The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (664 page)

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Authors: John Bowker

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Diggers
.
A radical expression of the mid-17th-cent. Leveller movement, whose adherents described themselves as ‘True Levellers’. Inspired by the leadership of Gerard Winstanley and William Everard, the Diggers formed communal settlements, dug and sowed common land in several English counties (1649–50), vigorously maintaining that the earth was a common treasury.
D
gha Nik
ya
(Skt.,
D
rgh
gama
). The ‘
Long Collection
’, the first of the five nik
yas of the S
tra/Sutta Pi
aka of the P
li canon. The P
li version has thirty-four suttas, the Chinese (Mah
y
na) thirty; twenty-seven are common to both. It is divided into three sections, or ‘books’ (
vagga
):
(i) ethical rules, and refutation of false views;
(ii) the Great (Mah
-) section, in which some discourses (e.g. that on the final passing away,
Mah
-parinibb
na-sutta
)
have become important works in their own right;
(iii) the P
thika section, i.e. the section beginning with the
P
thika
, of which two discourses,
S
galov
da
(code for lay Buddhists) and
natiy
(providing protection) often appear separately.

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