Buddhadharma was originally transmitted as an oral lineage. It was then passed down through the centuries through original texts and commentaries by great scholars. Early Buddhist texts are generally categorized as either the words of the Buddha, commonly known as sutras (Sanskrit) or suttas (Pali), or commentaries by other great Buddhist teachers (shastras). Sutra is often translated as “discourse.” It refers to the teachings, or discourses, that were spoken, approved, or in some way taught by the Buddha, and have been preserved in different languages and lineages.

The practice of sutra reading fulfills the step of “listening”—the first aspect of the three steps of cultivation—namely, listening, contemplating, and practicing.

The sutras were compiled by the Buddha’s disciples. They adhere to a standard format, often beginning with a narrator stating, “Thus have I heard.” Then follow details such as the time, main characters, audience, place or atmosphere, and the theme or topic of discussion. Often, sutras are dialogues between two characters, sometimes human and sometimes sublime beings.

Source texts were originally written in Pali or Sanskrit and then translated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese, Tibetan and many others. As Buddhism spread across the world, various canons emerged, including the Mahayana sutras, Pali Suttas and Nikayas, Chinese Agamas, and the Kangyur and Tengyur of Tibet.

Knowing the basic structure of Buddhist sutras helps us decipher the texts more easily and understand the context from which they come.

Reflect on reading a text without knowing its structure and then reading it with knowledge of the structure. Reflect on the experience of reading a sutra and the feeling after successfully memorizing one.

• What is the importance of starting the sutra with "Thus have I heard"?
• What does it indicate?
• What can we base our judgment on to determine whether a sutra is valid or not?
• Why might reading sutras be considered a form of dharma practice?

Differentiate between source texts and commentaries, and analyze how these textual categories function within each of the three yanas.