What is a sutta?

A sutta is a discourse: a teaching given by the Buddha or by one of his leading disciples. The word is Pali (sutta); the Sanskrit form is sūtra, the origin of names such as the Heart Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. It is often explained as meaning a “thread”, the line on which teachings are strung.

What a sutta looks like

Most early suttas begin with the words “So I have heard”. By tradition these were spoken by Ānanda, the Buddha's attendant, when the teachings were recited after the Buddha's death. The opening then names the place, such as a park near Sāvatthī or Rājagaha, and the people present.

The teaching itself might be a talk, a dialogue, a set of verses or a story. Suttas often use repetition and numbered lists, which helped monks and nuns memorise them in a time when texts were passed on orally. They usually end by noting that the listeners were pleased with what was said.

How the suttas are organised

In the Pali Canon, the discourses form the Sutta Piṭaka, the basket of discourses. It has five collections: the long discourses (Dīgha Nikāya), the middle-length (Majjhima Nikāya), the linked or thematic (Saṁyutta Nikāya), the numerical (Aṅguttara Nikāya) and the minor collection (Khuddaka Nikāya).

Suttas are commonly referred to by abbreviation and number. MN 10, for example, is the tenth discourse of the Majjhima Nikāya, the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. SN 56.11 is the eleventh discourse in the 56th chapter of the Saṁyutta Nikāya, the Buddha's first teaching.

Parallel collections of early discourses, called āgamas, survive mainly in Chinese translation. Comparing them with the Pali suttas shows a large shared core.

Sutras in the Mahayana

Mahayana Buddhism also has many sutras, composed in India from around the first century BCE onwards and later translated into Chinese and Tibetan. These include the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the Lotus Sutra and the Pure Land sutras. Mahayana traditions regard them as authentic expressions of the Buddha's teaching. They often have grand settings and present the bodhisattva path at length.

How to start reading

Suttas reward slow reading. Good places to begin are short practical discourses such as the Kālāma Sutta, the Metta Sutta and the Ānāpānasati Sutta. Reading two translations side by side can help with unfamiliar terms.