The Arahant and the Four Truths in Early Buddhist Discourse

The Arahant and the Four Truths in Early Buddhist Discourse

The purpose of the course is to introduce central themes of early Buddhist thought from an historical-critical perspective through the medium of comparative study. Extracts from the Madhyama-āgama preserved in Chinese will be made available in English translation, so that these can be compared with their Pāli counterparts. The discourses selected from the Madhyama-āgama for a more detailed study are related to the topics of “the arahant” and “the four (noble) truths”, which are the central themes that will be taken up during the course.