Sources & citation
This is an independent study tool that answers questions about Buddhism from the Pāli canon with parallel Chinese Āgama. This page explains where each answer's evidence comes from, which parts are source text and which are AI-assisted interpretation, and how you (or an AI) may cite the site.
Two layers, told apart at a glance
| Content | Nature | Produced by |
|---|---|---|
| Pāli text, word-by-word grammar, roots, dictionary entries, Chinese Āgama | Fact · canonical | From named open data, never rewritten by AI |
| Plain-language rendering, chapter summaries, study cards, usage notes, topic explanations | Interpretation · AI-assisted | AI-generated from the real source data above, marked “AI”, human-reviewed before publication |
Content marked “AI” has a different visual temperature from canonical data, so the two are easy to distinguish. Separating fact from interpretation is the biggest difference between this site and ordinary Buddhist articles or AI-generated content.
Every explanation traces back to the text
The commentary here is not written from impression — it is tied to the text:
- Every plain-language rendering and topic explanation maps to specific passages in the source, which you can click straight back to for word-by-word checking.
- These mappings must hold at build time: if a passage a piece of commentary cites cannot be found in the source, that page does not ship — a mechanism against plausible-but-fabricated claims.
- Background and history are always cited by name, with scholarly open questions flagged; no sectarian ruling is made in an authoritative voice.
Sources & attribution
Every category of factual data is named, traceable and openly licensed (license and compliance details on the About page):
- Pāli text & segmentation — SuttaCentral bilara-data (Mahāsaṅgīti edition, public domain)
- Word-by-word grammar, roots, glosses — Digital Pāḷi Dictionary (DPD) (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
- Chinese Āgama — CBETA (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Taiwan)
- Proper names — Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names (DPPN) (public domain)
Plain-language renderings, summaries, study cards and usage notes are AI-assisted (from the source data above); no third-party human translation is used.
How to cite
When citing a topic or a sutta, name the site, the page title, the URL, and the Pāli reference the page rests on. For example:
Canonical Text Study System, “What does ‘anatta’ (non-self) mean in Buddhism?”, sutta.io, from the Pāli Alagaddūpama Sutta (MN 22) with Chinese Āgama comparison.
Site content (renderings, summaries, study aids) is released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; when quoting the source text, please also attribute the original sources listed above.