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It appears that Shambhala has a new version of First Free Women coming out. The cover has changed the title from The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns to The First Free Women: Original Poems Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns. On Amazon, the first Editorial Review byJack Kornfield still says ““These are fresh, powerful, poetic translations that bring…”
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Excellent essay.
This is how—step-by-step—our sacred Buddhist scriptures can be lost.
Couldn’t agree more.
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When I searched Amazon the book that came up is the first version!
So I see they are still selling the first one. I do see further down in the search results that one can preorder the ‘new’ version (which costs more, BTW)…
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The new cover is out and… of course it doesn’t fully address the problem. But at least we got the attention of Buddhist scholars
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It’s the deliberate ambiguity that really sticks in one’s craw!
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The new edition releases on June 22nd, so get your reviews prepared.
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Awesome twitter thread BTW, sums up all the issues really nicely.
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Unfortunately, Tricycle has published a new article on their website that continues to push the idea that these are not a “literal translation” implying that they are some other kind of translation.
The foreword of The First Free Women: Original Poetry Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns begins with senior nun Bhikkhuni Anandabodhi declaring, “These poems you hold in your hands are like jewels to me. They call us to remember our greatest potential—our potential to be free.” The poems in question are interpretations of those found in the Therigatha, or “Verses of the Elder Nuns,” the sacred text in the Pali canon written over two millennia ago by and about some of the first Buddhist women. In addition to calling upon our capacity for freedom, the poems are personal, evocative, and at times even comedic. They offer insight into the daily thoughts and lives of these early nuns, as well as the lives they lived before.
Though many translations of the Therigatha exist, Matty Weingast penned a recent interpretation of the poems that expands on the Pali text for renditions that resonate deeply today. In a review of The First Free Women: Original Poetry Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns for Tricycle, Dan Zigmond wrote,
Weingast’s poems. . . are more reimaginings than they are direct translations, and at times he takes considerable liberties with the Pali sources. For this reason, it can be jarring to compare his versions to the earlier editions. And yet the nuns’ voices, not his own, are what shine through. It is as if he has brought these wise women back to life, conjuring the poems they might have written if they were walking among us today.
Due to concerns that the original presentation of this book may have given the false impression that it consisted of literal translations of the Therigatha, Shambhala Publications released a second edition with a revised title, The First Free Women: Original Poetry Inspired by the Early Buddhist Nuns, in June 2021. (Learn more here)
Below is a selection of poems from the collection
Clearly the publisher’s promotional material has tried to keep these poems as tied to the actual Therigatha as possible.
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They’re hoping people forget about this whole thing and then they can continue to ambiguously sell by using the name of the theris. It’s despicable, but we’ve done what we could to spread the word.
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It is inexplicable that so many mindfulness teachers (Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, etc) who received their training within traditional Buddhist communities would be comfortable endorsing this book and not withdrawing their endorsements once it was obvious they had been misled. Is it perhaps that the author worked at the Insight Meditation Society in MA and was personally known to them? It is a concerning lapse in judgment.
Ditto for Shambhala.
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Well, if anyone here is interested in commenting on the Tricycle article about this, they offer a comments section on their website HERE.
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Not quite, but not too far off.
I doubt this is some big financial conspiracy or anything, but he’s probably benefiting from some politeness between friends / acquaintances.
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As someone who has worked in academia for three decades I can say with some confidence that often scholars will submit blurbs for a book jacket without having read all or even most of a book (or even more than the first few paragraphs!). As for withdrawing support after the misrepresentation has become evident, for all we know they have but the publisher of the book has its own agenda.
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Well, there are now some comments:
Comment: Five Powerful Poems from 'The First Free Women' of Early Buddhism
If you have any respect for Buddhism and the Buddhist scriptures, avoid this book. It’s actually reprehensible that this travesty of a book is being promoted, as it’s been deemed a true literary fraud by the Buddhist community of Nuns, Monks and Scholars. Not only has the author stolen the voices of ancient venerable women speaking the Dhamma and replaced their words with the disrespectful rantings of a 20th century American male, but Shambala, fully aware of the scandal, has shown their utter disregard for Buddhist scripture by continuing to market this book as any type of a translation. There were no translations here.
Bhante Akāliko writes: “The real Therīgāthā is an important Buddhist sacred text, celebrating the enlightenment experiences and lives of 73 bhikkhunis, an amazing historical record of the achievements of renunciant women. These texts have been carefully and authentically preserved for over 2500 years and they continue to be a great inspiration for practitioners today. Contemporary Buddhists have benefited immensely from the careful preservation of the Dhamma in the Buddhist scriptural tradition. Buddhists everywhere have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of Buddhist sacred texts for future generations. Unfortunately, Weingast’s book does the opposite.”
Much has been written and discussed about the horrors of this book in the Buddhist community:
https://discourse.suttacent…
https://fakebuddhaquotes.co…
I also posted my own comment, pointing readers to the Sutta Central translations, and to the Therigatha Festival videos.
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