   #copyright

Tripitaka

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Religious texts

         Part of a  series on
   Buddhism

   History

   Dharmic religions
   Timeline of Buddhism
   Buddhist councils

   Foundations

   Four Noble Truths
   Noble Eightfold Path
   Buddhist Precepts
   Nirvāṇa · Three Jewels

   Key Concepts

   Three marks of existence
   Skandha · Cosmology · Dharma
   Saṃsāra · Rebirth · Shunyata
   Pratitya-samutpada · Karma

   Major Figures

   Gautama Buddha
   Disciples · Later Buddhists

   Practices and Attainment

   Buddhahood · Bodhisattva
   Four Stages of Enlightenment
   Paramis · Meditation · Laity

   Regions

   Southeast Asia · East Asia
   India · Sri Lanka · Tibet
   Western Countries

   Branches

   Theravāda · Mahāyāna
   Vajrayāna · Early schools

   Texts

   Pali Canon · Mahayana Sutras
   Tibetan Canon

   Comparative Studies
   Culture · List of Topics
   Portal: Buddhism

   Image:Dharma_wheel_1.png

   The Tripitaka (Sanskrit त्रिपिटक, lit. three baskets), Tipitaka (
   Pāli), or 三藏 (Chinese: Sānzàng; Japanese: Sanzo; Khmer: Traipětâk ;
   Korean: Samjang 삼장; Thai: Traipidok ไตรปิฎก; Vietnamese: Tam tạng) is
   the formal term for a Buddhist canon of scriptures. Many different
   versions of the canon have existed throughout the Buddhist world,
   containing an enormous variety of texts. The oldest and most
   widely-known version is the Pali Canon of the Theravada school.

   The Tripitaka writings of early schools of Buddhism, which were
   originally memorized and recited orally by disciples, fall into three
   general categories and are traditionally classified in three baskets
   (tri-pitaka). The commonest order is the following.

   The first category, the Vinaya Pitaka, was the code of ethics to be
   obeyed by the early sangha, monks and nuns. According to the scriptural
   account, these were invented on a day-to-day basis as the Buddha
   encountered various behaviour problems with the monks.

   The second category, the Sutra Pitaka (literally "basket of threads",
   Pali: Sutta Pitaka), consists primarily of accounts of the Buddha's
   teachings. The Sutra Pitaka has numerous subdivisions: it contains more
   than 10,000 sutras.

   The third category is the Abhidharma Pitaka. This is applied to very
   different collections in different versions of the Tripitaka. In the
   Pali Canon of the Theravada there is an Abhidhamma Pitaka consisting of
   seven books. An Abhidharma Pitaka of the Sarvastivada school survives,
   also in seven books, six in Chinese and one in Tibetan. These are
   different books from the Pali ones though there are some common
   material and ideas. Another work surviving in Chinese, the
   Sariputrabhidharmasastra, may be all or part of another Abhidharma
   Pitaka. At least some other early schools of Buddhism had Abhidharma
   Pitakas, which are now lost.

   In the Mahayana a mixed attitude to the term Tripitaka developed. On
   the one hand, a major Mahayana scripture, the Lotus Sutra, uses the
   term to refer to the above literature of the early schools, as distinct
   from the Mahayana's own scriptures, and this usage became quite common
   in the tradition. On the other hand, the term Tripitaka had tended to
   become synonymous with Buddhist scriptures, and thus continued to be
   used for the Chinese and Tibetan collections, even though their
   contents do not really fit the pattern of three pitakas. In the Chinese
   tradition, the scriptures are classified in a variety of ways, most of
   which have in fact four or even more pitakas or other divisions. In the
   few that attempt to follow a genuine threefold division the term
   Abhidharma Pitaka is used to refer vaguely to non-canonical literature,
   whether Indian or Chinese, with only the other two pitakas being
   regarded as strictly canonical. In the Tibetan tradition, on the other
   hand, when attempts are made to explain the application of the term
   Tripitaka to the Kanjur, the Tibetan canon of scripture, the Abhidharma
   Pitaka is considered as consisting of the Prajñaparamita.

   The Chinese form of Tripitaka, "Sanzang", was sometimes used as an
   honorary title for a Buddhist monk who has mastered all the Tripitaka
   canons, most notably in the case of the Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang,
   whose pilgrimage to India to study and bring Buddhist text back to
   China was portrayed in the novel Journey to the West as "Tang Sanzang".
   Due to the popularity of the novel, the term in "Sanzang" is often
   erroneously understood as a name of the monk Xuanzang. One such screen
   version of this is the popular 1979 Monkey (TV series).

Versions

     * Tipitaka (Pali Canon) of the Theravada school.
     * Tripitaka preserved in the East-Asian Mahayana tradition (Chinese
       translations):

    1. The Agamas contain the Majjhima Nikaya and Samyutta Nikaya of the
       Sarvastivāda.
    2. The Agamas contain the Digha Nikaya of the Dharmaguptaka.
    3. The Agamas contain the Anguttara Nikaya ( Ekottara Agama of the
       Mahāsaṅghika.
    4. The Vinaya Pitakas of Sarvastivāda, Mahāsaṅghika, Dharmaguptaka,
       Mahīśāsaka.
    5. Mahayana sutras and Buddhist tantras

     * The Mulasarvastivadin Vinaya Pitaka is preserved in the Tibetan
       Buddhist tradition, along with Mahayana sutras and tantras.
     * The Gandharan Buddhist texts contains fragments of the Tipitaka of
       (probably) the Dharmaguptaka school.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripitaka"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
