About the Essays category

Essays and analysis that treat the whole sutta, usually by experienced teachers.

This follows the model used in the traditional Theravadin commentaries, where the meaning of each sutta is “discussed” (aṭṭhakathā).

You can add an essay in the usual way, by inserting the text. However many essays are quite complex, so it may be easier to insert a pre-formatted file, such as PDF. You can upload a PDF as a commentary. You can also link to a PDF online; however, we’d prefer if they were uploaded, as then we can ensure that the links don’t get broken. We don’t accept proprietary formats such as .doc. If you want to include a .doc file, please convert it to PDF first.

Each separate essay should start a new topic. So don’t add an essay as a reply to another essay.

In many cases, essays will be by well-known authors, and it’d be nice to have a way to view all the essays by a particular author. We can do this by adding the author of the essay as a tag for the topic, thus:

Topic title: MN1: The root teaching
Tags: mn1|en|piyatan

Finally, include only material for which there is appropriate copyright permission. Usually this will be detailed on the source site or file. If in doubt, contact the author or site manager; usually people are happy to help, so don’t be shy! Ensure that appropriate copyright notice is included in the post. Usually it can be placed at the bottom of the post.

Essays are not wiki-ed. Only the original poster can change them.

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