72-629: The Khuddaka Nikāya ( lit. ' Minor Collection ' ) is the last of the five Nikāyas , or collections, in the Sutta Pitaka , which is one of the "three baskets" that compose the Pali Tipitaka , the sacred scriptures of Theravada Buddhism . This nikaya consists of fifteen (Thailand), fifteen (Sri Lanka follows Buddhaghosa's list), or eighteen books ( Burma ) in different editions on various topics attributed to Gautama Buddha and his chief disciples . The word khuddaka in
144-527: A Buddha is often seen as "a spiritual king, relating to and caring for the world", rather than simply a teacher who after his death "has completely 'gone beyond' the world and its cares". Buddha Sakyamuni 's life and death on earth is then usually understood as a "mere appearance", his death is an unreal show, in reality he continues to live in a transcendent reality. Thus the Buddha in the Lotus sutra says that he
216-497: A Mystic". Burmese Buddhist literature developed unique poetic forms from the 1450s onwards, a major type of poetry is the pyui' which are long and embellished translations of Pali Buddhist works, mainly jatakas . A famous example of pyui' poetry is the Kui khan pyui' (the pyui' in nine sections, 1523). There is also a genre of Burmese commentaries or nissayas which were used to teach Pali. The nineteenth century saw
288-582: A buddha that its contents are true Dharma. Then these sutras may be properly regarded as buddhavacana . Sometimes texts that are considered commentaries by some are regarded by others as buddhavacana . In Indo-Tibetan Buddhism , what is considered buddhavacana is collected in the Kangyur ('The Translation of the Word'). The East Asian and Tibetan Buddhist Canons always combined buddhavacana with other literature in their standard collected editions. However,
360-654: A distinctly tantric character, like some of the shorter Perfection of Wisdom sutras and the Mahavairocana Sutra . At least some editions of the Kangyur include the Heart Sutra in the tantra division. Such overlap is not confined to "neighbouring" yanas: at least nine "Sravakayana" texts can be found in the tantra divisions of some editions of the Kangyur. One of them, the Atanatiya Sutra ,
432-462: A flowering of Burmese Buddhist literature in various genres including religious biography, Abhidharma, legal literature and meditation literature. An influential text of Thai literature is the "Three Worlds According to King Ruang" (1345) by Phya Lithai, which is an extensive Cosmological and visionary survey of the Thai Buddhist universe. See Mahāyāna sūtras for historical background and
504-615: A list of some sutras categorised by source. Around the beginning of the common era , a new genre of sutra literature began to be written with a focus on the Bodhisattva ideal, commonly known as Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle") or Bodhisattvayāna (" Bodhisattva Vehicle"). The earliest of these sutras do not call themselves 'Mahāyāna,' but use the terms Vaipulya (extensive, expansive) sutras, or Gambhira (deep, profound) sutras. There are various theories of how Mahāyāna emerged. According to David Drewes, it seems to have been "primarily
576-455: A number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial, and pseudo-canonical. Buddhist traditions have generally divided these texts with their own categories and divisions, such as that between buddhavacana "word of
648-416: A present authenticity exercise and spiritual practice In an effort to preserve these scriptures, Asian Buddhist institutions were at the forefront of the adoption of Chinese technologies related to bookmaking , including paper , and block printing which were often deployed on a large scale. Because of this, the first surviving example of a printed text is a Buddhist charm, the first full printed book
720-529: A range of subjects. The Theravāda tradition has an extensive commentarial literature , much of which is still untranslated. These are attributed to scholars working in Sri Lanka such as Buddhaghosa (5th century CE) and Dhammapala . There are also sub-commentaries ( ṭīkā ) or commentaries on the commentaries. Buddhaghosa was also the author of the Visuddhimagga , or Path of Purification , which
792-610: A textual movement, focused on the revelation, preaching, and dissemination of Mahāyāna sutras, that developed within, and never really departed from, traditional Buddhist social and institutional structures." Early dharmabhanakas (preachers, reciters of these sutras) were influential figures, and promoted these new texts throughout the Buddhist communities. Many of these Mahāyāna sūtras were written in Sanskrit (in hybrid forms and in classical Sanskrit) and then later translated into
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#1732772850990864-795: Is "the father of the world", "the self existent ( svayambhu )...protector of all creatures", who has "never ceased to exist" and only "pretends to have passed away." Hundreds of Mahāyāna sūtras have survived in Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan translation. There many different genres or classes of Mahāyāna sutras, such as the Prajñāpāramitā sūtra s, the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras and the Pure Land sūtra s . The different Mahāyāna schools have many varied classification schemas for organizing them and they see different texts as having higher authority than others. Some Mahāyāna sūtras are also thought to display
936-654: Is a manual of doctrine and practice according to the Mahavihara tradition of Sri Lanka. According to Nanamoli Bhikkhu , this text is regarded as "the principal non-canonical authority of the Theravada." A similar albeit shorter work is the Vimuttimagga . Another highly influential Pali Theravada work is the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (11th or 12th century), a short 50 page introductory summary to
1008-514: Is also used as the term for a monastic division or lineage; these groupings are also sometimes called "monastic fraternities" or "frateries". Nikāyas may emerge among monastic groupings as a result of royal or government patronage (such as the Dhammayuttika Nikāya of Thailand), due to the national origin of their ordination lineage (the Siam Nikāya of Sri Lanka ), because of differences in
1080-615: Is included in the inscriptions approved by the Burmese Fifth Buddhist council and in the printed edition of the text recited at the Sixth Council . The following translations include material from at least two books of the Khuddaka Nikaya. For translations of individual books, see the separate articles. Nik%C4%81ya Nikāya ( निकाय ) is a Pāli word meaning "volume". It is often used like
1152-908: Is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons : the Pāli Canon of the Theravāda tradition , the Chinese Buddhist Canon used in East Asian Buddhist tradition , and the Tibetan Buddhist Canon used in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism . The earliest Buddhist texts were not committed to writing until some centuries after the death of Gautama Buddha . The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are
1224-663: Is one example of such a collection, while there is evidence that the Dharmaguptaka school had a similar collection, known as the Kṣudraka Āgam a. Fragments of the Dharmaguptaka minor collection have been found in Gandhari. The Sarvāstivāda school also seems to have had a Kṣudraka collection of texts, but they did not see it as an "Āgama". These "minor" collections seem to have been a category for miscellaneous texts, and
1296-463: Is part of the "sutta" or "sutra" genre. The Sūtras (Sanskrit; Pāli: Sutta ) are mostly discourses attributed to the Buddha or one of his close disciples. They are considered to be buddhavacana by all schools. The Buddha's discourses were perhaps originally organised according to the style in which they were delivered. They were later organized into collections called Nikāyas ('volumes') or Āgamas ('scriptures'), which were further collected into
1368-662: Is the Mahāvastu ("Great Event"), which is a collection of various texts compiled into a biography of the Buddha. Within it can be found quotations and whole sutras, such as the Mahāsāṃghika version of the Dharmacakrapravartana . The other major type of text aside from the sutras are the Vinayas . Vinaya literature is primarily concerned with aspects of the monastic discipline and the rules and procedures that govern
1440-660: Is the Taishō Tripiṭaka , itself based on the Tripiṭaka Koreana . This collection, unlike the Pāli Tripiṭaka , contains Mahāyāna sūtras, Śāstras (scholastic treatises), and Esoteric Buddhist literature . According to Hsuan Hua from the tradition of Chinese Buddhism , there are five types of beings who may speak the sutras of Buddhism: a Buddha, a disciple of a Buddha, a deva, a ṛṣi, or an emanation of one of these beings; however, they must first receive certification from
1512-630: Is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra (c. 868) and the first hand colored print is an illustration of Guanyin dated to 947. The concept of buddhavacana (word of the Buddha) is important in understanding how Buddhists classify and see their texts. Buddhavacana texts have special status as sacred scripture and are generally seen as in accord with the teachings of the historical Buddha , which is termed "the Dharma ". According to Donald Lopez ,
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#17327728509901584-771: The Vimanavatthu (as well as its Chinese parallel, the Vimānāvadāna ). There are also some unique individual texts like the Milinda pañha (literally The Questions of Milinda ) and its parallel in Chinese, the Nāgasena Bhikśu Sūtra (那先比丘經). These texts depict a dialogue between the monk Nagasena , and the Indo-Greek King Menander (Pali: Milinda). It is a compendium of doctrine, and covers
1656-470: The Buddha ," many of which are known as " sutras ", and other texts, such as " shastras " (treatises) or " Abhidharma ". These religious texts were written in different languages, methods and writing systems . Memorizing, reciting and copying the texts was seen as spiritually valuable. Even after the development and adoption of printing by Buddhist institutions, Buddhists continued to copy them by hand as
1728-552: The Dharmaguptaka , Mahāsāṅghika , Mahīśāsaka , Mūlasarvāstivāda , and others. The most widely studied early Buddhist material are the first four Pāli Nikayas , as well as the corresponding Chinese Āgamas . The modern study of early pre-sectarian Buddhism often relies on comparative scholarship using these various early Buddhist sources. Various scholars of Buddhist studies such as Richard Gombrich , Akira Hirakawa, Alexander Wynne, and A. K. Warder hold that early Buddhist texts contain material that could possibly be traced to
1800-783: The Digha Nikaya compiled in the fourth or fifth century by Buddhaghosa on the basis of earlier commentaries that no longer survive, says that the reciters of the Digha listed 2-12 in this nikaya, while the reciters of the Majjhima Nikaya listed 2-15. Later, it gives a listing of the contents of the Canon also found in the introductions to the commentaries on the Vinaya and Abhidhamma Pitakas , which gives 1-15 for this nikaya, though it also includes an alternative classification in which
1872-759: The Gandharan Buddhist Texts , dated to the 1st century BCE and constitute the Buddhist textual tradition of Gandharan Buddhism which was an important link between Indian and East Asian Buddhism. Parts of what is likely to be the canon of the Dharmaguptaka can be found among these Gandharan Buddhist Texts . There are different genres of early Buddhist texts, including prose " suttas " ( Sanskrit : sūtra , discourses), disciplinary works ( Vinaya ), various forms of verse compositions (such as gāthā and udāna ), mixed prose and verse works ( geya ), and also lists ( matika ) of monastic rules or doctrinal topics. A large portion of Early Buddhist literature
1944-786: The Gandhāran Buddhist texts , found in Pakistan and written in Gāndhārī , they date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The first Buddhist texts were initially passed on orally by Buddhist monastics , but were later written down and composed as manuscripts in various Indo-Aryan languages (such as Pāli , Gāndhārī , and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit ). These texts were collected into various collections and translated into other languages such as Buddhist Chinese ( fójiào hànyǔ 佛教漢語) and Classical Tibetan as Buddhism spread outside of India . Buddhist texts can be categorized in
2016-674: The Sanskrit word āgama ( आगम ) to mean "collection", "assemblage", "class" or "group" in both Pāḷi and Sanskrit. It is most commonly used in reference to the Pali Buddhist texts of the Tripitaka namely those found in the Sutta Piṭaka . It is also used to refer to monastic lineages, where it is sometimes translated as a 'monastic fraternity'. The term Nikāya Buddhism is sometimes used in contemporary scholarship to refer to
2088-522: The Sūtra Piṭaka ("Basket of Discourses") of the canons of the early Buddhist schools. Most of the early sutras that have survived are from Sthavira nikaya schools, no complete collection has survived from the other early branch of Buddhism, the Mahāsāṃghika . However, some individual texts have survived, such as the Śālistamba Sūtra (rice stalk sūtra). This sūtra contains many parallel passages to
2160-842: The Theravāda Abhidhamma and the Sarvastivada Abhidharma , which survives in Chinese translation. However, texts of other tradition have survived, such as the Śāriputrābhidharma of the Dharmaguptaka school, the Tattvasiddhi Śāstra ( Chéngshílun ), and various Abhidharma type works from the Pudgalavada school. Later post-canonical Abhidharma works were written as either large treatises ( śāstra ), as commentaries ( aṭṭhakathā ) or as smaller introductory manuals. They are more developed philosophical works which include many innovations and doctrines not found in
2232-552: The historical Buddha himself or at least to the early years of pre-sectarian Buddhism . In Mahāyāna Buddhism , these texts are sometimes referred to as " Hinayana " or " Śrāvakayāna ". Although many versions of the texts of the early Buddhist schools exist, the only complete collection of texts to survive in a Middle Indo-Aryan language is the Tipiṭaka (triple basket) of the Theravāda school. The other (parts of) extant versions of
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2304-475: The nagas ) until people were ready to hear them, or by stating that they had been revealed directly through visions and meditative experiences to a select few. According to David McMahan, the literary style of the Mahāyāna sūtras reveals how these texts were mainly composed as written works and how they also needed to legitimate themselves to other Buddhists. They used different literary and narrative ways to defend
2376-412: The śrāvaka texts as well as generating more spiritual merit and benefit. Thus, they are seen as superior and more virtuous to non-Mahāyāna sutras. The Mahāyāna sūtras are traditionally considered by Mahāyāna Buddhists to be the word of the Buddha. Mahāyāna Buddhists explained the emergence of these new texts by arguing that they had been transmitted in secret, via lineages of supernatural beings (such as
2448-851: The " Jatakas ", or birth stories. Various Vinaya collections survive in full, including those of the following schools: Theravāda (in Pali ), Mula-Sarvāstivāda (in Tibetan translation) and the Mahāsānghika , Sarvāstivāda , Mahīshāsika, and Dharmaguptaka (in Chinese translations). In addition, portions survive of a number of Vinayas in various languages. Aside from the Sutras and the Vinayas, some schools also had collections of "minor" or miscellaneous texts. The Theravāda Khuddaka Nikāya ('Minor Collection')
2520-611: The 37 factors leading to Awakening . Scholars like Erich Frauwallner have argued that there is an "ancient core" of early pre-sectarian material in the earliest Abhidharma works, such as in the Theravada Vibhanga , the Dharmaskandha of the Sarvastivada , and the Śāriputrābhidharma of the Dharmaguptaka school. Only two full canonical Abhidharma collections have survived both containing seven texts,
2592-716: The Abhidhamma, which is widely used to teach Abhidhamma. Buddhaghosa is known to have worked from Buddhist commentaries in the Sri Lankan Sinhala language , which are now lost. Sri Lankan literature in the vernacular contains many Buddhist works, including as classical Sinhala poems such as the Muvadevāvata (The Story of the Bodhisattva's Birth as King Mukhadeva, 12th century) and the Sasadāvata (The Story of
2664-745: The Bodhisattva's Birth as a Hare, 12th century) as well as prose works like the Dhampiyātuvā gätapadaya (Commentary on the Blessed Doctrine), a commentary on words and phrases in the Pāli Dhammapada . The Theravāda textual tradition spread into Burma and Thailand where Pali scholarship continued to flourish with such works as the Aggavamsa of Saddaniti and the Jinakalamali of Ratanapañña. Pali literature continued to be composed into
2736-452: The Buddha, ṛṣis , and devas were considered capable to transmitting buddhavacana. The content of such a discourse was then to be collated with the sūtras , compared with the Vinaya , and evaluated against the nature of the Dharma. These texts may then be certified as true buddhavacana by a buddha, a sangha , a small group of elders, or one knowledgeable elder. In Theravāda Buddhism,
2808-544: The Buddhas Amitabha , Akshobhya and Vairocana , and the bodhisattvas Maitreya , Mañjusri , Ksitigarbha , and Avalokiteshvara . An important feature of Mahāyāna is the way that it understands the nature of Buddhahood . Mahāyāna texts see Buddhas (and to a lesser extent, certain bodhisattvas as well) as transcendental or supramundane ( lokuttara ) beings, who live for eons constantly helping others through their activity. According to Paul Williams, in Mahāyāna,
2880-424: The Buddhism of the early Buddhist schools . In the Pāli Canon , particularly, the "Discourse Basket" or Sutta Piṭaka , the meaning of nikāya is roughly equivalent to the English collection and is used to describe groupings of discourses according to theme, length, or other categories. For example, the Sutta Piṭaka is broken up into five nikāyas: In the other early Buddhist schools the alternate term āgama
2952-507: The Buddhist monastic community ( sangha ). However, Vinaya as a term is also contrasted with Dharma, where the pair (Dhamma-Vinaya) mean something like 'doctrine and discipline'. The Vinaya literature in fact contains a considerable range of texts. There are, of course, those that discuss the monastic rules, how they came about, how they developed, and how they were applied. But the vinaya also contains some doctrinal expositions, ritual and liturgical texts, biographical stories, and some elements of
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3024-401: The Pali suttas. As noted by N. Ross Reat, this text is in general agreement with the basic doctrines of the early sutras of the Sthavira schools such as dependent origination , the " middle way " between eternalism and annihilationism, the " five aggregates ", the " three unwholesome roots ", the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path . Another important source for Mahāsāṃghika sutras
3096-509: The Theravada Nidānakathā and the Dharmaguptaka Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra . One of the most famous of biographies is the Buddhacarita , an epic poem in Classical Sanskrit by Aśvaghoṣa . Aśvaghoṣa also wrote other poems, as well as Sanskrit dramas . Another Sanskrit Buddhist poet was Mātṛceṭa, who composed various pious hymns in slokas . Buddhist poetry is a broad genre with numerous forms and has been composed in many languages, including Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese. Aside from
3168-418: The Theravada school is the only complete extant example of such a Khuddaka Pitaka. Some texts from the Dharmaguptaka Kṣudraka Āgama are preserved in Chinese and Tibetan translation, and fragments of Gandhari versions have also been discovered. On the dating of the various books in the Khuddaka Nikaya, Oliver Abeynayake notes that: The Khuddaka Nikaya can easily be divided into two strata, one being early and
3240-446: The Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist canons (the Kangyur and the Taishō Tripiṭaka respectively) which then developed their own textual histories. Sanskrit had been adopted by Buddhists in north India during the Kushan era and Sanskrit Buddhist literature became the dominant tradition in Buddhist India until the decline of Buddhism there . Mahāyāna sūtras are also generally regarded by the Mahāyāna tradition as being more profound than
3312-509: The Tripitakas of early schools include the Chinese Āgamas , which includes collections by the Sarvāstivāda and the Dharmaguptaka . The Chinese Buddhist canon contains a complete collection of early sutras in Chinese translation, their content is very similar to the Pali, differing in detail but not in the core doctrinal content. The Tibetan canon contains some of these early texts as well, but not as complete collections. The earliest known Buddhist manuscripts containing early Buddhist texts are
3384-406: The Vinaya and Abhidhamma are also included in this nikaya, so that the five nikayas are a classification of the whole Canon, not just the Sutta Pitaka. Scholars conclude on the basis of these lists that 13-15 were added later, and 1 later still. Both surviving subcommentaries on the passage about reciters explain the apparent difference between the reciters as being, not a substantive disagreement on
3456-526: The canonical Abhidharma works are generally claimed by scholars not to represent the words of the Buddha himself, but those of later Buddhists. There are different types and historical layers of Abhidharma literature. The early canonical Abhidharma works (like the Abhidhamma Pitaka ) are not philosophical treatises, but mainly summaries and expositions of early doctrinal lists with their accompanying explanations. These texts developed out of early Buddhist lists or matrices ( mātṛkās ) of key teachings, such as
3528-440: The canonical Abhidharma. The early Buddhist schools also preserved other types of texts which developed in later periods, which were variously seen as canonical or not, depending on the tradition. One of the largest category of texts that were neither Sutra, Vinaya nor Abhidharma includes various collections of stories such as the Jātaka tales and the Avadānas (Pali: Apadāna ). These are moral fables and legends dealing with
3600-404: The contents of the Canon, but merely a nominal one on its classification. Thus they say for example that the Digha reciters did regard 15 as canonical but counted it as part of 10 instead of a separate book. Similarly, the more recent subcommentary, compiled by the head of the Burmese sangha about two centuries ago, says that 16 and 17 were counted as part of 11 and/or 12. The full list of 18 books
3672-403: The conventional language and narrative stories found in the sutras. The prominent modern scholar of Abhidharma, Erich Frauwallner has said that these Buddhist systems are "among the major achievements of the classical period of Indian philosophy ." Modern scholars generally believe that the canonical Abhidharma texts emerged after the time of the Buddha, in around the 3rd century BCE. Therefore,
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#17327728509903744-416: The criteria for determining what should be considered buddhavacana were developed at an early stage, and that the early formulations do not suggest that Dharma is limited to what was spoken by the historical Buddha. The Mahāsāṃghika and the Mūlasarvāstivāda considered both the Buddha's discourses and those of his disciples to be buddhavacana . A number of different beings such as Buddhas, disciples of
3816-485: The early Magadhan language and Pāli through the use of repetition, communal recitation and mnemonic devices. These texts were later compiled into canons and written down in manuscripts. For example, the Pāli Canon was preserved in Sri Lanka where it was first written down in the first century BCE. There are early texts from various Buddhist schools, the largest collections are from the Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda schools, but there are also full texts and fragments from
3888-538: The fifth century, with very few manuscripts having been found before then (the exceptions are from Bamiyan ). However, according to Walser, the fifth and sixth centuries saw a great increase in the production of these texts. By this time, Chinese pilgrims, such as Faxian , Yijing , and Xuanzang were traveling to India, and their writings do describe monasteries which they label 'Mahāyāna' as well as monasteries where both Mahāyāna monks and non-Mahāyāna monks lived together. Mahāyāna sūtras contain several elements besides
3960-466: The general view of what is and is not buddhavacana is broadly similar between East Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan Kangyur, which belongs to the various schools of Tibetan Vajrayāna Buddhism , in addition to containing sutras and Vinaya, also contains Buddhist tantras and other related Tantric literature. The earliest Buddhist texts were passed down orally in Middle Indo-Aryan languages called Prakrits , including Gāndhārī language ,
4032-470: The interpretation of the monastic code, or due to other factors (such as the Amarapura Nikāya in Sri Lanka, which emerged as a reaction to caste restrictions within the Siam Nikāya). These divisions do not rise to the level of forming separate sects within the Theravāda tradition, because they do not typically follow different doctrines or monastic codes, nor do these divisions extend to the laity. In Burma , nikaya monastic orders have emerged in response to
4104-501: The legitimacy of these texts as Buddha word. Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Gaṇḍavyūha also often criticize early Buddhist figures, such as Sariputra for lacking knowledge and goodness, and thus, these elders or śrāvaka are seen as not intelligent enough to receive the Mahāyāna teachings, while more the advanced elite, the bodhisattvas, are depicted as those who can see the highest teachings. These sūtras were not recognized as being Buddha word by various early Buddhist schools and there
4176-402: The modern era, especially in Burma, and writers such as Mahasi Sayadaw translated some of their texts into Pali. There are also numerous Esoteric Theravada texts, mostly from Southeast Asia . This tradition flourished in Cambodia and Thailand before the 19th century reformist movement of Rama IV . One of these texts has been published in English by the Pali Text Society as "Manual of
4248-403: The names of certain Buddhas or bodhisattvas, maintaining Buddhist precepts, and listening to, memorizing, and copying sutras." Some Mahāyāna sūtras claim that these practices lead to rebirth in Pure lands such as Abhirati and Sukhavati , where becoming a Buddha is much easier to achieve. Several Mahāyāna sūtras also depict important Buddhas or Bodhisattvas not found in earlier texts, such as
4320-408: The other late. The texts Sutta Nipata, Itivuttaka, Dhammapada, Therigatha (Theragatha), Udana and Jataka belong to the early stratum. The texts Khuddakapatha, Vimanavatthu, Petavatthu, Niddesa, Patisambhida, Apadana, Buddhavamsa and Cariyapitaka can be categorized in the later stratum. This nikaya contains some or all of the following texts: The introduction to the Sumangalavilasini, the commentary on
4392-425: The previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. The different Buddhist schools had their own collections of these tales and often disagreed on which stories were canonical. Another genre that developed over time in the various early schools were biographies of the Buddha. Buddha biographies include the Mahāvastu of the Lokottaravadin school, the northern tradition's Lalitavistara Sūtra ,
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#17327728509904464-584: The promotion of the bodhisattva ideal, including "expanded cosmologies and mythical histories, ideas of purelands and great, 'celestial' Buddhas and bodhisattvas , descriptions of powerful new religious practices, new ideas on the nature of the Buddha, and a range of new philosophical perspectives." These texts present stories of revelation in which the Buddha teaches Mahāyāna sutras to certain bodhisattvas who vow to teach and spread these sutras. These texts also promoted new religious practices that were supposed to make Buddhahood easy to achieve, such as "hearing
4536-437: The relative conservativeness with which the Vinayas are interpreted, and the hierarchical structure within the nikaya. Since 1980, no new nikayas have been allowed, and there are a total of nine legally recognized monastic orders in Burma today under the 1990 Law Concerning Sangha Organizations. The largest of these is the Thudhamma Nikaya , which was founded in the 1800s during the Konbaung dynasty . The term Nikāya Buddhism
4608-418: The standard collection of buddhavacana is the Pāli Canon, also known as the Tripiṭaka ("three baskets"). Generally speaking, the Theravāda school rejects the Mahāyāna sūtras as buddhavacana (word of the Buddha), and do not study or see these texts as reliable sources. In East Asian Buddhism , what is considered buddhavacana is collected in the Chinese Buddhist canon ; the most common edition of this
4680-410: The title means ‘small’ in Pali and Nikāya is ‘collection’. The equivalent collection in the Chinese and Tibetan canons is the Kṣudraka Āgama , but there is substantial variation among the collections. Hirakawa Akira has stated that the Khuddaka Nikaya represent a stage in the development of the Pali Canon / Agamas in which new material was not added any more to the rest of the Sutta Pitaka, but
4752-417: The work of Aśvaghoṣa, another important Sanskrit poet was Mātr̥ceṭa, known for his One Hundred and Fifty Verses. Buddhist poetry was also written in popular Indian languages, such as Tamil and Apabhramsa . One well known poem is the Tamil epic Manimekalai , which is one of the Five Great Epics of Tamil literature . Other later hagiographical texts include the Buddhavaṃsa , the Cariyāpiṭaka and
4824-416: Was added to a 'Khuddaka Pitaka' instead. This Khuddaka Pitaka was the repository for materials that were left out of the four Agamas/Nikayas (the Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya and Anguttara Nikaya) and thus included both early and late texts. Some of the other schools that included a Khuddaka Pitaka in their canons were the Mahisasaka , Dharmaguptaka and Mahasanghika . The Khuddaka Nikaya of
4896-537: Was coined by Masatoshi Nagatomifake as a non-derogatory substitute for Hinayana , meaning the early Buddhist schools . Examples of these groups are pre-sectarian Buddhism and the early Buddhist schools. Some scholars exclude pre-sectarian Buddhism when using the term. The term Theravada refers to Buddhist practices based on these early teachings, as preserved in the Pāli Canon . Buddhist texts Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and its traditions . There
4968-402: Was lively debate over their authenticity throughout the Buddhist world. Various Mahāyāna sūtras warn against the charge that they are not word of the Buddha, showing that they are aware of this claim. Buddhist communities such as the Mahāsāṃghika school were divided along these doctrinal lines into sub-schools which accepted or did not accept these texts. The Theravāda school of Sri Lanka also
5040-429: Was perhaps never definitively established among many early Buddhist schools. Early Buddhist texts which appear in such "minor" collections include: Abhidharma (in Pāli , Abhidhamma ) texts which contain "an abstract and highly technical systematization" of doctrinal material appearing in the Buddhist sutras. It is an attempt to best express the Buddhist view of "ultimate reality" ( paramartha-satya ) without using
5112-444: Was split on the issue during the medieval period. The Mahavihara sub-sect rejected these texts and the (now extinct) Abhayagiri sect accepted them. Theravāda commentaries mention these texts (which they call Vedalla/Vetulla ) as not being the Buddha word and being counterfeit scriptures. Modern Theravāda generally does not accept these texts as buddhavacana (word of the Buddha). The Mahāyāna movement remained quite small until
5184-585: Was used instead of nikāya to describe their Sutra Piṭaka s. Thus the non- Mahāyāna portion of the Sanskrit-language Sutra Piṭaka is referred to as "the Āgamas" by Mahāyāna Buddhists. The Āgamas survive for the most part only in Classical Tibetan and Chinese translation. They correspond closely with the Pāḷi nikāyas. Among the Theravāda nations of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, nikāya
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