Buddhist Denominations Explained

WARNING: Narrator mispronounces nearly every Buddhist term he uses as if they were phonetic.

The Buddha vs. Budai vs. Cosmic Amitabha

Strange as it may sound, most of the time when most people say "Buddha," they are NOT talking about the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a. Shakyamuni), the founder of Buddhism, but rather a cosmic/celestial god called Amitabha or Budai (Putai, Hotei, aka "Fat Happy Buddha," who is not even a buddha but a bodhisattva) or Avalokiteshvara or Guanyin (Kwan Yin, Kwannon, Kannon, Chenrezig) or Prajnaparamita or Bodhidharma or Ksitigarbha or quite often Maitreya (the future buddha) or the Dalai Lama or the Panchen Lama or Padmasambhava or some other Rinpoche.

In the older, more focused Theravada tradition, only the historical person Siddhartha Gautama is THE Buddha, though there have been and will be other buddhas in the past (at least 28 of them) and in the distant future (one of them named Maitreya or Metteyya). All the other figures arise out of the watered-down reform movement that is the "Great Vehicle" (Mahayana) that is a collective term for everything else. And lest anyone should be confused, there are no extant Hinayana ("Lesser Vehicle") schools or sects (like the Sarvastivadins) left, all having been pushed into extinction by the Mahayana movement. Theravada, a back-to-basics movement concerned with what the historical Buddha taught rather than later developments or additions, is not a Hinayana school, but as there are no Hinayana schools left, it gets called one anyway by know-it-alls who are not too concerned with facts or details.

Is Buddhism spoken in every Asian language?

The Buddhist language

It is also crucial to point out that there are at least two Buddhist languages, Pali (Magadhi) and Sanskrit, and the two schools use different ones. This can be confusing because they are so similar. The reason there are two is because Pali was what ordinary people spoke, the lingua franca of the Buddha's day. Sanskrit was exclusively the language of elitist temple priests known as Brahmins, who regarded themselves as the upper crust and a members-only old boys club. Their sacred books, the Vedas, are in this ancient secret language, once spoken only by them, just as Catholic priests (popes, cardinals, bishops, etc.) managed all their official affairs in Latin, leaving Spanish and Italian and other related languages for the commoners. Because ex-Old Vedic Religion Brahmins were dealing with Buddhism, there came to be a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. There are many languages used by Buddhists, according to their country, but one can easily tell if one is dealing with Theravada Buddhism: Its root texts are all in Pali. Now that many Sanskrit terms (like karma, mantra, avatar, ayurveda, mandala, dharma, sutra) have crossed into English, the lines are blurry. Pali must have had many dialects and regional differences. One of the most important is the Gandhari script, Kharosthi, in which the oldest existing Buddhist texts are written. The Buddha was NOT from India but from Gandhara. How can we be sure? There was no India yet, only different kingdoms, republics, and territories that were later united by Buddhist Emperor Ashoka into a single country (Bharat or Great Bharat). This union may have existed before in antiquity, but it did not exist at the time of the Buddha. He was also not from Nepal, as he is now placed. He was a Saka (Scythian, Shakya, Sakka, Sakai) from Gandhara (Afghanistan/Pakistan area). He did travel to, become enlightened in, and teach in proto-India, and out of laziness or not to be pedantic, we call Magadha and Bihar and places he stayed "India." But it is interesting to always bear in mind that it is because he was a foreigner and an outsider that nativists like Sri Shankara who systematized the diverse spiritual traditions of "Greater India" (the whole Indus Valley Civilization and Mahabharata and neighboring areas) that came to be called by the occupying British interlopers "Hinduism" (Indus-ism, all the different and unrelated things people were and are practicing around the Indus river valley) as a whole. Prior to Sri Shankara, there was on consensus or unifying label for disparate views and daily observances. Prior to British influence, there wasn't even the idea of "religion," as most people here and around the world (like the Egyptians and shamans) did not make a distinction between daily life and customs and "religion" or beliefs; they were the same thing, just life.

Buddhist Denominations Explained | Theravada vs. Mahayana 

(UsefulCharts) There's more than one Buddhism? Yes. There are at least two kinds with big differences. They are called Theravada (Teaching of the Elders, the "elders" being the enlightened monks and nuns who were the immediate disciples of the historical Buddha) and Mahayana (almost a kind of Hinduism, with Brahmins doing a number on the Buddha's teachings to bring them back in line with their Vedas or "Knowledge Books," turning the Buddha from a man who awakened thereby showing we ALL can to him being "Lord Buddha," an avatar or incarnation of Lord Vishnu, one of their major gods). Although everyone gets along, except for newbies who might think they need to take sides when they do not, their aim and practices differ. There is a third kind of Buddhism (Vajrayana, particularly the Tibetan variety, but also Nepalese and Bhutanese, sometimes also called Tantrayana or Mantrayana) and even more (like Japanese Zen/Chinese Chan, Pure Land, Esoteric Buddhism, etc.) except that all of them are lumped under the heading "Mahayana." So the split is 90% Mahayanists vs. 10% Theravadins.

SOURCES

• Skilton, A. (1994). A Concise History of Buddhism. Cambridge: Windhorst.
• Strong, J. S. (2015). Buddhisms: An Introduction. London: Oneworld

CREDITS

• Charts and narration by Matt Baker
• Animation by Syawish Rehman
• Audio editing by Ali Shahwaiz

Theme music: "Lord of the Land" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0. Available from incompetech.com

PRODUCT

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• Matt Baker, UsefulCharts, 1/12/24; text by Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

What is "Theravada" Buddhism? (Part 1)

John Bullitt (Buddhanet.net); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhismo Hispano (btmar.org)

Theravada (Pali language: thera "elders" + vada "word, doctrine") means the "Doctrine of the Elders." [The "elders" are the first disciples -- enlightened monks and nuns -- of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama.] 

• See Part 2
• NOTE: "Theravada" in American English is pronounced "terra vodda" becuase the "th" sound in Pali is pronounced like the "th" combination in "hothouse." 

"Theravada" is the name for the school of Buddhism that draws its scriptural inspiration from the Pali canon, or Tipitaka ["Three Baskets" containing the sutras, monastic discipline, and Higher Teaching], which scholars generally accept as the oldest record of the Buddha's Teachings or Dharma.

For many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia; today Theravada Buddhists number over 100 million worldwide. In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the West -- primarily in Europe, Australia, and the United States.
 

The many names of Theravada

The Buddha addresses the Five Ascetics and sets rolling the Wheel of the Dharma.

 
Theravada Buddhism goes by many names. The Buddha himself called the spiritual movement he founded Dhamma-Vinaya, "the Doctrine and Discipline," in reference to the two fundamental aspects of the system of ethical and spiritual training he taught.

Owing to its historical dominance in southern Asia (India/Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos), Theravada is also identified as "Southern Buddhism." By contrast "Northern Buddhism" migrated north from India/Afghanistan into Tibet, China, Japan, Korean, Mongolia, Siberia, Russia (the USSR's Central Asian "stans" and North Asia).
 

Theravada is sometimes misidentified as "Hinayana" (the "Lesser Vehicle"), in contradistinction to the self-proclaimed "Mahayana" (the "Great Vehicle"), which is usually a synonym for Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, Ch'an, and other expressions of Chinese Buddhism.

But the use of "Hinayana" as a pejorative insult has its origins in earlier schisms within the monastic community that ultimately led to the emergence of what would later become Hindu-influenced Mahayana.

Today, however, scholars of every Buddhist (and non-Buddhist) persuasion often use the term "Hinayana" without pejorative intent [-- and attempt to attach it to Theravada as the only remaining early school. The actual Hinayana schools all, such as the Sarvastivada, all went extinct.]
 

Pali (not Sanskrit): the language of Theravada

Students help revive ancient Pali language in modern India (indiatimes.com).

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The language of the Theravada canonical texts is Pali, a relative of Magadhi, the language probably spoken in central India during the Buddha's time. Most of the sutras the Buddha delivered were memorized by Ven. Ananda, the Buddha's cousin and close personal attendant.

Shortly after the Buddha's final-nirvana around 480 BCE, the monastic community -- including Ananda -- convened to recite all the sutras they had heard during the Buddha's 45 years of teaching.

Each recorded discourse therefore begins with the indicator/disclaimer, Evam me sutam -- "Thus have I heard." The teachings were passed down within the monastic community following a well-established oral tradition. By about 100 BCE the Tipitaka was first fixed in writing in Sri Lanka by Sinhalese scribe-monks.

Of course, it can never be proven that the Pali canon contains the actual words uttered by the historical Buddha (and there is ample evidence to suggest that much of the canon does not). The wisdom the canon contains has nevertheless served for centuries as an indispensable guide for millions of followers in their quest for enlightenment or awakening from delusion and dream-like suffering.

Many students of Theravada find that learning the Pali language -- mainly just a little bit here and there -- greatly deepens their understanding of the Buddha's path of practice toward the realization of nirvana in this very life.
 

A brief summary of the Buddha's Teachings

What follows is a brief synopsis of some of the key teachings of Theravada Buddhism, leaving out a great deal, but leaving in enough that even this much will be enough to get one started on the way of investigation and exploration.

Shortly after his great awakening, the Buddha ("the Awakened One") delivered his first discourse, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all later teachings were based. It consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dharma) that emerged from the Buddha's penetrating assessment of the human (and deva) condition that serve to define the entire scope of Buddhist practice.

These ennobling truths are not fixed dogmatic principles, but living experiences to be explored individually in the heart of the sincere spiritual seeker:

• 1. The Noble Truth of [the Truth of] dukkha (disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, suffering, distress): life is fundamentally fraught with unsatisfactoriness and disappointment of every description.
• 2. The Noble Truth of the Cause of dukkha: the cause of our dissatisfaction is craving (tanha) in all its forms.
• 3. The Noble Truth of the Cessation of dukkha: an end to all that unsatisfactoriness can be found through the relinquishment and abandonment of craving.
• 4. The Noble Truth of the Path leading to the cessation of dukkha: there is a way of achieving the end of all unsatisfactoriness, namely the Noble Eightfold Path.

To each of these Four Noble Truths the Buddha prescribed a specific task the practitioner can carry out: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second abandoned; the third realized; the fourth developed.

The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for the direct penetration (personal experience) of nirvana, the transcendent freedom (liberation, deliverance, emancipation, release, moksha) that stands as the final goal of all of the Buddha's varied teachings.

The ultimate Noble Truth -- the Path -- contains a prescription for the relief of all unhappiness and for our directly experienced release, once and for all, from the painful and wearisome cycle of rebirth and death (samsara) to which -- through our own ignorance (avijja) of the Four Noble Truths -- we have been bound for countless aeons. CONTINUED IN PART 2

Beyond the Main Buddhist Collections (guide)

Access to Insight and Pali Text Society via Wisdom Quarterly (Beyond the Tipitaka)

The Buddha and royal Indo-Scythian disciples, Gandhara (enlightened-spirituality.org)

This FIELD GUIDE is a quick glance through the pages of the Pali Text Society's publications catalog. It is enough to convince anyone that there is much more to classical Pali literature than the Tipitaka.

Intermingled with the familiar Sections (Nikayas), Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya texts), and the "Higher Doctrine" or "Ultimate Teachings" (Abhidharma) are scores of titles with long, scarcely-pronounceable Pali names.

Although many Western students of Buddhism are likely to be unacquainted with these works (indeed, most have never been translated into English), these books have for centuries played a crucial role in the development of Buddhist thought and practice across Asia and, ultimately, the West. In fact, in some countries they are as deeply treasured as the sutras themselves.

But what are these ancient books, and what relevance do they have to the western student of Buddhism in the 21st century? Although complete answers to these questions lie well beyond the range of my abilities, I hope that this short document will provide enough of a road map to help orient the interested student as he or she sets out to explore this vast corpus of important Buddhist literature.

The origins of the post-canonical texts

Ven. Hotei, also known as Budai, sitting in a therapist's chair (Muffett68/flickr.com)

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The Ti-pitaka (Pali canon) assumed its final form at the Third Buddhist Council (circa 250 BCE) and was first committed to writing sometime in the 1st cent. BCE. Shortly thereafter Buddhist scholar-monastics in Sri Lanka and southern India began to amass a body of secondary literature:

• commentaries on the Tipitaka itself
• historical chronicles
• textbooks
• Pali grammars
• articles by learned scholars of the past
• and more.

Most of these texts were written in Sinhala (Sinhalese), the language of Sri Lanka, a large island off the southern tip of India. But because Pali -- not Sinhala -- was the common language (lingua franca) of Theravada Buddhism, the "Teaching of the Enlightened Elders," the direct disciples of the Buddha, few Buddhist scholars outside of Sri Lanka could study them.

It was not until the 5th cent. CE, when the Indian monastic commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa began the laborious task of collating the ancient Sinhala commentaries and translating them into Pali, that these books first became accessible to non-Sinhala speakers around the Buddhist world.

These commentaries (Atthakatha) offer meticulously detailed explanations and analyzes -- phrase-by-phrase and word-by-word -- of the corresponding passages in the Tipitaka.

  

After Buddhaghosa the catalog of post-canonical Pali literature continued to grow with the addition of commentaries by both Buddhadatta (5th cent.) and Dhammapala (6th cent.), and sub-commentaries (Tika) by Dhammapala on several of Buddhaghosa's commentaries. During this time, and in the centuries that followed, other writers prepared Pali translations of additional early Sinhala texts.

 

These ranged from poetic hymns in celebration of the Buddha, to chronicles tracing the first millennium of Buddhist history, to detailed Abhidhamma textbooks. Most of the major post-canonical works, including the sub-commentaries, were completed by the 12th century.

Why these texts matter

The most famous Buddhist commentary of all

Post-canonical Pali literature supplements the Tipitaka in several important ways. First, the chronicles and commentaries provide a vital thread of temporal continuity that links us, via the persons and historical events of the intervening centuries, to the Tipitaka's world of ancient India.

A Tipitaka without this accompanying historical thread would forever be an isolated anachronism to us, its message lost in clouds of myth and fable, its pages left to gather dust in museum display cases alongside ancient Egyptian mummies. These texts remind us that the Dharma (Pali, Dhamma) is not an artifact but a practice, and that we belong to a long line of seekers who have endeavored, through patient practice, to keep these teachings alive and producing enlightened beings on this earth.

 

Second, almost everything we know today about the early years of Buddhism comes to us from these post-canonical books. Though the archeological evidence from that era is scant and the Tipitaka itself contains only a handful of passages describing events that followed the Buddha's  final nirvana (e.g., DN 16, MN 108, and Vinaya Cula-vagga XI and XII) the commentaries and chronicles contain a wealth of historical information with which we are able to partially reconstruct the early history of Buddhism. More

Who is the American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi?

Editorial staff, Wisdom Quarterly; Bodhimonastery.org; Chaung Yen Monastery (BAUS.org)

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Theravada Buddhist monk. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966), and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972) in California.
 
He was drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, so after completing his studies he traveled to the ancient Buddhist island of Sri Lanka off the southern tip of India, where he received monastic ordination as a novice (samanera) in 1972 and full ordination (upasampada) in 1973, both under Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times.
 

He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society in 1984 and as its president in 1988.

Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha

He has more important publications to his credit than any other living Buddhist scholar, either as author, translator, or editor, including The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (a translation of the Majjhima Nikaya co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1995) and an excellent anthology titled In the Buddha’s Words (2005).
 
In May 2000 he gave the keynote address at the United Nations on its first official commemoration of the day of the Buddha’s birth, great enlightenment, and final-nirvana (Vesak). He returned to the U.S. from many years in Asia in 2002 and currently resides in upstate New York at the Buddhist Association of the United States' Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS) and teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery in New Jersey. He is currently the chairman of Yin Shun Foundation. More

• What is the "True Wheel" (Dharma-chakra)?

Institute preserves the Dharma (cartoon)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Chancellor Ashin Nanissara, S.I.B.A., Burma 

(Bemineto99) Looking down from the Tusita world, the Bodhisat decides to take rebirth on Earth, strive for enlightenment, and establish the Dharma to relieve beings of suffering.

 

Burmese monastic (Perakman)

Siddhattha Gotama (Sanskrit, Siddhartha Gautama) was born in approximately 623 B.C.E. He achieved buddhahood (maha bodhi) at the age of 35. He freed himself from all rebirth and suffering by attaining final nirvana in 543 B.C.E. at the age of 80. 

During the intervening 45 years he taught, toured the “Middle Land” (Northeastern India) -- expounding the Dharma (Doctrine, sutras, Conventional Teachings), Abhidharma (Ultimate Teachings), and Vinaya (Disciplinary Code) for the benefit of all humans and devas.
 

Dharma forms the guiding light of daily practice. The Abhidharma is the systematic treatment of Buddhist psychology and physics in language more precise than the discourses. The Monastic Disciplinary Code is a collection of rules, their origin and explanations, etiquette guidelines, and disciplinary (parliamentary, democratic) procedures for monastic living.
 

Long after the Buddha made an end of suffering, the Dharma, Abhidharma, and Vinaya live on to guide others wishing to also make an end of all suffering. As long as they remain in practice, we to that extent a supremely wise teacher with us. The Buddha taught by extraordinary perception, revealing what he directly saw as helpful and harmful on the path to enlightenment (awakening from delusion) and liberation (nirvana).
 
This is of great benefit to all humankind and to beings on adjacent superior and inferior planes of existence. To promote the quality of conceptual understanding of sometimes very subtle teachings, he and later commentators taught the Abhidharma, which are the Ultimate Teachings abstracted and systematized from the conventional language of the discourses (sutras).
 
To help all who would help themselves overcome disappointment and misery and gain satisfaction and peace, the Buddha taught a path-and-practice we now call the Dharma [always capitalized to distinguish it from the multivalent Sanskrit term dharma]. Most of what we know about what the Buddha taught comes from ordinary discourses -- surviving in standardized form appropriate to oral transmission and memorization rather than writing and reading.

BotanischerGarten Hamburg, Germany, KleinFlottbek Buddha (JinxHH/flickr)

  
These sutras -- recorded in Pali, Sanskrit, and Prakrit (Magadhi) -- often appear to us as stilted, artificial, and redundant tautologies more than actual instructions or natural threads (sutras, sutures, i.e., strings of related ideas). This is because they were never meant to stand alone the way a book might today. They were chanted, explained, and studied; they make sense as shorthand reminders of the teachings, which are much broader and detailed instructions the Buddha and early disciples provided.
 
The Nuns' Teachings

Most of what the nuns taught does not seem to have survived or been preserved following the lapse of their Monastic Order. (Or it is only temporarily lost to most scholars, hidden away in the origin stories accompanying the Bhikkhuni Vinaya, where few male scholar-monks seem intent to search. Or it may be found in Central Asian storehouses (and treasure troves in and around Afghanistan, formerly Gandhara, Greater India) where Buddhism flourished before moving north and east to China). But there are a few scraps to be found in the Bhikkhuni Samyutta and inspired utterances (Therigatha). 
 
This is a tragedy because the Buddha designated two chief female disciples, Khema Theri and Uppalavana Theri, who must have taught just as his chief male disciples Sariputra Thera and Maha Moggallana Thera did.

• The Buddha brought people to the Path, then newly ordained monks were brought to stream entry by Sariputra and arhatship by Maha Moggallana. It then makes sense that the wise nuns Khema and Uppalavana served these functions for female disciples. 

The Vinaya, or Monastic Code of Conduct, was taught for self-discipline and the peaceful coexistence of intensive practitioners on the Path.

 

These three major collections are known as the “Three Baskets” (Tri-Pitaka). These divisions have, in the absence of the Buddha, been rightly viewed and regarded as teacher, trainer, mentor, and guide to enlightenment (bodhi) and the final end of suffering (nirvana). They may be likened to the invisible presence of the Buddha as a universal teacher existing wherever these three are preserved and put into practice.
 

Those who esteem the Buddha are therefore well versed in these three main divisions of the teaching.

The Six Buddhist Councils

Studying monk (ChristyB30/flickr)

Three months after the Buddha's final nirvana, the First Buddhist Council was convened in Rajagaha (Rajgir, India). The congress was attended by a large number of monastics, all fully enlightened (arhats) with the additional analytical knowledges (patisambhida). Maha Kassapa led this Council of Elders (theras and theris). He offered three major points:

1) Teachings (Doctrine or Discipline) the Buddha not taught should not be offered by monastics. 2) Those teachings taught by the Buddha should neither be deleted, augmented, nor edited by monastics. 3) Those teachings the Buddha taught should be followed by monastics.

Therefore, the knowledge, belief, and practice of strictly following the historical Buddha's Doctrine and Discipline became known as Theravada (“Teaching or School of the Elders,” the “Elders” being the enlightened monastics of the time. The Noble Sangha is, of course, composed of many accomplished laypeople as well, but these are not considered elders since they have not gone forth into monasticism).
 

The Second Council was held in 100 B.C.E. in Vesali and was attended by 700 monastics. It was co-led by Sabbakami Thera and Yasa Thera.
 

The Third Council took place in 236 B.C.E. in Pataliputra (which Dr. Ranajit Pal places much farther to the west) and was attended by 1,000 monastics. It was led by Tissa Thera.
 

The Buddha, Indonesia (Luxquarta/flickr)

The first, second, and third of these councils were held in greater India and were attended exclusively by enlightened "Indian" monastics. (How far did Greater India extend, did it encompass modern Iran or only come up to its eastern border?)
 

The Fourth Council was held in Sri Lanka in 540 B.C.E. and was attended by 500 monastics. It was led by Dhammarakkhita Thera. Another significant difference between the previous councils and the fourth one was that up until this time, the monastics had put the Tripitaka (Three Baskets) down in writing on bundled ola palm leaves.
 

In 240 B.C.E., the Fifth Council was held in Mandalay (Burma) and was attended by 2,400 monastics. It was led by Jagara Thera. The outstanding fact was that there was no Sangayana for 2,000 years between the Fourth and Fifth Councils. During the Fifth Council the three divisions of the Dharma were carved on giant marble slabs, filling 729 of them, each measuring six feet by four feet.

The Fourth Council had been attended only by Sri Lankan monastics. The Fifth was attended only by Burmese monastics.
 

Most of the modern literature that attempts to explain the Buddha’s teachings is merely the interpretation and inference of respective a author(s). This is a great loss for those who have never tasted the “authentic” teaching.
 
Consequently, Sitagu International Buddhist Academy (S.I.B.A.) has Romanized and translated the authentic Three Baskets of the Sixth Council, in which learned monastics from five Theravada countries participated along with monastics from some Mahayana countries. This has been done for worldwide dissemination for the benefit of those interested in tasting the essence of the Dharma.

Sabbadanam Dhammdanam Jinati

"May knowledge, belief, and practice of the truth shine forth in every corner of the world!"

S.I.B.A. - Sitagu International Buddhist Academy

S.I.B.A. formed a governing board, a Board of Admonishing Masters, consisting of 15 Burmese monks to provide spiritual guidance: U Sobhita, U Kumara, U Vimalabhivamsa, U Supannindabhivamsa, U Pandita, U Vimalacara, U Acinna (the most venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw), U Janinda, U Agghiya, U Sumangala, U Sajjanabhivamsa, U Samvarabhivamsa, U Narada, U Jotikabhivamsa, and U Kavisara.

What are the "Numerical Sutras"?

The Numerical or Further-factored Discourses

The Numerical Discourses -- Anguttara Nikaya -- are the fourth division of the Collection of Buddhist Sutras (Sutta Pitaka of the Canon). It consists of several thousand sutras [see note below] in 11 books (nipatas) sorted by their numerical content. For example, the Book of the Ones (first nipata) contains sutras on a single topic, the Book of the Twos (second nipata) on pairs, and so on. These are the 11 books:

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11

At first glance this may seem an odd way to arrange things, but it proves quite useful. For example, if one dimly recalls having heard something about the five subjects worthy of daily contemplation, to track it down, begin in the Book of the Fives in the Numerical Discourses.

Two excellent anthologies containing selected sutras from the Numerical Discourses are Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: An Anthology from the Anguttara Nikaya (by Nyanaponika Thera and Bhikkhu Bodhi, Buddhist Publication Society, 1999; Altamira Press in the USA) and Handful of Leaves, Vol. 3, by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Sati Center for Buddhist Studies).

The Untamed Mind
Translated by F.L. Woodward (Book of the Ones, excerpt)
[The Buddha:] I know not of any other single thing so intractable as the untamed mind [in Buddhism mind is synonymous with heart]. The untamed mind is indeed an intractable thing. I know not of any other thing so tractable as the tamed mind. The tamed mind is indeed a tractable thing.

I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great loss as the untamed mind. The untamed mind indeed conduces to great loss. I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great profit as the tamed mind. The tamed mind indeed conduces to great profit.

I know not of any other single thing that brings such woe as the mind that is untamed, uncontrolled, unguarded, and unrestrained. Such a mind indeed brings great woe. I know not of any other single thing that brings such bliss as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained. Such a mind indeed brings great bliss (AN 1.31-40).

NOTE: The exact number of discourses depends on the edition (Sri Lankan, Thai, or Burmese) and on the way they are enumerated. The text says it consists of 9,557, but most of the discourses are mere repetitions with a new word added here and there. The number of discourses distinctive in character could be brought down to a little over 1,000 (Handbook of Pali Literature, 1993, p. 12). The Sri Lankan version has 8,777. The American scholar Bhikkhu Bodhi counts 2,344 [pg. xv], while Russell Webb in England counts 2,308 (An Analysis of the Pali Canon, pg. 26).

The Pali Canon: Buddhism

Before "books," the Pali Canon was compiled on stacks of palm leaves or thin slivers of wood such as bamboo, held in place by string, and wrapped in cloth or boxed. This example is a small portion of the Pali Canon from Thailand.

CLICK ITEM TO VIEW: schematic representation of the Pali Canon.

The Buddha's teaching exists in numerous languages: Pali, Sanskrit, Sinhalese, Chinese, Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Bhutanese, Vietnamese, and Laotian to name some prominent examples.
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The Buddha probably spoke Magadhi or Prakrit, Pali-like dialects. The texts, however, originally an oral tradition, was first transcribed onto palm leaves in Pali and kept in large wicker baskets, then Sinhalese (the language of Sri Lanka), then again in Pali. There were corresponding Sanskrit redactions thought to have come later.

-

The Canon, or accepted non-apocryphal texts together with their commentaries, were settled on during numerous Councils over the centuries. Basically speaking, the Buddha's teachings are arranged in three large divisions (Ti-Pitaka, lit. "three baskets"): the rules of self-discipline (vinaya), the discourses (sutras), and the higher-teachings (abhidharma or Buddhist psychology).

• Where can I find a copy of the complete Pali canon (Tipitaka)?

Greater details: Access to Insight or Wikipedia