As more and more westerners study and practice Buddhism, reliable modern translations of the Buddha’s teachings are increasingly in demand. One of the main sources for knowledge of the Buddhadharma is the four Pali Nikayas or “collections” of his sayings. Written in Pali, an ancient Indian language closely related to Sanskrit, the Nikayas are among the oldest Buddhist texts and consist of more than one and a half million words. This new translation offers a selection of the Buddha’s most important sayings, reflecting the full variety of material contained in the Nikayas: the central themes of the Buddha’s teaching (his biography, philosophical discourse, instruction on morality, meditation, and the spiritual life) and the range of literary style (myth, dialogue, narrative, short sayings, verse). This edition is the most critically up-to-date and For anyone seeking a more direct encounter with the Buddha’s words and teaching, this new translation will prove to be essential reading, rewarding scholars and practitioners alike.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
A wise choice After reviewing Gethin’s “The Foundations of Buddhism” I sought out this companion volume from the same press, Oxford. True to that institute’s reputation, “Foundations” proved both rewarding and challenging; “Sayings” sustains the discipline applied by this scholar to his subject. Both books, taken together, in a comparatively brief study manage to cover the essentials of, respectively, the common doctrine and the earliest suttas.Enamorato’s review sums up Gethin’s anthology alongside Bhikkhu Bodhi’s “In the Buddha’s Words” and John Holder’s scholarly collection of teachings. So, mine will focus on the editorial framework. I came to Gethin’s edition after Glenn Wallis’ “Basic Teachings of the Buddha” (see my 2012 reviews of Bodhi and Wallis). I admired Dr. Wallis’ reader-response theory and philosophical approach, conveyed well in his introduction and commentary. Similarly, Dr. Gethin constructs from a solid linguistic command of the earliest extant Nikaya collections…
Excellent New Edition of Pali Suttas Unlike the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism does not have an equivalent to the Torah, the Bible or the Qur’an. What we know of the Buddha’s teaching comes largely from a vast collection of writings called the Tipitaka (“three baskets”) in an ancient Indian language called Pali (thus, the Tipitaka is also referred to as “the Pali canon”). Of these, the second basket – the Sutta Pitaka (“Basket of Well-Spoken Utterances”) – is the most famous. It contains the purported discourses (in Pali: suttas) of the Buddha himself, and are the oldest remaining documents in an Indian language to preserve his philosophy. Readers now have at least three very good English-language anthologies of suttas to choose from. By far the most comprehensive is Bhikku Bodhi’s . The other anthology of note is John J. Holder’s scholarly …