The role of the Udana within the context of the Pali Canon is to focus on the values and principles—“meaning†in the larger sense of the term—that underlie the Buddha’s teachings. This point can be seen clearly in how each udana is organized. It begins with a narrative of an event or series of events, followed (with a few variations) by the formula: “Then, on realizing the significance/meaning (attha) of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed.†This, in turn, is followed by a spontaneous exclamation—a poem, a passage of prose, or a combination of the two—in which the Buddha expresses what that meaning or significance is.
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