Simple English Suttas

This document contains plain language renditions of the Pali suttas. The Pali suttas are the oldest surviving texts in an Indic language containing the teachings of the historical Buddha (c. 5th to 4th century BCE), the great Indian spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism.

In this document, the earliest scriptures of Buddhism are found in a style and format that makes them easy to read and straightforward. The goal is to make these texts more accessible and simpler reads than other translations already available while also retaining all the main ideas and teachings. This collection strives to be a short collection of some important early Buddhist texts from the Pali Nikayas. Ideally, it provides a relatively short and easy to read introduction to the Buddha’s teachings which anyone can pick up and read. The reading level of these translations are suitable for readers in grade school. This has been confirmed by using various (free) readability scoring systems. I believe that these translations are currently the shortest and most easy to read translations of the Pali suttas available.