• མདོ་སྡེ་རིས་བཞི།
  • མདོ་སྡེའི་རིས་བཞི།
  • mdo sde’i ris bzhi
  • mdo sde ris bzhi
  • catvāraḥ sūtranikāyāḥ
  • Term
Publications: 1
  • Four Divisions of the Discourses
  • མདོ་སྡེའི་རིས་བཞི།
  • མདོ་སྡེ་རིས་བཞི།
  • mdo sde’i ris bzhi
  • mdo sde ris bzhi
  • catvāraḥ sūtranikāyāḥ AS
Definition in this text:

The Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition groups the Buddha’s discourses into four divisions, also called the Four Āgamas (Tib. mdo sde’i lung sde bzhi): the Dīrghāgama (Tib. lung ring po); the Madhyamāgama (Tib. lung bar ma); the Saṃyuktāgama (Tib. lung dag ldan/ yang dar par ldan pa’i lung); and the Ekottarikāgama (Tib. lung gcig las ’phros pa). They are more familiar to many English-speaking Buddhists through their Pali correlates, the Dīghanikāya, Majjhimanikāya, Samyuttanikāya, and Aṅguttaranikāya‍—often translated as the Long Discourses, Middle-Length Discourses, Connected Discourses, and Numerical Discourses, respectively.