The Pali Canon and the three true doctrines

From another perspective, what Buddhism is all about can be summarised in three words: Pariyatti, Patipatti, and Pativedha, or the three true doctrines.

Pariyatti refers to the word of the Buddha that we study, through the Pali Canona, without which the Buddha’s teachings could never reach us. We can say that the Pariyatti is the result of the Pativedha and is also the basis for the practice (Patipatti) of Buddhism.

After achieving he result of his own practice, the Buddha proclaimed the Teaching, based on his own experiences. The word of the Buddha thus became our Pariyatti, i.e. what we have to learn. However, when we regard the Pariyatti as the result of the Pativedha, we exclusively refer to the Pativedha of the Buddha, i.e. the result of his own practice and the result of the practice accepted by the Buddha, but not that of any yogi, hermit, ascetic, recluse, anchorite, preacher, cult leader, or founder of another religion.

Without learning the Pariyatti or what the Buddha taught, our practice would be misguided, mistaken, and deviant from the original Teaching. If our practice was wrong, whatever result wee achieved could not be correct. And if we deceived ourselves with our own findings that were erroneously taken to be true, there could be no way for the Pativedha to ensue.

Hence, without the Pariyatti as basis, the Patipatti and the Pativedha would also fail to materialize. All would collapse together.
To put it simply, from the Buddha’s own Pativedha came our Pariyatti, which we learn and which provides the basis for our practice (Patipatti). When we practise properly, we will achieve the Pativedha just as the Buddha did. As long as this cycle still goes on, the Buddha’s Teaching will survive.
The Pariyatti that was derived from the Buddha’s Pativedha and provides the basis for all Buddhists to practise is to be found in the Pali Canon.
From this perspective, then, if we are to preserve the Pariyatti, Patipatti and Pativedha, we will have to preserve the Pali Canon.


Whether we trichotomise the Teaching into Pariyatti-saddhamma, Patipatti-saddhamma, and Pativedha-saddhmmam (i.e. the three true doctrines), or sometimes dichotomise it into Pariyatti-sasana and Patipatti-sasana (i.e. the two dispensations), it all boils down to the Pali Canon as the basis. Thus if we can preserve the Canon, so can we preserve Buddhism.