The "The Book of the Threes" contains 50 discourses, each dealing with sets of three concepts or teachings. These discourses explore the interconnectedness of these elements and their collective significance in the practice of the Dhamma.
Tikanipāta - The Book of the Threes
The Buddha lists the three roots of the unwholesome - greed, aversion, and delusion, and explain their effect on the mind with a simile.
The Buddha describes the three elements - 1) form element, 2) formless element, and 3) element of cessation.
The Buddha describes the three felt experiences that are experienced on contact through the sense doors - pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant.
The Buddha describes how to see the three felt experiences that are experienced on contact through the sense doors - pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant.
The Buddha describes the three quests of sensual pleasure, renewed existence, and spiritual life.
The Buddha describes the three quests of sensual pleasure, renewed existence, and spiritual life as the result of holding tight to the thought 'This is the truth' and the accumulation of bases for views.
The Buddha describes the three defilements - the taint of sensual desire, the taint of being, and the taint of ignorance, and the way of practice leading to their cessation.
The Buddha describes the three defilements - the taint of sensual desire, the taint of being, and the taint of ignorance, and one who is free from them.
The Buddha describes the three kinds of craving - 1) craving for sensual pleasures, 2) craving for becoming, and 3) craving for non-becoming.
The Buddha describes the three qualities that a bhikkhu should be endowed with to transcend Māra's domain and shine like the sun.
The Buddha shares the three bases for meritorious action - 1) through generosity, 2) through virtuous conduct, and 3) through meditation.
The Buddha declares the three types of eyesight - 1) the physical eye, 2) the divine eye, and 3) the eye of wisdom. The eye of wisdom is unsurpassed.
The Buddha describes the three mental faculties - the faculty that senses ‘I will know the unknown,’ the faculty of awakening, and the faculty of one who is awakened.
The Buddha speaks on how beings cling to what can be expressed—concepts and designations, including the three times of past, future, and present. Not fully understanding these, they fall under the yoke of death. But one who sees beyond conceptual fabrications touches liberation and does not resort to mental proliferation.
The Buddha describes the three kinds of misconduct - by body, speech and mind.
The Buddha describes the three kinds of good conduct - by body, speech and mind.
The Buddha describes the three kinds of purity - by body, speech and mind.
The Buddha describes the three kinds of sagacity - by body, speech and mind.
Whoever has not let go of passion, aversion, and illusion is said to be bound by Māra, ensnared by Māra's trap, at the mercy of the Evil One, and subject to his will.
Whoever has let go of passion, aversion, and illusion is called one who has crossed beyond the ocean—with its waves, currents, whirlpools, lurking with fierce animals and monsters.
The Buddha shares the consequences of holding on to wrong views and acting upon them based on his direct knowledge.
The Buddha shares the consequences of holding on to right views and acting upon them based on his direct knowledge.
The Buddha describes the three elements of escape - renunciation, formless existence and cessation.
The formless existence is more peaceful than the form realm. Yet, cessation is more peaceful than the formless existence.
Three kinds of children - 1) one who surpasses their parents, 2) one who follows in their footsteps, and 3) one who falls below them.
Three kinds of persons are found in the world - 1) one like a rainless cloud, 2) one like a cloud that rains in a certain area, and 3) one like a cloud that rains everywhere.
The Buddha teaches that a wise person aspiring for the three kinds of happiness - of 1) praise, 2) wealth, and 3) good rebirth - should safeguard their virtue.
The body is fragile, consciousness is of a fading nature. All substrates of existence are impermanent, dissatisfactory, and subject to change.
Beings come together and associate with other beings according to their disposition. Therefore, one should avoid associating with those that are lazy and keep company with the wise.
The Buddha describes three qualities that lead to the decline of a trainee bhikkhu and three qualities that lead to non-decline.
The Buddha shares the three unwholesome thoughts - 1) concerning one's reputation, 2) concerning acquisitions, respect, and popularity, and 3) associated with inappropriate concern for others.
The Blessed One describes how beings are affected by respect and disrespect, and how this affects their rebirth. The true person is one who is collected, detached, and delights in the ending of grasping.
The Buddha describes three occasions when divine sounds arise among the gods.
The Buddha describes the five signs that appear when a deity is about to pass away, and the three blessings that the gods give to the deity.
The Buddha shares on the three kinds of persons who arise in the world for the welfare of the many - 1) the Tathāgata, 2) the Arahant, and 3) the trainee.
The Buddha advises to 1) dwell contemplating the unattractive nature of the body, 2) establish mindfulness as the first priority while breathing in and out, and 3) observe impermanence in all conditioned phenomena.
It is natural for a practitioner practicing in accordance with the Dhamma to speak and think only in terms of the Dhamma, not in terms of what is not the Dhamma.
The three unwholesome thoughts are blinding, produce lack of clarity, cause ignorance, obstruct wisdom, and are troublesome and not conducive to Nibbāna. The three wholesome thoughts give sight, produce clarity and create insight, grow wisdom, and are trouble-free and conducive to Nibbāna.
Greed, aversion, and illusion are internal impurities that act as one's internal enemies. Though they obscure clarity and injure one from within, most people fail to recognize their true nature.
The Buddha explains how Devadatta, overcome by evil desires, bad friendship, and abandoning the training, fell to Avīci hell. Though once esteemed, his envy led to ruin. The wise should associate with those whose path leads to the end of suffering.
The Buddha shares the three kinds of best confidence - 1) in the Buddha, 2) in the mental quality of fading of desire, and 3) in the community of the Blessed One's disciples.
The Buddha explains how the livelihood of subsisting on alms, although an extreme of livelihoods, is a sensible choice for those who hope to discern a complete end to the entire mass of suffering.
The Buddha teaches that one could be far from him despite being physically close, and one could be near to him despite being physically far. When one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Buddha.
The Buddha describes the fires of passion, hatred, and illusion which consume beings who cling to a self. The wise cool these flames with wisdom, loving-kindness, and perceiving unattractiveness.
The Buddha instructs that one should examine experience in such a way that consciousness does not become scattered among external sense objects, fixated internally, or entangled through grasping.
The Buddha describes three kinds of beings who partake in sensual pleasures - 1) those who enjoy what is presently available, 2) those who delight in their own creations, and 3) those who wield power over the creations of others.
The Buddha classifies beings according to their attachment or detachment from sensual pleasures and conditioned existence. Those entangled in both are returners; those detached from sensual pleasures but still bound to existence are non-returners; and those freed from both are arahants who have ended the taints.
The Buddha defines the perfected person as one who is virtuous in conduct, devoted to the cultivation of the seven sets of qualities that lead to awakening, and possessing wisdom of the ending of suffering—complete in training and free from the mental defilements.
The Buddha distinguishes between two types of giving, sharing, and assistance—those based on material things and those based on the Dhamma. In each case, giving, sharing, and assisting with the Dhamma are declared the highest.
The Buddha describes a brahmin possessing the threefold knowledge through the Dhamma, not through mere repetition of what is said. This includes the recollection of past lives, the divine eye seeing beings’ rebirths according to kamma, and the realization of liberation through the wearing away of mental defilements.