The Collected Discourses of the Buddha – a new translation of the Samyutta Nikaya

The Samyutta Nikya is the third great collection of the Buddha’s discourses in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pfili Canon, the compilation of texts authorized as the Wordof the Buddha by the Theravada school of Buddhism. Within the Sutta Pitaka it follows the Digha Nikaya and Majjhima Nikaya, and precedes the Anguttara Nikaya. Like the other Pfili Nikayas, the Samyutta Nikaya had counterparts in the canonical collections of the other early Buddhist schools, and one such version has been preserved in the Chinese Tripitaka, where it is known as the Tsa-a-han-ching. This was translated from the Sanskrit Samyukt6gama, which the evidence indicates belonged to the Samastivada school. Thus, while the Samyutta Nikaya translated in the present work has its locus within the Theravada canon, it should never be forgot- ten that it belongs to a body of texts-called the Nikayas in the Pali tradition prevalent in southern Asia and the Agamas in the Northern Buddhist tradition-which stands at the fountainhead of the entire Buddhist literary heritage. It was on the basis of these texts that the early Buddhist schools established their sys- tems of doctrine and practice, and again it was to these texts that later schools also appealed when formulating their new visions of the Buddha’s way.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I