Opinion on a reading list

Not bad!

I also recommend In the Buddha’s Words as a starting point in my EBT Course. One of the follow up courses to that one in my curriculum is Placing the Buddha: A Course on the Setting of the EBTs which includes the Cosmos book you mentioned. And I also recommend the Majjhima Nikaya course after reading ItBW, and am working on a course that slowly gets people wading out into the suttas on their own, but that’s a work in progress.

I don’t recommend people jump right off the deep end into Ñanananda and Nagarjuna though. I first have a course on The Function of Buddhism based on Bhikkhu @cintita’s “Buddhist Life, Buddhist Path” to give people a broader perspective on the gradual path first and only then taking the Intro to Buddhist Philosophy course based on Bhikkhu Bodhi’s “As It Is” Lectures There will likely even be a class or two after that on Nibbāna (based on The Island) and Dependent Origination (The Shape of Suffering?) before I nudge people towards “the deep stuff”

Likewise, “Manual of Insight” isn’t really a book for beginners. I would just point people towards “How To Meditate” and then tell them to practice and stop reading so much :joy:

And, while I do love Bhikkhu Ñanananda, I think this curriculum is a bit too heavily leaning on one teacher for my liking. I find it far more fruitful personally to hear the teachings from different perspectives — though, I also inevitably lean on the teachers I trust (e.g. Bhikkhu Bodhi) quite heavily too, so I understand the trade-offs here.

Lastly, I think this curriculum is a bit light on the sila and sangha side, focusing too much on the buddha-dhamma and samādhi-paññā edges of the triangle. In addition to the aforementioned Function course which covers virtue and livelihood, I personally added a Form(s) of Buddhism (and upcoming Buddhist Ethics) track to my curriculum to try to keep things more balanced.

But overall it’s not bad. I especially appreciate the ordering of Ñanananda’s books… I’ll definitely be referring back to that as I figure out how to incorporate his work into my own flowchart.

Very cool to see other people working in the same space. Thanks for sharing!

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