Key Suttas & Discourses on Buddhist Resources

The Satipatthana Sutta

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:07:48 +0200

If a practitioner reads one discourse, this is the one. The Satipatthana Sutta is the Buddha’s systematic instruction on mindfulness, and essentially every insight tradition — Burmese vipassana, the Thai forest tradition, Western insight, and by descent the secular mindfulness programmes — derives its method from it.

The Metta Sutta

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:08:36 +0200

The Karaniya Metta Sutta — “the discourse on what should be done by one skilled in goodness” — is ten verses long and is probably the most widely recited Buddhist text in the Theravada world. It is chanted at the end of ceremonies, at the opening of meetings, as a protective text, and daily by a great many practitioners.

The Fire Sermon

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:09:27 +0200

The Adittapariyaya Sutta is the third discourse of the Buddha’s teaching career, and the most rhetorically concentrated thing in the early canon. It is short, it is relentless, and it was delivered to an audience for whom its central image was a professional matter.

The Diamond Sutra

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 01:10:25 +0200

The Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra — “the Perfection of Wisdom that Cuts Like a Diamond” — is a short Mahayana text, perhaps thirty pages, in which the Buddha and his disciple Subhuti conduct a dialogue that systematically dismantles every category the tradition uses, including its own.