SUTTA NIPâTA

The Sutta Nipàta is a book in the Khuddaka Nikàya, the fifth part of the Sutta Piñaka, the second division of the Tipiñaka, the sacred scriptures of Buddhism. The name Sutta Nipàta means `collection of discourses' and the work contains 55 discourses and 1149 verses altogether. The Sutta Nipàta contains some of the most lyrical and evocative poetry in the scriptures, much of it drawing on the imagery of the natural environment. For example, a monk is urged to give up clinging `the way a snake outgrows its worn-out skin' and to `be alone like a rhinoceros'.