TIPIṬAKA

The Tipiṭaka (Pali ti, "three," + pitaka, "baskets"), or Pali canon, is the collection of primary Pali language texts which form the doctrinal foundation of Theravada Buddhism. The Tipiṭaka and the paracanonical Pali texts (commentaries, chronicles, etc.) together constitute the complete body of classical Theravada texts.

The Pali canon is a vast body of literature: in English translation the texts add up to thousands of printed pages. Most (but not all) of the Canon has already been published in English over the years. Although only a small fraction of these texts are available on this website, this collection can be a good place to start.

The three divisions of the Tipiṭaka are:

Vinaya Piṭaka

The collection of texts concerning the rules of conduct governing the daily affairs within the Sangha — the community of bhikkhus (ordained monks) and bhikkhunis (ordained nuns). Far more than merely a list of rules, the Vinaya Piṭaka also includes the stories behind the origin of each rule, providing a detailed account of the Buddha's solution to the question of how to maintain communal harmony within a large and diverse spiritual community.

Sutta Piṭaka

The collection of suttas, or discourses, attributed to the Buddha and a few of his closest disciples, containing all the central teachings of Theravada Buddhism. (More than one thousand sutta translations are available on this website.) The suttas are divided among five nikāyas:

Dīgha Nikāya: the long collection
Majjhima Nikāya: the middle-length collection
Saṃyutta Nikāya: the grouped collection
Aṅguttara Nikāya: the further-factored collection
Khuddaka Nikāya: the collection of little texts, as follows

Khuddaka Pāṭha
Dhammapada
Udāna
Itivuttaka
Sutta Nipāta
Vimānavatthu
Petavatthu
Theragāthā
Therigāthā
Jātaka
Niddesa
Paṭisambhidā Magga
Apadāna
Buddhavaṃsa
Cariyā piṭaka

Nettippakarana (included only in the Burmese edition of the Tipiṭaka)
Petakopadesa
Milindapañha

Abhidhamma Piṭaka

The collection of texts in which the underlying doctrinal principles presented in the Sutta Piṭaka are reworked and reorganized into a systematic framework that can be applied to an investigation into the nature of mind and matter.