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Sunday, December 20, 2009

TRIPITAKA

The canonical texts of Theravada Buddhism, divided into three parts: the Vinaya-pitaka, containing the rules governing the monastic community; the Sutra-pitaka, a collection of scriptures recording the teachings of the Buddha; and Abhidharma-pitaka, a collection of Buddhist philosophical writings.

The texts were established at group councils of the Sangha (monastic orders), the first being held within months of the Buddha's death. A senior monk would ask a series of questions to which the assembled monks, sometimes numbering thousands, would reply by reciting the appropriate portion of the canon. The Buddha's teachings were preserved and passed on in this way for about 400 years, until Theravada monks wrote them down in Pali script in the 1st century AD.

The Tripitaka was possibly named after the pitaka (baskets) used to hold the set of palm leaves on which the texts were written.
Tibetien:-
The three collections of the teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni: Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma. Their purpose is the development of the three trainings of discipline, concentration and discriminating knowledge while their function is to remedy the three poisons of desire, anger and delusion. Kangyur - the TripitakaThe Tibetan version of the Tripitaka fills more than one hundred large volumes, each with more than 600 large pages. In a wider sense all of the Dharma, both Sutra and Tantra, is contained within the three collections and three trainings. To paraphrase Khenpo Ngakchung in his Notes to the Preliminary Practices for Longchen Nyingtig: "The three collections of Hinayana scriptures, namely Vinaya, Sutra, and Abhidharma, respectively express the meaning of the training in discipline, concentration and discriminating knowledge. The teachings describing the details of precepts for the bodhisattva path belong to the Vinaya collection while the meaning expressed by these scriptures are the training in discipline. The sutras expressing the gateways to samadhi are the Sutra collection while their expressed meaning, reflections on precious human body and so forth, are the training in concentration. The scriptures on the sixteen or twenty types of emptiness are the Abhidharma collection while their expressed meaning is the training in discriminating knowledge. Scriptures expounding the details of the samayas of Vajrayana are the Vinaya collection while their expressed meaning is the training in discipline. The scriptures teaching the general points of development and completion belong to the Sutra collection, while their expressed meaning is the training in samadhi. All the scriptures expressing the Great Perfection belong to the Abhidharma collection, while their expressed meaning is the training in discriminating knowledge."

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