The Encyclopedia of World Religions

412 S scriptures, Buddhist

All schools recognize three basic kinds of sacred scripture. These kinds are called pitakas or baskets. The scripture as a whole is called the Tripitaka or “Three Baskets,” a name particularly associated with the Theravada canon. (Theravada Buddhists usually write Tipitaka, the name in Pali, the language in which their sacred books are written.) The three baskets contain the rules for MONKS AND NUNS , known as the vinaya; sermons preached by the Buddha, known as sutras or, in Pali, suttas; and philosophical texts, known as abhidharma or, in Pali, abhidhamma. The indi vidual books that each basket contains are too numerous to list here, but some important com ponents include the Theragatas and Therigatas (poems by ancient monks and nuns), jatakas (stories of previous lives of the Buddha), and apadanas (the lives of remarkable Buddhists told as examples). The Theravada canon was alleg edly closed around the time of Jesus. That may not be historically accurate. The collections asso ciated with different regions, such as Sri Lanka and Burma, differ somewhat. Buddhism came to China in the early centuries C . E ., and Buddhists actively translated Buddhist texts into Chinese. As a result, several Chinese versions of the vinaya for monks and nuns exist. The Chinese did not translate the sutra and abhid harma texts completely. But more important for the practice of the religion, Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia has recognized a number of sutras that the Theravada does not recognize. These texts allegedly record the secret teachings of the Bud dha. They were written relatively late and contain distinctive Mahayana teachings, such as teachings about buddha nature and the Pure Land. The most important Mahayana sutras include the Diamond Sutra and Heart Sutra ( see D IAMOND S UTRA ), part of a group called the “perfection of wisdom” sutras; the Lankavatara Sutra, particularly important for Ch’an or Z EN B UDDHISM ; the L OTUS S UTRA , a major text for a school known as Tendai as well as for N ICHIREN Buddhism; and three sutras particularly important to P URE L AND B UDDHISM : the shorter and the longer Amitabha Sutra and the Meditation Sutra.

prophets and reformers, who can go back to the original scriptures to find their new ideas, perhaps ideas that they say the established leaders have set aside, and challenge their authority with them. Scriptures can stir things up as well as keep them under control. Scriptures are basic to the life of religion as we know it. scriptures, Buddhist The sacred books of B UD DHISM are unlike the sacred scriptures with which readers may be familiar. For one thing, most North Americans associate sacred scriptures with a closed canon, a “rule” of authoritative writings that does not make room for any additions. For another, they imagine scriptures as being long, perhaps, but still relatively manageable. For example, it is possible to bind the B IBLES that Jews and Christians use as well as the Q UR ’ AN into single volumes. These characteristics do not describe Buddhist scriptures. One school of Buddhism, the Theravada ( see T HER AVADA B UDDHISM ), does have a canon that is offi cially closed. The Tibetan canon, in the tradition of V AJRAYANA B UDDHISM , is closed in fact, if not offi cially. But the canon of M AHAYANA B UDDHISM is not closed. Books can still be added to it. Furthermore, all Buddhist schools have many more sacred books than could ever be bound into a single volume, at least a single volume with readable print. Finally, different schools of Buddhism differ much more about which books are sacred than do, for exam ple, Protestant and Catholic Christians, who differ on the A POCRYPHA , or Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, who accept the same Qur’an. Like J ESUS and M UHAMMAD , the B UDDHA , known to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists as Sakya muni, taught orally. He did not write any books. Tradition records that, after his parinirvana (which non-Buddhists see as his death), his disciples gath ered in India in a place called Rajagriha. The Bud dha’s cousin and secretary, Ananda, led them in reciting the Buddha’s teachings. In theory, at least, these teachings constitute the sacred scriptures of Buddhism. Within about two centuries, however, different schools of Buddhism had arisen, and each was developing its own set of scriptures.