The present book collects various research papers by Bhikkhu Anālayo with translations of Madhyama-āgama discourses and a comparative study of their Pāli parallels, together with a brief discussion, found in the appendix, of the school affiliation of the Madhyama-āgama and its relation to the Majjhima-nikāya. The main emphasis in these studies is on detecting possible transmission errors in the Pāli versions through the help of the parallel Madhyama-āgama discourse. Topics taken up in the course of the different studies are the Buddha’s decision to teach, the role of investigation in early Buddhism, the notion of a recluse, the relationship between tranquillity and insight, the lateness of the dictum that a woman cannot be a Buddha, the beginnings of the Abhidharma, meditation on emptiness in early Buddhism, the development of the arahant ideal, the canonical account of the founding of the order of nuns, and the relationship between karma and liberation.
