The present book collects research papers by Bhikkhu Anālayo with translations of Saṃyukta-āgama discourses and comparative studies of their Pāli parallels, together with two appendices on the relationship between commentary and discourse as well as on the Udāna collection. Topics taken up in the course of the studies are the four noble truths as a diagnostic scheme, concern for the welfare of others, the transfer of merit, humour, Aṅgulimāla, teachings to laity, attitudes towards nuns, arahants and suicide, teaching and awakening, the gender-inclusiveness of the address 'monk', the acrobat simile, mindfulness of breathing, the Buddha's first discourse, self-cremation, and the Buddha's visit to his mother in the Heaven of the Thirty-three.

作者簡介：

Bhikkhu Anālayo was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. He completed a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka) in 2000 and a habilitation thesis at the University of Marburg (Germany) in 2007. At present he is a professor at the University of Hamburg, Numata Center for Buddhist Studies (Germany), and a researcher at the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (Taiwan).