Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli

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“Every student of Pāli will welcome Bhikkhu Bodhi’s Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli. As an aid for learning how to read Buddhist texts in Pāli and as a resource for learning from what one reads in Pāli, there is nothing else like it.”—Charles Hallisey, author of Therigatha: Poems of the First Buddhist Women

READING THE BUDDHA’S DISCOURSES IN PāLI

A Practical Guide to the Language of the Ancient Buddhist Canon

Bhikkhu Bodhi

Bhikkhu Bodhi’s sophisticated and practical instructions on how to read the Pāli of the Buddha’s discourses will provide students of early Buddhism and Pāli language an intimate acquaintance with the language and idiom of these sacred texts. Here the renowned English translator of the Pāli Canon opens a window onto key suttas from the Saṃyutta Nikāya, as he takes a sutta and gives a literal translation of each sentence followed by a more natural English rendering, after which he explains the meaning of each word and the grammatical forms involved. In doing so, students can determine the meaning of each word and phrase and gain familiarity with the distinctive idioms and style of expression in the Pāli suttas—and thus gain an intimacy with the words, and world, of the earliest Buddhist writings.

Ven. Bodhi’s meticulously selected anthology of suttas provides a systematic overview of the Buddha’s teachings, mirroring the four noble truths, which is generally regarded as the most concise formulation of the Buddha’s guide of liberation. Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli shares with readers not only exceptional instruction in language acquisition and translation theory and practice but also a systematically nuanced study of the substance, style, and method of the major early Buddhist discourses.

book information
  • ebook
  • 552 pages
  • $39.99
  • ISBN 9781614296973
  • Hardcover
  • 552 pages, 6 x 9 inches
  • $49.95
  • ISBN 9781614297000
about the author
Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City, born in 1944. He obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School. After completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk, Ven. Balangoda Ananda Maitreya (1896-1998). From 1984 to 2002 he was the editor for the Buddhist Publication Society in Kandy, where he lived for ten years with the senior German monk, Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (1901-1994), at the Forest Hermitage. He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently lives and teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery in Carmel, New York. Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor. These include The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikāya, 1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Saṃyutta Nikaya, 2000), and The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Aṅguttara Nikāya, 2012). In 2008, together with several of his students, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi founded Buddhist Global Relief, a nonprofit supporting hunger relief, sustainable agriculture, and education in countries suffering from chronic poverty and malnutrition.

Other books by Bhikkhu Bodhi:
Noble Truths, Noble Path
Buddhist Suttas for Recitation
Abhidhamma Studies
The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
In the Buddha’s Words
The Buddha’s Teachings on Social and Communal Harmony
Great Disciples of the Buddha
The Suttanipāta

praise

“ Written with characteristic warmth by Bhikkhu Bodhi, one of the foremost translators of Pāli literature, Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli serves as a wonderfully accessible and much-needed resource both for students of Pāli and those who want to deepen their understanding of early Buddhist literature. This generous book offers anyone and everyone the opportunity to come and see for themselves the beautiful world of Pāli texts.”

—Alastair Gornall, author of Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157–1270

“ This is an excellent introduction to the Buddha’s teachings and the linguistic medium that the Buddha used to express the timeless truths of the Buddhadhamma. Pāli is the closest witness we have to the language the Buddha spoke—it preserves the oral, vernacular character and the natural idioms and sonic immediacy of the Teacher’s dialogues with his contemporaries and teachings to his disciples. Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli allows the reader to enter into the ‘thought world’ of the Buddha, the special linguistic realm that, in its conciseness, immediacy, fluidity, and inner harmony, captures and complements the brilliance of his teachings.
“After a near lifetime of Pāli-English translation work, Ven. Bodhi has perfected the art. His renderings are always reliable and doctrinally accurate, honoring what the Buddha said and the sincerity, directness, and compassion with which he spoke. Bhikkhu Bodhi does an excellent job in bringing the reader back to the Buddha’s time (late fifth to early fourth century BCE) and reanimating his words for a modern reader.”

—Bryan Levman, author of Pāli, the Language: The Medium and Message

“Bhikkhu Bodhi’s overview of Pāli grammar, his judicious selection of passages, his literal translations to accompany the final translations, and his clear word-by-word grammatical analysis all add up to a wonderful aid for all who wish to deepen their understanding of the discourses of the Pāli canon by reading them directly in Pāli.”

—Rupert Gethin, author of Sayings of the Buddha: New Translations from the Pali Nikayas
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