Sutras & texts 經藏
A map of the Buddhist scriptures: the Pali Canon, the great Mahayana sutras, Pure Land, Zen and Tibetan classics. Read them here, download PDFs, or listen. Always free.
Many of the texts below have several modern translations, which are often still under copyright. Where a public-domain translation exists we host it here in full. Otherwise we link to free, legal sources such as SuttaCentral, 84000 and BDK.
Pali Canon: Tipitaka ("Three Baskets")
The scripture of Theravada, in the Pali language, written down in Sri Lanka in the 1st c. BCE. It is the closest record of the Buddha's own teaching.
Vinaya Pitaka Basket of Discipline
The monastic rules and the stories behind them.
Digha Nikaya Long Discourses (34)
Including the Mahaparinibbana (last days of the Buddha) and the Mahasatipatthana Sutta.
Majjhima Nikaya Middle-length Discourses (152)
Including MN 10 (Foundations of Mindfulness) and MN 118 (Mindfulness of Breathing).
Samyutta Nikaya Connected Discourses (2,800+)
Grouped by theme. SN 56.11 is the first sermon, Turning the Wheel of Dhamma.
Anguttara Nikaya Numerical Discourses
Teachings arranged by number, from ones to elevens.
Khuddaka Nikaya Minor Collection
Dhammapada, Udana, Itivuttaka, Sutta Nipata, Theragatha and Therigatha (poems of the first monks and nuns), Jataka.
Dhammapada 法句經
423 verses on the path, the most loved Buddhist text in the West.
Metta Sutta Loving-kindness
"Just as a mother would protect her only child… so cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings."
Jataka 本生經
547 tales of the Buddha's former lives, often as animals.
Abhidhamma Pitaka Higher Teaching
Seven books analysing mind and matter into ultimate elements.
Chinese Agamas & early sutras
Early discourses preserved in Chinese, parallel to the Pali Nikayas, plus the first sutras brought to China.
Agamas 阿含經
Long, Middle, Connected and Numbered collections, translated from Sanskrit and Prakrit.
Sutra in Forty-two Sections 四十二章經
By legend the first sutra translated in China (1st c.): short practical teachings.
Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom)
The first great Mahayana sutras, on emptiness and the wisdom that "goes beyond".
Heart Sutra 般若波羅蜜多心經
The whole of emptiness in about 260 Chinese characters, chanted daily at Shaolin and in Zen temples everywhere.
Diamond Sutra 金剛經
"All conditioned things are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow." Its 868 Dunhuang copy is the world's oldest dated printed book. Huineng awakened on hearing it.
Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines Ashtasahasrika
Perhaps the earliest Prajnaparamita sutra.
Great Mahayana sutras
Sutras that founded whole schools across Asia.
Lotus Sutra 妙法蓮華經 · Saddharmapundarika
One Vehicle for all beings, skilful means, the eternal Buddha, and Guanyin's chapter. The heart of Tiantai and Nichiren.
Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra 華嚴經
A vast vision of interpenetrating worlds. Its last part, the Gandavyuha, follows the pilgrim Sudhana.
Vimalakirti Sutra 維摩詰經
A wise layman out-teaches the great disciples. Ends in the "thunderous silence" of non-duality.
Lankavatara Sutra 楞伽經
Mind-only and the inner realization. Bodhidharma is said to have handed it to Huike.
Surangama Sutra 楞嚴經
Meditation, the 25 gates to awakening, Guanyin's hearing practice and the Shurangama mantra.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra (Mahayana) 大般涅槃經
Buddha-nature in all beings, taught at the Buddha's passing.
Sutra of Golden Light 金光明經
Confession, protection and the deities who guard the Dharma.
Medicine Buddha Sutra 藥師經
The twelve vows of Bhaishajyaguru, the healing Buddha.
Ksitigarbha Sutra 地藏經
The vow to save beings in every realm. Recited for the dead.
Pure Land sutras
The scriptures of Amitabha Buddha and the land of bliss.
Smaller Sukhavativyuha (Amitabha Sutra) 阿彌陀經
A short description of the Pure Land, recited daily across East Asia.
Larger Sukhavativyuha 無量壽經
Amitabha's 48 vows, including the 18th, the vow of universal welcome.
Contemplation Sutra 觀無量壽經
Sixteen visualizations of the Pure Land.
Chan / Zen classics
The literature of the meditation school, born where Buddhism met Daoism in China.
Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch 六祖壇經
Huineng's life and teaching of sudden awakening and no-thought. The only Chinese work called a "sutra".
Faith in Mind (Xinxin Ming) 信心銘
Sengcan's poem: "The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences."
Song of Enlightenment (Zhengdao Ge) 證道歌
Yongjia Xuanjue's song of the awakened life.
Sandokai & Hokyo Zanmai 參同契 · 寶鏡三昧
Chanted in Soto temples. The Sandokai borrows the title of the Daoist alchemy classic Cantong Qi.
Record of Linji 臨濟錄
The fierce, freeing talks of the Rinzai founder.
Blue Cliff Record 碧巖錄
100 koans with verse and commentary (1125).
Gateless Gate (Wumenguan) 無門關
48 koans, beginning with Zhaozhou's "Mu" (1228).
Ten Oxherding Pictures 十牛圖
The path pictured as a herder seeking, taming and forgetting the ox, then returning to the market.
Shobogenzo & Fukanzazengi 正法眼藏
Dogen's profound essays and his guide to zazen.
The Religion of the Samurai (1913)
Kaiten Nukariya's early English study of Zen in China and Japan.
Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series (1927)
D. T. Suzuki's landmark book that opened Zen to the West.
Tibetan & Vajrayana texts
The vast Kangyur (words of the Buddha) and Tengyur (commentaries) and the great Tibetan classics.
Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead)
Liberation through hearing in the in-between state after death (Evans-Wentz, 1927).
Bodhicaryavatara (Way of the Bodhisattva)
Shantideva's guide to compassion and patience. Barnett's 1909 translation is public domain.
Life & Songs of Milarepa
Tibet's great yogi-poet (Evans-Wentz, 1928).
Lamrim Chenmo
Tsongkhapa's Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path.
Kangyur & Tengyur
Over 300 volumes of translated scripture. Free modern translations at 84000.co.
Treatises & companions
Commentaries and teaching books that every school reads.
Questions of King Milinda Milindapanha
A Greek king questions the monk Nagasena: the chariot and no-self.
Mulamadhyamakakarika 中論
Nagarjuna's verses on the Middle Way.
Visuddhimagga Path of Purification
Buddhaghosa's 5th-c. Theravada meditation manual.
Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana 大乘起信論
One Mind and its two aspects (Suzuki's 1900 translation is public domain).
The Gospel of Buddha (1894)
Paul Carus' readable compilation of the Buddha's life and sayings.
Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism (1907)
D. T. Suzuki's early survey.
Buddhist Psalms of Shinran (1921)
Hymns of Jodo Shinshu's founder.
The Book of Tea (1906)
Okakura on tea, Daoism and Zen.
Also hosted here
The free library: install it to this website
Like the martial arts library, a one-click installer downloads many more public-domain books (Legge's Sacred Books of the East volumes and other pre-1929 translations) from the Internet Archive and Project Gutenberg into this website's sacred-texts folder. After you upload that folder, they appear below automatically.
How: double-click INSTALL-SACRED-TEXTS.bat in the website folder, wait for "Done", then upload the sacred-texts folder.
No extra books installed yet. The core texts above are already here to read and download.
Read more, free
- SuttaCentral: Free early Buddhist texts (Pali, Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan) with modern English translations.
- Access to Insight: A classic free library of Theravada suttas and essays.
- 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha: Free translations of the Tibetan Kangyur and Tengyur.
- BDK America: free Tripitaka PDFs: English translations of the Chinese canon, free to download from BDK.
- CBETA: The full Chinese Buddhist canon online.
- Plum Village: Mindfulness teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.