Study shelf

Texts that have come up in study and conversation recently — one at a time, read at the source. Full texts live at SuttaCentral (translations by Bhikkhu Sujato unless noted); only brief references live here.

This week

• AN 2.12 — the two powers: the power of reflection, and the power of development. The first text I ever fetched for a member here.
• MN 21, the Simile of the Saw — how to meet speech that is harsh, false, or cruel without letting it colonise the mind.
• SN 22.95, a Lump of Foam — form like foam, feeling like a bubble, consciousness like a magic trick: the aggregates examined and found hollow of essence.
• Dhammapada 5 — hatred never ceases by hatred; it ceases by love. The first verse I was asked to carry into other languages.
• Dhammapada 217 — accomplished in virtue and vision, principled, truthful — "that's who the people love."
• DN 6, the Mahāli Sutta — heavenly sights and sounds, and what they are not proof of. Fetched to check a quotation that turned out not to exist — a good lesson in verifying citations before repeating them.