The Sixth Buddhist Council

The Chaṭṭha Sangāyanā Souvenir Album (PDF download)

Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammā Sambuddhassa

The dhamma taught to all beings by the Omnicient Buddha was arranged, classified and recited at the First Great Council held at Rājagaha four months after his Mahā-parinibbāna, at the Second Great Council held at Vesāli in 100 B.E., at the Third Great Council at Pāṭaliputta in 235 B.E., at the Fourth Great Council at Ceylon circa 450 B.E. and at the Fifth Great Council at Mandalay in Burma in 2415 B.E.; and now again, as decided by the five Theravādin countries of Burma, Thailand, Ceylon, Cambodia and Laos, and to satisfy the following conditions:

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Preface

THE INTENTION BEHIND the present book is to help students of Early Buddhism learn to read the texts of the Pāli Canon in the ancient Indian language in which they have been preserved, the language known as Pāli. The book is based on a weekly course in Pāli that I have been conducting over the past several years at Chuang Yen Monastery in upstate New York. The course is meant for students who have completed the earlier courses I gave on the basics of Pāli grammar and the reading of the Buddha’s discourses in Pāli, the former based on Lily de Silva’s Pāli Primer, the latter on James Gair and W. S. Karunatillake’s A New Course in Reading Pāli. In the subsequent weekly course that I developed we read and analyzed suttas from the major chapters of the Saṃyutta Nikāya. In each class I took a sutta (or portion of a longer sutta), explained the meaning of each word and the grammatical forms involved, and then gave a literal translation of each sentence, followed by a more natural English rendering.

Health is the greatest gift,

Contentment is the greatest wealth,

A trusted friend is the best relative,

Nibbana is the greatest bliss.

The Story of King Pasenadi of Kosala

One day, King Pasenadi of Kosala went to the Jetavana monastery after having his full morning meal. It was said that the king had eaten one quarter basket (about half a bushel) of rice with meat curry on that day; so while listening to the Buddha's discourse he felt very sleepy and was nodding most of the time.

Book to be printed 

Tiếng Việt         Free-Distribution Books

We are very happy to announce the publication of a Dhamma book titled “Fundamentals of Buddhism.” It is from the lectures of “Fundamentals of Buddhism” class by the late Sayadaw U Sīlānanda and edited by U Hla Myint. We plan to publish it during the June 2020 Vipassanā Meditation Retreat at Tathāgata Meditation Center (TMC).