An Introduction to Buddhist Sutras

I was inspired to write this post after seeing this joke online on that one social-media site:

たくさん買ってびっくり経典 pic.twitter.com/KtYiNhZYst

— Tatsuya Tanaka 田中達也 (@tanaka_tatsuya) November 26, 2024

The joke here is a Japanese-Buddhist monk looking at a receipt from Muji (a Japanese home goods store), and commenting that this “sacred text” shows they purchased a lot.¹ This happens to us too.

Anyhow, what is a sacret text in Buddhism?

Buddhist sacred texts are called sutras (sometimes suttas), from the old Indian Sanskrit word.²

Buddhism doesn’t have one sacred text like you would associate with the Bible, Q’uran, etc. Instead, it has layers and layers of sacred texts.³

I won’t get into why there are so many layers, but suffice to say that the Buddhist tradition holds the sutras as genuine sermons of the Buddha (a.k.a. Shakyamuni Buddha) which have been passed down generation after generation until today.

Sometimes sutras, or teachings contained therein, are repackaged into newer sutras, especially in the Mahayana Tradition, but the underlying teachings, the Dharma, are believed to be just as important. Think of Spiderman: every few years there’s another Spiderman movie, some more popular than others, but the underlying lore of Spiderman is always the same.⁴ The history of Buddhist sutras is awfully similar in this respect.

What’s important isn’t so much the specific text of a specific sutra, but the Dharma. In the same way, although Shakyamuni Buddha is very important, the Dharma he taught is even more so.

Because there are so many sutras, this also leads to many sects, schools, and traditions within Buddhism. Each sect or school strives to apply the Dharma as best they can, based on whatever sutra is considered most appropriate.

So how do we know if the Dharma is true? Because it can be applied in one’s own life, through good conduct, meditation, lifestyle choices and so on. If your doctor tells you to lose weight and exercise more, the results speak for themselves. Buddhism is a lot like this.

Should a Buddhist read all the sutras? No, there are simply too many. Some ate huge. It’s often best to start with one or two that are already part of the tradition you are interested in. From there, you can branch out as you see fit. Ask your local community if you need recommendations.

Also, an important tradition across all of Buddhism is reciting sutras. Some sutras are very short and can be recited as a whole. Other sutras are much too long, so people recite key passages only.

This tradition of reciting sutras not only helps internalize the teachings (make them a part of you), but also helps connect to the Buddhist tradition at large. People have been reciting the Buddha’s teachings from the very beginning, 2,500 years ago. When we recite and put the teachings into practice, we are another link in the chain.

Buddhism has no “holy” language, so you can recite them in your local translation, or use a liturgical format that fits your preferred tradition. Or switch between one and the other.

What’s important is that followers make the teachings a part of their lives somehow. This helps them apply the Dharma and also generate good merit to help others. The Buddhist path is not a solitary path: we are all in this together.

Namu Shakamuni Butsu

Namu Amida Butsu

¹ Muji is a great store, and there are a few oversea outside of Japan. You can find clothes, household items, stationary and so on. We shop at Muji in Japan whenever we visit there, but also have visited Muji stores along the West Coast as well.

² Related distantly to the English word suture as in a thread. Old sutras were often palm leaves or tree bark threaded together to form a kind of book.

³ HInduism too, iirc.

⁴ Even when it’s Miles Morales vs. Peter Parker (or Gwen, or other Spider people), the lore is the basically the same.