A way into CBETAan unofficial guide, not the archive itself

Two ways to actually read something

CBETA gives you two tools, and its own site doesn't say which one to start with. Here's the difference, then a five-step walkthrough that ends with a real sūtra open in front of you.

CBETA Online

A browser-based reader at cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw. Keyword, advanced and semantic search; browse by category, volume, catalogue or author/translator; export to HTML, TXT, PDF, EPUB or ODT. Its interface has a language switcher for Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and English, though most of the text content itself is still Chinese-only. Best if you're online and want to search across the whole canon at once.

CBReader (desktop)

A downloadable app for Windows and Mac (including Apple Silicon), distributed from CBETA's site or on DVD/USB. It builds a full-text search index of the canon on your own machine, so it works offline and doesn't depend on a network connection. Best for sustained reading or research away from reliable internet.

Walkthrough: open the Diamond Sūtra in CBETA Online

  1. Go to CBETA Online and set the language switcher to English if it isn't already.
  2. Use the catalogue search (經目查詢) or category browse, and look for text number 0235 in the Taishō Tripiṭaka — or just search the full text for 金剛經 ("Diamond Sūtra").
  3. Open the result cited as T08n0235: Taishō volume 8, text 235, Kumārajīva's translation.
  4. Use the structural navigation panel on the side to jump between pages, or the in-text search to jump straight to a line — for example, the sūtra's best-known phrase, 應無所住而生其心 ("let the mind arise without dwelling on anything").
  5. If you want to keep a copy, use the export menu for a PDF or EPUB; if you want to cite a line precisely, copy the citation string CBETA generates for that exact spot — it takes the shape T08n0235_pNNNNa##, naming volume, text, page, register and line — rather than a page number, so anyone else can jump straight to the same line regardless of which edition they're reading from.

Interface features described here (search modes, browse options, export formats, the citation format) are drawn from CBETA Online's own English and Chinese interface. Check CBETA Online directly for the exact citation of any specific line before using it in your own work.