Thomas Elder

Buddhism in Thailand
April 30, 2015
The Pali Canon
What is the sacred text of Buddhism? That is a hard question to answer. Unlike
of their religion buddhism does not have one sacred text and does not necessarily need
one. When one looks at other religion such as Crisationey. These have a single book
with a history to follow. Buddhism on the other hand has a collation of books and it
depends on the sect that you belong to.
The pali canon or otherwise know as the tripitaka in pali, is not the only buddhist
canon. There are two there widy uses canons uses by buddhist around the world. The
first is the Taisho Tripitaka is used in china, japan, and korea. The next big canon used
is the Kangyur of the tibet. These three are the main canon but many different sect have
there own version of the canon. One thing that most of the worlds buddhist canons have
in communie is the first two parts in the Pali canon. These first two partes dill with rules
for monks/nuns and some teachings of the buddha. Most of the other canons have the
sames texts. This was the origin for all other canons.
If the pali canon was the origin of all other canons, what was its organizations.
The life of the pali canon has three main parts to it. The first part is the most important
period of all buddhism. That is the life and teachings of Gautama Buddha. When
Gautama buddha was enlightened for 45 years he handed down his teachings to
disciples and layman alike. At this time there was no canon and now sects. The only
thing that matter was following lord buddha and what he says. The next period came

after the death of buddha. A short time after his death the first buddhist council was
formed. These as made up of all of buddhas top disputes from near and far. They all
meet in north india for the conical. Here at the first council the main job was to bring
together all of the teachings into one canon. So that there could be a standardised in
teaching. The people of the world need a source to check since buddha was no longer
around to teach anymore. Once there was agreed upon canon the council started to
share the knowledge once again. At this point and time it was not written down. Monks
just passed it done by an oral tradition. This was done for hundreds of years all over the
buddhist world. Then came the fourth buddhist council in Sri Lanka. This is when it was
decided to write down the whole canon done onto palm leaf books. A key thing to
remember is at this point in time there was still only one sect called buddhism.
So when the pali canon was first put to text there were three key things to keep in
find. The first is that it was decided to write on palm leaf manuscript. This type of
material was popular in india and across south east asia. These palm leaf gave two
things to canon. The first is that it effected the name of different parts of the canon.
Some time collations are called baskets. This is do to the fact that palm leaf books are
stored in baskets. The second thing that was given by palm leafs is that it has to be
rewritten. This is do to the leafs and the weather. The leafs just get old and fall apart.
This gave monks a chance to get closer to the work. It also give the chance that the
works could be lost to time. If there are no monks to transcribe the books. It also made
the monks to come up with a new way to store the books. In early days the palm leaf
scrip were store in stone coffins. This was done to keep them dry in the wet season and
protect them from the floods.

The second thing that was decided about the text was the uses of the pali
language. This is the language used by buddha and many of his disciples. This way as
many people who wanted to read the works of buddha. Now a days the pali language is
a dead language only used by theravada monks to study buddhism. Many monks and
laymen also can now read the canon in english and thai. Most of all the books in the
canon have been also but into PDF so that everyone in the world can read them. If
someone wanted to get there own copy of the canon in hard print. They would need to
get a full pali or full english. The average cost is around $2000. Another option is to get
a PDF version which is free. These evetion in the language and material of the canon is
in the spirit of buddha. This way the way out of suffering can be shared.
The canon is separated into three parts to help show the path out of suffering .
The first part is called the vinaya pitaka. These means discipline basket and holds the
rules for monks. The word pitaka means basket in pali. The second part is called the
Sutta pitaka meaning sayings basket. This basket hold the worlds of the buddha and
how to reach enlightenment. The third and last part is the abhidhamma pitaka. This part
of the canon is only used in theravada buddhism. This part is what is makes it a
theravada canon.
The canon has the basic structure of the three baskets but it goes much more
deeper than that. The vinaya pitaka is separated into five books: sutta vibhanga,
khandhaka, mahavagga, cullavagga, and parivara. the sutta vibhanga is also then goes
into maha vibhanga and bhikkhuni vibhanga. With in all of these text the way to live your
life as a monk or nuns in here. Also there are thing like how a temple should be made.
The main over theme of the vinaya pitaka is philosophy and virtue.

The second pitaka is the sutta pitaka. Here is the main teachings of the buddha
and his disciples. For the most part what is said in this section can be trace back to lord
buddha himself. The sub groups in this case are digha nikaya, majjhima nikaya
samyutta nikaya, anguttara nikaya, and the khuddaka-nikaya. The khuddaka nikaya is
also divided up into 15 other books. These books have over 10,000 sutras. When one
looks at the sutta pitaka and the vinaya pitaka you will notice that most sects have them
and there is little difference between them. These to coalition set up the ground work of
buddhism and they can trace back to the buddha himself.
The last section is the abhidhamma pitaka. Which can then be divided up into
seven other books: dhamma sangani, vibhanga, dhatu katha, puggala pannatti, katha
vatthu, yamaka, and the patthana. These books deal with what makes theravada
different. These books also can not trace their origins with buddha as clearly as the
others. There is also some small differences between the information in this collation
and the first two.
The canon is not made up of only the the teachings for buddhism. There are also
writing that are like formal notes and comments on the books. So when you are reading
a part of the sutta pitaka you can get some help from a more experienced monk how
can expiation what you are reading. When you are reading with monks they do this but
it also has some notice build in to help.