sutra

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su·tra

(so͞o′trə)

1. Hinduism Any of various aphoristic doctrinal summaries produced for memorization generally between 500 and 200 bc and later incorporated into Hindu literature.

2. also sut·ta (so͝ot′ə) Buddhism A scriptural narrative, especially a text traditionally regarded as a discourse of the Buddha.

[Sanskrit sūtram, thread, sutra; see syū- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sutra

(ˈsuːtrə)

1. (Hinduism) Hinduism Sanskrit sayings or collections of sayings on Vedic doctrine dating from about 200 ad onwards

2. (Hinduism) (modifier) Hinduism

a. of or relating to the last of the Vedic literary periods, from about 500 to 100 bc: the sutra period.

b. of or relating to the sutras or compilations of sutras of about 200 ad onwards

3. (Buddhism) Buddhism collections of dialogues and discourses of classic Mahayana Buddhism dating from the 2nd to the 6th centuries ad

[C19: from Sanskrit: list of rules]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

su•tra

(ˈsu trə)

n., pl. -tras.

1. a collection of Hindu aphorisms relating to some aspect of the conduct of life.

2. Pali, sut•ta (ˈsʊt ə) any of the sermons of Buddha.

[1795–1805; < Skt sūtra]

sutra

The Buddha’s words or a guru’s commentary on the Buddha’s words.

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Noun

sutra - a rule or aphorism in Sanskrit literature or a group of aphoristic doctrinal summaries prepared for memorization

Sanskrit literature - Hindu literature written in Sanskrit

Translations

Sutra

soutra

szútra

sutra

References in periodicals archive ?

In the suttas, mentioned above, the Buddha's advice to laypersons was to develop both their material and spiritual welfare by fruitful use of nature's resources.

Fortifying Buddhist Principles That Form The Basis Of The Sinhala Buddhist National Culture Of Sri Lanka

They are places where sacred Buddhist texts, such as Buddhist suttas, are recited.

Dharma dogs: Can animals understand the dharma? Textual and ethnographic considerations

He covers the Analects of Confucius; Zhuangzi and the Daoist tradition; the Suttas, Dhammapada, and the early Buddhist tradition; and the message of the Bhagavad Gita.

Understanding Asian Philosophy: Ethics in the Analects, Zhuangzi, Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita

What the Buddha taught: Revised and expanded edition with texts from Suttas and Dhammapada (2nd ed.).

Applying Buddhist principles to mode deactivation theory and practice

To return to the Anuradha and Yamaka Suttas, none of the aggregates in isolation can properly be called the Buddha, they claim; he is not the body, or any other aggregate, precisely because of its impermanence.

Does nature have value in the Pali canon?

As we shall see, it is not the only text to deal with the subject, but it has attained to a status where, to paraphrase George orwell, all suttas are canonical, but some are more canonical than others.

On the death of the charismatic founder: Re-viewing some Buddhist sources

Since Batchelor dismisses all talk of rebirth as a waste of time, he projects this view onto his image of the Buddha, declaring that he regarded "speculation about future and past lives to be just another distraction." This claim flies in the face of the countless times the Buddha spoke of the immense importance of rebirth and karma, which lie at the core of his teachings as they are recorded in Pali suttas. Batchelor is one of many Zen teachers nowadays who regard future and past lives as a mere distraction.

Distorted visions of Buddhism: agnostic and atheist

Buddhist suttas, from the Sanskrit for "thread," pass down the oral teachings of Gautama; Hindi suttas are cigarettes.

William Fuller, Hallucination

On Counting the Suttas of the Samyutta-nikaya") demonstrates, in discussing traditional and modern calculations of the number of suttas in the Samyutta Nikaya, the uses and functions of repetitions in canonical Pali texts and their significance (not only) in the transmission process.

Festschrift in Honour of the 80th birthday of K. R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th Anniversary in 2006 of the Founding of the Pali Text Society

People support the sangha because the Buddha himself said in the suttas [discourses] that any gift given to the bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sangha earns much higher merit than a gift given to a layperson.

The bhikkhuni question: re-examining conventional wisdom on the issue of bhikkhunis in the Theravada Buddhist tradition

Glass refers to it as [S.bar]ana-sutra by analogy with several Pali suttas which contain lists of the perceptions (Pali sanna).