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Most of the Pali Canon is available at the Access to Insight
website. This is a great boon! It includes indexes to the Suttas. Great blessings to all those involved in making this material
available. As a minor note I believe there are better translations, but this does not detract from the achievement.
Of personal interest are the following Suttas
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta : the Buddha's first Discourse on the nature of his enlightenment.
Upanisa Sutta. Samyutta Nikaya XII.23
a little known but vital Sutta. Herein Nirvana - the goal of the disciple's life - is described in positive terms.
This is important because elsewhere Nirvana is described in negative terms only. As well as the well known formula of 'cyclic' conditionality where we go from birth to death to birth,
there is described a second type of conditionality which is progressive - in dependence on suffering arises faith, and in dependence on faith arises joy etc until Nirvana itself arises.
It also confirms that both samsara and Nirvana are encompassed by Conditioned Co-production.
Cunda Kammaraputta Sutta. Anguttara Nikaya X.176. Cunda the Silversmith asks about purification, and the Buddha answers in terms of the ten skilful and ten unskilful actions. These are the precepts that members of the Western Buddhist Order follow.
Satipatthana Sutta : the foundations of mindfulness (sati) that essential ingredient in the Spiritual life.
Mahaparinibbana Sutta : the last days of the Buddha
Udana : probably the oldest material in the Canon.
Metta Sutta : a beautiful and moving description of metta.
Mangala Sutta
The Dhammapada is one of my favourite texts. It is terse and uncompromising
in it's presentation of the Dharma. If you want to know what the Buddha was on about then
this is one of the best places to find out. My personal favourite translation is by
Juan Mascaro - he writes "In the Dhammapada we can hear the voice of the Buddha".
There are several translations available online...
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