BUDDHISM — SACRED TEXTS AND WRITINGS
1. Tipiṭaka
Importance. Foundational scriptural authority for Theravāda Buddhism and the most complete surviving early Buddhist canon in an Indic language. “Tripiṭaka” is a category — Three Baskets — rather than the name of one universally shared Buddhist Bible. The syllabus spelling Tripitaka is Sanskritised; Tipiṭaka is Pāli.
• Vinaya Piṭaka — monastic rules and the narratives explaining their formation; shapes the Sangha as an institution.
• Sutta Piṭaka — discourses attributed to the Buddha and close disciples. Five Nikāyas: Dīgha, Majjhima, Saṃyutta, Aṅguttara and Khuddaka. The two extracts below are from this basket.
• Abhidhamma Piṭaka — later scholastic analysis and classification of mind, experience and dhammas; seven books in the Theravāda canon.
Saṃyutta Nikāya 56.11, Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (“Setting the Dhamma-Wheel in Motion”)
idaṃ dukkhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ … idaṃ dukkhasamudayaṃ ariyasaccaṃ …
idaṃ dukkhanirodhaṃ ariyasaccaṃ … idaṃ dukkhanirodhagāminī paṭipadā ariyasaccaṃ.
Literal translation: “This is the noble truth of dukkha … this is the noble truth of the origin of dukkha … this is the noble truth of its cessation … this is the noble truth of the path leading to its cessation.”
Why it matters: The Four Noble Truths are presented as the Buddha’s diagnostic structure: dukkha; craving as its origin; cessation (nibbāna); and the Noble Eightfold Path. In the same discourse the Middle Way is said to lead to nibbāna.
Dhammapada 277–279 (Khuddaka Nikāya)
sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā
sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā
sabbe dhammā anattā
Literal translation: “All conditioned formations are impermanent; all conditioned formations are dukkha; all phenomena are not-self.”
Why it matters: This is the cleanest canonical statement of the three marks of existence. Note the exact wording: anicca and dukkha qualify conditioned formations (saṅkhārā); anattā is stated of all dhammas. Anattā also explains why “rebirth” is usually more precise than “reincarnation”: Buddhism does not posit an eternal self passing unchanged from life to life.
2. Lotus of the Good Law
Corpus. Sanskrit Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, conventionally “Lotus Sūtra”; NESA’s “Lotus of the Good Law” reflects an older rendering of saddharma. It is an early Mahāyāna sūtra and one of the most influential Buddhist scriptures in East Asia. It survives in Sanskrit, Tibetan and several Chinese translations; Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation (406 CE) became especially authoritative in East Asia.
Chapter 2, “Skilful Means”, v. 54
ekaṃ hi yānaṃ dvitiyaṃ na vidyate tṛtiyaṃ hi naivāsti kadāci loke |
anyatrupāyā puruṣottamānāṃ yad yānanānātvupadarśayanti ||
Literal translation: “There is indeed one vehicle; no second exists, nor ever a third in the world — except when the supreme ones, through skilful means, display a diversity of vehicles.”
Why it matters: The Buddha’s apparently different teachings are expedient means (upāya) adapted to different capacities; ultimately they lead to one Buddhayāna, the path to Buddhahood. This expresses a distinctively Mahāyāna understanding of Dharma and salvation.
“Lifespan of the Tathāgata” (Sanskrit ch. 15; standard East Asian ch. 16), v. 3
nirvāṇabhūmiṃ copadarśayāmi vinayārtha sattvāna vadāmy upāyam |
na cāpi nirvāmy ahu tasmi kāle ihaiva co dharmu prakāśayāmi ||
Literal translation: “I display the state of nirvāṇa; to train beings I teach an expedient. Yet at that time I do not pass into nirvāṇa: here itself I continue to proclaim the Dharma.”
Why it matters: The historical Buddha’s apparent passing into nirvāṇa is itself treated as skilful means. The chapter presents the Buddha’s lifespan and salvific activity as immeasurably extended, enlarging the meaning of the Buddha jewel beyond a merely historical teacher. Elsewhere the sūtra repeatedly links hearing/keeping the Dharma with future Buddhahood and karmic results.
3. Tibetan Book of the Dead
Corpus. “Tibetan Book of the Dead” is not the Tibetan title of a single fixed book. It is the Western name popularised in 1927 for selections from the Bardo Thödol (“Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State”), within Karma Lingpa’s 14th-century Karling Zhitro treasure (terma) cycle. Tibetan tradition attributes the concealed teaching to Padmasambhava; historical study locates the extant cycle in the later Tibetan treasure tradition. It belongs especially to Nyingma Vajrayāna/Dzogchen contexts.
Importance. It turns death into a practical soteriological problem: instructions are recited to the dying or dead so that appearances in the bardos may be recognised rather than grasped. Failure to recognise them leads onward through karmically conditioned becoming and rebirth; recognition can become an occasion for liberation.
Root Verses on the Six Bardos — bardo of dying
འདུས་བྱས་ཤ་ཁྲག་ལུས་དང་བྲལ་ལ་ཁད༔
མི་རྟག་སྒྱུ་མ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༔
Literal translation: “As I am about to part from this conditioned body of flesh and blood, I shall know it to be impermanent, an illusion.”
Explanation: The doctrine of anicca is made existential and immediate: the body is conditioned (’dus byas) and impermanent, not a permanent self.
Root Verses — bardo of dharmatā
གང་ཤར་རང་སྣང་རིག་པར་ངོ་ཤེས་འཇུག༔
བར་དོའི་སྣང་ཚུལ་ཡིན་པར་ཤེས་པར་བྱ༔
རང་སྣང་ཞི་ཁྲོའི་ཚོགས་ལ་མ་འཇིགས་ཤིག༔
Literal translation: “I shall recognise whatever appears as awareness’s own display; I shall know it as the way the bardo unfolds; I shall not fear the peaceful and wrathful forms that appear.”
Why it matters: The terrifying and attractive post-mortem visions are not independent eternal beings to be grasped as ultimate. Liberation depends on recognition rather than attachment or fear — a Vajrayāna/Dzogchen development of Buddhist analysis of mind, appearance and non-self.
Root Verses — bardo of becoming
བཟང་པོ་ལས་ཀྱི་འཕྲོ་ལ་ནན་གྱིས་མཐུད༔
མངལ་སྒོ་བགག་ནས་རུ་ལོག་དྲན་པར་བྱ༔
Literal translation: “I shall firmly continue the momentum of good karma; closing the womb-door, I shall remember to turn back from rebirth.”
Explanation: Karma conditions the movement towards another birth within saṃsāra. The text’s aim is therefore not merely a “good afterlife” but, ideally, liberation from compulsive rebirth.
SAMPLE QUESTION
“All conditioned things are impermanent.”
— Dhammapada 277
Explain how Buddhist sacred texts express principal beliefs of Buddhism. In your response, refer to the stimulus and at least ONE other Buddhist sacred text. (5 marks)