Words of the Buddha · 6th–5th century BCE
Sariputta
Chief disciple of the Buddha · the Pali Canon · Discourses on wisdom · the Majjhima Nikaya
The clearest mind of the sangha – the one who could lay out the teaching so plainly that it became simple.
The essence of the teaching: Wisdom is to see things as they are: impermanent, unsatisfying, empty of any lasting "self." Whoever sees this lets go without doing violence to himself.
Transmission
Sariputta came to the Buddha after hearing a single short line about the teaching from one monk – and that alone was enough for insight to open in him. The Buddha called him the one who keeps turning the wheel of the Dhamma. He never taught in a fog. He would take what was large and complex and lay it out in clear parts: here is suffering, here its cause, here the way out. Before his death he returned to his native village to bring his old mother to the light, and he passed away serenely, the way one lies down to rest after a long road. His gift was not in miracles, but in flawless clarity.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
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Words of the Buddha
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