The discourses of the Buddha offer a vast range of practices, from ethical guidelines for wise daily life and relationships, instructions for meditation and inner cultivation, all the way to descriptions of the deepest truths of reality.
This page offers a selection of core Buddhist texts from primarily Early (Pāli Canon/Theravāda) Buddhist sources, focusing on the foundations of Buddhist practice and the integration of this ancient wisdom into our complex modern lives. Adapted from a syllabus I use in a 4-month sutta study class, it is in four sections:
Most of the texts will be found in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s beautiful anthology: In the Buddha’s Words. Handouts are given here, but the book is wonderful for deeper study. The links that follow here are for further study on your own if you choose, mostly from the website Sutta Central, which has Pāli and Sanskrit Early Buddhist texts in authoritative translations into many languages, and Access to Insight.
Because there are countless good Dharma books out there by contemporary teachers, for these study guides I’m emphasizing the Pāli texts themselves and fairly traditional (and free) commentary by Theravāda monastics. For an accessible contemporary introduction to Buddhist practice by an American lay teacher, I recommend my mentor Jack Kornfield’s book The Wise Heart.
If you’re more of a listener than a reader, you’ll find hundreds of talks on all these subjects on dharmaseed.org (talks by Insight Meditation teachers worldwide), and audiodharma.org (talks from Insight Mediation Center/Gil Fronsdal).
This sutta contains the Buddha’s core teaching on the 4 Noble Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the 8-fold Path of training that leads to the end of suffering. Because the 8-fold Path is the primary doctrinal structure for Buddhist practice, this sutta can be said to “contain the entire Dhamma” in the many lists of qualities and teachings it implies. Here are links for study of the all the lists in detail.
Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma (SN 56.11)
Notes on the Dhammacakka
The Dhammacakka sutta chanted by the monastics of Abhayagiri Monastery
Talk by Thai Forest master Ajahn Chah, “Opening the Dhamma Eye“, discussing Kondañña’s realization and the transmission of the Dhamma in this sutta.
Parivatta Sutta: Phases of the Clinging Aggregates (SN 22.56)
and the Khandha Sutta: Aggregates (SN 22.48)
Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path
Interestingly, the doctrinal list of the 3 Marks (tilakkhaṇa) as a formal structure is somewhat rare in the sutta collections, appearing most famously in verses 277-79 of the Dhammapāda, and in the important Discourse on Not-self (sutta+commentary), where it is the lens through which to understand the 5 Aggregates. The Discourse on Not-self was given by the Buddha to the bhikkhus of the Group of Five shortly after he gave them the Turning the Wheel discourse. The end of the Not-self talk describes all 5 bhikkhus becoming fully realized (arahants).
Where it shows up in full force is in the 5th century meditation manual, the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga, chapter 20), in which it is the primary lens through which the meditator analyzes her experience in vipassanā practice. It’s a tremendously important and beautiful teaching. Here’s 3 short books about the 3 Marks, from the Buddhist Publication Society’s “Wheel” series:
The instructions for lay people in the early Buddhist tradition are rooted in Generosity, going for Refuge (in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha), cultivation of the 5 Ethical Precepts, and maintaining wise relationships in all our communities. Based on this solid foundation, the lay practitioner is encouraged to practice toward seeing the truth of impermanence as a doorway to wisdom and liberation.
Abhisanda Sutta: Streams (AN 8:39) [on 3 Refuges & 5 Precepts]
Sigalovada Sutta: The Buddha’s Advice to Sigalaka (DN 31)
Notes on the Sigalovada
The meditation part of the path is most commonly represented by a set of texts on Mindfulness (sati). The discourse on Mindfulness of the Body is an elegant example. This text, a less-known sibling to the standard text, the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN 10), emphasizes deepening awareness & inquiry into embodied experience as a pathway to deep meditative stabilization and realization. Along with the Ānāpānasati (MN 118), the three texts present the Buddha’s meditative discipline in substantial detail.
The Kāyagātasati Sutta: Mindfulness of the Body (MN 119)
Notes on the Kāyagātasati Sutta
Study guide on Mindfulness of the Body
The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta: Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10)
Notes on the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta
The Ānāpānasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing (MN 118)
Ñānamoli’s commentary on the Ānāpānasati Sutta
The beautiful teachings on loving-kindness, or metta, are an important aspect of the path to liberation. Metta is the cornerstone of the four Divine Abodes, or brahmavihara, which combine heart-opening reflection with concentration and insight practice.
The Mettā Sutta (Pāli and English)
Notes on Brahmavihara practice
Commentary: Buddharakkhita on Metta Practice
Ñānamoli, essay/study guide on Metta
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)