<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  »No topics above this level« SN 45-56 The Group of Connected Discourses on the Path – Mahāvaggasaṁyutta

The “Great Book” is the last and largest of the five books of the Connected Discourses. It consists of twelve saṁyuttas, almost all of which deal with an aspect of Buddhist practice, or the path. The first of these, indeed, is the “Section on the Path” (Maggasaṁyutta), and in the northern canons the book as a whole is referred to as the “Book of the Path” (Maggavagga). The first seven of the saṁyuttas treat the familiar set of seven groups of factors on Buddhist practice known to the later traditions as the bodhipakkhiyā dhammā, or “qualities leading to awakening”. This book is the primary source for these teachings. Subsequent saṁyuttas deal with the path from different perspectives, while the final two deal with stream-entry and the four noble truths respectively.