The religious text of Buddhism is known as ‘Thripitaka.’ It includes forty five years of teachings of Lord Buddha. These discourses of Buddha included in Thripitaka were transferred from one era to another by great disciples (Arahants) of Buddha by memorizing them. About one thousand years ago, these discourses were then written down in scrolls under the guidance of these Buddhist Bhikkhus in Sri Lanka. Those sacred discourses of the Lord Buddha written in Pali (the language of Buddha) are what we are using today. We are ready to grant you the passage to those discourses of Buddha at time to time from this website.

Thripitaka means “three sections or pitaka.” That is Suttra Pitaka, Vinaya Pitaka, and Abhidharma Pitaka. There are discourses delivered by Buddha and his great and wise disciples in the Thripitaka. The discourses in Thripitaka delivered by the disciple monks were permitted by Lord Buddha himself.

After the great death (Parinirvana) of the Supreme Buddha, his discourses were secured by categorizing them into text of Pitaka and Nikaya in a great convocation, which is called the first Sangayana (the first convocation) of Arahants under the administration of Maha Kkashyapa Arahant Thero. At that time, Buddha’s teachings were categorized into five Nikaya depending on the length of each discourse. The lengthy discourses were grouped into Deegha Nikaya (long part) and medium size discourses into Majjima Nikaya (medium part). In Anguttara Nikaya (numbered), the discourses that were numbered were included. Different parts of Buddha’s teachings (Dhamma) that were compacted and gathered under some main points were grouped into Sanyukta Nikaya, and discourses of small extent into Khuddaka Nikaya. Each of these Nikaya was then assigned to disciples of Arahants to memorize and protect Dhamma for the future generations. Thus, the Deegha Nikaya, Majjima Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya, and Sanyukta Nikaya were assigned to the disciples of Ananda Arahant Thero, Sariputta Arahant Thero, Anuruddha Arahant Thero, and Maha Kashshyapa Arahant Thero, respectively. Khuddaka Nikaya was memorized by every monk and protected throughout the history.

Buddha’s discourses in this categorized form were then flowed well through each generation for few decades after that first convocation. After words, the second great convocation (the second Sangayana) was performed in Palulup City to remedy the crisis that was arisen based on Wajjiputtaka Monks’ ten prohibited luxury objects. This convocation was done under the administration of Sabbakamie Yasa Arahant Thero who was foreseen as the Bhikkhu to solve this problem of ten prohibited luxury objects by Supreme Buddha with his divine eye when he was alive. This convocation helped the order of Buddha to be survived purely for another long period of time. In three hundred years after the great death of Supreme Buddha, another flourishing period for Buddhism was begun to rise. This was happened in the era of the great Emperor, the King Ashoka of India. After he saw the death of millions of people from his final battle with King Kalinga, he was pretty upset. This was when a seven years old young monk called Niggrodha Arahant Thero helped him to overcome his stress and sadness in his heart. King Ashoka who was impressed by Niggrodha Arahant Thero’s character started to adore Buddhism. He began building eighty four thousand Stupa and temples around India as a devotion to the mass of eighty four thousand teachings of Buddha. As a consequence of the rise of the Order of Buddha, more people found their way to Buddhism and gathered around it. For this reason, there were not enough people to treat and worship other priests of different religions at that time. Finally, they became like beggars. There was nothing else for them to do except to become Buddhist monks. Thus, they had to join the monkhood of Buddhism in hundreds. However, instead of living a life according to Buddha’s teachings, they performed their old rituals and sacrifices inside temples. Like the unchanging specks of a tiger even though the forest it lives is changed, they lived heretical lives in temples wearing Buddhist robs. As a result of this contamination, a group of corrupted monks was formed aside the Aarya Sanga (the untainted group true Bhikkhu) in the Order of Buddha. The virtuous monks began to do their work separately refusing to do Uposatha Kamma (discussion of how Bhikkhus live with respect to their observed precepts) with these corrupted monks. Therefore, the Uposatha Kamma was not performed for seven continuous years. Another convocation was therefore held with the support of King Dharmashoka (King Ashoka was famous by the name Dharmashoka after his great contribution to Buddhism) to purify the order of Buddha from the contaminations of outside believes. This convocation was carried out under the supervision of Moggaliiputta Tissa Arahant Thero, who was the highest priest among the monks at that time. King Dharmashoka sent groups of monks as messengers to spread the teachings of Buddha to other countries around the world after this convocation. Mihindu Arahant Thero’s arrival to Sri Lanka was a result of this great effort.

It was the great monks who have eradicated all defilements (Arahant Theros) that protected the Dhamma by memorizing them after the first convocation. They will never deface the teachings of Buddha. Therefore, the Dhamma was protected without any damage to its content. Since a lot of Bhikkhus bore the Dhamma as it was, none of it was slipped away. In the meantime, Sri Lanka was also fortunate to receive Dhamma. After the Sri Lankan people accepted Dhamma, it was well spread throughout the country. As a result, a large number of Arahants were born. They also bore Dhamma by heart in each generation without letting it to vanish. They reminded Dhamma frequently and never let it be disappeared from their minds. They preached it and taught others. This is why Dhamma was never destroyed or altered.

In that era, Buddhism was continued to exist for hundreds of years by conveying Dhamma in its pure from one generation of Monks to another. However, there were really awful times that Buddhism faced catastrophic blows. The famine occurred throughout the country in King Walagamma’s time was one such time period. Because of the food shortage at that time period, it was difficult for Buddhist monks to find something to eat. As a result, thousands of Arahant Theros died in their meditation stances with hunger. The rest of the Arahant Theros did not let the teachings of the Buddha disappeared. They remembered how the disciples of Buddha even sacrificed their own lives to save Dhamma in the past. With a great effort, these monks protected Dhamma again just by feeding themselves on the liquid of screwpine. At one point, a part of these monks went to India with the intention of keeping the Dhamma in their minds, just in case if they could not survive the drought. Finally, the drought went away after few years. The country started to rise once again with prosperity. The group of monks who went to India came back to Sri Lanka. Both groups of monks who went to India and who lived in Sri Lanka during the drought preached Dhamma as they remembered to check the accuracy of their memories. Like a miracle, both parts remembered Dhamma in its pure form without any alterations. After escaping from that dreadful time period, the Arahants decided to protect Dhamma by writing it down. Thus, with the participation of King Walagamba and under the admiration of deities and humans, the teachings of Buddha were written down on scriptures. These Dhamma scriptures were inherited from generation to generation brightening the Order of the Buddha. Therefore, Dhamma has been protected in its pure form until now. It is that untainted teachings of the Buddha we are presenting to you here.

Our great teacher, The Supreme Buddha, told Venerable Ananda Thero one day “dear Ananda, you might think one day when I passed away, that your teacher is gone to past now and this Dhamma is of a teacher who has passed away. Dear Ananda, you shouldn’t think in that way ever. Ananda, you need to consider the Dhamma and Descipline that I taught you as your teacher.” This indicates that even after the death of our teacher, but if Dhamma is still available, we still can see him at any time by learning and practicing Dhamma he taught us with a great compassion. Furthermore, we should not become sad by thinking about the pass away of our teacher, but practice Dhamma. Buddha’s teachings are still being protected in its pure form in Tripitaka. This means, we can still develop the path to realize Dhamma by practicing it in a similar manner just as when the Buddha was alive, even at this time period. Tripitaka is important because of this important reason.

Dhammapada is a world famous sacred scripture of Buddhism. It really contains the teachings of Buddha. Some people think Dhammapada is the religious text book of Buddhists, but it is really just a part of one chapter of a Pitaka of Tripitaka. There are only 423 Dhamma stanzas included in Dhammapada. Tripitaka is consisted of 84,000 Dhamma matters. If you finished reading Dhammapada, then you would be able to think how vast the knowledge of Supreme Buddha was. Dhammapada consists of advices to a disciple who practices the Noble Eight-Fold Path.

Discourses in Deega Nikaya are known as the longest discourses of Buddha. Length of these Dhamma discourses depends on the wisdom of the person to whom the discourse was sermonized and also according to length of time that discourse was being sermonized. However, if there is an opportunity for you to read Tripitaka in simple language, then you will definitely be amazed by its content. Furthermore, you will definitely start to believe Buddha’s great wisdom. Think this as a great moment in your life and learn Dhamma without being disappointed about the length of the discourses. Our expectation is to give you Dhamma in a simple language. This is how you get to read our teacher’s Dhamma even at this very moment.