What does the name Tipitaka means?

It is made up of two words, ti means 'three' and pitaka means 'basket.' The first part of the name refers to the fact that the Buddhist scriptures consist of three sections. The first section, called the Sutta Pitaka contains all the Buddha's discourses as well as some by his enlightened disciples. The type of material in the Sutta Pitaka is very diverse which allows it to communicate the truths that the Buddha taught to different types of people. Many of the Buddha's discourses are in the form of sermons while others are in the form of dialogues. Other part like the Dhamapada present the Buddha's teachings through the medium of poetry. The Jatakas, to take another example, consists of delightful stories in which the main characters are often animals. The second section of the Tipitaka is the Vinaya Pitaka. This contains the rules and procedures for monks and nuns, advise on monastic administration and procedures, and the early history of the monastic order. The last section is called the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This is a complex and sophisticated attempt to analyze and classify all the constituents that make up the individual. Although the Abhidhamma is somewhat later than the first two sections of the Tipitaka it contains nothing that contradicts them. Now for the word 'pitaka.' In ancient India, construction workers used to move building materials from one place to another by means of a relay of baskets. They would put the baskets on their heads, walk some distance to the next worker, pass it to them, and he would repeat the process. Writing was known in the Buddha's time but as a medium, it was considered less reliable than the human memory. A book could rot in the monsoon damp or be eaten by white ants but a person's memory could last as long as they lived. Consequently, monks and nuns committed all the Buddha's teachings to memory and passed it on to each other just as construction workers passed earth and bricks to each other in baskets. This is why the three sections of the Buddhist scriptures are called baskets. After being preserved in this manner for several hundred years the Tipitaka was finally written down in about 100 BC in Sri Lanka. The preservation of the scriptures was joint effort by the community of monks and nuns. They would meet together at regular intervals and chant parts or all of the Tipitaka. This made it virtually impossible for anything to be added or changed. Think of it like this. If a group of a hundred people know a song by heart and while they are all singing it one gets a verse wrong or tries to insert a new verse, what will happen ? The sheer number of those who know the song correctly will prevent the odd one from making any changes. It is also important to remember that in those days there were no televisions, newspapers or advertising to distract and clutter the mind which, together with the fact that monks and nuns meditated, meant that they had extremely good memories. Even today, long after books have come into use, there are still monks who can recite the whole Tipitaka by heart. The monk Mengong Sayadaw of Burma is able to do this and he is mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records as having the world's best memory. How important are the scriptures to Buddhists ? Buddhist do not consider the Tipitaka to be a devine infallible revelation from a god, every word of which they must believe. Rather, it is a record of the teaching of a great man that offers explanations, advice, guidance and encouragement and which should read thoughtfully and respectfully. Our aim should be to understand what Tipitaka teaches, not just believe it and thus, what the Buddha says should always be checked against our experience. You might say that the informed Buddhist's attitude to the scriptures is similar to a scientist's attitude to research papers in a scientific journal. A scientist conducts an experiment and then publishes his or her findings and conclusions in a journal. Other scientists will read the paper and treat it with respect but they will not consider it valid and authoritative until they have conducted the same experiment and got the same result.