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do not understand the Pāli Tipiṭaka. The Dhamma should be practiced, then is not in
attention anymore. If the situation keeps going on like this, in the future, the
Dhamma (Noble Truth) may be gradually disappeared from this country. The
succession and propagation of Buddhism in Thailand will be difficult to perform.
The organization that realized the significance of maintaining Buddhism to be
with the country is the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). This research
and KM (Knowledge Management) project, then, has been financial supported
strongly. It has been anticipated by NRCT that this Translation Project will certainly
increase better understanding on Buddhism thoroughly and to help propagate
Buddhism worldwide. The project supported, then, could run the word-by-word
translation of Tipiṭaka into both Thai and Moder English language. Without NRCT,
this manual and the translation task can not be carried out at all.
Suttantapiṭaka, Dīghanakāya, Mahāvagga
In general, Suttantapiṭaka, which is one of the three Divisions (Piṭaka) of
Tipiṭaka (Vinaya, Suttanta, and Abhidhamma), is more popular and well known
among Buddhists. Many Suttas have been studied and transferred to Buddhist
society. Vinayapiṭaka is supposed to be studied among Buddhist monks because the
Division involves most of rules and regulations (Vinaya) for monks and for female
monks while Suttantapiṭaka concerns more with Dhamma (Doctrine) practiced for
lay people. The Abhidhamma is considered to require to knowledge and skills in
understanding since the Division covers only the academic description from
Suttantapiṭaka. So both the Vinaya and the Abhidhamma are lesser known among
lay Buddhists. However, in this Translation Project, all the three Divisions have been
translated word-by-word, so that all the Buddhists will understand the Buddha
Teaching thoroughly.
Concerning Suttantapiṭaka, Dīghanikāya is the collection of long Suttas
consisting of 3 books (Gantha Canon or Scriptures). In this chapter, the second book
of Dīghanikāya (Dīgha-long, Nikāya-collection) called Dighanikāya, Mahāvagga
(Mahā-great, Vagga-chapter) is cited as example of the KM project.
The Suttantapiṭaka consisting of 5 collections, 25 books are categorized as
follows: