Below are some resources for helping you become familiar and more comfortable with the books of the Pali Sutta Pitaka.
Simple Chart
This chart (as shown in the image above) lists the five main Nikayas and the first ten books of the Khuddaka Nikaya. It also includes the common translation of the title if there is one as well as the number of suttas or verses each contains. The exact numbers sometimes varies according the the original manuscript. These numbers are based on the Sri Lankan Buddha Jayanti Edition.
Simple Chart, Four to a Page
This is the same chart with four copies on each page. This is useful to cut up and use as a bookmark so:
- You will see it frequently
- You can be in the habit of checking what the abbreviations stand for
- As you learn you will have a visual sense of where each book falls in the Canon.
It is also good to carry with you so you can memorize the names and the order.
Audio Recording of the Titles
We need to not only be comfortable knowing what the books are and where to find them, but we should feel confident in pronouncing them as well. This is an MP3 recording of all the titles twice with a pause between each one so you can practice.
Puzzle
Test your knowledge by using this puzzle. See how quickly you can assemble the canon. The pieces can also be folded in half and used as small flash cards, or cut appart the Pali and English names for an extra challenge.
Have you memorized the list of the books in the Sutta Pitaka by heart? How has it helped you to feel comfortable and confident when approaching the teachings? Leave you comments below.
Related Posts
- Canonical Collections for practice: more information about the books in the charts above.
- Building a Sutta Library
- Living in the Land of the Buddha: a Map of Ancient India
- Sutta Practice Life List
- Using an Anthology for Practice
Thank you for the feedback. Fortunately Pali is more or less a phonetic language, meaning each letter just has one sound. So the instructions here, http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Reference/The-Pronunciation-of-Pali.htm should help you out. Once you can make the sounds, it should be possible to pronounce any word.
Would anyone else be interested in a recording of all of the MN sutta names?
Thank you for this wonderful resource! Do you know of any free online Japanese translations of the Sutta Pitaka? It would be wonderful to access these since the published translations I have seen are prohibitively expensive.
Please keep up the amazing work! Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
There are some on SuttaCentral.net. To see how to easily display them, here are some instructions: https://daily.readingfaithfully.org/read-in-other-languages/
You may also want to ask on the SuttaCentral.net discussion forum. Folks there may know of more.
Happy reading!