The Buddha's Own Words
Most introductions to Buddhism hand you a list of doctrines to memorize. This course does something different: we read what the Buddha actually said. The Majjhima Nikāya — the "Middle-Length Discourses" — is a collection of 152 short talks from the earliest layer of Buddhist scripture, each set in a real scene and focused on one practical question: how do you actually free yourself from suffering?
We won't read all 152. Instead, you and your teacher walk through twelve carefully chosen discourses, arranged not in scriptural order but in learning order — from the most concrete and immediately useful toward the more subtle. Think of it as a college seminar where the reading is a 2,500-year-old primary source, and you are learning to read it well.
- Read a sutta on your own — recognize its structure, its setting, and its central teaching.
- Explain the Buddha's core diagnosis of the human condition (the Four Noble Truths) in your own words, with examples from your own life.
- Describe the basic practices — mindfulness, meditation on the breath, working with difficult emotions — and try them yourself.
- Distinguish what the Buddha emphasized from what he deliberately set aside, and understand why.
- Engage thoughtfully with harder ideas such as not-self (anattā) and emptiness — not as beliefs to accept, but as invitations to look closely.
The same five-part rhythm every week — the structure that makes this a course, not just reading.
Sequence logic: concrete → practice → emotion → ethics → philosophy. The hardest ideas come last, on purpose — only after trust and method are in place.
- Weekly reflection — a half to one page responding to the session's prompt.
- Reading notes — bring your marked-up sutta to each session.
- Self-check quizzes — low-stakes, just to confirm comprehension.
- Capstone — choose any discourse from the Majjhima Nikāya, read it independently, and lead the final session. The real "final exam": proof you can now read the Buddha's words on your own.
No purchase required. All translations (Bhikkhu Sujato) are free and in the public domain. Reading pages, guides, and quizzes for every discourse live in The Discourses. Bring a notebook you keep for the whole course.