A synoptic outline of the Suttas contained in the Digha Nikaya

 (a) Silakkhandha Vagga 1. Brahmajala Sutta

It is a matter of great delight for me that I have been able to publish this present work — the Digha Nikãya, the first collection of Sutta Pitaka, one of three Divisions of the Buddhist canon (Tipitaka, i.e., the words of the Buddha in Nepali for the first time in Nepal just ten years after the Nepal Bhasa publication of it. In the Pali Tipitaka, an attempt has been made to collect all the sayings of the Buddha, the Blessed One, that is, whatever was preached by him in various places during the forty-five years from his Enlightenment to his passing away into the Great Nibbãna.

The sayings of the Buddha are preserved in three texts : (a) Sutta Pitaka, (b) Vinaya Pitaka, (c) Abhidhamma Pitaka. Thus, the whole is known as the Tipitaka.

Sutta Pitaka Vinaya Pitaka Abhidhamma Pitaka

1. Digha Nikãya^Α 1. Pãrãjika 1. Dhammasangani

2. Majjhima Nikãya^Α 2. Pãcittiya 2. Vibhanga

3. Samyutta Nikãya^Α 3. Mahãvagga 3. Dhãtukathã

4. Anguttara Nikãya 4. Culavagga 4. Puggalapaññatti

5. Khuddaka Nikãya^Χ 5. Parivãra 5. Kathãvatthu

(I)                Khuddakapãtha 6. Yamaka

(II)             Dhammapada 7. Patthãna

(III)          Udãna

(IV)          Itivuttaka^Α

(V)             Suttanipãta

(VI)          Vimãnavatthu

(VII)       Petavatthu

(VIII)    Theragãthã

(IX)          Therigãthã

(X)             Jãtaka

(XI)          Niddesa (a) Mahãniddesa (b) Culaniddesa

(XII)       Patisambhidãmagga

(XIII)    Apadãna

(XIV)    Buddhavamsa

(XV)       Cariyãpitaka

^Α Texts that have been published in Nepal Bhasa by Translator himself.

Χ The Sixth International Buddhist Synod had approved the following books : (1) Netti, (2) Petakopadesa and (3) Milinda Panha as a part of the Khuddaka Nikaya.

The Digha Nikaya consists of 34 long Suttas. It consists of three sections, Sila-kkhandha Vagga, Maha Vagga, and Pathika Vagga. The first of these is mainly concerned with conducts (Sila), concentration (Samadhi), and insight (panna). All the Suttas in the second Section, the Maha Vagga, have the prefix ‘Maha’, meaning ‘great’, excepting three, namely, Janavasabha, Sakka-Panha, and Payasi. The last sub-division of the Digha Nikaya, Pathika, gets its name from the fact that the first Sutta is called the Pathika Sutta. The number of Suttas in the Sila-kkhanda Vagga is 13, that in the Maha Vagga 10, and that in the Pathika Vagga 11. The Sila-kkhandha Vagga Suttas are generally in prose, while the Maha Vagga or the Pathika Vagga is a mixture of prose and poetry. There are 64 bhanavaras i.e. sections capable of the being recited at one sitting, in the Digha Nikaya.

Each Sutta of this Nikaya begins with the words, “Thus have I heard”. This refers to the fact that the Suttas are regarded as having been quoted by Ven. Ananda from his recallection of Ananda’s recollection of what he had heard from the Buddha, which he delivered at the first Council of Bhikkhus convened after the demise of the Buddha. The full explanation of this is to be found in the Sumangala-vilasini, the commentary on the Digha Nikaya by Buddhaghosa. For the convenience of readers the 34 Suttas are reviewed here in outline, a short synopsis of each being given. 

 

Once upon a time the Buddha, the Exalted One, accompanied by an assembly of Bhikkhus, was going along the highway between Rajagaha and Nalanda. At that time he was closely followed by Suppiya, a wanderer, and his disciple, Brahmadatta. Suppiya was denigrating the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, but his own disciple, by contrast, was praising them. This was overheard by the Bhikkhus, who began to discuss the matter.

While the discussion was going on the Buddha arrived and preached to the Bhikkhus as follows: “If others slander me, the Dhamma, or the Sangha, you must not become angry with those slanderers, nor become depressed. On the contrary, you must investigate what they have said. When you have done so, then you may say: ‘For this reason this is not right; for this reason this is not true; this is not so among us; this is certainly not so among us. In same way, if they bestow words of praise upon us, you must not be elated or delighted.” This is what he preached.read more

( 2 ) In the same context, the Buddha further preached” “If the men of the world, puthujjana, should praise me, the Tathagata, for my ethical perfection, it would be the lowest praise. For I, the Tathagata, am no praiseworthy only for the primary, secondary, and higher rules of Sila. It would he authentic praise of me if these men should do so after knowing and realizing the Dhammas I have preached. These Dhammas are deep, difficult to explain, hard to understand, yet peaceful, excellent, impenetrable by means of any logic, and at the same time subtle and intelligible to the only learned. And then, only when those men have known and realized that such Dhammas have been directly comprehended by me through superior knowledge and that I have preached them, only then would such praise of me be authentic.”

Leaving to one side the ordinary men of the world, even those extraordinary individuals who are capable of remembering the events of hundreds of thousands of past lives through meditation are found to have launched faulty doctrines. Although those doctrines were based upon observable events, and upon the conclusions derived from such observations, these doctrines are, according to the Buddha, actually enmeshed in a net of the wheel of the world.

The Buddha called such doctrines theories of the ultimate origin of the world. Such philosophical theories can be classified as follows :

(I) The four kinds of eternalism’, whose proponents hold the soul to be imperishable (sassata ditthi).

(II) The four kinds of partidal eternalists’ doctrines, which claim that the primordial God is imperishable, while that we are nonetheless perishable (ekacca sassata ditthi).

(III) The four kinds of universalist theory, the upholders of which regard the universe as partly finite, and partly infinite (antananta ditthi).

(IV) The four kinds of ambiguous thinking, literally, ‘wriggling like eels’, (amaravikkhepa vada).

(V) The two kinds of non-causal thinking, in which thinkers believe that the soul and the universe come into existence without any cause (adhiccasamuppana vada).

The above eighteen doctrines may be classified as the theories of the former end (Purvanta-kalpita).

( 3 )In like manner, the imagination of future events has produced the following forty-four doctrines : —

(I) The sixteen kinds of belief in which the soul is understood as being conscious after death, (uddhamaghatanika sanni vada).

(II) The eight kinds of belief in which the soul is held to be unconscious after death, (uddhamaghatanika asanni vada).

(III) The eight kinds of belief in which the soul is regarded as neither conscious, nor unconscious after death, (uddhamaghatanika nevasanni nassanni vada).

(IV) The seven kinds of belief in Annihilation or Atheism (ucheda vada), in which the soul is said to be totally annihilated and destroyed.

(V) The five kinds of Mundane Nibbana according to whose doctrines Nibbana may be realized in this very life, (ditthadhamma nibbana vada).

These are the eighteen positions regarding the former end and the forty-four positions regarding the future end. Together they comprise the sixty-two kinds of wrong belief according to the Tathagata, the fully liberated One. The Tathagata knows these to be empty of real Dhammas. He knows these and more than these, subtler and still more subtle things. When those men praise him for his knowledge of all these Dhammas and for preaching to all what he has comprehended, then their praise of him will be genuine.

The Buddha gave a detailed analysis of these wrong views asserted in sixty-two ways and pointed out that these views had their origin in feeling which arose as result of repeated contact through the six sense bases. Whatever person holds these wrong views, in him feeling gives rise to craving; craving gives rise to clinging; clinging gives rise to existence; the kammic casual process in existence gives rise to rebirth; and rebirth gives rise to aging, death, grief, lamentation, pain, distress and despair.

The Buddha went on further and said: “When the bhikkhu understands the origin, end, taste, defect, and means of escape from these six organs of contact or touch, then he will realize morality, sila, concentration, samadhi, wisdom, pañña, and the knowledge of liberation, vimutti. Then such entrapping nets of doctrines, errors and purposes shall be transcended, and an excellent victory over all sorts of tempters be achieved.”

“As long as Bhikkhus and Brahmans cling to these sixty-two wrong views, or anyone of them, they will not be freed from the wheel of the world. These sixty-two doctrines are like the bigger fish in a small pond, which are sure to be caught in a fine net as soon as it is spread over the pond. Likewise, the inhabitants of the world are liable to be trapped by these sixty-two erroneous doctrines.”