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Buddhism (Theravāda)

Principles

Theravāda Buddhism — Core Principles

Minimal operational principle set synthesized from the 26-chapter Dhammapada distillation plus representative nikāya sampling (DN, MN, SN, AN). Sources: Müller, SBE X (1881) for the Dhammapada; Warren Buddhism in Translations (1896) for SN/MN/AN selections; Rhys Davids Dialogues of the Buddha (1899/1910/1921) for DN. Method: 00-methodology.md. This is one structured reading, not authoritative (no within-tradition reviewer secured). Each principle carries a cross-tradition note — the claim that may converge with other traditions vs the warrant (foundation) that may diverge — to feed the cross-tradition Atlas.

Cross-lingual note: Pāli terms in transliteration appear in principle titles, the untranslatables glossary, and direct quotations where the named-edition English is the load-bearing claim. Synthesis prose explains in English with explicit glossary-anchor references.

Why 17

17 emerged from clustering the Dhammapada chapter principles by intent, then extending with nikāya material. Hubs: Mind (P1), Craving (P3), and Liberation (P10) recur across the most chapters. The nikāya sampling extends rather than replaces the Dhammapada core, surfacing two additional principles from DN (P14 reciprocal social ethics from the Sigālovāda; P15 the dharmic polity from the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda), plus two canonical structures warranting standalone principles: P16 Tisaraṇa (Three Refuges) and P17 Pañca Sīlāni (Five Precepts). The Four Noble Truths and Dependent Origination are integrated into P3, P8, and P10 as the medical-model diagnostic-prescriptive frame.

The 17 principles

P1 — Primacy and cultivation of mind (citta, appamāda)

All that we are is mind-made; speech and action follow thought. The restless mind must be guarded, straightened, and tamed, and heedfulness (appamāda) is "the path of the deathless." A tamed mind is one's greatest help; an untamed one, one's greatest harm.

  • Covers: Ch1-P1, Ch2-P1/P2/P3/P4, Ch3-P1/P2/P3/P4, Ch23-P3 · Evidence: Dhp 1–2, 21, 33–43, 326
  • Untranslatable: appamāda (heedfulness/diligence/vigilance)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (the inner life governs conduct; attentiveness is central) converges widely; warrant (no divine lawgiver; mind as conditioned process) is non-theistic.

P2 — The three marks of existence (anicca, dukkha, anattā); the five aggregates as analytic; paṭiccasamuppāda as causal substrate

All conditioned things are impermanent (anicca), unsatisfactory (dukkha), and without abiding self (anattā). The body and the world are bubble, foam, and mirage; the wise do not identify with name-and-form. MN 72 (Aggi-Vacchagotta) gives the canonical analytic warrant: the Tathāgata "knows the nature of form, sensation, perception, predispositions, consciousness — and how each arises and how each perishes," and is freed because "all imaginings, agitations, or proud thoughts concerning an Ego or anything pertaining to an Ego, have perished." The five aggregates (pañca khandhā — rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāṇa — see canonical taxonomies) are the diagnostic method by which anattā is demonstrated: form is not Ego, sensation is not Ego, perception is not Ego, predispositions are not Ego, consciousness is not Ego (SN 22.59) — anattā is what is found when each aggregate is examined, not what is posited. The aggregates are inseparable from the conclusion they yield. Beneath the aggregate-analysis sits the deeper canonical doctrine of Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda — see canonical taxonomies): the twelve-link conditioning chain avijjā → saṅkhārā → viññāṇa → nāmarūpa → saḷāyatana → phassa → vedanā → taṇhā → upādāna → bhava → jāti → jarā-maraṇa (SN 12.1–12.2, Warren §9) is the causal substrate of the three marks — no enduring self is found in any aggregate because each aggregate arises in dependence on conditions, never from itself. SN 22.90 / SN 12.15 Kaccāna(gotta) names this the middle doctrine (majjhena dhammaṃ deseti) between eternalism and annihilationism: not "things have being," not "things have no being," but "On ignorance depends karma; on karma depends consciousness…" The malformed substantialist question — "what is X / who has X?" — is rejected (SN 12.35) and replaced with a Dependent-Origination answer. Thus the anattā claim is structurally grounded in the conditioning chain, not in a flat denial of the soul.

  • Covers: Ch5-P2, Ch11-P1, Ch13-P2, Ch20-P3, Ch25-P3, **MN-C8, MN-C10, MN-P3 , SN-C1, SN-C2, SN-C3, SN-C10, SN-C11, SN-C12, SN-C17, SN-P1, SN-P2 ** · Evidence: Dhp 62, 147–151, 170, 277–279, 367; MN 44 (three sensations), MN 72 (five aggregates / no-Ego), MN 26 (subject-to-birth analysis) (nikāya sampling — see books/28-majjhima-nikaya.md); SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa — the canonical articulation, the Buddha's second discourse (nikāya sampling — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md); SN 22.85 Yamaka (rejection of annihilationist reading), SN 22.112, SN 5.10 Vajirā (chariot simile); SN 12.1–12.2 the full twelve-nidāna chain (Warren §9), SN 22.90 / SN 12.15 Kaccāna(gotta) middle-doctrine, SN 12.35 malformed-question rejection (nikāya sampling — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md SN-C1, SN-C10, SN-C11, SN-P1) · Future work: DN 15 Mahānidāna (the longest canonical Dependent-Origination discourse) — referenced in this principle's structural argument but not anchored verbatim from in-corpus material; flagged for future / Future work against Rhys Davids Dialogues vol. II (PD-available; reading-gap not source-gap)
  • Untranslatable: anicca, dukkha, anattā, pañca khandhā (five aggregates: rūpa, vedanā, saññā, saṅkhārā, viññāṇa), vedanā (the three sensations); paññatti (designation — Vajirā's chariot); paṭiccasamuppāda (Dependent Origination) and the twelve nidānas enumerated (avijjā, saṅkhārā, viññāṇa, nāmarūpa, saḷāyatana, phassa, vedanā, taṇhā, upādāna, bhava, jāti, jarā-maraṇa); majjhena dhammaṃ deseti (the "middle doctrine")
  • Cross-tradition note: sharpest divergence in the whole corpus. Impermanence converges broadly; but anattā (no enduring soul) directly contradicts the Abrahamic/Hindu affirmation of a soul/ātman. Claim ("do not cling to the transient") converges; warrant (there is no self to save) diverges fundamentally. nikāya strengthening: MN 72's analytic move — anattā is what is found when one examines the aggregates, not what is posited — sharpens the Atlas axis. The Buddhist and the Vedāntin / Christian / Muslim agree there is something beyond predication; they disagree on whether anything bearing predication continues. SN 22.59 adds the canonical chronology: this is doctrine #2, delivered to the band of five in the same sitting as the First Sermon, before there were any Buddhist laypeople or scriptures — anattā is not a late development but constitutive of Theravāda from the outset. SN 22.85 (Yamaka) is the Atlas-critical clarifier: anattā is not the doctrine that "the self is annihilated at death" — that is "wicked heresy"; it is the doctrine that the question presupposes a referent that the analysis has dissolved. structural-completeness retrofit addition — paṭiccasamuppāda as causal substrate: the conditioning chain converges (at the claim level) with process-relational ontologies (Whitehead, Hartshorne), Aristotelian causal analysis (the four causes), Humean bundle-theory, and modern systems-thinking; the warrant diverges sharply (no first cause; rebirth as one node in the chain; no telos external to the conditioning loop; the rejection of the malformed substantialist question itself a structural challenge to much theistic and Vedic discourse).

P3 — Craving (taṇhā) is the origin of suffering — the etiology limb of the Four Noble Truths; the vedanā → taṇhā nidāna

Thirst — for pleasure, existence, possessions — is the self-renewing root of rebirth and sorrow. Grasping forsakes the real aim; from attachment come grief and fear. Craving must be uprooted at its source. MN 26 introduces the critical distinction between the ignoble craving (for what is itself subject to birth, decay, death) and the noble craving (for the unconditioned nibbāna). The Buddha's pre-awakening autobiography is the paradigm: he himself was subject to birth, craving what was subject to birth, until he perceived its wretchedness and turned his aspiration toward what is free from it. Canonical structure named (cattāri ariyasaccāni — see canonical taxonomies): this principle is the etiology limb (second truth, samudaya) of the Four Noble Truths. The Buddha's first sermon (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana — content via Warren §74 / DN 22 parallel) frames Theravāda doctrine as a medical model — diagnosis (dukkha, the first truth, named at P2 in the three marks), etiology (samudaya = taṇhā, this principle), prognosis (nirodha, cessation, at P10), treatment (magga = the Eightfold Path, at P8). Structural argument for sub-element placement (Learning 6 required form): the four truths as a unified diagnostic-and-prescriptive frame are not the same as any of P3 / P8 / P10 individually — P3 is craving-as-such, P8 is the path-as-cultivation, P10 is the goal-state. The four-fold structure is what makes Theravāda Buddhism a medical model (diagnosis → etiology → prognosis → treatment) rather than a list of teachings. P3 / P8 / P10 together name the structure explicitly, each pointing to the others and to the locus classicus (SN 56.11), with the medical-model claim made explicit here. The four-fold structure is also condensed verbatim in the Dhammapada itself: Dhp 191 names them — "Viz. pain, the origin of pain, the destruction of pain, and the eightfold holy way that leads to the quieting of pain" (Müller verbatim) — a single verse in the corpus's own source text. A second canonical structure also lives here at the nidāna level (per Learning 6 explicit naming): the link vedanā → taṇhā in the twelve-nidāna chain (P2, paṭiccasamuppāda) is the exact node where craving arises from sensation — P3 is structurally interior to the conditioning chain at that link. Three unwholesome roots named together (tayo akusalamūlā / Three Poisons — see canonical taxonomies): the three together — rāga (greed/passion, sometimes lobha), dosa (hatred), moha (delusion) — are the canonical Theravāda akusala-mūla taxonomy. SN 35.28 (Ādittapariyāya / Fire Sermon) names the three as the aggi (fires): "the eye is on fire, forms are on fire… on fire with rāga, with dosa, with moha." AN 3.69 names them as roots. P3 covers rāga/lobha (greed); P6 covers dosa (hatred); moha (delusion) sits at the head of paṭiccasamuppāda (P2's avijjā / ignorance node) and is the opposite of paññā (P9, wisdom). The three are structurally cross-cut by P3+P6+P9 — named together here for canonical-taxonomy explicitness.

  • Covers: Ch6-P5, Ch11-P3, Ch14-P4, Ch16-P1/P3, Ch24-P1/P2/P3/P4, Ch21-P2/P3, **MN-C1 , SN-C5, SN-C6, SN-C8, SN-C15, SN-P3, SN-P4, SN-P5 , AN-C1, AN-P1 ** · Evidence: Dhp 212–216, 334–359, 191 (the canonical four-fold enumeration in the corpus's own source text — Müller verbatim, see Ch14-C9 in books/14-the-buddha.md); MN 26 the two cravings ; SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana — the canonical articulation: "the noble truth of the origin of misery is taṇhā … desire for sensual pleasure, desire for permanent existence, desire for transitory existence" (content via Warren §74 / DN 22 §§17–21 parallel since Warren does not give SN 56.11 standalone); SN 22.22 Bhāra (the "burden" = five clinging-aggregates; "taking up" = taṇhā; "laying down" = cessation of taṇhā); SN 35.28 Ādittapariyāya (the three fires: rāga, dosa, moha); AN 3.69 / AN 3.33 (the three roots — lobha, dosa, moha; see AN-C1, AN-P1) (nikāya sampling — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md and books/30-anguttara-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: taṇhā (thirst/craving); Müller's flat "love" in places renders taṇhā, NOT mettā — a critical Atlas caveat (Dhp 209–220). Warren's MN 26 likewise flattens chanda / wholesome aspiration into "craving" — preserving Müller's flattening into nikāya sampling; both are future issues. structural-completeness additions: cattāri ariyasaccāni (the Four Noble Truths, named in the principle as the medical-model frame); the three modes of taṇhā (kāma-taṇhā sensual, bhava-taṇhā for existence, vibhava-taṇhā for non-existence); akusalamūlā / the three unwholesome roots — rāga/lobha, dosa, moha; aggi (the "fires" of SN 35.28)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (disordered desire causes suffering) converges with many traditions' asceticism; warrant (desire itself, not merely disordered desire, binds to rebirth) is distinctively Buddhist. MN 26 sharpens the picture: it is not desire-as-such that is rejected but desire-for-what-is-conditioned; the aspiration toward the unconditioned is itself called "noble" — making the closer cross-tradition analogue Christian ordo amoris / Augustine on rightly-ordered loves, not simply ascetic suppression. SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana provides the canonical taxonomy of three taṇhā — kāma-taṇhā (sensual), bhava-taṇhā (for existence), vibhava-taṇhā (for non-existence) — and SN 22.22 (Bhāra) supplies the "burden" image: craving is the lifting of the five clinging-aggregates onto the shoulders; liberation is setting them down. Both refine the Atlas reading: not "desire is bad" but "the structure of craving-and-clinging is the structure of saṃsāric existence itself." structural-completeness addition — Four Noble Truths as cross-tradition form-comparator: the medical-model diagnostic-prescriptive structure (diagnosis-etiology-prognosis-treatment) is a strong cross-tradition form-comparator with Hippocratic medical pedagogy, modern problem-solving frames, and certain Christian "fall / sin / redemption / sanctification" arcs. Form-convergence (the four-fold diagnostic frame); warrant-divergence (the etiology is taṇhā not original sin; the cure is path not grace; the prognosis is nirodha not eternal communion).

P4 — Karma: each is author and heir of their own deeds

Good and evil deeds bear fruit, in this world and the next; evil is self-begotten and recoils on its doer; no place in the cosmos shelters one from one's deeds.

  • Covers: Ch1-P3, Ch5-P4, Ch9-P1/P2/P3/P4, Ch12-P3, Ch16-P5 · Evidence: Dhp 1–2, 66, 116–128, 161–165
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (moral acts have consequences; you reap what you sow) converges very widely; warrant (impersonal karmic causation across rebirths, no judging God) diverges from theistic judgment/grace.

P5 — The self is its own refuge and master; purification is non-transferable

"Self is the lord of self." One must subdue oneself, be one's own refuge, and purify oneself — no one can purify another. Reform yourself before instructing others. The Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16) gives this principle its canonical Theravāda form: the dying Buddha's commission "Be islands/lamps unto yourselves" (attadīpā, dhammadīpā) — take no external refuge but the Dhamma — and his refusal to name a successor: the Dhamma and Vinaya themselves are the teacher. DN 16 also institutes the Four Great References (mahāpadesā): even a claim "I heard this from the Buddha himself" is to be tested against the Suttas and the Vinaya, not received on authority.

  • Covers: Ch8-P2, Ch12-P1/P2/P4, Ch25-P6, Ch10-P5, Ch6-P3, **DN-C7, DN-C8, DN-C10, DN-P2 ** · Evidence: Dhp 103–105, 157–166, 380; DN 16 II.26, IV.7–11, VI (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: attā here = conventional moral agent, read against anattā (P2); + attadīpā / dhammadīpā ("self/dhamma as island/lamp," with Buddhaghosa's "island" gloss preserved); mahāpadesā (the four "great references" for testing teachings).
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (personal moral responsibility; integrity before teaching) converges; warrant (no mediated purification by grace/sacrament/another's merit) diverges sharply from Christianity, Bhakti, Pure Land, etc. nikāya strengthening (DN 16): the Buddha's last instruction — no successor named, the Dhamma alone teaches, and even purported Buddha-words must be tested against extant Suttas — forecloses the formal structures of apostolic succession or infallible living-teacher authority that some theistic traditions explicitly institute, though the Theravāda Saṅgha has its own lineage-preceptor structures (the upajjhāya / preceptor relation in vinaya; the Sri Lankan Mahāvihāra monastic establishment as canon-defining authority; the theravāda designation itself meaning "the doctrine of the elders"). This is an Atlas-grade datum — the DN 16 attadīpā + mahāpadesā injunction is normative against any infallible living authority while the lived tradition has structural authorities that approximate (without claiming infallibility) what theistic traditions name explicitly. Cross-tradition complementarity with P16 (Tisaraṇa): DN 16's attadīpā ("be islands/lamps unto yourselves") establishes the internal refuge-taking pole; P16's Tisaraṇa formula (Buddha-Dhamma-Saṅgha) is the external community-affiliative pole. Scholarship treats the two as complementary, not contradictory (Gethin 1998 ch.5; Rahula 1974 ch.7): external refuge is the community-affiliative form; internal refuge is the soteriological substance.

P6 — Non-hatred and non-harm (avera, ahiṃsā, mettā)

"Hatred ceases not by hatred but by love — an old rule." Conquer anger by its opposite; harm no living being, for all fear death; the noble are known by compassion. The Tevijja Sutta (DN 13) extends this into a fourfold meditative discipline — the brahmavihāra: pervading every direction (above, below, around, everywhere) with mettā (loving-kindness), karuṇā (compassion), muditā (sympathetic joy), and upekkhā (equanimity), "far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure." The Buddha reframes "union with Brahmā" as the cultivation of an unbounded heart, not the recitation of Vedic verses — explicitly available to "a householder, or one of his children, or a man of inferior birth in any class."

  • Covers: Ch1-P2, Ch10-P1, Ch17-P1/P2/P3/P4, Ch19-P4, Ch23-P1, Ch26-P4, **DN-C5, DN-C6, DN-P5 ** · Evidence: Dhp 5, 129–132, 221–234, 405; DN 13 §§35, 76–81 (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: avera (non-hatred, Müller's "love"), ahiṃsā, mettā (loving-kindness), + karuṇā (compassion), muditā (sympathetic joy), upekkhā (equanimity); the four together: brahmavihāra ("divine abidings").
  • Cross-tradition note: among the strongest convergence candidates (cf. Christian non-retaliation, Jain ahiṃsā); warrants differ (no command of God; rooted in insight + the wish to end all beings' suffering). nikāya strengthening (DN 13): the brahmavihāra schema gives this principle its most cultivable, technical form — four discrete states, each pervaded "in every direction." The Buddha's appropriation of "union with Brahmā" as the fruit of these cultivations (not a Vedic ritual outcome) is a textbook Atlas case of same-word/different-referent: theistic vocabulary, non-theistic warrant. The Tevijja's "blind men in a chain" critique of teacher-pupil tradition without first-hand experience also folds into P9 (paññā / tested wisdom).

P7 — Ethical restraint of body, speech, and mind (sīla)

Guard the three doors; restrain speech and end contention; inner purity, not outward austerity or the mere robe, makes one holy; purify the self gradually of its taints.

  • Covers: Ch4-P3, Ch10-P2/P4, Ch17-P4, Ch18-P1/P2/P4, Ch22-P2/P3, Ch25-P1 · Evidence: Dhp 231–234, 235–255, 360–382
  • Untranslatable: sīla (virtue/moral discipline)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (disciplined conduct; words matched by deeds) converges broadly; warrant (discipline as training toward liberation, not obedience to a lawgiver) is non-theistic.

P8 — The Path and self-effort — the ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo (Noble Eightfold Path), the tisso sikkhā (Three Trainings), the satipaṭṭhāna (Four Foundations of Mindfulness); the treatment limb of the Four Noble Truths

"You yourself must make an effort. The Tathagatas (Buddhas) are only preachers" — the Müller verbatim of Dhp 276; the path is shown by another but walked by oneself. There is one Way, the Noble Eightfold Path (ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo — see canonical taxonomies), with its eight factors: (1) sammā-diṭṭhi (right view, i.e. knowledge of the Four Truths), (2) sammā-saṅkappa (right aspiration: renunciation, benevolence, kindness), (3) sammā-vācā (right speech: abstaining from lying, slander, abuse, idle talk), (4) sammā-kammanta (right doing: abstaining from killing, theft, sexual misconduct), (5) sammā-ājīva (right livelihood), (6) sammā-vāyāma (right effort), (7) sammā-sati (right mindfulness), (8) sammā-samādhi (right concentration: the four jhānas). Tread it and end sorrow. MN 26's awakening narrative is the canonical attestation of self-effort: under two teachers Gotama mastered the highest attainments they had reached, found neither led to "aversion, absence of passion, cessation, quiescence, knowledge, supreme wisdom, and Nirvana," abandoned them, and pressed on alone to Uruvelā. MN 6 supplies the operational backbone: every contemplative fruit, up to and including final liberation, rests on the same sequence — "perfect in the precepts, bring his thoughts to a state of quiescence, practise diligently the trances, attain to insight, and be a frequenter of lonely places." This is the Three Trainings (tisso sikkhā — see canonical taxonomies): sīla (ethical conduct) → samādhi (concentration) → paññā (wisdom). Structurally, the Three Trainings are the canonical Theravāda pedagogical grouping of the Eightfold Path's eight factors (the 3+3+2 grouping — sīla = factors 3–5, samādhi = 6–8, paññā = 1–2 — is Visuddhimagga-era systematization; the three-fold is in DN 16 II.4, AN 3.88–89, MN 6 Ākaṅkheyya). DN 22 (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna) names the path "the one and only" (ekāyano maggo) and itemizes the eight factors, and DN 22 also gives the canonical Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna — see canonical taxonomies): observation of kāya (body), vedanā (feeling-tone), citta (mind), and dhammā (mental objects) — the operational core of the sammā-sati limb. DN 2 (Sāmaññaphala) gives the path's most detailed graduated form — from outward conduct through the four jhānas to insight, the destruction of the āsavas, and arahatship, each rung "better and sweeter" than the one before. Canonical structure named (cattāri ariyasaccāni, second naming): this principle is also the treatment limb (fourth truth, magga) of the Four Noble Truths (see P3 for the medical-model frame). The Buddha's first sermon explicitly couples the ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo with the Four Truths' fourth limb (SN 56.11 / SN-P5; Dhp 191 verbatim: "the eightfold holy way that leads to the quieting of pain"). Structural argument (Learning 6): naming the Four Noble Truths as the frame and the Eightfold Path as its fourth limb is what makes the path intelligible as treatment rather than as a free-standing list of practices; the four truths integrate P3 + P10 + P8 as the canonical medical-model diagnosis-and-cure.

  • Covers: Ch20-P1/P2, Ch2-P4, Ch14-P5, Ch7-P3, **MN-C2, MN-C11, MN-P4, MN-P6 , DN-C1, DN-C11, DN-C12, DN-C14, DN-P1, DN-P3, DN-P4 , SN-C14, SN-C15, SN-C16, SN-P5, SN-P6 ** · Evidence: Dhp 273–276, 276, 190–192 (the eightfold holy way named in Dhp 191 in-corpus); MN 26 awakening, MN 6 Ākaṅkheyya ; DN 2 §§63–98 graduated path, DN 22 §§1–3, §§17–21 Four Truths + Eightfold Path catalogued, DN 22 the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md); SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana — the canonical inception: the "wheel of dhamma" is set in motion with the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path; SN 45 Magga-saṃyutta (Path itemized); SN 47 Satipaṭṭhāna-saṃyutta (right mindfulness as "the one way") (nikāya sampling — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable (nikāya addition): sīla → samādhi → paññā (the tisso sikkhā — Three Trainings); jhāna (Warren: "trances"); ekāyano maggo (the "one way"); ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo (the Noble Eightfold Path with the eight sammā factors enumerated above); satipaṭṭhāna (Four Foundations of Mindfulness, with the four objects kāya / vedanā / citta / dhammā named); āsava (mental intoxications / "deadly floods"); structural-completeness addition: cattāri ariyasaccāni (Four Noble Truths) — named here as the path's integrating frame at the magga limb
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (there is a definite path requiring personal effort) converges with disciplined traditions; warrant (self-effort without divine grace) diverges from grace-centred traditions — a key Atlas axis. MN 26 nuance for the Atlas: the path was made available by the Buddha's having (despite initial reluctance) chosen to teach (MN-C3, C12) — so "self-effort on a found path" is the truer formulation than pure auto-soteriology. This sits closer to "preached-word-then-personal-faith" patterns than pure-grace traditions, and farther from them than the Dhammapada alone suggests. DN 22's "one and only path" formulation hardens the in-tradition exclusivism — a feature whose Atlas weight is to be set against analogous "narrow gate" / "straight path" formulations elsewhere.

P9 — Wisdom and the discernment of truth (paññā)

Right view distinguishes truth from untruth, the path from the no-path; learning is inner realization, not verbal recitation; ignorance (avijjā) is the worst taint. The teaching is to be tested against one's own experience, not received on authority — the canonical "see for yourselves" posture of the Kālāma Sutta (AN 3.65) is verbatim in the AN's Devadūta Sutta (AN 3.36): "what I by myself, unassisted, have known, and seen, and learnt, that I tell you." MN 63 (Cūḷamālunkya) and MN 72 (Aggi-Vacchagotta) deliver the corollary: speculative metaphysical certainty is not the wisdom sought. The Buddha refuses to declare the cosmological and post-mortem questions (world eternal? Tathāgata after death?) because they "profit not, nor have to do with the fundamentals of religion, nor tend to … supreme wisdom and Nirvana"; the poisoned-arrow simile makes the point pastoral. Right paññā is diagnostic-and-therapeutic, not theoretical.

  • Covers: Ch1 (truth), Ch3-P3, Ch5-P3, Ch18-P3, Ch19-P2, Ch22-P5, Ch25-P5, **AN-C9, AN-P5 , MN-C4, MN-C5, MN-C6, MN-C7, MN-P1 ** · Evidence: Dhp 11–12, 256–272, 282; AN 3.36, 3.18, 3.37 (nikāya sampling — see books/30-anguttara-nikaya.md); MN 63 poisoned-arrow, MN 72 "jungle of views" (nikāya sampling — see books/28-majjhima-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: paññā (wisdom/insight), avijjā (ignorance/mis-knowing), + avyākata (the "undeclared" speculative questions), cattāri ariyasaccāni (Four Noble Truths as the declared diagnosis)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (wisdom over mere knowledge; discern truth; test before believing) converges strongly — this is a key Atlas convergence with Christian/Jewish/Muslim "examine your conscience," Quaker "inner light," Vedantic anubhava, and modern scientific epistemics; warrant (insight into the three marks specifically; the Buddha as model verifier, not divine revealer) is frame-specific. nikāya strengthening (MN): the avyākata doctrine adds a distinctive layer — paññā is not just "tested" but bounded (some questions are off-the-table not because unanswerable but because their answers do not free). This sits at considerable tension with theological traditions that take metaphysical content (the soul's nature, God's existence, the afterlife) as part of saving wisdom. Strong Atlas signal: practical-wisdom traditions (Stoicism, Confucianism, much rabbinic ethics) converge; doctrinal-wisdom traditions (creedal Christianity, kalām, Vedānta) diverge.

P10 — Liberation (nibbāna) is the highest peace and happiness — the cessation limb of the Four Noble Truths; the four-stage soteriological journey (deferral with in-corpus anchor)

The stilling of craving is the unconditioned, the "other shore," the highest happiness; the liberated end rebirth and are trackless and unassailable. MN 72's fire-extinction simile gives the canonical apophatic ground: the released Tathāgata is, like a fire whose fuel is spent, beyond the four-fold predication — to say he is reborn, not reborn, both, or neither would not "fit the case." He is "deep, immeasurable, unfathomable, like the mighty ocean." This is the scriptural source-text for all later Buddhist apophasis (and a structural cousin of the four-fold predication structure that "does not fit the case" — later systematized in Mahāyāna as catuṣkoṭi). Theravāda commentarial nuance (Buddhaghosa, Visuddhimagga): the canonical sutta framing is cessation (nirodha); the Theravāda commentarial tradition unpacks this positively as the amata-dhātu (the deathless element) — one of the four paramattha-dhamma — so "cessation" in the sutta-language is not mere absence but the unconditioned amata whose nature is unpacked positively in commentary. The principle's "cessation" framing is the SN-canonical formulation that the commentarial tradition then unpacks positively; the modernist (Buddhadāsa, some Western Theravāda) reading takes nibbāna as psychological liberation in this very life. Canonical structure named (cattāri ariyasaccāni, third naming): this principle is also the prognosis / cessation limb (third truth, nirodha) of the Four Noble Truths (see P3 for the medical-model frame). The Buddha's first sermon names dukkha-nirodha-ariyasaccaṃ as the third truth (SN 56.11 / Warren §74 / DN 22 parallel; Dhp 191 verbatim: "the destruction of pain"); SN 22.59 closes the anattā discourse with the soteriological signature — insight → dispassion → liberation → "rebirth is exhausted." Four Noble Persons (cattāri ariya-puggalā — see canonical taxonomies) — the path is canonically articulated as four stages of awakening: sotāpanna (stream-enterer), sakadāgāmī (once-returner), anāgāmī (non-returner), arahant (fully awakened). P10 covers the arahant terminus extensively; P11 covers the true-brāhmaṇa-by-attainment framing of the Brāhmaṇa-vagga (Dhp 383–423) which is structurally the arahat ideal. The locus classicus for the four-stage enumeration (MN 142 Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅga; AN 8.59; SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta) is partly outside the corpus's PD source (see Scope and deferrals section); Future work for full coverage when PTS Kindred Sayings vol. V (Rhys Davids/Woodward) and the AN suttas come into U.S. PD (~2028).

  • Covers: Ch7-P1/P2, Ch11-P3, Ch14-P1, Ch15-P3/P4, Ch16-P4, Ch24-P5, Ch25-P4, Ch26-P2/P5, **MN-C9, MN-P2 , SN-C4, SN-C7, SN-C13, SN-C15, SN-P5, SN-P7 ** · Evidence: Dhp 90–99, 203–204, 368–372, 383–423, 191 (Müller verbatim "the destruction of pain" — the cessation limb in the corpus's own source text, see Ch14-C9); MN 72 fire-extinction & "like the mighty ocean", MN 26 "incomparable security of a Nirvana free from birth" ; SN 22.53 — the canonical articulation: "when that consciousness has no resting-place, does not increase, and no longer accumulates karma, it becomes free… it attains Nirvana in its own person"; SN 22.85 Yamaka (rejection of the annihilationist reading: nibbāna ≠ the annihilation of a self); SN 22.59 closing (insight → dispassion → liberation → "rebirth is exhausted") (nikāya sampling — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md) · Future work: MN 142, AN 8.59, SN 55 Sotāpatti-saṃyutta for the four-stage enumeration of the noble persons (locus classicus outside corpus PD source — see Scope and deferrals)
  • Untranslatable: nibbāna (extinguishing — not annihilation, not a heaven), parinibbāna (final extinguishing), the four-fold predication structure that "does not fit the case" (later systematized in Mahāyāna as catuṣkoṭi); structural-completeness additions: amata-dhātu (the deathless element — the Theravāda commentarial positive unpacking of nibbāna); cattāri ariyasaccāni (Four Noble Truths) named here as the principle's frame at the cessation limb; cattāri ariya-puggalā (the Four Noble Persons: sotāpanna, sakadāgāmī, anāgāmī, arahant) — four-stage soteriological structure named in principle prose, with locus-classicus deferral
  • Cross-tradition note: the goal-state is the deepest divergence alongside anattā: claim (an ultimate peace beyond suffering) loosely converges with "salvation/beatitude," but the warrant (cessation, not eternal communion with God) diverges fundamentally. nikāya sharpening (MN 72): the shape of the talk-about-the-goal (apophatic, beyond-predication) is a strong cross-tradition convergence with Christian negative theology, Vedantic neti neti, the Tao that cannot be named, Eckhart's "Godhead beyond God." But the content — Buddhist apophasis denies a continuing subject who is beyond predication; theistic apophasis affirms a subject whose nature exceeds predication. Same rhetorical structure, opposite ontology. The Atlas should mark this as a convergence-of-form-with-divergence-of-substance, not a flat divergence. SN 22.85 (Yamaka) is the decisive Atlas anchor: the doctrine that the arahant "on the dissolution of the body is annihilated, perishes, and does not exist after death" is named explicitly as "wicked heresy." Nibbāna therefore is neither annihilation nor continued existence; the question is rejected as malformed (because no attā was ever the subject of either predication). Any cross-tradition mapping that reads nibbāna as "annihilation" or as "an impersonal Brahman" misses this canonical correction.

P11 — Practice over profession; worth by attainment, not birth or ritual; the arahant as the terminus of the four-stage path

Reciting much without doing avails nothing; ritual sacrifice and caste do not make one holy. The true Brāhmaṇa is made by attainment — blameless, awakened — not by birth. DN 2 (Sāmaññaphala) gives this its most pointed social form: a slave who renounces the world and joins the Order is no longer to be treated as a slave; the king himself rises from his seat to greet him. Vocation overrides social rank at the threshold of the path. DN 13 (Tevijja) parallels this on the lay side: the Buddha extends the path to "a householder, or one of his children, or a man of inferior birth in any class" without distinction. Four-stage soteriological structure (cattāri ariya-puggalā — see P10 and canonical taxonomies): the Brāhmaṇa-vagga (Dhp 383–423, Chapter XXVI literally titled "The Arahat") covers the arahant as the terminus of the four-stage path — sotāpanna (stream-enterer), sakadāgāmī (once-returner), anāgāmī (non-returner), arahant — though the canonical four-stage enumeration's locus classicus (MN 142, AN 8.59, SN 55) is partly outside the corpus's PD source and is flagged as Future work in P10 + Scope and deferrals.

  • Covers: Ch1-P5, Ch4-P4, Ch8-P1/P3, Ch10-P4, Ch19-P3, Ch22-P2, Ch26-P1, **DN-C2, DN-P7 ** · Evidence: Dhp 19–20, 51–52, 393–423 (the whole Brāhmaṇa/Arahat chapter); DN 2 §§35–36 slave-turned-recluse (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: Brāhmaṇa redefined (caste → arhat) — a same-word/different-referent flag for the Atlas; cattāri ariya-puggalā (the four noble persons / four-stage path; locus classicus deferred — see P10)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (sincerity/practice over outward form; merit not inherited) converges strongly (cf. prophetic critiques of empty ritual); warrant differs. nikāya strengthening (DN 2): the concrete social scene — the king rising from his throne for a former slave — anchors the equality-claim in observable practice, not abstraction.

P12 — Virtue endures and good companionship (sīla, kalyāṇa-mittatā)

Virtue's fragrance surpasses all scents and outlasts the body; befriend the wise and shun fools; the wise, self-fashioned, are unshaken by fortune's extremes.

  • Covers: Ch4-P5, Ch6-P1/P2/P4, Ch8-P4, Ch11-P2, Ch23-P4/P5 · Evidence: Dhp 54–56, 76–89, 328–330
  • Untranslatable: kalyāṇa-mittatā (spiritual friendship)
  • Cross-tradition note: broad convergence (virtue's endurance; the company you keep).

P13 — Contentment, simplicity, and urgency before death

Own little, contend for nothing — contentment is the greatest wealth; the world is afire and life is sudden, so rouse yourself now and do not squander youth. The AN's "death's messengers" (aging, sickness, death) make this urgency explicit: the thoughtful person, seeing them in every life, resolves to act nobly with body, voice, and mind now. Lay ethics are likewise karmically weighty — anger and stinginess shape the conditions of the next life (AN 4.197).

  • Covers: Ch15-P1/P2, Ch24-P4, Ch25-P2, Ch11-P4, Ch13-P3, Ch20-P5, **AN-C4, AN-C8, AN-P3 ** · Evidence: Dhp 197–208, 146, 280; AN 3.36 "Death's Messengers", AN 4.197 Mallika Sutta (nikāya sampling — see books/30-anguttara-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: santuṭṭhi (contentment)
  • Cross-tradition note: claim (simplicity, non-acquisitiveness, mortality-awareness) converges broadly with ascetic and wisdom traditions. nikāya strengthening: the AN puts mortality-awareness on doctrinal record as the engine of ethical urgency (not merely a poetic note) — and adds the lay-ethics dimension that everyday anger, generosity, and freedom-from-envy carry karmic weight. The requested AN 4.62 Anaṇa lay-happiness sutta (ownership, enjoyment, debtlessness, blamelessness) was not PD-accessible and is flagged for future work inclusion. DN 16 also anchors urgency: the Buddha's last words — "Decay is inherent in all component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!" — are the locus classicus for the urgency-before-death theme (DN-C9, DN-P6; see books/27-digha-nikaya.md).

P14 — Reciprocal social ethics in six directions (Sigālovāda — the "Layman's Vinaya")

Lay social life is structured as six "quarters" of duty — parents (east), teachers (south), spouse (west), friends and kin (north), workers (nadir), and religious teachers (zenith) — each carrying reciprocal obligations on both sides. The four "bases of cohesion" (saṅgaha-vatthu) — the giving hand, kindly speech, the life of service, impartiality — are the linchpin of the social wheel. Notably absent from the scheme: any explicit vow of obedience. The Theravāda lay ethic is reciprocal rather than hierarchical; the worker's duties to the master are matched by the master's duties to the worker (food, wages, sick-care, leave), and the pupil's "eagerness to learn" replaces what Rhys Davids notes Childers had wrongly translated as "obedience." (Deference patterns of course exist — senior-monk-junior-monk etiquette, upajjhāya preceptor relations in the vinaya — but no vow of obedience in either the Sigālovāda lay code or the Pātimokkha monastic rules. The structural finding is the absent vow, not absent deference.)

  • Covers: **DN-C18, DN-C19, DN-C20, DN-C21, DN-C22, DN-C23, DN-P9 ** · Evidence: DN 31 (Sigālovāda) §§3, 7, 15, 21, 26–33 (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: suhada (true / sound-hearted friend), kalyāṇa-mitta (spiritual friend), saṅgaha-vatthu (the four bases of social cohesion: dāna, peyyavajja, atthacariyā, samānattatā).
  • Cross-tradition note: a strong convergence candidate for cross-tradition "social ethics" comparison — the six directions function similarly to the Confucian Five Relationships (wǔlún), the Pauline "household codes," and the Stoic officia. Two structural divergences are sharp: (1) reciprocity rather than hierarchy — no explicit vow of obedience appears in the Theravāda lay or monastic codes (Rhys Davids' note at DN 31), even though deference patterns (preceptor / elder-monk) exist in the vinaya; (2) karmic-utilitarian rather than covenantal warrant — the duties are recommended because they make the social wheel turn, not because a divine lawgiver commands them. Distinct from the Dhammapada (principally individual-soteriological), this is the Theravāda's developed social ethics — a major Atlas anchor.

P15 — The dharmic polity and the social-causal account of poverty/crime (Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda)

The just polity is led by a cakkavatti — a "wheel-turning monarch" who "conquers not by the scourge, not by the sword, but by righteousness (dhamma)" and whose Aryan duty includes "watch, ward, and protection" for every class (including beasts and birds) and the giving of wealth to the poor. Failure to relieve poverty is the causal seed of crime: when goods are not bestowed on the destitute, poverty grows; from poverty grows stealing; from stealing grows violence; from violence grows murder; thereafter lying and the rest, and human well-being declines correspondingly. Recovery comes not from royal decree but from below — by ordinary people resolving together to abstain from killing, theft, lying, and so on, and to honour parents, elders, and holy persons.

  • Covers: **DN-C15, DN-C16, DN-C17, DN-P8 ** · Evidence: DN 26 (Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda) §§2, 5, 10, 14, 22 (nikāya sampling — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md)
  • Untranslatable: cakkavatti (wheel-turner / universal monarch); dhamma-rāja (king of righteousness); dhamma here oscillating between "Norm," "Law," and "Right" (Rhys Davids' note: cf. French droit, German Recht).
  • Cross-tradition note: a strong convergence candidate with prophetic, liberation-theological, and Confucian-political traditions that locate the relief of want at the heart of just rule. The Theravāda formulation is distinctive in two respects: (1) the causal mechanism is sociological-karmic in this life, not eschatological — punishing crime without remedying poverty backfires materially, life-span itself collapsing as the polity devolves; (2) recovery is from below and mutual, not by a savior-king — beings resolve together to amend their conduct, and the next wheel-turner (Saṅkha, the era of the future Buddha Metteyya) follows the moral recovery, not vice versa. A major Atlas datum for comparing accounts of "the just polity"; absent from the Dhammapada and therefore a genuinely new principle at the Theravāda core-principles level.

P16 — Tisaraṇa (Three Refuges) — Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha as the community-constitutive act

Becoming a Buddhist is a community-constitutive act — the public taking of refuge in three jewels: Buddha (the awakened one), Dhamma (the teaching), Saṅgha (the community of practitioners). The Dhammapada itself names them in a single condensed creed-verse cluster (Dhp 190–192), structurally pairing Three Refuges + Four Truths + Eightfold Path as one compact Buddhist creed: "He who takes refuge with Buddha, the Law, and the Church; he who, with clear understanding, sees the four holy truths:— Viz. pain, the origin of pain, the destruction of pain, and the eightfold holy way that leads to the quieting of pain;— That is the safe refuge, that is the best refuge; having gone to that refuge, a man is delivered from all pain." (Müller verbatim — Dhp 190–192, in-corpus at Ch14-C9). Dhp 188–189 establishes the contrast: "Men, driven by fear, go to many a refuge, to mountains and forests, to groves and sacred trees… But that is not a safe refuge… a man is not delivered from all pains after having gone to that refuge." The fear-driven external refuges (mountains, sacred trees) do not deliver; the safe refuge is the Three Jewels. The Khuddakapāṭha opens with the Saraṇattaya (Khp 1 — the refuge formula Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, recited three times); Khuddakapāṭha is the novice's manual, the first text of the entire Khuddaka Nikāya, and Tisaraṇa is its first chapter — the formula by which every Theravāda Buddhist is constitutively a Buddhist, recited at every uposatha observance, every dāna offering, every monastic ordination, every vandanā devotional service. Complementarity with P5: P5 (attadīpā / "be islands/lamps unto yourselves," DN 16) and Tisaraṇa are widely treated in scholarship (Gethin 1998 ch.5; Rahula 1974 ch.7) as complementary, not contradictory: external refuge is the community-affiliative form; internal refuge is the soteriological substance. The Dhammapada itself holds both poles — Dhp 160 ("Self is the lord of self") on the internal side; Dhp 190–192 on the external community-affiliative side. P5 + P16 together name the structure.

  • Covers: Ch14-C8, Ch14-C9, Ch14-P5 · Evidence: Dhp 188–192 (in-corpus verbatim from Müller — the locus classicus for the Three Refuges in the Dhammapada itself, see books/14-the-buddha.md); Khuddakapāṭha 1 (Saraṇattaya) referenced (Khuddaka is in corpus by name though not separately distilled) · Future work: AN 8.39 Abhisanda (the canonical "streams of merit" pairing Three Refuges + Five Precepts as the unified eight-fold lay commitment formula) — locus classicus outside corpus PD source (PTS Gradual Sayings 1932–36, ~2028 PD horizon); flagged for future work
  • Untranslatable: Tisaraṇa (the Three Refuges / Three Jewels); Tiratana (the alternative name; the three jewels); the refuge formula itself — Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi ("I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Saṅgha"); vandanā (the devotional/refuge-recitation service). Note on Müller's translation: Müller renders Dhamma as "the Law" and Saṅgha as "the Church" in Dhp 190 — flattening the polyvalent Dhamma (teaching, truth, way, ultimate reality) into the legalistic "Law" and importing Christian connotations into Saṅgha (the recluse-community, not an ecclesiastical body). Both terms preserved as untranslatables; Müller's English glosses retained in quotation only.
  • Cross-tradition note: a convergence-of-form-with-divergence-of-warrant candidate. The claim — that becoming a member of a religious tradition involves a publicly-declared affiliative act — converges with Christian baptism, Jewish brit milah, and Islamic shahāda. The warrant diverges sharply: Tisaraṇa is an orientation, not a belief assertion; one takes refuge in a path-and-community, not in a creed-of-content one professes to believe. There is no covenant being entered (the Abrahamic warrant), no salvation-by-confession (the Christian warrant), no testimony to a non-Buddhist deity (the Islamic shahāda warrant); the formula does not state "the Buddha is real" or "the Dhamma is true" but "I take refuge in" — a posture of orientation toward a path. The complementarity with P5 (internal refuge, attadīpā) is itself an Atlas finding: the external community-affiliative pole and the internal soteriological pole both belong to the tradition; treating one as canonical at the expense of the other (a Western individualist reading would emphasize P5; a missionary or census-style reading would emphasize P16) misses the structural pair.

P17 — Pañca Sīlāni (Five Precepts) — the universal lay ethical floor

The Five Precepts (Pañca Sīlāni — see canonical taxonomies) are the universal lay Buddhist ethical floor: voluntary abstention from (1) killing living beings (pāṇātipātā), (2) taking what is not given (adinnādānā), (3) sexual misconduct (kāmesumicchācārā), (4) false speech (musāvādā), and (5) intoxicants that cloud the mind (surāmeraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā). Every Theravāda layperson undertakes them; they are recited at uposatha observances, at temple visits, at every protective-chant ceremony, at every dāna offering. The five are sikkhā-pada — training rules undertaken, not commandments imposed. All five are in-corpus: Dhp 129 ("All men tremble at punishment, all men fear death; remember that you are like unto them, and do not kill, nor cause slaughter" — Müller verbatim) anchors the first precept; DN 22 §21 (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna) names 4 of the 5 (all but intoxicants) embedded in the Eightfold Path's sammā-vācā and sammā-kammanta limbs — "Abstaining from lying, slander, abuse and idle talk… Abstaining from taking life, from taking what is not given, from carnal indulgence" (Rhys Davids verbatim, see DN-C14); DN 31 (Sigālovāda) §7 covers the fifth precept ("the six channels for dissipating wealth: — the being addicted to intoxicating liquors…", Rhys Davids verbatim, see DN-C19) and §3 names the four-vices base list (killing, taking what is not given, licentiousness, lying — DN-C18). The five together therefore have hybrid in-corpus anchoring across Dhp + DN — though the canonical eight-fold pairing of Tisaraṇa + Pañca Sīlāni at AN 8.39 (Abhisanda) is outside the PD source horizon (Future work). Distinct from P7 (monastic sīla): P7 covers the generic sīla, restraint, the three doors, austerities — applicable to monk and layperson alike. P17 names the specifically lay-ethical five-fold structure that constitutes the lived Buddhist commitment of every layperson, distinct from the Pātimokkha's 227 monastic rules (the vinaya binding for monks). The lay-vs-monastic distinction is doctrinally important — the gihi-sukha (lay happiness) and pabbajjā (going-forth) are distinct life-arcs in Theravāda — and the Five Precepts are the universal floor on which monastic sīla builds.

  • Covers: Ch10-P1 (precept 1: non-killing), Ch10-P2, DN-C14 (precepts 1–4 via DN 22 §21), DN-C18 (the four-vices base list), DN-C19 (precept 5 via DN 31 §7) · Evidence: Dhp 129–132 (Müller verbatim, in-corpus — first precept anchored, see books/10-punishment.md); DN 22 §21 — Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna (Rhys Davids verbatim, in-corpus — precepts 1–4 via the sammā-vācā + sammā-kammanta limbs of the Eightfold Path, see books/27-digha-nikaya.md DN-C14); DN 31 §3 + §7 — Sigālovāda (Rhys Davids verbatim, in-corpus — precept 5 via the "six channels for dissipating wealth," see DN-C18 + DN-C19); Khuddakapāṭha 2 Dasasikkhāpada (the ten training rules of which the first five are Pañca Sīlāni) referenced (Khuddaka in corpus by name) · Future work: AN 8.39 (Abhisanda — the canonical "streams of merit" Three-Refuges-plus-Five-Precepts eight-fold formula); AN 4.62 (Anaṇa — the canonical lay-happiness taxonomy: ownership, enjoyment, debtlessness, blamelessness) — both PD-unavailable from Warren; flagged for ~2028 PTS horizon
  • Untranslatable: Pañca Sīlāni (the Five Precepts as a structure); pāṇātipātā veramaṇī (abstention from killing), adinnādānā veramaṇī (abstention from theft), kāmesumicchācārā veramaṇī (abstention from sexual misconduct), musāvādā veramaṇī (abstention from false speech), surāmeraya-majja-pamādaṭṭhānā veramaṇī (abstention from intoxicants that cloud the mind); sikkhā-pada (training rule — the form the precepts take, voluntarily undertaken, not commanded); gihi-sukha (lay happiness — the lay life-arc distinct from pabbajjā monastic going-forth).
  • Cross-tradition note: a strong claim-level convergence with the Decalogue (4 of 5 directly overlap with the Decalogue's "no murder" / "no theft" / "no adultery" / "no false witness" — though the Decalogue is positive-and-negative and includes God-commands the Buddhist precepts lack), with Jewish taryag mitzvot, Christian moral law, Islamic aḥkām, and Confucian xiao + filial duties as universal lay ethical taxonomies. Warrant-level divergences are sharp: (1) the precepts are training rules voluntarily undertaken (sikkhā-pada), not commandments imposed by divine authority — every recitation begins with the layperson saying "I undertake the training-rule to abstain from…"; (2) the precepts are uniformly negative-abstentive (the Decalogue mixes "thou shalt" with "thou shalt not"); (3) the warrant for keeping them is karmic-and-soteriological (this conduct conduces to good rebirth and to liberation), not covenantal-and-relational (this conduct keeps the covenant with God). The Five Precepts give the cross-tradition Atlas a clean lay-ethical-floor entry that currently is asymmetric (Decalogue-heavy on the Abrahamic side, with no clean Buddhist counterpart at the core-principles level). Distinct from P7 (monastic generic sīla) in being the voluntarily undertaken lay code rather than a vinaya binding.

Convergence/divergence summary (Atlas preview)

Likely cross-tradition convergence (claim level) Likely divergence (warrant/foundation)
P6 non-harm/non-hatred · P4 you reap what you sow · P11 practice over ritual · P13 simplicity/mortality · P1 inner life governs conduct · P2 paṭiccasamuppāda as "conditioned causation" (broad convergence with process-relational ontologies and Aristotelian causal analysis) · P3/P8/P10 Four Noble Truths as medical-model frame (form-convergence with Hippocratic medical pedagogy, modern problem-solving, "fall/redemption" arcs) · P14 reciprocal social ethics in six directions (convergence with Confucian wǔlún, Pauline household codes, Stoic officia) · P15 relief of poverty as causal antecedent of just polity (convergence with prophetic, liberation-theological, and Confucian-political traditions) · P16 Tisaraṇa as community-constitutive act (convergence-of-form with Christian baptism / Jewish brit milah / Islamic shahāda) · P17 Pañca Sīlāni as lay ethical floor (claim-level convergence with Decalogue 6–9, taryag mitzvot, Christian moral law, Islamic aḥkām) P2 anattā (no soul) · P10 nibbāna (cessation, not communion with God; SN 22.85 makes this anti-annihilationist, not merely anti-eternalist) · P8 self-effort without grace · P4 karma without a judging God · the rejection of the malformed "what is X / who has X?" question (SN 12.35) — substantialist grammar of much theistic and Vedic discourse · P14 reciprocity not obedience (no explicit vow of obedience in the Theravāda lay or monastic code — Rhys Davids' note at DN 31) · P15 recovery from below, not by savior-king (the cakkavatti follows the moral recovery, not vice versa) · P16 Tisaraṇa is orientation not belief assertion (no covenant entered, no creed-of-content professed; the formula does not state "the Buddha is real" but "I take refuge in") · P17 Pañca Sīlāni are sikkhā-pada (training-rules voluntarily undertaken) — not commandments imposed by divine authority; karmic-soteriological warrant not covenantal · Four Noble Truths warrant divergence: the etiology is taṇhā not original sin; the cure is path not grace; the prognosis is nirodha not eternal communion

These are hypotheses for the Atlas to test against other traditions via the claim-vs-warrant method, not settled findings.

Cross-lingual note: Pāli (and incidental Sanskrit) terms in transliteration appear in principle titles, the untranslatables glossary, and direct Müller / Warren / Rhys Davids quotations, while synthesis prose explains in English with explicit glossary-anchor references back to 00-methodology.md#canonical-theme-taxonomies. Stray foreign tokens without glossary anchor are avoided.

Quality

  • Source coverage: all 26 chapters / 129 chapter principles map to at least one core principle.
  • Traceability: each core principle lists covered chapter principles + evidence verses.
  • Standalone comprehension: each principle stated to be intelligible to an outsider, with the frame-specific warrant flagged separately.
  • Scope note: Dhammapada primary, with nikāya sampling representative samplings from DN (P5, P8, P14, P15, P16, P17), MN (P2, P3, P8, P9, P10), SN (P2, P3, P8, P10 — the canonical articulations of anattā, taṇhā, paṭiccasamuppāda, the Eightfold Path, and nibbāna), and AN (P9, P13) now folded in additively. The SN sampling in particular contributes the canonical first-sermon-context evidence (SN 56.11 Dhammacakkappavattana for the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path; SN 22.59 Anattalakkhaṇa as the immediately-following anattā discourse; SN 12 Nidāna-saṃyutta for paṭiccasamuppāda; SN 35.28 for the Fire Sermon) — material previously implicit in the Dhammapada. Source-access caveat: Woodward & Hare's Gradual Sayings (PTS 1932–1936) and Chalmers Further Dialogues (1926–27) remain under U.S. copyright (~2028 PD horizon); nikāya sampling verbatim quotes are restricted to PD sources (Warren 1896 for SN/MN/AN — see books/29-samyutta-nikaya.md, books/28-majjhima-nikaya.md, and books/30-anguttara-nikaya.md; Rhys Davids Dialogues for DN — see books/27-digha-nikaya.md). The Dhammacakkappavattana (SN 56.11) and Vajirā chariot simile (SN 5.10) verbatim against PTS Kindred Sayings remain future audit items.

Scope and deferrals

Three legitimate deferral categories: (1) source genuinely unavailable; (2) out of textual focus; (3) non-essential per scholarship. The following are documented deferrals for Buddhism (Theravāda):

  • (a) Cattāri ariya-puggalā — the Four Noble Persons (four-stage soteriological enumeration: sotāpanna, sakadāgāmī, anāgāmī, arahant) — Category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable): the locus classicus MN 142 Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅga, AN 8.59, and SN 55 (Sotāpatti-saṃyutta) are partly outside the corpus's PD source. Warren does not translate MN 142 (Warren's MN coverage is MN 6, 26, 44, 63, 72 only — see books/28-majjhima-nikaya.md); Warren's AN selections (AN 2.31, 3.18, 3.33, 3.36, 3.37, 3.88, 3.99, 4.197 — see books/30-anguttara-nikaya.md) do not include AN 8.59; SN 55 is in PTS Kindred Sayings vol. V (Rhys Davids/Woodward) which is partly post-1928. Hybrid in-corpus anchor: the four-stage structure is named in P10 and P11 with the arahant terminus covered extensively (Dhp 383–423, Chapter XXVI literally titled "The Arahat"). Future work: re-include MN 142, AN 8.59, and SN 55 when PD coverage becomes available (~2028 for the Gradual Sayings PD horizon; Chalmers Further Dialogues 1926–27 PD-status verification needed in parallel).

  • (b) AN 8.39 Abhisanda (the canonical "streams of merit" Three-Refuges-plus-Five-Precepts eight-fold formula) — Category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable): AN 8.39 is in Gradual Sayings PTS 1932–36, post-1928 U.S. copyright horizon. Hybrid in-corpus anchor: P16 (Tisaraṇa) anchored in Dhp 190–192; P17 (Pañca Sīlāni) anchored in Dhp 129 + DN 22 §21 + DN 31 §7. The canonical eight-fold pairing of Refuges-and-Precepts is named in P16's Future work field. Future work: AN 8.39 verbatim when PD source available.

  • (c) AN 4.62 Anaṇa (canonical lay-happiness taxonomy: ownership, enjoyment, debtlessness, blamelessness) — Category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable): AN 4.62 not in Warren; in Gradual Sayings post-1928 PTS. Hybrid in-corpus anchor: lay-ethics dimension covered at P13 (nikāya AN 4.197 Mallika); the four-fold lay-happiness taxonomy itself is not anchored within-corpus. Future work: AN 4.62 verbatim when PD source available (named in P13's existing note).

  • (d) AN 3.65 Kālāma (the canonical "see for yourselves" passage) — Category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable): AN 3.65 not in Warren; post-1928 PTS. Hybrid in-corpus anchor: P9 captures the same epistemic posture from AN 3.36 Devadūta ("what I by myself, unassisted, have known, and seen, and learnt, that I tell you") which is in Warren. Future work: AN 3.65 verbatim.

  • (e) MN 10 Satipaṭṭhāna · MN 22 Alagaddūpama (raft simile) · MN 36 Mahāsaccaka · MN 38 Mahātaṇhāsaṅkhaya · MN 118 Ānāpānasati — Category 1 (PD source genuinely unavailable): not in Warren (Warren's MN coverage is MN 6, 26, 44, 63, 72 only); PD status of Chalmers Further Dialogues (1926–27) unverified. Hybrid in-corpus coverage where possible: MN 10 Satipaṭṭhāna is covered via DN 22 Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna parallel at P8 (canonical satipaṭṭhāna formulation in DN-C11/C12); MN 22 raft simile is genuinely missed (no in-corpus parallel for the "dhamma is for crossing over, not for grasping" Atlas-grade religion-as-vehicle theme); MN 36, 38, 118 likewise without in-corpus parallels. Future work: full Chalmers PD-status verification + post-2028 PD horizon for Further Dialogues lineage.

  • (f) Abhidhamma Piṭaka — Category 2 (out of textual focus): the Theravāda canon has a third piṭaka, the Abhidhamma (the systematic philosophical analysis of dhammas — the four paramattha-dhamma citta/cetasika/rūpa/nibbāna, the 89/121 cittas, the seven Abhidhamma books). The distillation's named scope is the Sutta Piṭaka (Dhammapada + nikāya sampling); Abhidhamma is deliberately out of scope. A specialist Abhidhamma-trained reviewer would flag the absence; the methodology should explicitly note this scope-boundary. For reviewer consideration: surface for within-tradition reviewer who can judge whether Abhidhamma material should be partially incorporated.

  • (g) Visuddhimagga (Buddhaghosa's 5th-c. commentarial systematic theology) — Category 2 (out of textual focus): Visuddhimagga is the canonical Theravāda systematic theology — the standard taxonomies (40 meditation objects, 14 character-types, the jhāna progression, the 3+3+2 grouping of the Eightfold Path under sīla/samādhi/paññā) used in lived Theravāda practice. Out of distillation's scope (the named corpus is Sutta-Piṭaka primary sources, not commentarial works). For reviewer consideration: surface for within-tradition reviewer.

  • (h) Modern Theravāda contestations — vipassanā vs samatha balance; Burmese/Sri Lankan/Thai lineage distinctions; bhikkhunī ordination contestation; Pāli commentary tradition (Aṭṭhakathā) — Category 2 (out of textual focus) for the modern-contestation items and the regional lineages; Category 1 (PD source unavailable) for the wider commentarial tradition (Buddhaghosa, Dhammapāla — partly available but not in distillation's current scope). For reviewer consideration: these are precisely what a within-tradition reviewer (Burmese, Sri Lankan, or Thai Theravāda scholar; Wisdom Publications editorial circle; Pariyatti / Vipassana Research Institute lineage) is best positioned to surface.

  • Structural-completeness: PASS (12/12 canonical taxonomies covered) against the canonical theme-taxonomy list.

    • Standalone principles: 1. Three Marks (tilakkhaṇa) — P2 (gold standard, audit verdict §3 Gap 3) · 2. Three Refuges (Tisaraṇa) — P16 (new) · 3. Five Precepts (Pañca Sīlāni) — P17 (new)
    • Sub-elements (clearly anchored, with one-sentence structural arguments per Learning 6):
      • Four Noble Truths (cattāri ariyasaccāni) — sub-element of P3 (etiology / samudaya) + P8 (treatment / magga) + P10 (cessation / nirodha) with P2 (diagnosis / dukkha via the three marks) — the four-fold structure is what makes Theravāda Buddhism a medical model (diagnosis → etiology → prognosis → treatment) rather than a list of teachings; each principle names the structure explicitly and points to the integrating SN 56.11 first-sermon locus and the Dhp 191 in-corpus condensed enumeration. Structural reason for sub-element placement: the four truths as a unified diagnostic-and-prescriptive frame are not the same as any of P3/P8/P10 individually; they integrate the existing principles rather than constituting a separate doctrinal node.
      • Noble Eightfold Path (ariya-aṭṭhaṅgika-magga) — sub-element of P8 with explicit enumeration of all eight sammā factors in principle prose. Structural reason: the Eightfold Path is the operational content of "the Path" principle; sub-element placement is faithful to the principle's title and explicit naming.
      • Five Aggregates (pañca khandhā) — sub-element of P2 (Three Marks) with all five enumerated in principle prose. Structural reason: the Five Aggregates are the diagnostic method by which the anattā mark is demonstrated in lived experience; they are inseparable from the conclusion they yield (audit verdict §3 Gap 5).
      • Dependent Origination (paṭiccasamuppāda / Twelve Nidānas) — sub-element of P2 (causal substrate, with twelve nidānas enumerated) with cross-anchoring at P3 (the vedanā → taṇhā nidāna where craving arises) and P10 (cessation = reverse-paṭiccasamuppāda). Structural reason: the conditioning chain is the logical ground of anattā (no enduring self because each aggregate arises in dependence on conditions, never from itself); the doctrine is structurally interior to the three marks and the path, not a sibling node.
      • Four Divine Abidings (brahmavihārā) — sub-element of P6 (Non-hatred) with all four enumerated (mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā) and the DN 13 Tevijja nikāya fourfold cultivation method named. Structural reason: the brahmavihārā is the technical fourfold method by which the moral claim of non-hatred is meditatively cultivated — taking "love conquers hatred" (Dhp 5) from a moral maxim to a discrete cultivable discipline (audit verdict §3 Gap 7).
      • Three Trainings (tisso sikkhā: sīla / samādhi / paññā) — sub-element of P8 (Path) with MN 6 Ākaṅkheyya canonical operational backbone named. Structural reason: the Three Trainings are the canonical Theravāda pedagogical grouping of the Eightfold Path's eight factors — integral to the path-principle rather than orthogonal.
      • Three Poisons / Three Unwholesome Roots (tayo akusalamūlā: rāga/lobha, dosa, moha) — sub-element of P3 (craving / rāga-lobha) + P6 (hatred / dosa) + P9 (delusion / moha as opposite of paññā; avijjā nidāna in P2's paṭiccasamuppāda substrate) — all three named together in P3 with the SN 35.28 Fire Sermon and AN 3.33/3.69 anchors. Structural reason: the three poisons are the canonical Theravāda akusala-mūla taxonomy of unwholesome mental sources; they are cross-cut by P3+P6+P9 and named together in P3 for canonical-taxonomy explicitness (audit verdict §3 Gap 9 refinement, R10).
      • Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) — sub-element of P8 (Path) with the four objects kāya / vedanā / citta / dhammā enumerated in principle prose, DN 22 Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna's "one and only path" (ekāyano maggo) named as locus classicus. Structural reason: satipaṭṭhāna is the operational core of the path's sammā-sati limb; DN 22's ekāyano maggo framing makes it the path's pedagogical center.
    • Explicit deferrals (with category + criterion): Four Noble Persons (Cat 1 — items (a) above; hybrid in-corpus anchor at P10 + P11 + Future work); AN 8.39 (Cat 1, item (b), Future work); AN 4.62 (Cat 1, item (c), Future work); AN 3.65 Kālāma (Cat 1, item (d), Future work); MN 22 raft simile + MN 36 + MN 38 + MN 118 (Cat 1, item (e), Future work); Abhidhamma Piṭaka (Cat 2, item (f), For reviewer consideration); Visuddhimagga commentarial tradition (Cat 2, item (g), For reviewer consideration); modern Theravāda contestations + regional lineages + bhikkhunī ordination (Cat 1/2 mixed, item (h), For reviewer consideration).
    • Citation drift fix applied: Dhp 276 quote-mark drift in P8 and compass: the previous text rendered the verse's second clause as "Buddhas only point the way" (a modern paraphrase), under quote marks. Restored to Müller verbatim: "You yourself must make an effort. The Tathagatas (Buddhas) are only preachers" (Müller SBE X, Dhp 276 verified via curl 2026-05-30 against Gutenberg #2017). Per agent-quote-fabrication-caught-by-audit discipline. Drift fix applied across P8 principle prose, compass compact + expanded versions.
    • Cross-tradition consistency: the Buddhist Tisaraṇa (P16) Atlas anchor is comparable to Christian baptism, Jewish brit milah, and Islamic shahāda — all community-constitutive acts; cross-tradition convergence-of-form with sharp warrant divergence (orientation vs belief assertion vs covenant). The Buddhist Pañca Sīlāni (P17) Atlas anchor is comparable to the Decalogue 6–9, taryag mitzvot, Christian moral law, Islamic aḥkām, Confucian filial-and-civic duties — to be re-attested as a cross-tradition lay-ethical-floor convergence.