A couple of years ago I published texts and translations of two discourses from Majjhimanikāya in which the Buddha talks about various things, including his life as a Bodhisatta, and the practices he had undertaken.
These discourses are the Ariyapariyesanasuttaṁ, The Discourse about the Noble Search (MN 26) and Bodhirājakumārasuttaṁ, The Discourse to Prince Bodhi (MN 85), the latter being the longer and the more complete, although there are certain sections in the former not found in Prince Bodhi.
I had it in mind, even at that time, to make a compilation of these teachings so as to present a more complete picture of the Bodhisatta’s life and practice, but, as many times happens, other projects grasped my attention and it went to the shelf.
Then recently I remembered there was yet another part of the jigsaw that could be added in to these discourses, which would then present an even more complete story, this is the recollections the Buddha gave about his extreme austerities in the Mahāsīhanādasutta (MN 12).
Because of this I have now compiled a much larger and more continuous narrative than the Buddha gave in any one discourse to cover the period from when he went forth, through the Awakening, and up to the beginning of his teaching career.
In doing so I have drawn on the story as it exists in the following discourses in Majjhimanikāya: 12, 26, 36, 85 & 100, and assembled it into one piece, which in translation runs around 40+ pages.
As this is a compilation it is only available in English translation. It is published in html, pdf, flipbook, epub and mobi formats; and I have also read the text into mp3 so those who would like to listen to the discourse can do so.
I hope this work will go some way to help familiarise students with the Canonical story, which differs in certain ways, and is much less elaborate than the traditional story coming to us in the commentaries.
