I'm really new to this, and you all have me to interested. What
exactly is the Anguttara? I see the abbreviations AN and SN
everywhere. Can someone fill me in on what they are? The
Anguttara is one of five Nikayas, or groups of suttas. Suttas
are the vague equivalent of sermons. The five Nikayas are the
Dingha, Majjhima, Samyutta (that's the SN you see around),
Anguttara (AN), and Khuddaka. Each Nikaya is between a thousand
and four thousand pages long and contain hundreds of suttas. The
Nikayas are written in Pali, which is the ancient language in
which the Buddha's teachings were first written. Bhikkhu Bodhi
is an American monk who is currently trying to translate the
entire Suttapitika (literally "basket of suttas," referring to
the entire collection of the Buddha's sermons) into English;
he's already done the Majjhima, and Samyutta and we are all
excited for the Anguttara to come out soon! Gain and loss,
status and disgrace, censure and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions among human beings are in