Buddhist Suttas

Buddhist Suttas

by T. W. Rhys Davids

These seven scriptural writings are considered to be the most important and oldest of the Buddhist religion. Originally written in the Pali language, they date to the fourth and third centuries BC. This early date is what makes them so important —they form the very core of Buddhist teachings, sought after and studied by monks and scholars for centuries.

ON being asked to contribute a volume of translations from the Pâli Suttas to the important series of which this work forms a part, the contributor has to face the difficulty of choosing from the stores of a nearly unknown literature--a difficulty arising from the embarrassment, not of poverty, but of wealth. I have endeavoured to make such a choice as would enable me to bring together into one volume a collection of texts which should be as complete a sample as one volume could afford of what the Buddhist scriptures, on the whole, contain. With this object in view I have refrained from confining myself to the most interesting books--those, namely, which deal with the Noble Eightfold Path, the most essential, the most original, and the most attractive part of Gotama's teaching; and I have chosen accordingly, besides the Sutta of the Foundation of the Kingdom of Righteousness (the Dhamma-kakka-ppavattana Sutta), which treats of the Noble Path, six others which treat of other sides of the Buddhist system; less interesting perhaps in their subject matter, but of no less historical value.