The Udana

Book excerpt: The Udana, the third book of the Khuddaka Nikaya, offers a rich collection of short suttas, each of which culminates in a short verse uttered by the Buddha. Altogether there are eighty suttas, arranged in eight vaggas, or chapters. The Udana contains important Suttas dealing with the concept of Nibbana and Insight Meditation. It is also from here that the famous simile of the blind men and an elephant found its way into world literature. This unique bilingual study edition contains an English translation alongside the original Pali text. This allows any reader - even without knowing Pali - to casually read the text while deepening their fundamental understanding of some of the most important Buddhist concepts in the Buddha's own words.