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The Great Sutra Treasury - Southern Transmission 27
The Buddha’s younger sister, Sundarī Nandā, who was attached to her own beauty, entered the monastery only because her relatives had ordained. The Buddha reminded her of impermanence through the image of a beautiful woman who, from youth and freshness, eventually becomes an old, withered lady. This helped Nandā awaken, let go of her attachment to the body, and wholeheartedly devote herself to walking meditation and sitting meditation in order to move toward liberation. In the end, she attained the fruit of Arahantship and left behind a poem in the Verses of the Elder Nuns.
Following this is the Discourse on Love (Metta Sutta), which encourages the practice of loving-kindness, even if just for a single second, as worthy of being a disciple of the Buddha. We are encouraged to recite it daily, from caring for a glass of water (remembering there are 84,000 microorganisms) to looking at a flower or a caterpillar with a heart of loving-kindness. The Buddha compared the moon to loving-kindness, the sun to insight, and taught us to love all beings—humans, animals, plants, and even the earth and stones. He emphasized that our mother is our first “teacher” of love, for only by loving one person can we open our hearts to love all beings. Through the poem “Beloved One…” by Phạm Thế Mỹ, love is established as the only path to extinguish hatred.
The final part gives an overview of the Khuddaka Nikāya (the Minor Collection), which includes 18 smaller works:
- Khuddakapāṭha (Short Passages)
- Dhammapada (Verses of the Dharma)
- Udāna (Inspired Utterances)
- Itivuttaka (As It Was Said)
- Sutta Nipāta (Collection of Discourses)
- Therīgāthā (Verses of the Elder Nuns)
- Jātaka (Birth Stories)
- Niddesa (Expositions)
- Paṭisambhidāmagga (Path of Discrimination)
- Apadāna (Stories of Great Elders)
- Buddhavaṃsa (Chronicle of the Buddhas)
- Cariyāpiṭaka (Basket of Conduct)
- Nettipakaraṇa (The Guide)
- Peṭakopadesa (Instructions on the Pitaka)
-
Milindapañhā (Questions of King Milinda)
…and a few other provisional translations. Each work is introduced with the number of chapters, the scope of its content, and its historical formation within the Pāli tradition.