The words of the Fully Enlightened Buddha are available to you right now through the suttas of the Pali Canon. By developing a daily habit of contemplative and devotional reading of the suttas you will deepen your understanding and practice of his timeless wisdom.
Daily practice with the suttas
- How To: Sutta Practice Basics
- Making a Sutta Reading Plan
- Core Principles of Sutta Practice: Pragmatic, Possible, Patient, Persistent, Perpetual
- When is the best time to read?
- How long and how much to read each day?
- Tips for using a published anthology for daily sutta practice.
- Should you take notes during a sutta practice?
- What to do when you finish a text.
- Reflections for reading
- Closing a reading practice session
Suggested Texts
- Building a Sutta Library: A book list with sources to help you build a near complete collection of the suttas
- Canonical Collections: Learn about the traditional grouping of suttas and ways to practice with them
- Overview of Translators of Pali Buddhist Scriptures: This page gives you a general idea about the different people translating the texts we recommend.
- Anthologies: Collections based on topics
- Sutta Practice Text Suggestions Based on Available Time: Some texts work great even if you just have a few minutes each day
- Sutta Practice Text Suggestions Based on Your Experience Level: New to the Suttas? Have read them all? There are texts for everyone.
Overcoming Hindrances to Practice
- Make a Sutta Practice Life List to help keep your commitment to complete your text.
- Don’t Break the Chain! A simple technique to keep your practice consistent.
- Read Out Loud: It’s how it all started
- Walking Sutta Practice: It’s hard to fall asleep standing up.
- Benefits of having a backup text
Personal Anthology
Group Practice: Reading Faithfully Together
Resources
- Free Tools and texts to download
- Book sources, both free and commercial
- Sutta E-books for Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.
- Listening Faithfully, audio recordings of the suttas
- Definition of terms as used on this site
To get e-mail updates when new articles are posted, use the sign up box on the right of the page.