I think both random and selective work. But I find varied diets suits me.
So, to clarify the term as I am using it, a Personal Antholgy is not a study and exploration collection. It is a collection of suttas self curated to speak most directly to our hearts and defilements. Suttas are chosen when one feels that sense of “Wow, the Buddha is really talking to me here.” If the Buddha were alive, we could get this the old fashioned way. But now we have to do it round about with our own sensing.
The idea is that when we are in a time of “sutta need” we can go to this collection and hopefully find something in the moment that helps us.
A study collection or collection for further investigation is also very important, no doubt. However, it is quite distinct (although may overlap) from the Personal Anthology concept.
You can read more about it here:
It’s not my idea. It was given to me by the students of Ven. Gnanananda. It is a technique used as part of their monastic training.
Back to the topic of a sutta User Interface… At this point I am imagining users having the ability to mark suttas in various ways.
- Add to personal antholgy
- Read again later
- Some kind of star (or oil lamp) rating
There could also be something like a study folder, although I don’t want things to get too complicated.
But one feature I really hope to implement is the ability to +1 a sutta when it has been read. This would give the user a sense of how much they still had to read. Also it would give the ability to "take me to something I haven’t read yet. But all that’s a coding thing I have to work out.
5 Likes