Dhamma Search

One question, many canons — literal source passages from 62 text collections.

One term — and you read the literal passages side by side: 62 selected text collections in Pāli, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan and further languages, across eight families of transmission. The sources are what count; AI translation and AI summary are added on top, clearly marked as such. None of these traditions is covered completely.

What this is good for

A word like karma or emptiness stands in a different context in the Pāli canon than in Zen, in Vedānta or among the Sufis. Instead of working through ten books, here you lay the passages themselves side by side — in order to compare them, not to equate them.

How it works
  • 1. Enter a term — in English or in the original (jhāna, emptiness).
  • 2. Read the passages — corpus, language and location are given with every passage.
  • 3. Switch on the aids — source translation, AI translation and AI explanation are marked separately.
How to get the most out of it
  • Start with a precise term — it hits better than a whole sentence.
  • Compare two terms: enter nirvana vs moksha.
  • Compare traditions: choose 2–4 traditions on the right and tick the box — or use the compare button above the results when it appears.
  • Nothing fitting? Release the filters, try another spelling, read the passage in context.
  • Reading the colours: every colour is a family of transmission — not a language. The language is spelled out next to it.
Colour key — every colour stands for a family of transmission:

What is being searched?

— an overview of the 62 collections

Ordered by collection, with the number of searchable passages.

Loading the corpus overview …