Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

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tiltbillings
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Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by tiltbillings »

]Dear List Members,

Please be informed of my recent publication: Buddhavacana: A Pali
Reader. You may order it directly from the publisher, Pariyatti Publishing.

Bhikkhu Bodhi explains the scope of the Reader as follows:

``Glenn Wallis has compiled a comprehensive Pali reader intended to
enable the earnest student to move directly into reading the Pali
Nikayas. Wallis's purpose is not to explain the rules and structure of
Pali grammar. The book presupposes that the student has already
acquired an adequate grasp of the grammar—for which I recommend Lily
De Silva's A Pali Primer—and wants to learn to read the texts
themselves. Hence the format of the book is quite simple. After a
short introduction explaining his approach, Wallis presents each
section according to a fixed pattern. There is a sutta, usually fairly
short; blank pages where the student can write down their own
rendering; a word by word guide to the sutta, with brief grammatical
annotations; and at the end of the whole book, polished translations
by Wallis himself of all the suttas offered for study. Those students
who require fuller grammatical explanations may find that this
approach demands a greater intuitive capacity for understanding a
foreign language than they are endowed with. But those who have this
intuitive gift will find that by the time they complete this book,
they will be able to read virtually any sutta in the Nikayas.''


Glenn Wallis
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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bodom
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Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by bodom »

I also enjoyed his Dhammapada translation. :thumbsup:

http://www.pariyatti.org/Bookstore/prod ... cfm?PC=585" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
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bodom
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Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by bodom »

Placed my order on friday.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
Reductor
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Location: Alberta, Canada

Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by Reductor »

Has anyone attempted to work through this book?

I am curious to know what it is like.
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bodom
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Location: San Antonio, Texas

Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by bodom »

Reductor wrote:Has anyone attempted to work through this book?

I am curious to know what it is like.
Hi Reductor

My copy has been sitting on my book shelf for a few months now as ive got quite a few books too work through before I get to this one.

:anjali:
Liberation is the inevitable fruit of the path and is bound to blossom forth when there is steady and persistent practice. The only requirements for reaching the final goal are two: to start and to continue. If these requirements are met there is no doubt the goal will be attained. This is the Dhamma, the undeviating law.

- BB
Reductor
Posts: 1382
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2009 6:52 am
Location: Alberta, Canada

Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by Reductor »

bodom wrote:
Reductor wrote:Has anyone attempted to work through this book?

I am curious to know what it is like.
Hi Reductor

My copy has been sitting on my book shelf for a few months now as ive got quite a few books too work through before I get to this one.

:anjali:
Understood.

It'll be a while before I can buy another book anyway, since my wife actually expects me to read all those currently on my shelf. :shrug: :lol:

But eventually I hope to finish them, and then I may buy this one. So if you get to it before I do, please let me/us know what you think of it.

Thanks.
BKh
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Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by BKh »

I haven't looked at this book in about a year, but here are my recollections.

When I say "reader" I mean a book like this with Pali passages meant for language students, not the person reading the book.

When I attempted to use this book I had just finished going through A New Course in Reading Pali by Gair and Karunatilaka on my own, aided by listening to Bhikkhu Bodhi's recorded lectures.

Overall, I would say it is hard to tell who the expected audience of Buddhavacana is. The book has passages in Pali, vocabularly lists for each passage, and complete translations. It seems that the point of a reader is to provide something more than what you would get by using a digital Pali text, a dictionary, and a completed translation.

Because the syntax and idiom of Pali and English are different, it is helpful for the beginner and intermediate student to have a somewhat literal translation available when working with a text. Obviously not word by word literal, but something that allows the student to see what is going on. In this book I found the translations to be quite loose. For a translation, this is not a big deal. But for someone learning Pali, it's not as helpful as it could be. And doesn't give any advantage over just using any published translation.

Another challenge for the Pali student is determining the orignial form of the Pali word, especially verbs. To look up a word in a dictionary you often need to know the stem form. So this is where a dictionary falls short. What one would expect from a reader's glossary is to list the form as it is found in the specific text and then the original form with the meaning and grammar. As I recall, the glossaries listed only the original form of the word, leaving the student to hunt it out and guess at the connection to to word as found in the text. So again, in this sense I'm not sure how this book is beneficial to the student.

The other issue related to vocabulary is that Pali words, as in any language, can have several meanings or shades of meanings. One would expect in a reader that the glossary would give the meaning of the word as it is found in the passage at hand. My recollection was this was not the case. What was especially odd was looking up a word in the glossary and then finding a completely different word used in the translation. It just left me scratching my head.

Additionally, I found it odd that the translations were all located in the back of the book, as if they were answers to a test. If one is learning to read Pali it is especially helpful to have the Pali and English side by side so one can quickly move back and forth as needed.

I believe that the translations in this book were originally published as a stand-alone anthology. Based on this, it is easy to think that the current reader was somewhat of an afterthought, simply adding the original pali and a vocabulary list.

So after working through a couple of passages I decided that this book offered nothing more than I would get simply working with a dictionary and an already published translation. The only reason I can see for using this book is if one had a strong personal connection to the previously published anthology, or had no access to the original Pali digitally, or was working with a teacher in a classroom setting.

If others have used this book and found it beneficial I would very much like to hear about their experience.
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BKh
Posts: 750
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Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by BKh »

I should have mentioned that a good resource for intermediate (and beginning) Pali students is the work done by Bhante Anandajoti on http://www.Ancient-buddhist-texts.net. There he had presented most of his translations in a line-by line Pali/English format. He doesn't provide a glossary, but the line by line structure makes it easy to work with.

Also, I would recommend Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta's Concise Pali English Dictionary for students who want to move to direct reading of the suttas. It's not a replacement for the PED, but it's concise definitions make the process of looking up words very quick.

And of course, there is the Digital Pali Reader. http://pali.sirimangalo.org. The word analysis it gives is automated so it is not 100% correct, but is is a huge help for beginning and intermediate students.

I mention all these as possible supports for someone attempting to use the Buddhavacana book for study.
| One sutta per day to your inbox | ReadingFaithfully.org Support for reading the Suttas | Citation lookup helper | Instant sutta name lookup | Instant PED lookup | Instant DPPN lookup |
Reductor
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Location: Alberta, Canada

Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by Reductor »

Hi Bkh,

Many thank-yous for the thorough review of this book. My interest has now waned.

Also, those other resources you have provided are appreciated.

:namaste:
Reductor
Posts: 1382
Joined: Sat Sep 12, 2009 6:52 am
Location: Alberta, Canada

Re: Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader

Post by Reductor »

Hi all,

I've not used this book, but learned it is now available for free download (you may donate, if you wish).

http://store.pariyatti.org/Buddhavacana ... _2596.html
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