Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
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None
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by None »

*Accident double post
Last edited by None on Mon Dec 26, 2016 2:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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None
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by None »

SarathW wrote:Dhamma is taught in many ways, some times free and sometimes with a charge.
I have no problem people charging for it as far as they teach the right Dhamma.
If they say they teach Theravada they should teach Theravada.
Human, the entire point is that many ordinary people do not have access to the actual Dhamma.
What they willl learn Buddhism from are Hollywood movies and Watts, who is partly responsible for what is seen today.

I'm sure Sakyamuni would be pleased with the fact that the people are being over-charged for hearing His words.
He did get rich from teaching the Way, after all.
monkeycat
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by monkeycat »

Even though I do not think it is right that Wisdom charge for the digital versions, it is their decision to make.

The best thing that can be done is for effort to be made to get another translation made and then allow for it to be freely distributed. If there were costs involved I am sure they could quite easily be crowd funded.
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mikenz66
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by mikenz66 »

monkeycat wrote: The best thing that can be done is for effort to be made to get another translation made and then allow for it to be freely distributed. If there were costs involved I am sure they could quite easily be crowd funded.
That is, indeed, what is happening. See my post above:
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 81#p407636

:anjali:
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by alan »

If you have enough money to have access to a computer and free time to write posts, you should also be able to pay for a book.
If you can't figure out how to get Suttas online, then you are too dumb to be worthy of a response.
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None
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by None »

alan wrote:If you have enough money to have access to a computer and free time to write posts, you should also be able to pay for a book.
If you can't figure out how to get Suttas online, then you are too dumb to be worthy of a response.
I have internet because it is necessary for the job. I still have to support my family and purchase the books in American dollars which is extremely expensive.
Though, I do not need to speak about my own conditions. There are poor people everywhere, in much worse conditions who would never be able to attain such Buddhist items which are more like luxuries now.

It is unfrotunate that considering how long the Tipitaka exists, it is hardly available to the Western man. Even the online versions are impcomplete, but alas...

The Dhamma is not mean to be a sectret teaching.
You seem oblivious to the material conditions of others.
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Bhikkhu Pesala
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by Bhikkhu Pesala »

None wrote:It is unfortunate that considering how long the Tipitaka exists, it is hardly available to the Western man. Even the online versions are incomplete, but alas...
I would not call someone dumb just because they don't know how or where to find something that they need, but your attitude leaves much to be desired, which is why I think that you're maybe just some Christian trolling the forums to stir up trouble.

You had just 3 posts, one of which was previously deleted, so the first activity I see is on Christmas Day.

If this is not a troll thread, then just ask politely where to get free Buddhist literature, and someone will no doubt try to help you. Hard copies are harder to come by now. I no longer print them due to the high costs. Over £1000 for 500 small books will pay my Internet fees for two years.
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monkeycat
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by monkeycat »

alan wrote:If you have enough money to have access to a computer and free time to write posts, you should also be able to pay for a book.
If you can't figure out how to get Suttas online, then you are too dumb to be worthy of a response.
That is a very narrow world view. The majority of people on earth who can read English and have internet access can probably not afford to spend over 100 dollars on a digital version of the cannon.
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by Kare »

Take a look at Sutta Central. There you will find the texts in the original languages and translated into several languages, all for free. Even my translations into Norwegian can be found there. They are also freely available at my own site, http://dhamma.priv.no
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by santa100 »

None wrote:It is unfrotunate that considering how long the Tipitaka exists, it is hardly available to the Western man. Even the online versions are impcomplete, but alas...
Have you checked out accesstoinsight.org, suttacentral.net, and the Study Group section of dhammawheel.com yet? The truth of the matter is, in order to practice to perfection by following all those suttas/vinayas on accesstoinsight.org and suttacentral.net could take gazillions of life times, let alone having the 100% complete Tipitaka available in front of you. And even if there's some suttas not available for free online just yet, simply post/ask around and most definitely someone will point you to other appropriate source. So really, there should be no excuse about not being able to practice the Dhamma due to inavailability of the Teaching in this day and age.
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by mikenz66 »

That's certainly my opinion too. Having "all the suttas" is not particularly necessary, and in fact almost all of the Pali suttas are available online in English in some form, so if you need to look at a sutta for reference when reading something it's not hard to find it.

The introductory material and suttas here, which are freely available, are an excellent start:
In the Buddha's Words - Open Source Version
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=14640

And the book itself is available here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Buddhas- ... 0861714919 for about 15 USD with free shipping anywhere. That, and the free talks here:
http://www.noblepath.org/audio.html (scroll down) would keep you going for many months.

While I would be very pleased if Wisdom, etc, would make the electronic versions of their books freely available, I quite like having real books, and you would have difficulty nicely printing and binding a 500 page book for $15.

:anjali:
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by SarathW »

And the book itself is available here: https://www.bookdepository.com/Buddhas- ... 0861714919 for about 15 USD with free shipping anywhere. That, and the free talks here:
Thanks for the link Mike.
Yes this is a very good deal.
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by alan »

I read suttas for free online, as anyone can. Then asked Thanissaro at Wat Metta to send the printed versions, which they did, for free. Read them 4 or 5 times.
After that I paid for BB's translations, in over to compare them and expand my understanding. It was money well spent.
But no one has to do that. It is easy to get them online. And yes, if you are not smart enough to figure out how to do that, you are probably pretty dumb.
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by davidbrainerd »

Maybe your expectations are too high, both on how much book should be given away for free, and on how much book is needed to understand the Dhamma. The Dhammapada is sufficient to understand the Dhamma and is freely available in many ways and translations and even dual language Pali and English. I ordered a dual language Dhammapada off amazon once from a monastery in Florida. They charged a dollar. When I got the book it said it was free and no money should be charged. I guess they justified it by considering the dollar as for all the extra material they sent that I didn't know they would send, DVDs etc.
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Re: Buddhist text and the Tipitaka

Post by Coëmgenu »

davidbrainerd wrote:Maybe your expectations are too high, both on how much book should be given away for free, and on how much book is needed to understand the Dhamma. The Dhammapada is sufficient to understand the Dhamma and is freely available in many ways and translations and even dual language Pali and English. I ordered a dual language Dhammapada off amazon once from a monastery in Florida. They charged a dollar. When I got the book it said it was free and no money should be charged. I guess they justified it by considering the dollar as for all the extra material they sent that I didn't know they would send, DVDs etc.
It was probably shipping.
What is the Uncreated?
Sublime & free, what is that obscured Eternity?
It is the Undying, the Bright, the Isle.
It is an Ocean, a Secret: Reality.
Both life and oblivion, it is Nirvāṇa.
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