The Nettippakaraṇa — “the guide” — is the Pali tradition's own manual for reading the Buddha's discourses. Attributed to the Venerable Mahākaccāyana, the disciple the canon names as foremost in elaborating what the Buddha said in brief, it sets out the modes by which a teaching is to be conveyed, the terms by which its parts are related, and the way a particular saying is referred back to the pattern it belongs to.
It is, in effect, the oldest surviving Buddhist book about how to interpret Buddhist books — and it stands behind the whole later commentarial tradition.
This edition presents the text in modern English, with commentary that shows each method at work on real passages, so that the reader finishes able to use the Netti rather than merely to describe it.
From the book
