A wealthy brahmin named Kūṭadanta has prepared a great sacrifice. Three thousand five hundred animals stand tied to posts — seven hundred bulls, seven hundred bullocks, seven hundred heifers, seven hundred goats, and seven hundred rams — waiting for slaughter. He has heard that the ascetic Gotama is said to know the threefold accomplishment of sacrifice with its sixteen requisites, and he goes to ask the Buddha how best to perform what he is about to perform.

What follows is a conversation that turns the question itself inside out. The Buddha does not condemn sacrifice. He does not refuse the question. He answers it — and in answering, transforms the meaning of every word in it.

In this episode of the PaliVerse Project Podcast Series, we walk through the Kūṭadanta Sutta — the fifth discourse of the Dīgha Nikāya — read in all three of  ...