Navigating the suttas

Lee82

The 'Access to Insight' website was linked to a couple of days ago for a specific sutta and I've been reading around the site a little since then. I am wondering if there is anything like a standard set of sutta that would be good for a beginner buddhist to become familiar with or that are essential they be familiar with sooner rather than later?

BonsaiDoug

While I can't direct you to any "standard set" of Suttas, one of the members here, Venerable Bhikkhu Samahita, has a really great site containing much of the Nikāyas broken into manageable sections. While reading the Nikāyas is a bit daunting, just start where you have the most interest, and take it slowly. I randomly pick a Sutta and read 4-5 pages per day 'till I'm through it. Or sorta understand it.

Bhikkhu Samahita's site is called "What the Buddha said in plain English!" and is located here: http://what-buddha-said.net/

DairyLama

Lee82 said:

The 'Access to Insight' website was linked to a couple of days ago for a specific sutta and I've been reading around the site a little since then. I am wondering if there is anything like a standard set of sutta that would be good for a beginner buddhist to become familiar with or that are essential they be familiar with sooner rather than later?

I'd suggest starting with this one: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

Then look at the Satipatthana Sutta ( MN10 ).

tmottes

PedanticPorpoise said:

I'd suggest starting with this one: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.011.than.html

Then look at the Satipatthana Sutta ( MN10 ).

I have read SN56 before, but wow... for some reason it really hit home today. If there was one sutra that sums up a buddhist practice, that seems to be it for me. Thanks!

Songhill

Lee82: If there are concise discourses for beginners that contain the essence of Buddhism they are found in the Dhammapada, Sutta-Nipata, Udana, and Itivuttaka. While most translations are good, some are gooder [sic] than others.