The teaching of the Buddha is called Dharma. It is in the Buddhist scriptures, the Pali Canon. Also called Tripitaka, it describes how Buddhists should live and behave.

The Pali Canon consists of three collections of texts. The texts are called sutras. The collections contain the precepts for the monks, the discourses of the Buddha and many stories about his life, explanations and commentaries on the Buddha's teachings.

The word Pali canon reveals that the sacred scriptures of the Buddhists were first written in the Middle Indian language Pali. Canon means that several scriptures have been combined.

The second name Tripitaka means three baskets. Their names are Pitaka and Tri means three.

In addition to the three baskets, there is a huge number of stories, legends, myths, fairy tales, anecdotes and other texts. They are all about Buddha.