Type the words or phrases that you're looking for in the search box and press the Enter key. The search engine responds by presenting you with a list of all the web pages on this site containing those words or phrases. The most relevant content will appear at the top of your results.

Common words (such as "the," "and," "you," etc.) are ignored during searches.

By default this search engine tries to find pages that have exact matches for any of the words or phrases entered in your search query.

Example: If you type noble right concentration in the search box, you'll find hundreds of pages: every page that contains any one of the words noble, right, or concentration.

Improving your searches

Put quotation marks around phrases.

To search for a phrase of several words, enclose your query in double quotation marks ("...").

Example: To read about "noble right concentration," type "noble right concentration" in the search box (include the double quotes!).

Use + and - qualifiers.

A word beginning with + is required to be on the page. A word beginning with - is required to NOT be on the page.

Example: To find pages that mention generosity but not virtue, try +generosity -virtue

Use the * wildcard.

If a query word ends with a * your search will find pages containing words that begin with your query word.

Example: To find pages that contain generous, generosity, general, generic, etc., type gener* in your query.

Combine these techniques.

Examples:

• +generosity +layp* -virtue
  Finds pages that contain generosity AND layperson or laypeople BUT NOT virtue.
• "buddha's son" "son of the buddha"
  Finds pages about Rahula, the Buddha's son.
• +ananda +sutta -savatthi +"first jhana"
  Finds suttas that mention the Buddha's cousin Ananda, AND the first jhana, but NOT the town of Savatthi.

Case doesn't matter.

Searches are case insensitive: searching for "Dana" will match the lowercase "dana" and uppercase "DANA."

Accents don't matter.

By default, all searches are accent insensitive: ñ is the same as n, ö is the same as o, etc. (But see "Searching for Pali words", below.)

Correct spelling is crucial.

This search engine is ruthlessly strict about spelling. If you can't find what you're looking for, check your spelling.

Example: Here are some words that you won't find in a search: "Thripitaka," "bikkhu," "sanghka," "visudimagga." You will, however, find: "Tipitaka," "bhikkhu," "sangha," "visuddhimagga."

Searching for Pali words.

Searching for Pali words is tricky because the diacritical marks are used inconsistently on Access to Insight. Most pages here ignore the diacritics; several use the Velthuis method to represent the diacritics; and a few use Unicode characters. So if you're search for the Pali word that's often translated as "loving kindness", you might try searching for "metta" (i.e., no diacritics), "mettaa" (the Velthuis method), or "mettā" (Unicode). Also bear in mind that long Pali words are sometimes hyphenated to make them more readable.

Search in Pali, not Sanskrit. Although a few common Buddhist terms sometimes appear on this website in their Sanskrit equivalents (dharma, karma, nirvana, etc.), the great majority of terms here are in Pali (dhamma, kamma, nibbana, etc.). Searches for Sanskrit words like dhyana (Pali: jhana), smrti (sati), or sutra (sutta) will bear little fruit.

If you're having trouble finding Pali terms that you believe must be on the website, check the Glossary of Pali and Buddhist Terms to see that you are spelling it correctly.