The Murderer Who Became Enlightened: Who was Angulimala?

Aṅgulimāla was a mass-murdering brigand who was converted by the Buddha into a monk, and who eventually became enlightened. We'll look at the most famous elements of his story and why they are important from an early Buddhist point of view. We'll then turn to one recent speculation on the origins of Aṅgulimāla.

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✅ Sutta mentioned:
https://suttacentral.net/mn86/en/sujato

✅ Secondary literature:
Bhikkhu Anālayo, “The Conversion of Aṅgulimāla in the Saṃyukta-āgama” https://journals.equinoxpub.com/BSR/a...

Bhikkhu Anālayo, Comparative Majjhima 1 -- https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hambu...

Richard Gombrich, “Who Was Aṅgulimāla?” in How Buddhism Began -- https://amzn.to/3yaY9xs

Nyanaponika & Hecker, Great Disciples of
the Buddha (Wisdom, 2003). -- https://amzn.to/39KITwb

MUDAGAMUWA, MAITHRIMURTHI, and ALEXANDER VON ROSPATT. Reviewed Work: How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings (Jordan Lectures in Comparative Religion XVII) by Richard F. Gombrich. Indo-Iranian Journal 41, no. 2 (1998): 164-79. Accessed May 7, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24663383.

Image: Akuppa John Wigham, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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