Sutta Piṭaka

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The Sutta Piṭaka contains the essence of the Buddha's teaching regarding the Dhamma. It contains more than ten thousand suttas. It is divided in five collections called Nikāyas.

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Dīgha Nikāya

[dīgha: long] The Dīgha Nikāya gathers 34 of the longest discourses given by the Buddha. There are various hints that many of them are late additions to the original corpus and of questionable authenticity.

Majjhima Nikāya

[majjhima: medium] The Majjhima Nikāya gathers 152 discourses of the Buddha of intermediate length, dealing with diverse matters.

Saṃyutta Nikāya

[samyutta: group] The Saṃyutta Nikāya gathers the suttas according to their subject in 56 sub-groups called saṃyuttas. It contains more than three thousand discourses of variable length, but generally relatively short.

Aṅguttara Nikāya

[aṅg: factor | uttara: additionnal] The Aṅguttara Nikāya is subdivized in eleven sub-groups called nipātas, each of them gathering discourses consisting of enumerations of one additional factor versus those of the precedent nipāta. It contains thousands of suttas which are generally short.

Khuddaka Nikāya

[khuddha: short, small] The Khuddhaka Nikāya short texts and is considered as been composed of two stratas: Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipāta, Theragāthā-Therīgāthā and Jātaka form the ancient strata, while other books are late additions and their authenticity is more questionable.