6

This is inspired by a comment on this meta post.

Is the Pali Canon the only canon in Buddhism as it currently stands today? So would the term canon be completely synonymous with Pali Canon in the context of Buddhism? If that is true then what is the status of texts such as Bodhicaryāvatāra which aren't in the Pali canon?

Improve this question
1
  • Even inside theravada Buddhism (where the pali canon is the greatest reference) you can find different interpretations, there are those that focus only in the Vinaya and Sutta Pitaka, giving less attention to Abidhamma and also the comments, completely ignoring anything else like jataka stories. This video is from a great monk from Malaysia, I have read his books and watched many of his dhamma talks, it might help with that question by adding an interesting point of view: m.youtube.com/watch?v=FyI35y_VlLE
    – konrad01
    Commented Aug 2, 2014 at 15:13

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

1. Is the Pali Canon the only canon in modern Buddhism?

No. Additionally, as far as I know, there are also many versions of the Chinese Canon which contain the Āgamas (parallels of the Nikāyas from the Suttapiṭaka of the Pāli Canon), Mahāyāna sūtras & Vajrayāna sūtras.
There is also the Tibetan Canon which contains the Kangyur (material which is similar to the Chinese Canon) and the Tengyur (Commentarial works, Abhidharma and additional treatises).

2. So would the term canon be completely synonymous with Pali Canon in the context of Buddhism?

Bearing in mind what was said above, no.

3. What is the status of texts such as Bodhicaryāvatāra which aren't in the Pali canon?

That text is present in the Chinese Canon1 & Tibetan Canon2.

Improve this answer
0

This is the main source for Theravada Buddhism, but other schools seem to have their own. Some historic version are not available anymore.

At least from a Theravada perspective, this is the closest to Buddha's original teaching.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .