Expert: Justin Choo - 5/14/2008

Question
I have  been studying Buddhism for over a year now, especially vipassana.  My problem so far with Buddhism, something I can't seem to get over, is that the original texts are somewhat hard to come by.  I recently ordered the Digha Nikaya, and the Majjhima Nikaya to get more in depth into the studies because I'm sick of reading other people's books that relay the message, as I am in search of the message in it's cannical source.    I was wondering what books of the Sutta Pitaka contain the discourse on the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path.  I am thinking that they aren't in the long or middle length discourses, and am wondering why not?  If they are the essence of the Buddha's teachings, along with dependent origination, why are they not in these two main books?

I obviously have very little knowledge of the organization of the Canon and it's workings, so please fill me in as best you can.
Thanks.

Answer
Hi Bobby,

I am always very apprehensive over identifying the various suttas.  This is mainly due to the fact that I too am not very familiar with them.  The direct transalations are always very tedious with "long-winded" repetitions.  It will take great effort and a bit of scholastic skill to digest the whole of the Tipitakka!

However we are now very fortunate with the advent of the internet that much of our problems has been resolved.  It is now quite easy to search through @ http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index.html

I have done some searching for you, and you can go from there.

The relevent sutta is Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta (or Dhamma Cakka Sutta).  Some, to enhance the importance of this sutta, a prefix "Maha" meaning "Great" is added to the title.

It is in the Samyutta Nikaya

Part V. Maha-vagga (SN chapters 45-56)
SN 45.8: Magga-vibhanga Sutta — An Analysis of the Path @
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.008.than.html

The largest – that is, great (Pali, maha) – collection consists of the following chapters:
Ch 45. the Noble Eightfold Path


Another rich source of reference is from the Wikipedia. @
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhammacakkapavattana_Sutta



Hope this helps.

Smile from justinchoo :-)