Buddhist Teachings

T E A C H I N G S ХХ S U M M A R Y

This section presents material on the main, traditional themes of Theravadin Buddhism.
With such a huge range of Buddhist material available on the web it seems better to focus on the basics.

The overall intention of this site is to explore the actual experience of being a Buddhist - to investigate how the books and teachings etc. connect with daily life. I am not a scholar but have tried here to present accurate information using orthodox sources, at the same time seasoning this with my own understanding of the teachings.
I very much recommend visiting Access to Insight [з] as a 'one stop' site for a wide range of Theravadin material.
Buddhanet is another good site.

TI-PITAKA:
the scriptures
history+overview

The Buddha taught for forty-five years and the record of those teachings is both diverse and extensive with over 10,000 discourses available. If you can imagine over 12,000 pages bound in approximately fifty volumes, filling about 1 1/2 metres of shelf space!
Х The record we have comes in a collection of books known as the Ti-pitaka: literally the 'three baskets'.
Vinaya Pitaka: concerned with the rules of discipline and training for the order of monks and nuns.
Sutta-pitaka: containing many of the Buddha's discourses; his teachings. It is divided into five major sections called 'nikaya'.
Abhidhamma-pitaka: a philosophical, psychological treatment of the dhamma consisting of seven works - a systematic exposition of the whole of the works found in the sutta-pitaka. Written quite some time after the Buddha's death.

DHAMMA CAKKA
discussion of
first teaching

The Buddha gave his first teaching in the Deer Park at Baranasi. (There was, technically, a previous 'sermon': [з] & [з].)
This first teaching is known as the Dhamma Cakka Sutta.
Х Dhamma = lit. the 'bearer'; truth, nature, law, constitution, quality, teaching)
Х Cakka = wheel (see RESOURCES). One of the seven 'precious possessions' of a righteous World Emperor
Х Sutta = Vedic: to sew, stitch. Literally = thread. Spider's thread; carpenter's measure
This teaching is commonly agreed to contain the essence of all the Buddha's subsequent teachings. The amount of information available outlining "what is Buddhism" can be bewildering so I emphasise the usefulness of this one teaching. Read the sutta [з]. Read the commentary (link left).

want & need

need & greed

The essence of the teaching and the framework upon which all later teachings were based is 'The Four Noble Truths' and a comprehensive study of this is recommended. So often the Buddha, in reply to esoteric or cosmological questions, would reply: "I teach suffering, its cause and the path leading to it end." ie. the four noble truths.

The teachings were first compiled as oral recitations, maintained in this way for about 500 years before being written down. The original compositions were in Pali, a language with many specialist terms describing the nature of the mind. Because of this, single-word translation is not always easy and contemplation of these terms (especially in relation to one's own meditation experience) builds a broader understanding of the priciples taught in the Four Noble Truths. The key is exploring the relationship between desire and suffering.
Chanting is still a common means of maintaining the original teachings although few people have sufficient knowledge of Pali to fully understand the original form and the use of translations is increasingly common. Reading and study is a good start to understanding the essence of the Buddha's teaching but the important thing is to take the teachings and apply them in practice.