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Buddha's Teachings contains a metrical English rendering of an importantBuddhist work in Pali named 'Sutta-Nipata' with the original text inRomanized version on the opposite page. The Pali Canon, as it has come downto us, is divided into three Pitakas or 'baskets', viz. Vinaya-PitakaSutta-Pitaka and Abhidhamma-Pitaka. The Sutta-Nipata, translated here,contains an ancient, probably the most ancient, part of the Sutta-Pitaka.It belongs to that portion of the Sutta-Pitaka which is named KhuddakaNikaya or 'Collection of Short Treatises' as distinct from the four longNikayas called Digha, Majjhima, Samyutta and Anguttara. Of the five Vaggas(or 'books') of the present Sutta-Nipata the fifth stands out from itsfellows by reason of its purposeful unity. Whle the Uraga, Maha, Cula andAtthaka Vaggas consist each of a collectioin of independent and unconnectedpoems (sometimes interspersed with prose) called Suttas, the Parayana aimsat a dramatic synthesis. Its prologue and epilogue serve as a setting tothe sixteen Questions which elicit Gotama's gradual exposition of thesaving 'Way Across'.