Principal Texts of the Khuddaka Nikāya, Volume 1

De: anonymous, various translators

Narrado por: Elizabeth English, Jinananda, Ratnadhya, Taradasa

The Khuddaka Nikāya is different in character from the other four Nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravada Pāli Canon in that rather than being a single work it is, as its customary translation ‘Minor Anthologies’ suggests, a collection of independent works. A true anthology!

It contains some of the most important and well-known works in the Pāli Canon, including the Dhammapada, the Udāna, the Sutta Nipāta and the Jātaka Tales; and, in some recensions, Milinda’s Questions. There are also other works less-known to many Buddhists and students of Buddhism, such as the Vimānavatthu, the Therīgāthā and the Theragāthā.

These offer a wider perspective on the Dhamma as it has been lived through the centuries. Yet, perhaps because of its ‘anthology’ character and wide range, the Khuddaka Nikāya is less familiar in its entirety than the Dīgha Nikāyā, Majjhima Nikāya, the Saṁyutta Nikāya, and the Aṅguttara Nikāya which are more self-contained. Now, for the first time on audio, Dharma Audiobooks has brought together a compilation of the Principal Texts, spread over three volumes.

Listening to all three will, it is hoped, give the interested listener a clear and satisfying overview of the Anthology. Volume 1 contains the Khuddaka Patha, Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipāta, Vimānavatthu and Petavatthu. Each one has its own introduction, some short, some comprehensive. To many with some familiarity of the Pāli Canon, it will offer an opportunity to revisit some of the central Buddhist texts, including the Dhammapada and the Udāna – Inspired Utterances of the Buddha. But even for the ‘many’ an encounter with the Vimānavatthu – Stories of the Mansions and Petavatthu – Stories of the Departed will come as a surprise, for here we venture into the more mythical area of the Dhamma. In the Vimānavatthu we find ourselves visiting the ‘Mansions’ inhabited by the devas, a pleasant and enjoyable environment won through the karmic result of good deeds. We meet the devas who explain how, though often people living ordinary and unprivileged lives, find themselves unexpectedly transported to ethereal regions.

The Petavatthu, by contrast, display the darker side of karma, and features a succession of ghost stories. These important works are presented by readers who know their subjects from personal practice and study.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©PD/Udana, Itivuttaka 1997/Vimanavatthu 1942/Petavattu 1942 Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy/ Pali Text Society (P)2022 Ukemi Productions Ltd

Half good narration

Taradasa and Ms English are excellent narrators. Unfortunately there are two others who bring this book down. If only Taradasa and Ms English narrated the whole book!

Vimānavatthu and Petavatthu

Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipāta are better known.
Vimānavatthu and Petavatthu contain moving, encouraging, motivating stories and also reminding and warning ones.

Valuable lay practitioner merit stories

These stories were a part of the original tradition for a very long time and were considered useful toward refining the understanding of karmic rewards and in their ability to inspire compassion.

Buddhism today, particularly within American Zen, suffers from a lot of superflouous, irrelevant, and even harmful contemporary over-framing, coloring the issues of the path with extraneous noise. The Khuddaka Nikāya, Volume 1 here, contain countless valuable merit stories which were used for helping to build faith in the path within 1st-turning lay practitioners, and were used for remembering the dynamics of karma in their own lives. Not just for lay practitioners! This volume would be useful in particular, perhaps, for most American Zen lay priests who have strayed into a false narrative reframing of the dharma to their own political mindset, something the canon would have striven to shun and avoid as an unhelpful deluded side-quest to every Buddhist individual's own path to personal freedom from delusion,

For Buddhists who would like to engender their own children in their Buddhist faith, many of these stories could serve as a Buddhist Aesop's Tales, as they focus on wholesome attitudes toward why we give, the proper object and framing of giving, and a faith in the inevitability of karma to repay the weight of the karmic action in kind. It would also help those focused on liberation exclusively on the reality that what you want, you will get, when you merit it, so be careful what you wish for! If you harbor the wish for luxury and wealth at the moment when you achieve the merit, no matter how self-indulgent, that is what you will receive in the coming reward instead of further liberation towards Buddhahood! This is why these stories were intended for lay practitioners whose main form of practice would have been observance and donations to Buddhist monks and nuns. And as these stories carry themselves as raw data for mindful contemplation without the need for any didactic overlay commentary, there is no forcing the issue here. Rather, the stories allow the individual reader to come to their own conclusions naturally over the course of reading, highlighting that the perfection of giving is ultimately far more important than the luxurious rewards to be gained in some future heaven.