The earliest recorded discourses of the Buddha are found in narratives detailing his early career, not long after the Awakening. We have three main sources for a record of this period, they are the Lalitavistara, which originally seems to have belonged to the Sarvàstivàda sect; ¹ the Mahàkhandaka, which is part of the Theravàda Vinayapiñaka, and the Mahàvastu, which apparently formed the substance of the Vinaya of the Lokottaravàda sect. ²

The three works cover somewhat different time spans, the first of them, the Lalitavistara (An Elaboration of the Play [of the Buddha]), ends after the first discourse has been delivered. The Mahàkhandaka (The Great Chapter) continues up and till the conversion of Sàriputta and Moggallàna. The Mahàvastu (The Great Story), on the other hand, ends somewhat earlier, with the donation of the Bamboo Wood by King Bimbisàra.

Embedded into these narratives there are certain teachings, which now form the earliest recorded discourses of the Buddha, and it is those that are presented here. That there were many other teachings is beyond doubt as we are told so in the narratives, ³ but their contents have not been preserved.

Not all of the teachings exist in all three records: the Lalitavistara, for instance, breaks off after the first discourse and so there is no record of any teachings after that. ⁴ The Mahàvastu does not know of The Instruction About Burning (âdittapariyàya), which is recorded in the Pàëi text, and on the other hand where the latter has only a summary of the discourse given to King Bimbisàra, the Mahàvastu records the full discourse.

There are other variations, and though on the whole the Mahàvastu, which is much longer, has more detail than the Mahàkhandaka, it records the second discourse as though it followed straight on after the first. However, we can see from the Pàëi text that this is not so, but must have come about a week later; and what is recorded as the first miracle performed before Uruvelakassapa by the Pàëi text is said to have been the last one by the Mahàvastu.

I have not made a detailed comparison of the texts, though such an examination would be well worthwhile and needs to be undertaken. Here however I have only occasionally pointed out some major differences and have been more concerned with providing a clear and readable rescension of the teachings, which were so important to the establishment of the new doctrine, and in spite of the variations there remains a core of teachings at the heart of these discourses which is common to all the Buddhist traditions.

The first discourse deals with the Four Noble Truths; the second with the constituent parts and the doctrine of non-self; the third with the sense-spheres and the three main pollutants; and the fourth with insight into the phenomena of rising and ceasing and conditional origination. As can be seen in this short collection are found some of the most foundational and distinctive teachings of the Buddha.

I have retained the narrative framework, albeit in a somewhat abbreviated form, ⁵ because it seems to me important that these teachings were not given in abstraction, but were taught to meet and convince real individuals who were questing for the Truth. It is not an accident that the middle way was taught to the group-of-five former ascetics, as that answered their most important doubt, which they expressed when they first met the Buddha at »ùipatana.

Similarly that the third discourse was addressed to fire-worshippers and showed what a real fire was is not coincidental, but was meeting them on common ground, and was intended to show how their fire-imagery can still lead them to the truth if correctly applied. The discourse on Causation to the self-made men of RàjagÔha is also right on target, appealing to their sense of dynamism.

Texts

In compiling this collection I have made use of all three records and the table below summarises the source for the sections and their parallels where they exist:

Section Title	Source	Parallel
The Meeting at »ùipatana	Lalitavistara	Mahàkhandhaka, Mahàvastu
The Discourse that Set the Dharma-Wheel Rolling	Lalitavistara	Mahàkhandhaka, Mahàvastu
Verses on Setting Rolling the Dharma-Wheel	Lalitavistara	-
Further Attainments	Mahàkhandhaka	-
The Discourse on the Characteristic of Non-Self	Mahàkhandhaka	Mahàvastu
The First Miracle (The Dragon-king)	Mahàkhandhaka	Mahàvastu (last miracle)
The Ordination of Kassapa and his Followers	Mahàkhandhaka	Mahàvastu (shorter)
The Instruction About Burning	Mahàkhandhaka	-
King Bimbisàra goes to meet the Buddha	Mahàvastu	Mahàkhandhaka
The Discourse on Arising and Ceasing	Mahàvastu	-

All three texts are written in forms of more or less Sankritised PràkÔt. The Pàëi text is the one which is least influenced by Sanskrit, the Mahàvastu is more heavily Sanskritised, especially in the prose passages, and the Lalitavistara, which in its present form probably dates from the 1st century A.D. shows the influence of the then dominant language even more clearly. All three, however, have a kind of PràkÔt as their basis.

The proper names in the Lalitavistara and Mahàvastu are nearly always given in their Sanskrit form. In order to remain true to the source texts when making the translations I have retained the forms that are found in each of them. This leads to some slight discrepency which the table below should help rectify, it gives the more familiar Pàëi form of the name first and then the Sanskrit, and as can be seen the differences are minimal and readily identifiable:

Pàëi - Sanskrit

Isipatana - »ùipatana
Bàràõasã - Vàràõasã
Gotama - Gautama
Siddhattha - Siddhàrtha
âÿÿà Koõóaÿÿa - âjÿàna Kauõóinya
Vappa - Vàùpa
Bhaddiya - Bhadraka
Assaji - Aèvakã
Uruvelakassapa - Uruvilvàkàèyapa
Nadãkassapa - Nadãkàèyapa
Gayàkassapa - Gayàkàèyapa
Ràjagaha - RàjagÔha
Seõiya Bimbisàra - øreõya Bimbisàra

These translations were originally published in full on my website www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net, and longer versions of the same material, together with the original text, can be found there.

I am very grateful indeed to Rod Bucknell who selflessly went through all of the texts and translations for me and made many corrections and suggestions for improvement that has greatly improved both accuracy and presentation. He has been a true kalyàõamitra.

 

this compiliation has been abstracted
from the following longer documents
published elsewhere on this website:

FIRST DISCOURSE

SECOND & THIRD DISCOURSES

FOURTH DISCOURSE

 

last updated: January 2010