See also: Glossary of Pali & Buddhist Terms and the Index by Subject
AN Anguttara Nikaya Cv Cullavagga Dhp Dhammapada DhpA Dhammapada-atthakatha (commentary to the Dhammapada) DN Digha Nikaya Iti Itivuttaka Khp Khuddakapatha KhpA Khuddakapatha-atthakatha (commentary to the Khuddakapatha) KN Khuddaka Nikaya MN Majjhima Nikaya Mv Mahavagga Nd Niddesa Sn Sutta Nipata SN Samyutta Nikaya Thag Theragatha Thig Therigatha Ud Udana
BGS The Book of Gradual Sayings, F.L. Woodward and E.M. Hare, trans. (Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1994) BPS Buddhist Publication Society (Sri Lanka) CDB The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000) Comm, Comy Commentary PTS Pali Text Society (UK) Skt Sanskrit » Indicates a hypertext link to another website {} In the suttas and their brief summaries, the braces enclose an alternate sutta reference number (see below) -- usually either the PTS Pali volume and page number or the verse number. & Because Pali has many ways of expressing the conjunction "and," Thanissaro Bhikkhu has chosen to make frequent use in his sutta translations of the ampersand (&) to join lists of words and short phrases, while using the word "and" to join long phrases and clauses.
Over the years, Pali and Buddhist scholars have used a variety of numbering schemes when referring to suttas and other texts in the Tipitaka.[1] On this website I use the following convention to identify texts within the Sutta Pitaka:
Readers who are accustomed to other numbering systems or who wish to compare these translations against the original Pali texts may wish to refer to the alternative reference numbers that appear in braces {}. These consist either of the corresponding volume and starting page number in the PTS printed Pali edition (in the case of DN, MN, SN, and AN) or the verse numbers (in Ud, Sn, Thag, and Thig). These common points of reference can also help resolve discrepancies between different editions of the Tipitaka (for example, AN III.66 in the Thai Tipitaka is the same sutta as AN III.65 in the Burmese). The braces may also contain additional notes concerning a text's location within the Tipitaka.
1. For a review of the numbering systems used by many Pali scholars, see "The Contents and Structure of the Pali Canon and its Commentaries," by the UK Association for Buddhist Studies at the University of Sunderland » http://www.sunderland.ac.uk/~os0dwe/bs12.html. [Go back]
2. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2000), p. 23. [Go back]
3. 9,557 and 8,777: Handbook of Pali Literature, by Somapala Jayawardhana (Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons, 1994), p. 12. 2,308: An Analysis of the Pali Canon, Russell Webb, ed. (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1975), p. 26. [Go back]