2.5(a). The Sutta Piṭaka (Introduction)

The Sutta Piṭaka is a Collection of all the discourses in their entirety preached by the Buddha on various occasions. The Sutta Piṭaka brings out the meanings of the Buddha’s the teachings, expresses them clearly, protects and guards them against distortion and misconstruction. The discourses of the Buddha compiled together in the Sutta Piṭaka were expounded to suit different occasions, for various persons with different temperaments. Most of the discourses were intended for the benefit of bhikkhus, and deal with the practice of the pure life and with the exposition of the teaching, there are also several other discourses which deal with the material and moral progress of the lay disciples.

In the Sutta Piṭaka we can find not only the fundamentals of the Dhamma ‘Buddha’s Teachings’ concerning all aspects of the human life and universe through the discourses, for instance, the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Path of Eight Constituents, the Twelve Factors of Dependent Origination, the Threefold Formation, the Non-self, and so on, but also pragmatic guidelines to make the Dhamma meaningful and applicable to the daily life. The Sutta Piṭaka centres particularly on the basic principles of Buddhist thought and practice. And it, therefore, is the foundation for the study of Buddhist doctrine throughout the Theravāda Buddhist world.

The famous sermon delivered by the Buddha is The Four Noble Truths. The Buddha taught that there were two extremes to be avoided: over-indulgence in sensuality on the one hand, and self-torture on the other. He had had personal experience of both. Buddhism is therefore the middle way between these extremes, and between some other pairs of opposites, too, such as eternalism, and annihilationism. All observances and practices which form practical steps in the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path (ariyaaṭṭhagika-magga) lead to spiritual purification at three levels: (i) Sīla (moral purity through right conduct); (ii) Samādhi (purity of mind through concentration); and (iii) Paññā (purity of mind through Meditation). In the Dīgha Nikāya, Sūtta 15, verse 2 (MW, 1995: 223) the Buddha says to Ānanda: ‘If you are asked: “Has aging-and-death a condition for existence?” you should answer: “Yes.” If asked: “What conditions aging-and-death?” you should answer: “Aging-and-death is conditioned by birth”’, and so on. Thus, if there were no birth, there could be no aging-and-death: birth is necessary condition for their arising. This teaching of the Buddha is related/contained in the Twelve Links of the Chain of Dependent Origination which is found in many places in the Canon, and is also represented visually in Mahāyanan Sutras, and in Tibetan Thangkas.

The teachings of the Buddha in the Sutta Pitaka cover a wide range of topics related to Nibbāna, Truth, Kamma, Rebirth, Cosmology, and so on. These topics will be dealt with, examined, and discussed in detail on the perspective of philosophy of language in chapters three and four.

The Sutta Piṭaka is divided into five separate Collections known as the Five Nikāyas:

(i) Dīgha Nikāya,
(ii) Majjhima Nikāya,
(iii) Samyutta Nikāya,
(iv) Aṅguttara Nikāya, and
(v) Khuddaka Nikāya.