Sutta Nipata

Sections

The Sutta Nipāta is divided into five sections:

• I. Uraga Vagga ("The Chapter on the Serpent") : 12 suttas;
• II. Cūḷa Vagga ("The Minor Chapter") : 14 suttas;
• III. Mahā Vagga ("The Great Chapter") : 12 suttas;
• IV. Aṭṭhakavagga Vagga ("The Chapter of Octads") : 16 suttas;
• V. Pārāyana Vagga ( "The Chapter on the Way Beyond") : 16 suttas (plus Introductory and Epilogue).

I. Uraga Vagga ("The Chapter on the Serpent")

II. Cūḷa Vagga ("The Minor Chapter")

III. Mahā Vagga ("The Great Chapter")

IV. Aṭṭhaka Vagga "The Chapter of Octads"

V. Pārāyana Vagga ("The Chapter on the Way Beyond")

Context

Some scholars believe that it describes the oldest of all Buddhist practices. Others such as the American Theravada Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi and K. R. Norman agree that it contains much early material. In the Chinese Buddhist canon, a version of the Aṭṭhakavagga has survived. Fragmentary materials from a Sanskrit version of the Nipata also survive. The Niddesa, a commentary in two parts on the contents of the Atthaka Vagga and portions of the Parayana Vagga, is included in the Pali Canon as a book of the Khuddaka Nikāya. This commentary is traditionally attributed to Śāriputra, and its presence in the canon is regarded as evidence of the relatively early composition of the Sutta Nipāta.

Many of the Buddhist legends originate in the Sutta Nipāta such as prediction by Asita on the birth of Siddhartha Gautama in the Nalaka sutta or the legendary meeting of King Bimbisāra with the Buddha.

Like the authors just mentioned, Hajime Nakamura also considers that the Sutta Nipāta is a very ancient collection. According to him, the last two parts, the Aṭṭhaka vagga (Sn. IV) and Pārāyana vagga (Sn. V), already existed during the lifetime of Gotama Buddha.

However, the American Theravāda monk Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu takes a more nuanced view. He considers that nothing known to date allows us to conclude with certainty that these are texts of primitive Buddhism (without, however, ruling out the possibility).

Presentation

The Sutta Nipāta (Pāli), which can be translated as "selection of instructions", "collection of suttas" or "collection of texts", is a collection of suttas from early Buddhism. It is the fifth book of the Khuddaka Nikāya, "small texts or small discourses", itself being the fifth part of the Sutta Piṭaka, of which it is probably the oldest part.

Like most early Buddhist collections, it is divided into sections (vagga), five in this case, and contains 70 suttas, plus a prologue and an epilogue,. Among the other canonical texts, only one collection is stylistically close to it, the Sagāthā Vagga section (SN.I), part of the Saṃyutta Nikāya (SN), several of whose suttas are versified in the form of dialogue.

It is distinguished from the other collections of the canon, because all the suttas that compose it are poems written in verse sometimes mixed with a few passages in prose (without any being only in prose). It has 1149 verses.

Three suttas from the Sutta Nipāta are among the most famous of ancient Buddhism, such as: (Sn.I.8) Mettā Sutta; (Sn.II.1) Ratana Sutta (Discourse on the Three Treasures); (Sn.II.4) Maṅgala Sutta (Discourse on the Great Blessing). They hold an important place in the ritual of the Theravāda tradition and are recited daily in monasteries, as well as on certain occasions. They are among the texts considered to be protective and sources of spiritual blessing.

Multiple Occurrences in the Pāli Canon

Some suttas appear in several collections under the same titles, such as (non-exhaustive list):

- the Sela Sutta: (Sn.III.7) in the Sutta Nipāta (Sn) and (MN 92) in the Majjhima Nikāya;

- the Vāseṭṭha Sutta: (Sn.III.9) in the Sutta Nipāta and (MN. 98) in the Majjhima Nikāya

- the Mettā Sutta: (Sn. I.8 ) in the Sutta Nipāta and (Khp.9) in the Khuddakapāṭha (Khp);

- the Ratana Sutta: (Sn II.1) in the Sutta Nipāta and (Khp.6) in the Khuddakapāṭha;

- the Maṅgala Sutta: (Sn.II.4) in the Sutta Nipāta and (Khp.5) in the Khuddakapāṭha.

The same is true of many verses, which are found in two or even three collections, such as:

- verses 45 and 46 of (Sn I.3) Khaggavisāṇa Sutta (Alone like a Rhinoceros) which also appear in the Dhammapada (Dhp. XXIII) The Elephant, verses 328 and 329;

-in the Vinaya Pitaka II.Khandhaka 10.1, The Story of Dīghāvu and in the Majjhima Nikāya.

In the Chinese Buddhist canon, a version of the Aṭṭhaka Vagga (Sn. IV), as well as fragments of a Sanskrit version of the entire Sutta Nipāta (Sn), have been found.

Older sections

Section I. Uraga Vagga

The Khaggavisānasutta or Rhinoceros Sutra (Sn.I.3) also seems to reveal an early form of Buddhist monasticism, which emphasizes individual quest in a manner close to the Indian tradition of the Sannyasa. A fairly complete version of this sutra was found in the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, in 1994, among the oldest known Indian manuscripts.

Sections IV. (Aṭṭhaka Vagga) and V. (Pārāyana Vagga)

The two sections Aṭṭhaka Vagga (Sn. IV) and Pārāyana Vagga (Sn. V), are considered to be considerably earlier than the rest of the Pāli canon and would reveal an earlier form of Buddhist religion. This view is based on the literary aspect of the texts, their inclusion in the earliest commentaries, but also because they express Buddhist beliefs in a form different from their more common versions.

Luis Oscar Gómez notes that they deal respectively with the issues of sensual pleasures in general (not just sexual), and prajñā, the process of liberation. Buddhist meditation is approached from an angle closer to the practice of Samatha-Vipassanā (the first and second stages), although later sutras in the canon will teach a balance between the two.

There is also mention of the "world of formlessness", Ārūpyadhātu, which has led the author to emphasise the proximity of these teachings to those of the Madhyamika school of Mahayana, in which the notion of emptiness, Śūnyatā, plays a central role.

Different analysis

As far as the relationship between the sections is concerned, Indianist authors have different interpretations: Luis Oscar Gómez considers that the five sections form a homogeneous whole; Tilmann Vetter considers that they constitute a composite whole, because, according to him, certain suttas (notably those of Aṭṭhaka Vagga) would have come from ascetic groups having preceded Siddhartha Gautama, and would have been integrated into the Buddhist corpus afterwards; and André Bareau takes the same line, seeing no logical order in the sections of the Sutta Nipāta, unlike the other collections of the canon.

Bhikkhu Bodhi, for his part, considers that:

For the Suttanipāta, as for all the texts of early Buddhism, the ultimate goal of spiritual training is said to be nibbāna.

English translations

• The Silent Sages of Old, Suttas from the Suttanipāta by Ven. Ñāṇadīpa Mahāthera, 2018
• Tr V. Fausbøll, in Sacred Books of the East, volume X, Clarendon/Oxford, 1881; reprinted by Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi (date?) and by Dover, New York
• Buddha’s Teachings being the Sutta-nipāta or Discourse-Collection, tr. Robert Chalmers Delhi, India, Motilal Barnasidass Publishers, 1932 (reprint in 1997), 300 p., ISBN 8120813553, 9788120813557.
• Woven Cadences of Early Buddhists, transl. by E. M. Hare. Sacred Books of the Buddhists vol.15, repr. - London: Oxford University Press, 1947 Internet Archive (PDF 11.4 MB)
• The Group of Discourses, tr K. R. Norman, 1984, Pali Text Society, Bristol; the original edition included alternative translations by I. B. Horner & Walpola Rahula; these are currently available in the paperback edition under the title The Rhinoceros Horn and Other Early Buddhist Poems; the current edition under the original title omits these, but includes instead the translator's notes, not included in the paperback
• The Sutta-Nipāta, Tr H. Saddhatissa, Curzon, London/Humanities Press, New York, 1985
• Tr N. A. Jayawickrama, University of Kelaniya, 2001
• The Discourse Collection: Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipata, by John D. Ireland, Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 2013. Available for free download here
• Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2017). The Suttanipāta: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha's Discourses and Its Canonical Commentaries. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 9781614294290.

German translation

• Tr Nyanaponika Thera, Verlag Beyerlein & Steinschulte, D 95236 Stammbach, Germany, 3. Auflage 1996