Thus It Was Said
Part of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the Itivuttaka collects 112 short teachings, each following the same distinctive form: a spare prose statement opening with "This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard," followed by a verse that restates or deepens the same point. Traditionally arranged into four "books" by how many factors each teaching covers — Ones, Twos, Threes, and Fours — the collection moves from single root causes like greed and hatred toward more elaborate ethical and contemplative teachings.
Unlike the narrative-rich Udāna, almost none of these discourses have a narrative frame at all — no named audience, no place, no occasion. They are teachings distilled to their bare essentials, prose and verse restating each other in two different registers. Each entry here has the same reading guide, full Sujato translation, and self-check quiz as our other series.
Linked rows have a published reading guide. Unlinked rows are listed for navigation and will become available as the series progresses.
