Favorite features of sutta websites

I’d like to hear about people’s favorite features of the sutta websites they use. I’m thinking of

For example, the topic index on AccesstoInsight has been extremely valuable to me.

On SuttaCentral, I love that I can (usually) type the url myself to get where I want to go.

On SuttaCentral I love the lack of footnotes (although I did find footnotes useful in general when I started to read suttas)

On DhammaTalks.org, I like the further reading section at the end of suttas, although I wish it told more about where I was about to go.

So what do you love about the sutta websites you use?

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I like Voice.suttacentra.net because the searches show me the connections between suttas. Indeed, the EBTs in my head are organized by search phrase. I have trouble remembering sutta numbers.

Voice also generates downloadable audio playlists for my daily walking meditation. I have found listening more fruitful than reading. Reading is more “skippy and scattered”. Listening requires steady attentiveness.

I like suttacentral.net because it’s very well organized and meticulously planned and executed. It also offers access to D&D.

I also frequent Buddhism Stack Exchange as an exercise in testing right view. It facilitates a Q&A interaction that supports an effective learn-teach-learn strategy of study.

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Good topoc for a thread!

Indeed, so good, we “borrowed” it!

https://suttacentral.net/subjects

One advantage of AtI over SC is that, being an older site, it supports pretty much any browser. It’s a battle-tested design that has stood the test of time.

AtI’s integration of Suttas and “commentary” in the sense of talks, essays, notes, and the like, also has its advantages. We approach it from a more purely “sutta-only” perspective, but there is definitely something to be said for having modern explanations and reflections at hand.

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There is a wealth of EBT comparative articles and books out there, much of it freely accessible. It would be helpful to have an organised list of those.

I’m not sure how that would best be organised but there are, for example:

  • comparative sutta/agama studies for entire collections or parts of collections.
  • EBT analyses of particular topics, such as sati or jhana.
  • collections of suttas on particular topics.
    And maybe some other categories that I have not thought of…
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I cant believe i forgot to put Bhante Anandajoti’s Ancient-Buddhist-texts.net on the list. I love the different formats he makes available. But he is probably the best thing about the site. He is very generous.

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On SuttaCentral.net, the consistent translation and search.
On AccessToInsight.org, the index and articles.
On DhammaTalks.org, the evening talks and ebooks.
On ancient-buddhist-texts.net, the Safeguard Recitals ebook.
On PaliAudio.com, the sutta readings.
On TheMindingCentre.org, the commentaries.

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I really like how accesstoinsight has a random sutta function that really is random. I think this would be a great addition to Sutta Central. Maybe you can get their code?

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What do you mean by “really is random”?

Thanks!

If you open the link a bunch of times, you get all sorts of random suttas. It doesn’t seem to pick from a pre-selected list.

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I visit frequently (and it was my first web-site where I could read in the early texts) Palikanon (DE). There are also introductory texts; and even if they provided the K.E.Neumann - translations (which are rated as containing errors and/or messes) I like that site much.

Even more, some friendly impulse let the author make a windows-helpfile-format file which accompanies me everywhere I go with my laptop: it allows to be free of internet-connection and also has a nicer GUI than the webpages. (Unfortunately he never updated this and so the website’s updates and extensions are not in that help-file, it’s a pity…)

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Oh, yes, I should have said that the download off line version was one of the great features of Accesstoinsight.

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