Learn Pali Language

The Samyutta Nikaya, the third division of the Sutta Pitaka, contains a couple of thousand, mainly short suttas, grouped by topic into five sections (vaggas). In this, the Pheṇapiṇḍūpama sutta, the Buddha invokes a series of vivid similes to illustrate the core-less-ness of the five aggregates. As Bhikkhu Bodhi points out: The sutta is one of the most radical discourses on the empty nature of conditioned phenomena; its imagery (especially the similes of the mirage and the magic illusion) has been taken up by later Buddhist thinkers, most persistently by the Madhyamikas... In the context of early Buddhist thought these similes have to be handled with care. They are not intended to suggest an illusionist view of the world but to show that our conceptions of the world, and of our own existence, are largely distorted by the process of cognition... Instead of being seen as transient and selfless, they appear as substantial and as a self You can find more of...

The Aṅguttara Nikāya, the fourth division of the Sutta Piṭaka, consists of several thousand suttas arranged in eleven books (nipatas). The first nipata — the Book of the Ones — contains suttas concerning a single topic. I have chosen the Aṅguttara Nikāya for my first attempt at translation as it's grammar is fairly straightforward and shows the same sentence pattern repeatedly. I publish it here as an aid to other students attempting the same thing. You can find more of my sutta translation exercises here. I must stress that I myself am just a student of Pali and make mistakes. For the sake of example, the translations are very literal and of course could be phrased differently.