Bhikkhu Bodhi

Time to Stand Up retells the story of the historical Buddha, one of the greatest sacred activists of all time, as a practical human being whose teachings of freedom from suffering are more relevant than ever in this time of global peril. Evolving onward from the patriarchal template of spiritual warriors and their quests, former nun Thanissara explores awakening from within a feminine view where the archetypes of lover and nurturer are placed as central and essential for a sustainable show more world.

Vital is an investigation into the pinnacle of Buddhist practice, the realization of the "liberated heart." Thanissara questions the narrative of "transcendence" and invites us into the lived reality of our deepest heart as it guides our journey of healing, reclamation, and redemption. As the book unfolds, the author examines traditional Buddhism--often fraught with gender discrimination--and asks the important question, "Can Buddhist schools, overly attached to hierarchal power structures, and often divorced from the radical and free inquiry exemplified by the Buddha, truly offer the ground for maturing awakening without undertaking a fundamental review of their own shadows?" show less

From: LibraryThing

Bikkhu Bodhi has done us a great service in translating this treasure with meticulous care and integrity. In general, it is a work for scholars, not because it is heavy, never, but because of the nature of its compilation. There is much repetition even after the Venerable's eliding, but it is well-organized and easy to navigate considering its size. My only qualm is with the index.
The Majjhima Nikaya is a necessary antecedent.

This book is a selection of texts from the Pali Canon (translated into English) together with explanations/comments from the Editor. The book is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter first contains 10-20 pages of explanations in the form of a running text, then 40-80 pages of translated texts from the Pali Canon interspersed with a lot of footnotes (which can be found in the end, approx. 5-10 pages per chapter). The style of the whole text is very dry. The comments are show more unbiased/objective.

The Pali Canon contains a lot of repetition; firstly there often is a lot of repetition in a single sutra; secondly various concepts/formulas (e.g., the four noble truths, the five hindrances, the six sense bases, the twelve factors of dependent origination, etc...) are found again and again in many different sutras. For me it was of great help to have these formulas identified and commented-on by someone who is well-acquainted with the underlying text. However, some of the comments (especially those in the footnotes, that often cite the traditional commentary) I found meaningless. For example the sutra on p. 359 says that each of the four noble truths is "actual, unerring, invariable." Footnote 52 on p.451 then explains that "unerring" here means "not falsifying its real natures; for suffering does not become non-suffering."

The Pali Canon is often very esoteric. For example p. 163 where the Buddha claims that "an angry and irritable character" leads either to a rebirth "in a state of misery" or if one is reborn "in the human state, then wherever he is reborn he is ugly." It also contains quite precise lengths of time for lives of beings that are reborn in certain heavens/realms. By including these more esoteric texts the book seems to provide an honest picture of the Pali Canon; on the other hand reading these texts also felt a bit like a waste of time. Maybe it is advisable to concentrate on those texts from the Pali Canon that are more compatible with modern day thought.

As a final note, the form described in the first paragraph (i.e., first comments, then several sutras, and footnotes in the back) often made me use three bookmarks at one time; I would have preferred a text that can be read more successively. show less

Renowned scholar-monk and bestselling translator Bhikkhu Bodhi's definitive, practical guide on how to read ancient Buddhist texts in the original language.
Bhikkhu Bodhi's sophisticated and practical instructions on how to read the Pali of the Buddha's discourses will acquaint students of Early Buddhism with the language and idiom of these sacred texts. Here the renowned English translator of the Pali Canon opens a window into key suttas from the Samyutta Nikaya, giving a literal translation show more of each sentence followed by a more natural English rendering, then explaining the grammatical forms involved. In this way, students can determine the meaning of each word and phrase and gain an intimate familiarity with the distinctive style of the Pali suttas--with the words, and world, of the earliest Buddhist texts.

Ven. Bodhi's meticulously selected anthology of suttas provides a systematic overview of the Buddha's teachings, mirroring the four noble truths, the most concise formulation of the Buddha's guide to liberation. Reading the Buddha's Discourses in Pali shares with readers not only exceptional language instruction but also a nuanced study of the substance, style, and method of the early Buddhist discourses. show less