Across the Buddhist world, the early discourses are received as a shared point of origin, yet each tradition approaches them through its own hermeneutical lens. In Theravāda, the Pāli Sutta Piṭaka is treated as the most authentic record of the Buddha’s teaching and as a complete doctrinal standard. These texts are read in close dialogue with the commentaries and subcommentaries, especially those associated with Buddhaghosa, and are further systematized through Abhidhamma analysis. The emphasis falls on the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the attainment of arahantship, with teachings on not‑self and dependent arising understood in precise psychological and phenomenological terms. Here, the suttas are not merely inspirational; they function as the final court of appeal for doctrine and practice.

Other early schools, preserved especially in the Chinese Āgamas, also revere discourses that closely parallel the Pāli Nikāyas, yet interpret them through distinct Abhidharma systems. These lineages employ their own technical frameworks to understand dharmas, causality, and time, which subtly colors how the same or similar discourses are read. Comparative study of the Pāli Nikāyas and Chinese Āgamas is often used to illuminate key notions such as emptiness and not‑self by seeing where the traditions converge. In this way, the early discourses become a kind of mirror in which different early schools recognize both shared inheritance and doctrinal nuance.

Mahayāna traditions generally accept these early teachings while regarding them as preliminary or “śrāvakayāna” in scope. The suttas are honored as valid but are interpreted in light of later Mahāyāna sūtras that articulate the bodhisattva ideal, universal liberation, and the full implications of emptiness. Concepts such as the two truths and skillful means are used to read many early statements as pedagogical rather than final, so that teachings on not‑self, aggregates, and nirvāṇa are re‑understood within a broader vision of śūnyatā. Arahantship remains respected, yet is often placed below Buddhahood, with sutta passages on arahants seen as describing a limited, though genuine, realization.

Vajrayāna, especially in Tibetan Buddhism, builds upon this Mahāyāna foundation while integrating tantric scriptures into a vast canon. The early‑type discourses are preserved within the “Sūtra” collections and are interpreted through established Indian philosophical systems such as Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. A key hermeneutical move here is the classification of teachings as definitive or interpretable, with many early discourses treated as requiring reinterpretation in the light of more explicit teachings on emptiness, Buddha‑nature, and tantra. Ethical discipline and meditative instructions from the suttas are taken as indispensable groundwork, then woven into a graded path that moves from śrāvakayāna training through the bodhisattva path and into tantric methods. Across these diverse readings, the suttas remain a living touchstone, continually re‑read so that their ancient words can serve differing visions of liberation.