The Cariyapitaka (; where ''cariya'' is

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist '' Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of '' Theravāda'' Bud ...

for "conduct" or "proper conduct" and ''pitaka'' is usually translated as "basket"; abbrev. Cp) is a Buddhist scripture, part of the

Pali Canon The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. It derives mainly from the Tamrashatiya school. During ...

Theravada ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

. It is included there in the

Sutta Pitaka Sutta may refer to: *Sutta Nipata, is a Buddhist scripture *Sutta Piṭaka, The second of the three divisions of the Tripitaka or Pali Canon *Sutta Pazham, is a 2008 Indian Tamil language adult comedy thriller film * Sutta Kadhai, 2013 Indian Tami ...

's Khuddaka Nikaya, usually as the last of fifteen books. It is a short verse work that includes thirty-five accounts of the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in ...

's former lives (similar to

Jataka The Jātakas (meaning "Birth Story", "related to a birth") are a voluminous body of literature native to India which mainly concern the previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form. According to Peter Skilling, this genre i ...

tales) when he as a

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schoo ...

exhibited behaviors known as "perfections," prerequisites to

buddhahood In Buddhism, Buddha (; Pali, Sanskrit: 𑀩𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥, बुद्ध), "awakened one", is a title for those who are awake, and have attained nirvana and Buddhahood through their own efforts and insight, without a teacher to poin ...

. This canonical text, along with the

Apadana Apadana ( peo, 𐎠𐎱𐎭𐎠𐎴) is a large hypostyle hall in Persepolis, Iran. It belongs to the oldest building phase of the city of Persepolis, in the first half of the 6th century BC, as part of the original design by Darius the Grea ...

and Buddhavamsa, is believed to be a late addition to the Pali Canon and has been described as "hagiographical."

Overview

In the first story (Cp. I), the

says he will illustrate his practice of the perfections (Pali, ''

pāramitā ''Pāramitā'' (Sanskrit, Pali: पारमिता) or ''pāramī'' (Pāli: पारमी), is a Buddhist term often translated as "perfection". It is described in Buddhist commentaries as noble character qualities generally associated with ...

'' or ''pārami'') by stories of his past lives in this current age. The text contains 35 such stories, spanning 356 to 371 verses. The body of the Cariyapitaka is broken into three divisions (''vagga''), with titles correlated to the first three of the ten Theravada ''pāramitā'': * Division I (''dāna pāramitā''): 10 stories for the perfection of offering (''

dāna Dāna (Devanagari: दान, IAST: Dānam) is a Sanskrit and Pali word that connotes the virtue of generosity, charity or giving of alms in Indian philosophies. In Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, dāna is the practice of cultiva ...

'') * Division II (''sīla pāramitā''): 10 stories for the perfection of conduct ('' sīla'') * Division III (''nekkhamma pāramitā''):''Nekkhamma pāramitā'' is the title for the third division's (''vagga'') first set of stories and is thus used as the basis for the entire division itself although the division includes stories illustrative of multiple paramitas. See, e.g., the SLTP text, retrieved 08-19-2008 from "Bodhgaya News" at http://www.bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=&record=10648 . 15 stories distributed among five other perfections, as follows: ** renunciation (''

nekkhamma ''Nekkhamma'' (Sanskrit: नैष्क्राम्य, Naiṣkrāmya) is a Pali word generally translated as "renunciation" or "the pleasure of renunciation" while also conveying more specifically "giving up the world and leading a holy life" ...

pāramitā''): five stories ** resolute determination (''

adhiṭṭhāna ''Adhihāna'' (Pali; from ''adhi'' meaning "foundational" or "beginning" plus ''sthā'' meaning "standing"; Sanskrit, अधिष्ठान) has been translated as "decision," "resolution," "self-determination," "will", "strong determination" ...

pāramitā''): one story ** truth (''

sacca ''Sacca'' ( sa, Satya सत्य) is a Pali word meaning "real" or "true". In early Buddhist literature, ''sacca'' is often found in the context of the "Four Noble Truths", a crystallization of Buddhist wisdom. In addition, ''sacca'' is one o ...

pāramitā''): six stories ** loving-kindness ('' mettā pāramitā''): two stories ** equanimity ('' upekkhā pāramitā''): one story The three remaining Theravada perfections — wisdom ('' paññā''), energy ('' viriya''), patience ('' khanti'') — are mentioned in a closing stanza but no related Cariyapitaka stories have come down to us. Horner suggests that these latter three perfections are "implicit in the collection," referenced in both story titles and contexts.Horner (2000), p. vi: "Indeed they isdom, energy and patienceare implicit in the collection: Wisdom, as implied by the term ''pandita'', in the titles of Cp.I.10, III.5.6, 8; Energy in II.2.3, II.10.2 when the Bodhisatta resolutely determined on the four factors of energy, that great instrument for Awakening, since without it nothing can be achieved; and Patience is recognizable in the story of Wise Temiya, III.6, and in others." Regarding the "four factors of energy," Horner (2000), p. 19 n. 11, identifies them in this canonical passage: "gladly would I be reduced to ''skin, sinews, bone'' and let my body's ''flesh and blood'' dry up" (A.i.50, S.ii.28, M.i.481, identified as "fourfold energy" in MA.iii.194).

Translations

* "The collection of the ways of conduct", in ''Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon'', volume III, 1st edition, tr B. C. Law, 1938 * "Basket of conduct", in ''Minor Anthologies'' III (along with "Chronicle of Buddhas ( Buddhavamsa)"), 2nd edition, tr I. B. Horner, 1975, Pali Text Society

Bristol * Tr Bhikkhu Mahinda (Anagarika Mahendra), Cariyāpiṭaka: Book of Basket of Conduct, Bilingual Pali-English First Edition 2022, Dhamma Publishers, Roslindale MA;

Notes

Sources

* Barua, B.M. (1945). ''Ceylon Lectures.'' Calcutta. Cited in Horner (2000), p. iii, n. 5. * Hinüber, Oskar von (2000). ''A Handbook of Pāli Literature''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. . * Horner, I.B. (trans.) (1975; reprinted 2000). ''The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon (Part III): 'Chronicle of Buddhas' (Buddhavamsa) and 'Basket of Conduct' (Cariyapitaka)''. Oxford:

Pali Text Society The Pali Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts". Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

. . (All references in this article to "Horner, 2000" use page numbers associated with this volume's Cariyapitaka, not the Buddhavamsa.) * Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). ''The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary''. Chipstead:

. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/. {{Buddhism topics Khuddaka Nikaya

Overview

Translations

See also

Notes

Sources