates are not fit to be regarded as self.
  2. SN 22.95 — similes for the aggregates.
  3. MN 148 — the sixfold sense process.
  4. Read topics 05–08.

Question to carry: What is actually present before the label “I” is added?

Stage 4 — Understand conditionality

  1. SN 12.2 — factors of dependent origination.
  2. MN 9 — right view, nutriment, truths, and dependent origination.
  3. AN 6.63 — intention and kamma.
  4. Read topics 09–10.

Question to carry: When this reaction occurs, which condition supported it?

Stage 5 — Cultivate the mind

  1. MN 10 — establishments of mindfulness.
  2. MN 118 — mindfulness of breathing and its development.
  3. MN 39 — hindrances and jhāna in the gradual training.
  4. SN 46.2 — awakening factors supported by seclusion and relinquishment.
  5. Read topics 11–15.

Question to carry: Does this practice weaken greed, aversion, and delusion?

Stage 6 — Cessation and careful speech

  1. SN 43.1–44 — descriptions and synonyms of the unconditioned.
  2. Ud 8.1–4 — discourses concerning nibbāna.
  3. MN 72 and SN 22.85 — why post-mortem categories misfire.
  4. Read topics 16–17.

Question to carry: Am I using this teaching to release clinging or to construct another identity?

Suggested rhythm

  • Read one discourse slowly.
  • Write its central problem in one sentence.
  • List what it asks the practitioner to do.
  • Separate observation from metaphysical inference.
  • Revisit the discourse after a week of practice.