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Flip to reveal answersWhat is the Tipitaka, and what does the name mean?
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Question
What is the Tipitaka, and what does the name mean?
Answer
The Pali Canon — the Theravada scriptures. The name means "three baskets": the Vinaya, Sutta and Abhidhamma Pitakas.
Question
Name the three baskets and what each holds.
Answer
Vinaya Pitaka — the monastic rule. Sutta Pitaka — the discourses, containing the Dhammapada. Abhidhamma Pitaka — systematic analysis of mind and experience.
Question
Which text sits in the Sutta Pitaka and is most widely read?
Answer
The Dhammapada.
Question
Name the Mahayana scriptures the guide lists.
Answer
Prajnaparamita literature including the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra; the Sukhavati Sutras; and the Lotus Sutra, which describes the Pure Lands in which the Buddhas reside.
Question
What authorises the Pali Canon for Theravada Buddhists?
Answer
Oral transmission from the Buddha to the five arahants and from them to the monastic order — authority by lineage, not by revelation.
Question
How do Mahayana Buddhists justify a wider canon?
Answer
They accept that the arhats recited the Pali Canon, but hold that other scriptures are attributed to the bodhisattvas and that all of them are the words of the Buddha.
Question
What does the guide say about the two Buddhist scriptural languages?
Answer
That Pali and Sanskrit represent different interpretations — Pali with Theravada, Sanskrit with Mahayana.
Question
Give five Pali/Sanskrit pairs.
Answer
dukkha/duhkha, tanha/trishna, anicca/anitya, anatta/anatman, nibbana/nirvana. Also dhamma/dharma, kamma/karma, arahant/arhat, panna/prajna, bodhisatta/bodhisattva.
Question
Which key terms are spelled the same in both languages?
Answer
Samsara, maya, sangha, karuna, sila, bhavana and upaya — the guide notes that where only one word is given, the spelling is the same in both.
Question
What further texts belong to Mahayana and Vajrayana development?
Answer
Shastras and agamas for Mahayana; the tantras for Vajrayana.
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