MMW 11 Final Exam Passage IDs

“Sujata bowed to him and shyly asked him to accept her special food offering of rice boiled in cream and sweetened with wild honey. Gautama smiled and ate the delicious rice, the best food he had had since leaving the palace. It made him feel strong and good. Then he rested in the grove until the heat of the day had passed.”

Kohn, “The Life of the Buddha”:

Time period: Late 6th century to early 5th century BCE

Significance: Talking about the moment when Gautama experiences the concept of the Middle Path the middle ground between extreme indulgence and extreme asceticism

Explanation in context of bolded words: Sujata’s encounter with Gautama shows how a special food offering from an ordinary laywoman becomes a turning point in his path: it demonstrates that spiritual aid can arise from unexpected sources and that merit is accessible to anyone, not only monks. Her offering enables Gautama, who has long since left the palace and rejected both luxury and extreme asceticism, to realize that bodily nourishment is essential for pursuing truth. Feeling strong and good after accepting her gift, he recognizes the Middle Path as the correct approach to enlightenment. His decision to wait until the heat of the day has passed before resuming meditation reinforces both the literal need for suitable physical conditions and the symbolic “cooling” that will become central to the Dharma, foreshadowing the calm of nirvana.

Textual evidence 1 (same source): The Four Encounters he had with his chariot driver Chandaka show how his indulgent life was not free of suffering and was a facade for the inevitabilities of life.

Textual Evidence 2 (same source): Buddha’s journey with extreme asceticism: how he was so weak and the efforts were so fruitless that his followers abandoned him this was also not fulfilling to his goal

“He saw that the condition for birth lay in processes of becoming already set in motion; that the condition for this was grasping or craving; that the condition for this was desire; and the condition for desire, feelings of happiness, suffering, or indifference; and the conditions for these, sensual contact..”

“The Life of Buddha”:

Time Period: Late 6th to early 5th century BCE

Significance: This is the moment when Gautama begins to formulate and experience the Buddhist concept of the Law of Dependent Origination, which is basically saying that all everything happens through an interconnected chain of events: essentially that nothing occurs independently, and the realization of the Four noble truths. If each step is conditioned, removing craving or transforming the response to feeling breaks the whole chain.

Explanation in context of bolded words: Gautama’s insight into condition for birth shows that “birth” refers not only to physical life but to the arising of a new consciousness shaped by prior causes. He sees that grasping or craving—a central source of suffering in the Four Noble Truths—drives the process of becoming, which in turn generates new forms of existence. Desire, arising from encounters with appealing or repellent objects, is inseparable from this craving and perpetuates suffering as long as it governs one’s reactions. Gautama identifies feelings as the critical turning point in this chain: they emerge immediately from sensual contact, the meeting of sense organs, objects, and consciousness, but while sensations themselves are unavoidable, one’s mental response is not. Through mindfulness, feelings can be met without craving, breaking the cycle of suffering and pointing toward liberation.

Textual Evidence 1 (same source): Law of Dependent Origination As Gautama is meditating under the tree he comes to the realization that birth and the cycle of life is the root of all suffering, and enlightenment and liberation is the only way out of that cycle, hence ending suffering. When Gautama reaches this enlightenment, he becomes the Buddha.

Textual Evidence 2 (same source): Buddha relays the Four Noble Truths to his former five followers: first, life is suffering; second, suffering stems from craving and attachment; third, suffering can cease, fourth; the way to enlightenment is the Eightfold Path.

“Unsteady, indeed, are those boats in the form of sacrifice, eighteen in number, in which is prescribed only the inferior work. The fools who delight in these sacrificial rituals, the highest spiritual good go again and again through the cycle of old age and death.”

“Mundaka Upanishad”:

Time period: circa 6th–5th century BCE

Significance: This reflects a major shift in later Vedic thought, where internalized wisdom begins to replace outward sacrificial performance as the path to ultimate truth. The passage is part of the Upanishads’ broader critique of the earlier Brahmanical emphasis on ritual exactitude.

Explanation in context of bolded words: The phrase “in the form of sacrifice” refers to the eighteen Vedic rites that promise prosperity or heavenly reward, yet the text likens them to unstable “boats,” suggesting that such sacrificial rituals cannot carry a seeker to true liberation because they rely on mechanical action rather than genuine self-knowledge. While the Upanishads do not reject ritual entirely, they warn that performing rites without deeper understanding merely generates temporary benefits whose effects eventually fade. As a result, practitioners remain trapped in the cycle of old age and death—samsara—because only the realization that ātman and Brahman are one can break this endless return, whereas ritual merit alone leads only to repeated rebirth.

Textual Evidence 1 (same source): “Regarding sacrifice and merit as most important, that deluded ones do not know of any other higher spiritual good” This is basically saying that only doing the rituals as a form of devotion shows a lack of knowledge and will not help the person achieve moksha or true liberation.

Textual Evidence 2: The Mundaka Upanishad itself says that a tranquil mind and a mind that tries to attain knowledge of Brahman is the one that will understand the “only Reality”, pointing to liberation (moksha) as escape from old age and death (Buddhism borrows from this).

“Haste goes with folly, passion with coarseness and meanness of mind; both are the enemies of wise counsel. He who argues that acts are not to be expounded in speech is either stupid or dishonest…Most malignant of all are those who hint that orators are bribed: the imputation of ignorance can be borne, but not that of bribery, for if the orator is nevertheless successful, he is suspected, while if he fails, he is thought incapable and dishonest too. So good men are deterred from giving their city their advice, and wise counsel, honestly given, has come to be suspected no less than bad counsel.”

Kitto “The Greeks at War”

Time Period: Classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War (late 5th century BCE)

Significance: This excerpt is referring to the concept of demagoguery, the use of emotional and irrational appeals versus logic and critical thinking (pathos versus logos) in post-Periclean Athenian democracy. Democracy requires trust; excessive suspicion destroys decision-making. Public deliberation is a civic duty, not a mere formality. Slander and accusations of bribery weaken participation. Wise counsel often becomes invisible when the public is ruled by emotion. The decline of Athenian democracy is connected to the decline of civic virtue and reasoned debate.

Explanation in context to the bolded words: Kitto’s claim that “acts are not to be expounded in speech” criticizes those who reject Athens’ core democratic norm of publicly debating policy, implying a dangerous move away from accountability. When he says orators are bribed, he refers to the corrosive accusations—common in the Assembly—that speakers were secretly paid, a charge that, whether true or not, destroys trust and undermines democratic deliberation. This climate feeds what he calls ignorance, not mere lack of information but the civic incapacity to recognize sound judgment, leaving citizens vulnerable to demagogues. As a result, good men—capable, moderate, and honest citizens—withdraw from politics rather than subject themselves to suspicion. Thus those who should be giving their city their advice and offering wise counsel, the very essence of Athenian citizenship, become silent, leaving Athens unable to distinguish genuine wisdom from manipulation and threatening the health of the democracy itself.

Textual Evidence 1: Kitto’s Decline of the Polis talks about how post-Periclean Athenian mistakes led to the decline of Classical Greek culture and the strong democracy it upheld for that long.

Textual Evidence 2: Kitto’s Decline of the Polis also talks about Athenians becoming “politically lethargic” meaning they became too invested in their private lives because there was no longer an appeal to stay politically active due to the increasing distrust and indifference of the Assembly.

“At all previous times my familiar prophetic power, my spiritual manifestation, frequently opposed to me, even in small matters, when I was about to do something wrong, but not that, as you can see for yourselves, I was faced with what one might think, and what generally is thought to be, the worst of evils, my divine sign has not opposed me, either when i left home at dawn, or when i came into court, or at any time that I was about to say something during my speech”

“Apology”:

Time period: 399 BCE, Socrates’s trial

Significance: The excerpt highlights Socrates’ belief that his mission is sanctioned by a divine source, allowing him to reinterpret his trial not as a punishment but as further proof that a just man cannot be harmed, thereby emphasizing the Apology’s central themes of piety, integrity, and philosophical courage.

Explanation in context to the bolded words: Socrates’ familiar prophetic power refers to his lifelong daimonion, an inner warning voice that offers intuitive, morally grounded guidance, proving that his actions are shaped by divine insight rather than impiety. He describes this as a spiritual manifestation, emphasizing that philosophy itself is a form of genuine piety rooted in inner moral clarity. The daimonion prevents him from doing something wrong, meaning moral—not merely legal—errors, reinforcing his claim that he has never intentionally harmed anyone. When he challenges what generally passes for wisdom—especially the belief that death is the worst of evils—he argues that true harm comes from ignorance and injustice, not death itself. Because the divine sign never opposed his actions during the trial, Socrates concludes that his conviction and fate cannot be evil but are part of a divine purpose. And since it never interrupted my speech, he takes this as further proof that every part of his defense has been truthful, just, and aligned with divine guidance.

Textual Evidence 1 (same source): Socrates says “For to fear death, men of Athens, is nothing else than to think one is wise, when one is not, for it is to think one knows what one does not know.” He is basically reiterating that fearing something without knowledge of it is ignorance, which he argues is worse than death and a huge flaw in Athenian democracy.

Textual Evidence 2: Kitto, “The Greeks at War”: sections on orators, bribery, and the city’s need for honest speakers. Socrates embodies the ideal of the uncorrupted truth-teller.

“While in education, where our rivals from their very cradles by a painful discipline seek after manliness, we live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger”

“The Funeral Oration of Pericles”:

Time period: Delivered at the first public funeral for the war dead, around 431 BCE, as recorded by Thucydides; Athens at war with Sparta. The speech contrasts democratic Athens with militaristic Sparta to justify the war effort and celebrate Athenian identity.

Significance: Pericles uses this contrast to defend the Athenian way of life during wartime, arguing that a free people, educated by culture rather than coercion, willingly confronts danger for the sake of the polis, capturing the Funeral Oration’s core theme that freedom and excellence reinforce one another, upholding Athenian democracy.

Explanation in context of the bolded words: In Pericles’ account, education encompasses the whole Athenian cultural system—arts, music, rhetoric, civic participation—that forms citizens who defend their city out of genuine commitment rather than compulsion. He contrasts this with our rivals, especially Sparta, whose strength comes from rigid regimentation and a painful discipline like the agoge, a harsh upbringing that enforces obedience and austerity. By contrast, Athenians “live exactly as we please,” enjoying personal freedom, open culture, and self-directed lives, yet they remain deeply loyal to the polis. Thus, even without coercive training, they are fully prepared to encounter every legitimate danger, showing that courage rooted in freedom is more admirable and effective than courage produced by fear or compulsion.

Textual Evidence 1 (same source): Funeral Oration, education is tied to a democratic upbringing: open debate, public life, and self-motivated virtue.

Textual Evidence 2: In Kitto’s writings, Athens is described as a culture where citizens “live fully,” unburdened by rigid social control.