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Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:44 am
by retrofuturist
Greetings,

I've purchased Dhamma books before from...

Buddhist Publication Society
http://www.bps.lk/

... before and found them to be very good... seemingly only charging "cost price" or thereabouts for texts and postage.

I've ordered Wisdom Publications translations of certain Nikayas (as translated by Bodhi, Nanamoli, Walshe) from Amazon because for texts like that, the discount offered by Amazon was enough to offset their ridiculous postage rates to Australia.

Where do you get yours?

Metta,
Retro. :)

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 3:47 am
by jcsuperstar
amazon. wisdom cost WAAAAY too much for postage so i only use them if i can't find the book in america.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:11 am
by stuka
Ebay, Fetchbook, Alibris, and a few from Barre Center and Santikaro.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:21 am
by retrofuturist
Greetings stuka,

How do you order books from Santikaro, and know what they have available?

Metta,
Retro. :)

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:29 am
by jcsuperstar
retrofuturist wrote:Greetings stuka,

How do you order books from Santikaro, and know what they have available?

Metta,
Retro. :)
i think he only sends them out in north america... but you can contact suan mokh for books as well.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:04 am
by Cittasanto
I get mine from Wisdom books (not the publisher) in the uk mainly, http://www.wisdom-books.com/
but quite often I get free books from monestaries I visit, and as gifts, but nowadays I tend to not bother unless it is a book I want, such as a comentary or something I mainly focus on the Suttas which I have for the most part!

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:03 pm
by DNS
I have found from my own readings, that the cheaper the book, the better the quality.

The usual thinking in this day and age is that you get what you pay for, but with the Dhamma it is different. Some authors who charge hefty fees are making a living off the selling of Dhamma. Some will even gloss over the material and 'save' some info for later books.

Free books on the other hand, are usually written by bhikkhus and bhikkhunis (and sometimes some lay people who make a living in other ways) who have only good intentions and want to teach and spread Dhamma. They pour their hearts into the books they write and do not try to 'leave anything behind' for publishing in some later book. They usually try to write the book so that the complete Dhamma is presented in one book and in readable language.

The only exception would be direct sutta translations, which because of their size must be at the higher prices, but they are worth it, such as the Wisdom publications of the Canon by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:45 pm
by Nicholas Weeks
For those in N. America this is a good source: http://www.pariyatti.org/ But I also make use of abebooks, amazon & several comparision shopping engines like addall or fetchbook etc. to get the cheapest.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 11:00 pm
by Jason
Mostly I get used books from my local used book store. Every once in a while there's a gem waiting to be discovered. For example, I have found books such as the Samyutta Nikaya, Muller's Vinaya Texts, the Visuddhimagga, the Vibhanga, the Abhidhamma Sangaha, Nyanaponika Thera's The Life of the Buddha, Nanananda Bhikkhu's The Magic of the Mind, and Prof. Gombrich's Theravada Buddhism: A Social from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo all at the used book store. I missed out on the Jataka with commentary, though. Too expensive at the time.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 2:44 am
by Dhammanando
Hi Jason,
Elohim wrote:I missed out on the Jataka with commentary, though. Too expensive at the time.
It is available online now, though I forget where.

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:25 am
by Ben
I remember about 20 years ago sending a cheque in US dollars to BPS Kandy and waited several years for my books to arrive. It was an exercise in patience! I finally plucked up the courage and sent a letter asking what happened whereupon they promptly sent one back telling me that the post office returned the parcel, despite my redirection notice at the post office!
In the last few years I have purchased most of my books via www.dhammabooks.com in Australia where I've developed a bit of a relationsip with the owners who are good people providing an excellent service. I ordered Gombrich's 'How Buddhism Began' from an Indian clearinghouse and it arrived in record time. While I have not used them, I would not hesitate to also use www.pariyatti.org or go direct to BPS or other publishers. Occassionally its worthwhile investigating amazon as they do stock out-of-print second-hand books.
Cheers

Ben

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:05 am
by retrofuturist
Greetings Ben,
Ben wrote:I remember about 20 years ago sending a cheque in US dollars to BPS Kandy and waited several years for my books to arrive. It was an exercise in patience!
It's much easier now... BPS take PayPal.

Metta,
Retro. :)

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:37 am
by andyebarnes67
Forest Sangha Publications - http://fsbooks.org will send any book in their list free of charge (at least in UK as they are coming from Amaravati). But you do have the opportunity to make a donation online as able.
As I actually prefer the teachings of the Thai Forest Tradition, this is great for me, but all can benefit from their teachings, whatever lineage, or none, you follow.

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:22 pm
by Feathers
Ooh nice find andeybarnes67, thank you for sharing!

Re: Dhamma Books - where do you get yours?

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:09 pm
by andyebarnes67
Feathers wrote:Ooh nice find andeybarnes67, thank you for sharing!
Your welcome. :namaste: