SihaDerana: Sri Lanka and Theravada Buddhism - Tripitaka
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Tripitaka

The word Tripitaka, when translated, literally means Three Volumes or Collections. These three collections of Dhamma are the cornerstone of Theravada Buddhist philosophy, containing the very essence of the philosophy as voiced by Buddha himself, 2551-2596 years ago.

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The three collections consist as follows;

For those interested the dates mentioned above are accurate for the year spanning May 2007 May 2008. Buddha Varsha, the yardstick which Buddhists use to calculate the span of years, began upon the death, or the Parinirvana of Buddha. Therefore the current Buddha Varsha is 2551.

The 2596 portion of the dating from above, comes about due to the fact that Siddhartha Gautama was Buddha for only 45 years of his life. This means that although Buddha was 80 years of age upon his Parinirvana, his life as Buddha was only for the latter 45 years of his life. Consequently all of the Dhamma imparted by Buddha spans only a 45 year window.

The Tripitaka, contains the enlightened knowledge of Buddha in his own words, voiced in Pali, the language in use at the time. It has come down through the years unadulterated, carried down through generations of dedicated Sangha (Theravada Buddhist monks), and for the most part, until very recently in fact, it was protected and brought down by the Arahat Sangha, those who had achieved enlightenment.

Unfortunately, as far as we are aware, these days there are no Arahat Theras (sangha) to be found. If there were, the benefits for Theravada Buddhists would be greater than can even be imagined. However, the Tripitaka was brought down and protected in this manner by all Theravada Buddhist sangha, not only the Arahat Theras.

This amazing feat (considering that the Tripitaka can now be found in a massive 57 separate books), was accomplished through the sheer dedication of these Theravada Buddhist sangha. The method used was memorization and recitation.

Each portion of Dhamma, each gaatha, each teaching was memorized word for word, and then passed on down to the next Sangha, who would in his turn memorize verbatim what was taught to him. In this way, the entirety of the Dhamma, were preserved.

If this is all a bit too much to take in, just go back to your school years, go back to a time when you were learning such simple things as Jack and Jill went up the Hill to fetch a pail of water, or even 2x2=4, or even more complex things like E=MC2.

You still remember them, right? Now imagine that you dedicated your entire life to memorizing these things and teaching them to your students. You would be able to teach and recite these back word for word without any error whatsoever, whenever you needed to.

It was in this manner then, that the entirety of the Dhamma came down through the centuries, untarnished. And it is this untarnished philosophy that has come down to us.

This documenting of the Tripitaka came about at a time when it appeared that the Sangha were in danger of being exterminated by invading marauders, but that is another story altogether and best left for a later time.

To take a look at exactly how the Tripitaka came about, one must first understand that when Buddha shared his knowledge with his disciples and the world at large, he did not set them down in different sections or categories. He gave voice to them only as and when the need arose for them.

Upon his Parinirvana, 500 of the most senior Arahat Theras convened together to compile the entire wisdom which had been imparted to them by Buddha. This was the first such Dhamma Sangayanawa (conclave).

It was at this point that the Dhamma was categorized into three collections which we mentioned earlier, (the Vinaya pitakaya, the Sutra Pitakaya, and the Abhi Dhamma pitakaya). This was done to safeguard the Dhamma.

Although it might seem as if this was a flawed method of preserving the Dhamma, in reality it was not. To fully comprehend the reason for this, you need to first understand that those Arahat Theras who took part in the Sangayanawa had themselves achieved enlightenment through the knowledge imparted by Buddha, and were therefore fully qualified to gather and compile these as they did.

The complete Tripitaka is now available in print for purchase from various sources. Each gaatha of the Dhamma is scripted here in the original words of Buddha, in Pali with a direct translation of the gaatha in Sinhala.