Beginning the Suttas.

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teetotalitarian
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Beginning the Suttas.

Post by teetotalitarian »

Añjali!

It's easy for me to know where to begin reading the Bible, but where do I begin with the Canon?

I have tried reading the "Android Tipitaka," but the untranslated Pāli leaves me confused and the link to the English translation takes me to "Access to Insight." It's a wonderful website, but I'm still confused as to how the Canon is organized and presented and how a beginner ought to go about reading it to begin building a strong understanding of the Dhamma. "Access to Insight" does have its "Befriending the Suttas" section, as well as a study guide for certain concepts, but I'm still a little in the dark about how to approach the Canon.

Is there any advice experienced Buddhists here would be willing to offer me? Thank you very much!
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bodom
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by bodom »

In The Buddha's Words.jpg
In The Buddha's Words.jpg (83.37 KiB) Viewed 4264 times
This masterpiece right here was my introduction to the suttas and is always the first book I recommend to anyone wanting to delve into the Pali Canon for the first time.

From the Back Cover:
This landmark collection is the definitive introduction to the Buddha’s teachings—in his own words. The American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, whose voluminous translations have won widespread acclaim, here presents selected discourses of the Buddha from the P›li Canon, the earliest record of what the Buddha taught. Divided into ten thematic chapters, In the Buddha’s Words reveals the full scope of the Buddha’s discourses, from family life and marriage to renunciation and the path of insight. A concise, informative introduction precedes each chapter, guiding the reader toward a deeper understanding of the texts that follow.

In the Buddha’s Words allows even readers unacquainted with Buddhism to grasp the significance of the Buddha’s contributions to our world heritage. Taken as a whole, these texts bear eloquent testimony to the breadth and intelligence of the Buddha’s teachings, and point the way to an ancient yet ever-vital path. Students and seekers alike will find this systematic presentation indispensable.
Also see this thread:

In the Buddha's Words - Open Source Version
http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=14640" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:namaste:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
perkele
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by perkele »

On accesstoinsight, I'd suggest first reading the Self-guided tour of the Buddha's teachings. It's an excellent introduction in my opinion, with many useful cross-references and links to the suttas.

As for the question of how and in which order to read the suttas: I don't think there is any one "canonical" way.

As you've certainly already noticed, the sutta pitaka is subdivided into nikayas thus:

DN = Digha Nikaya = "Long discourses"
MN = Majjhima Nikaya = "Middle length discourses"

AN = Anguttara Nikaya = "Numerical discourses"
- discourses about "enumerations of things", ordered from 1 to ... I don't know (generally quite short, but a bit variable)

SN = Samyutta Nikaya = "Connected discourses"
- contains of many "samyuttas" each one comprising a number of discourses around a certain topic

KN = Kuddhaka Nikaya = "Little texts"
- something like "miscellanea" maybe?

I would just go wherever your interest leads you. The random sutta link on accesstoinsight.org could also be a helpful tool to let fate decide.

PS: accesstoinsight.org is not the complete Pali canon. I think there is no complete English translation even of the whole Sutta Pitaka yet. But for the beginning at least it is a voluminous enough collection from all parts of the canon, and I find it very useful for its many useful links and cross-references.
Then there is also for example suttacentral.net which aims to be "complete", but I think they are also still far away from it. It has for example some more sutta translations by Bhikkhu Bodhi which are otherwise only commercially available, and that many prefer over Bhikkhu Thanissaro's which make for the main contribution of sutta translations on accesstoinsight.org. And then, maybe as its main feature, it also has translations to parallel versions in the Chinese, Tibetan and other canons, which is interesting, especially for scholars, but maybe not the best and most handy focus for someone who is just beginning to learn about the teachings.

And that was the other link I was just looking for, (but bodom just beat me to it):
bodom wrote:Also see this thread:

In the Buddha's Words - Open Source Version
http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=14640

:namaste:
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Tex
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by Tex »

Another vote for In The Buddha's Words. It's pretty much perfect.

Here is another useful link. Click on each Nikaya and you'll find a bunch of suttas with a sort of Cliff's Notes explanation -- very useful for browsing by topic.

http://vipassana.org/canon/sutta.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions." -- Bhikkhu Bodhi

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." -- Heraclitus
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_anicca_
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by _anicca_ »

In the Buddha's Words is a book that I may pick up.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/index.html Ajahn Geoff's 'A Self-guided Tour of the Buddha's Teachings' is a great place to start.

Also, I recommend The Dhammapada, the Udana, and the Itivutakka if you want to delve right into the Pali Canon.

:anjali:
"A virtuous monk, Kotthita my friend, should attend in an appropriate way to the five clinging-aggregates as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a dissolution, an emptiness, not-self."

:buddha1:

http://vipassanameditation.asia
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samseva
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by samseva »

In the Buddha's Words is a good idea. Life of the Buddha (translations of Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu), a compilation of Suttas which depict the Buddha autobiographically, is also very good. No affiliation, just own and read the book.
Maitri
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by Maitri »

Although it is a very small collection, you can also read through the Dhammapada if you have never read suttas before. It might be an accessible way to enter into the language and structure of the teachings. Reading the suttas is very different from the Bible or the other Abrahamic books as they are not historical narratives, but rather a collection of lectures and moral guidelines compiled during the Buddha's life.

A help website can be found here: https://readingfaithfully.org/about/
This site is all about learning how to navigate the sutta readings in a way that is helpful to your personal practice.
"Upon a heap of rubbish in the road-side ditch blooms a lotus, fragrant and pleasing.
Even so, on the rubbish heap of blinded mortals the disciple of the Supremely Enlightened One shines resplendent in wisdom." Dhammapada: Pupphavagga

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/
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teetotalitarian
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by teetotalitarian »

Thank you all for your helpful answers!

What I'm beginning to understand - and please correct me if I'm wrong - is that the suttas are not really organized linearly in the same way most "books" are. That does make it a bit more challenging to find my way through the Tipitaka, but I'm going to look at that as an opportunity to be very mindful of how I explore the suttas.

Thanks again!
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JMGinPDX
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by JMGinPDX »

Thanks for this thread! I've read the most popular/important suttas already and have In the Buddha's Words as well as all 4 volumes of A Handful of Leaves. I recently committed to reading as many of the suttas as are available in English as possible, and last week decided to just start at DN1 and work my way through in that order. I'm currently chewing on the Mahaparanibbana and whew!!! :shock:
I appreciate the advice here, thanks!
Right now, it's like this...
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Kim OHara
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by Kim OHara »

teetotalitarian wrote:Thank you all for your helpful answers!

What I'm beginning to understand - and please correct me if I'm wrong - is that the suttas are not really organized linearly in the same way most "books" are. That does make it a bit more challenging to find my way through the Tipitaka, but I'm going to look at that as an opportunity to be very mindful of how I explore the suttas.

Thanks again!
You're quite right.
The organisation is firstly into the three 'baskets' ('pitaka') - Vinaya (monastic rules), Sutta (the one you want) and Abhidhamma (theory).
Within the Sutta Pitaka, suttas are grouped by topic or length:
The suttas are grouped into five nikayas, or collections:

Digha Nikaya
The "Long" Discourses (Pali digha = "long") consists of 34 suttas, including the longest ones in the Canon. The subject matter of these suttas ranges widely, from colorful folkloric accounts of the beings inhabiting the deva worlds (DN 20) to down-to-earth practical meditation instructions (DN 22), and everything in between. Recent scholarship suggests that a distinguishing trait of the Digha Nikaya may be that it was "intended for the purpose of propaganda, to attract converts to the new religion." [1]
Majjhima Nikaya
The "Middle-length" Discourses (Pali majjhima = "middle") consists of 152 suttas of varying length. These range from some of the most profound and difficult suttas in the Canon (e.g., MN 1) to engaging stories full of human pathos and drama that illustrate important principles of the law of kamma (e.g., MN 57, MN 86).
Samyutta Nikaya
The "Grouped" Discourses (Pali samyutta = "group" or "collection") consists of 2,889 relatively short suttas grouped together by theme into 56 samyuttas.
Anguttara Nikaya
The "Further-factored" Discourses (Pali anga = "factor" + uttara = "beyond," "further") consists of several thousand short suttas, grouped together into eleven nipatas according to the number of items of Dhamma covered in each sutta. For example, the Eka-nipata ("Book of the Ones") contains suttas about a single item of Dhamma; the Duka-nipata ("Book of the Twos") contains suttas dealing with two items of Dhamma, and so on.
Khuddaka Nikaya
The "Division of Short Books" (Pali khudda = "smaller," "lesser"), consisting of fifteen books (eighteen in the Burmese edition):

Khuddakapatha — The Short Passages
Dhammapada — The Path of Dhamma
Udana — Exclamations
Itivuttaka — The Thus-saids
Sutta Nipata — The Sutta Collection
Vimanavatthu — Stories of the Celestial Mansions
Petavatthu — Stories of the Hungry Ghosts
Theragatha — Verses of the Elder Monks
Therigatha — Verses of the Elder Nuns
Jataka — Birth Stories
Niddesa — Exposition
Patisambhidamagga — Path of Discrimination
Apadana — Stories
Buddhavamsa — History of the Buddhas
Cariyapitaka — Basket of Conduct
Nettippakarana (Burmese Tipitaka only)
Petakopadesa (Burmese Tipitaka only)
Milindapañha — Questions of Milinda (Burmese Tipitaka only)
That list is from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sutta.html and if you visit the page you can use its links to drill down into any section.
The other major difference between the suttas and the Bible, in case you hadn't noticed, is that we have quite a good-sized library whereas the Christians have to make do with only one book. :tongue:
:reading: :reading: :reading: :reading: :reading:

:namaste:
Kim
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Kare
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by Kare »

"In the Words of the Buddha" has been recommended, and I second that. There is another very small collection of Sutta texts which contains all the essentials, and this can also be highly recommended:
http://www.bps.lk/bookshop-search.php?c ... &d=&styp=l
Sadly it seems the publisher has no copies in stock, but you may be able to find it somewhere else. It is worth hunting for. I bought the English and the Pali version of this book in 1973, and it served as one of my first Pali readers.
Mettāya,
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dhammarelax
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by dhammarelax »

teetotalitarian wrote:Añjali!

It's easy for me to know where to begin reading the Bible, but where do I begin with the Canon?

I have tried reading the "Android Tipitaka," but the untranslated Pāli leaves me confused and the link to the English translation takes me to "Access to Insight." It's a wonderful website, but I'm still confused as to how the Canon is organized and presented and how a beginner ought to go about reading it to begin building a strong understanding of the Dhamma. "Access to Insight" does have its "Befriending the Suttas" section, as well as a study guide for certain concepts, but I'm still a little in the dark about how to approach the Canon.

Is there any advice experienced Buddhists here would be willing to offer me? Thank you very much!
Depends on what is your practice, eg if you are practicing Metta I would reccomend start with https://suttacentral.net/en/sn46.54 and then read the Section of the Awakening factors in the SN.
Even if the flesh & blood in my body dry up, leaving just the skin, tendons, & bones, I will use all my human firmness, human persistence and human striving. There will be no relaxing my persistence until I am the first of my generation to attain full awakening in this lifetime. ed. AN 2.5
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by justindesilva »

Please also read www.buddanet.net
You may try on the web finding " buddhism in a nutshell" by late Narada thero also.
Dhamma pada though is not sutra is much better as I am concerned to learn about the mind and other causations as for me. Hope this too will be useful.
With mettha
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by DNS »

justindesilva wrote:Please also read http://www.buddanet.net
You may try on the web finding " buddhism in a nutshell" by late Narada thero also.
Dhamma pada though is not sutra is much better as I am concerned to learn about the mind and other causations as for me. Hope this too will be useful.
With mettha
Not sure what you meant, but Dhammapada is part of the Sutta Pitaka, Khudakka Nikaya.
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Re: Beginning the Suttas.

Post by davidbrainerd »

teetotalitarian wrote:
I have tried reading the "Android Tipitaka," but the untranslated Pāli leaves me confused and the link to the English translation takes me to "Access to Insight."
If you're reading on Android there is an Access to Insight Android spp that gives you thr whole site on your phone. And unlike the website itsrlf, it has a "random sutta" button for when you can't figure out what to read next. I used to use that a lot before I got the Wisdom Publications series and started reading straight through.
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