Dīghanikāyo samatto

Discussion
42

You must be aware of the research work done by Bhikkhu Analayo?.. I got in touch with Sutta Central through him… I have met Ven. Nyanatusita in Kandy in connection of translations of Ledi Sayadaw’s work from Burmese to English. …and I am connected to Ven. Anandajoti on face book. The other two helpers mentioned by you I have not met, but I am vaguely aware who they are.

In 2007 I attended the Sakyadhita conference in Hamburg (Germany), where my old boss, Prof. Dr. von Hinüber came to the phantastic conclusion that the Bhikkhuni Sangha was established only after Lord Buddhas demise…
I also obtained a copy of your book which was available as a gift during the conference. I read it later, and was puzzled by Your suggestion that the short discourses in SN and AN were earlier than the longer discourses in MN and DN… Several of your arguments were quite convincing, but it was a great challenge to the views I held, before I read that book.

After you have explained your objects for making a new translation, I am now very interested to see the results of your efforts.

… I received my university education in Pali, Prakrits, Sanskrit, and Tibetan between 1960 and 1979, including over ten years in Myanmar (1959-1971).
The academic work I did afterwards was with the Sanskrit Dictionary of the Turfan Finds (part of fascicle 2, 1977-79), and the Critical Pali Dictionary (vowels e-o, 1979-1990). After completing the M. A. at Mandalay University I worked about one year (1970) for a Burmese -German Dictionary project, that was never published.

All this was before the digital age had reached Indological studies in Germany, not to speak of Myanmar.

I used an apple computer for the work on CPD, but only for a short time (1988-1990). I was quite interested in computersreally. But the present digital opportunities are vastly superior to the old fashioned methods of those days. …
I try my best, to improve my computer skills, as far as this is possible in the remote village where I have lived during the last ten years …

But nowadays I am more interested to get out of suffering, than in anything else.
Nobody needs to tell me that jara, byaadhi, mara.na are suffering. I live right in the middle of it. _ () _

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43

Thank you so much for this fascinating perspective. It’s always good to know more about the real people behind the screen. And thank you for your many years of service to the Dhamma! Whenever I look up letters e-o on CPD I should remember you with gratitude.

Regarding Ven Analayo, yes of course, I’m in contact with him, and others who I failed to mention, for example Ayya Dhammadinna of Dharma Drum Mountain. But he’s always so proactive in creating his own material I feel reluctant to bother him too much with questions! So far, Rod, who has been studying these matters far longer than either of us, and with whom Ven Analayo has worked for many years, has more than adequately answered any questions I’ve had about the Chinese texts.

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Congratulations!!! Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu! Anumodana. It is really amazing that you finished such a tremendous task in such a short period of time. Looking forward to get a chance to read them as soon as possible.

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45

Any reason you didn’t mention Buddha?
:grinning:

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46

He never answers emails!

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47

:anjal: reminds me of the beautiful story told by Leigh Nash to explain the meaning behind the name of her band Sixpence None the Richer:

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I offer you heartfelt congratulations and a sincere thank you for your service to the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. I will be in the queue to read your offering!

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Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu! What a splendid news, dear Bhante! We wait patiently for the copies ! They will be here and at Lulu.com? :pray:

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50

What is your next translation project, bhante? There is still a fair amount of work to do on the DN probably, I realize, but do you have predecided your next project?

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Why don’t you give him a break?
:slight_smile:

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Well I am currently revising and proofing. When the four nikayas are published, I will translate, more slowly, the 6 early books of the Khuddaka, and I hope, the relevant Sanskrit texts as well.

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O no! this is terrible news… :frowning:

Now I’ll soon will “waste” all my time reading them :smiley:

Sadhu!

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Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu! I was brought here from Reddit, and I think this is a wonderful endeavor.

Yesterday, I just received my copy of the Sutta Nipata (the Laurence Khantipalo Mills’ translation, which you completed) that I ordered from The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation. It’s definitely a great book, and the physical book is well-made and has great quality. Is there a plan to have them print the 4 Nikayas for free distribution? It would be a good idea, kinda Gideon-esque.

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Thanks for the support!

Yes, there are ongoing plans to print the entire four nikayas for free distribution. We will definitely work with Budaedu to produce an initial edition. Longer term, I have an idea to create a high-quality hardback “legacy” edition, using all premium materials, which will also be for free distribution. But for now, the focus is on getting it publishable.

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Can’t wait to have my copy.:grin:

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I am looking forward to it, Bhante!

Since you’re planning to translate the 6 early books of the Khuddaka, are you going to redo those portions from the Theragatha and Sutta Nipata that you already translated or are you just going to incorporate them into the new translation? It may be too soon to ask, but I’m curious.

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Yes, I will retranslate everything. In fact I have already made a start with the Thera/Theri gatha. Obviously I’ve learned a lot through the translating process so I can hopefully do a better job; and also I will bring things into line with the style and renderings I have developed.

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This is great to hear! :anjal: Thank you in advance!

A friend of mine was wondering about an edition with Bible-paper type pages (very thin pages hence smaller books despite a huge number of pages), to make it easier to carry around the suttas… I thought it was a great idea, hope to see that one day :slight_smile:

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I like the Itivuttaka of the Khuddaka Nikaya, as an introductory text to the concepts in the suttas. However it might require some explanatory notes to flesh out the brief writings.

With metta

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Sorry, we’re not planning anything like that. It seems to me that for portable editions, a digital copy has so many advantages that a paper portable edition would be a very niche market.

Our editions will be more like the traditional PTS editions, a set of reasonable sized volumes printed on full weight paper. But as everything we do is open source, if anyone wants to make a portable paper edition we would be happy to support it.

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