Introduction to the Sutta Nipāta · 莲华归心开放中文佛学资料库

- suttas - - evening talks - short morning talks - lectures - guided meditations - talk collections - other themes - chants - - - - à¹à¸à¸¢ - Franā§ais - Espaā±ol - - Portuguāªs - Ð ÑÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹ - - - Ð£ÐºÑÐ°ÑÐ½ÑÑÐºÐ° Submit Search - Home - Suttas - KN - Sn - Sn Introduction ## Browse Suttas Go to Sutta Nipṅta index Sn index Show outline show outline ## Outline - (Top) - A note on the translation const prefersTocHidden = window.sessionStorage.getItem('user-prefers-toc-hidden') ?? window.localStorage.getItem('user-prefers-toc-hidden') ?? false; if (prefersTocHidden) { const tocToggleButton = document.getElementById("tocToggle"); const bookToc = document.getElementById("bookToc"); bookToc.classList.remove("show"); tocToggleButton.setAttribute("aria-expanded", false); tocToggleButton.querySelectorAll("[data-show-text]").forEach(el => { el.setAttribute("data-hide-text", el.innerText); el.innerText = el.getAttribute("data-show-text"); }); } ## Introduction to the Sutta Nipṅta The Sutta Nipṅta—the Discourse Group—is the fifth text in the Khuddaka Nikṅya, or Short Collection, which in turn is the fifth collection in the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pali Canon. The collection totals 72 suttas in all, arranged in five chapters, and includes some of the most famous poems in the Pali Canon, such as the Discourse on Goodwill (Karaṃīya-Mettṅ Sutta, 1:8), the Discourse on Treasures (Ratana Sutta, 2:1), and the Discourse on Protection (Maṃgala Sutta, 2:4). It also contains two sets of poems that were apparently well-known in the Buddhaâs time as deep expressions of advanced points of doctrine: the Aṭṭhaka Vagga, a set of sixteen poems on the theme of non-clinging, and the Pṅrṅyana Vagga, a set of sixteen dialogues, with a prologue and epilogue, in which the Buddha provides succinct answers to questions posed to him by brahmans who appear to have been adept in concentration practice. In addition to these more well-known poems, the collection also contains many useful instructions of a highly practical nature, covering everything from the most basic standards of conduct to the most subtle issues of discernment.1 The Sutta Nipṅta differs from its neighbors in the Khuddaka—the Dhammapada, the Udṅna, and the Itivuttaka—in that its suttas follow no standard form. All of them contain passages of poetry, but some suttas are entirely in verse, whereas others include prose passages as well. The poems vary greatly in length, the longest consisting of 63 verses; the shortest, of three. In some cases the longer poems present a continuous argument; in others, they are strings of short verses tied together by a common image or refrain. The longest poem in the collection, 3:9, combines both formats. The predominant verse form is the poetic dialogue, in which two or more people converse in verse—an ability that was highly prized in the Buddhaâs time—but there are other verse forms as well, including short monologues (such as 2:10), longer narratives (such as 3:1, 3:2, and 3:10), and poems appended to prose discourses as memory aids (as in 3:12). Because the suttas collected here follow no standard form, we have to look elsewhere to get an idea of what holds the collection together and how it functions in the context of Dhamma as taught by the Pali Canon as a whole. Of course, itâs possible that there is no overall unity to this collection, that its compilers simply gathered poems that didnât fit elsewhere in the Canon, but two points suggest otherwise. 1) To begin with, there is some overlap between the Sutta Nipṅta and other poetic texts in the Canon. Five of its suttas—1:10, 2:5, 3:3, 3:7, and 3:9—are identical with suttas found in the Majjhima and Saṃyutta Nikṅyas, and a sixth—1:4—is nearly identical with a sutta in the Saṃyutta. If the Sutta Nipṅta were intended to be merely a repository of suttas left over from the rest of the Canon, there would have been no reason for this overlap. 2) A comparison of the poetic texts in the Pali Canon with texts from other early Buddhist traditions—such as Sanskrit texts found in Nepal, translations in the Chinese Canon, and Gṅndhṅrī manuscripts found in Central Asia—shows that different traditions shared many of the same verses, but that they organized those verses in different ways. The Chinese Canon, for instance, contains a section composed of 16 poems similar to the 16 poems in the fourth chapter of the Sutta Nipṅta—the Aṭṭhaka Vagga—but to two of those poems it adds verses found elsewhere in the Pali Canon. A Sanskrit text quotes the first dialogue in the fifth chapter of the Sutta Nipṅta—the Pṅrṅnaya Vagga—inserting a question and answer that, in the Pali version, is found in a sutta later in the same chapter. Gṅndhṅrī manuscripts contain versions of two poems in the Sutta Nipṅta that are composed of strings of smaller verses tied together by a common refrain, but in each case the verses are arranged in a different order. All of this suggests that compilers in each tradition were working with many of the