Gain Insight into the Teachings of the Buddha: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon

Andrew David BrollAndrew David Broll: I bought this book to learn about Buddhism from the Buddha himself and not some secondary source or a commentary or a modern person's view. I wanted to study what he taught from the old writings and what The Buddha said himself. This book is a great introduction to understanding the original Buddha, his teaching and wisdom. Highly recommend.

United States on Sep 04, 2023

JESUS CORONA: I love this book. There are so many teachings explained and organized in a way that it is easy to read and understand. It is highly recommendable regardless of your current level in Buddhism. I bought it when I was beginner some years ago and still I go back to this book to learn new things. Highly recommendable.

Canada on Aug 16, 2023

Juliano Rocha: Muito bom. Única coisa que me incomodou é o fato de ser muito repetitivo e alguns textos parecerem "distorcidos". Talvez por conta da transmissão oral dos ensinamentos.
As melhores partes são os comentários do autor, Bhikku Bodhi, que traz uma perspectiva mais contemporânea sobre os ensinamentos budista e faz uma análise pessoal dos discursos de Buddha.

Devo dizer que esse livro me trouxe algumas "crises" existencias. E isso é ótimo, é exatamente o tipo de coisa que procuro em livros assim. Acho que uma das coisas que mais aprendi dessa leitura foi à aceitar as coisas como elas são. Percebi que a sabedoria e a concentração levam ao Nirvana. E que para aliviar o sofrimento as vezes é necessário apenas observa-lo e entende-lo. Entender as condições da nossa existência e aceitar ja alivia muito nosso sofrimento. Muitas vezes não precisamos fazer nada além de observar e entender.

Esse livro foi mais um complemento e um reforço do que um aprendizado novo. Não recomendo pra quem é iniciante e não conhece muito os ensinamentos budista, talvez fique meio confuso!!

Brazil on Jun 28, 2023

Diego S.: Me encanto el libro, casí como la bilbia staviravadhin, aunque con guiños a la teoría de shunyata, me encanto, el libro para complementar las enseñazas principiantes de un maestro por excelencia

Mexico on Apr 14, 2023

Prahlad A.: Nice thematic classification in Ten Chapters by Veteran Bhikkhu author. Introduction to each chapter is fantastic. Unmeddled original words of Buddha is much inspiring to readers.

India on Mar 08, 2023

jer: This is stating the obvious when it comes to the suttas themselves, but even the lengthy introductions to the suttas at the start of each chapter are seeped in a traditional attitude that made this book hard to read.

Bikkhu Bodhi’s immense work translating the Pali Cannon is of course to be commended, and his translations have a clarity and simplicity that is missing from a LOT of English versions of the suttas.

If your goal is to read a book with a nice, broad overview of example suttas, and clarity of the suttas themselves is important to you (it should be) this is a really valuable book! You’ll find the actual words passed down by his followers, carefully edited and condensed to avoid the droning repetition that is inherent to the oral format.

Reading these source texts can be difficult for modern Buddhists, because in so many cases (especially in Western convert Buddhist contexts such as the Insight movement in the US) what we are taught on retreat is a carefully curated subset of the actual teachings. Aspects of the cosmology which the Buddha took literally and mentioned often (gods, demons, heavens, hells) are either treated as metaphors or ignored...

Canada on Nov 10, 2018

null: no exaggeration. i wasted YEARS on other new forms of buddhism: vajrayana developed up to 1,200 years after buddhas death, zen developed up to 900 years after buddhas death, and others (pure land doesn't even count as it's not about awakening, but going to a very late invented buddhist realm AFTER death based on faith in a very late invented "amitabha buddha"). do these other forms work? not for me! maybe they do for others. but the bottom line is that the original teachings are just that: the original. they are laid out in a step by step frame to lead one to awakening. bodhi has compiled many here to make them very simple and straightforward (otherwise one must read hundreds of pages to get the step by step feel as they are recorded in massive volumes, very spread out. totally worth it though, i have all of his translations). whereas zen is totally reliant on teachings of individual zen masters and the same goes for vajrayana (ie. the practice is not recorded in full in their respective scriptures for said schools). if you try to just read all the mahayana scriptures (all written after the original scriptures were recorded) without reading any works by teachers of those sects or...

United States on Nov 08, 2012

Regular Reader: Researchers believe that "The Buddha" ( a term meaning "The Awakened One" ) was an actual man named Siddhartha Gautama that lived in India over 2,600 years ago.

His teachings were passed down for several centuries after his death via an oral tradition until they were written down on collections of palm leaves. These are stored in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon, the texts of the oldest surviving form of Buddhism known as Theravada. The Sutta Pitaka consists of 5 "Nikayas" or books/collections.

These collection are thousands of pages long, contain much repetitive content and have only been translated into English as of the 19th century. Translations into English are still being perfected as ancient Pali and modern English are extremely different languages.

In other words, the reader who wants to read the Buddhist message for him/herself has the daunting task of combing through several large, expensive, repetitious volumes of translations that may not be clear to a modern reader.

"In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon" is an anthology of the Buddha's teachings compiled by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Bhikkhu Bodhi was born in New York...

United States on Feb 29, 2012