/lit/ - Literature

>>22642431
>just read the whole Pali Canon, bro

>>22642431
The Pali Canon isn't the main text of Buddhism

>>22642449
Which one would you say is then m?

You’re going about this the wrong way. The full Pali Canon is many several thousand pages long and practically impossible for the average person to read (although I admire your tenacity and devotion). In fact, I’ve read it from a respected source, I forget exactly where but am almost 100% sure it’s Garma C.C. Chang’s “The Buddhist Teaching of Totality; The Philosophy of Hua Yen Buddhism”, that, ironically, the traditional way for Buddhist scholar-practitioners to enter into the study of Buddhism has always been, roughly, first to hear/learn/read of Buddhism from tertiary sources, then go to secondary sources (important commentaries on and interpretations of central Buddhist sutras and scriptures), then finally go to the primary sources (like even reading the full Pali Canon, megalomaniacal as this endeavor is). Also, between the second and third steps in this former sentence, it’s traditionally also that one is expected to have been a devoted practitioner-meditator in the meanwhile, experiencing final enlightenment, only then going on to read the full Pali Canon or Buddhist Tripitaka, in order to gain the full learning necessary to speak to other Buddhist disciples or inquiring students as an authority.

Your quest is frankly a little insane and naive, but I don’t blame you, knowing of my own bad penchant for buying a vast amount of books or making the plan to read them, now seeing that this is more a process that takes years or a lifetime than just a casual commitment to be entered into. In any case, good luck, and may your deepest spiritual desires in all this be fulfilled (paradoxical and hypocritical as such a well-wishing might sound in light of the simple reading of Buddhism that it’s “all about getting rid of desires” — ultimately, anyway, there’s still the desire to eliminate desire, or desire to reach a spiritual/internal consummation and fulfillment, so a more sophisticated rendering of this might be that higher desires are superior to lower desires).

>>22642504
Let me also make my point even more clear:

A recent Thai edition of the complete Pali Canon comes out to “40 volumes, 15,470 pages, 2,708,706 Pali words.” That’s pretty big, and not necessarily even every Buddhist you respect has read all of that. On the other hand, a text like the Heart Sutra respected by all Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists, can be printed in English translation in about a page and a half, yet is constantly recited in monasteries of theirs, pored over, had many commentaries written on it, and is often considered by them as containing the entire summation of Buddhist thought and teaching within itself. So it’s a little more of a complex case here than it might seem to you of “just reading the entire Pali Canon to understand Buddhism as originally and authentically as possible,” if you even can do that.

>>22642524
15k pages is 3 years worth of reading if I stick to my 100pages/week current rhythm, that's manageable.
But I get that's not the point you're making. I'm kinda autistic when it comes to this and I'd always rather read the original first than a commentary or analysis. Not sure what to do in that case if there's no complete option for Buddhism or the Pali.

I really appreciate your feedback though, thanks fren.

>>22642431
Read the various books by Bhikku Bodhi. He's translated the Majjhima Nikaya, the Samyutta Nikaya, the Anguttara Nikaya, and then just variuos compilations. These aren't abridgements per se, but he hasn't translated the whole thing.

>>22642586
>I'd always rather read the original
You haven't even done that for the Bible or Quran. Learn HE, GR, AR, Pali, then we'll talk anon.

>>22642586
> I really appreciate your feedback though, thanks fren.
No problem! I really wish you well in this. I have not at all read the entire Pali Canon, in the original language or in translation, so can’t at all be the authority in this (and I’m sure there’s few people who are), but I do really wish you well in this quest if it’s your deepest heart’s desire.

>>22642431
I assume by Pali Canon you really mean the sutta pitaka, which is the actual "buddha goes around teaching people" part of the literature in the Theravada tradition. For those you could start with either the Long Discourses or the Middle Discourses, maybe read one every couple of days. And you will in fact be reading an abridgement because there are many many mnemonic passages preserved from the original oral tradition in which only a word or phrase in a whole sentence or paragraph changes and these can go into the dozens of rounds—translators do not like these and will cut the repetitive text to save space. You will notice these when you get to them and their deeper purpose may not be intuitive, but think of it as a kind of "a picture is worth a thousand words" situation, except there is no picture of what is being, only a very long... clinical description for you to ponder as a meditative aid. This continues in Mahayana literature as well, except instead of being about the sixty-eight ways you can be dumb it's the ninety-three enlightening powers of the fully awakened one.

>>22642431
I'd start with https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/index.html

there are a good amount of suttas there. It has most of all of what might be called the main ones. More than that, there are footnotes with explanations of points, links to where terms or matters are mentioned elsewhere in the canon, and introductions for the bigger suttas (and some of the smaller ones, I think).


Then, when you feel you've read all the suttas on that site,or just spontaneously want to branch out to a site with little or no introductions or footnotes, I recommend suttacentral.net

Thanks everyone for your help. I still have time until I get to it (Hindu stuff first), but I'll take into account what has been shared here. And do more research too.

>>22642919
the pali canon here for free by the PTS
https://americanmonk.org/free-pts-sutta-ebooks/

Bikkhu bodhi has also translation but osme are not for free

the other translations are here
https://suttacentral.net
and
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/index.html

In french the best you can do is
https://www.buddha-vacana.org/suttapitaka.html
and
http://www.dhammadelaforet.org
and the general bibliography from wikipedia
https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tripitaka&useskin=vector#Voir_aussi

>>22642431
Read in the Buddha's words

yes