Part of a sincere apology is making an effort to correct the harm that has been done by the actions. In a followup letter to the publisher on 15 Jan 2021, signed by several members of this forum, the following requests for action were given. (emphasis added)
First, any references to the book as a translation should be removed. This includes endorsement blurbs. The use of any reference to the work being a translation of any kind is incorrect. Even the use of “adaptation” or “re-imagining” wrongly implies that there is some essential core remaining of the Therigatha’s poems represented in this new and original work.
In “A Brief Note” the author describes his poems as either “variations on a classic tune” or closely resembling the originals, “with shifts here and there”. This leaves the average reader with the impression that there are just melodic changes or shifts in metaphor from the (Pali) Therīgāthā‘s enlightenment poems. However, there are deviations from the original throughout that are major and significant. The Introduction and Brief Note should be rewritten to give unmistakable clarity that these poems contain content and implications not in the Therīgāthā and are not to be relied upon as being close to the original.
Second, re-title the poems without the Theri’s Pali names. The internet is filling up with people mistakenly attributing Mr. Weingast’s words to specific enlightened nuns. The authors of the misattributions should then be contacted with the correct information.
Third, address Shambhala’s company policy regarding user reviews, including staff disclosures and the filtering of negative reviews between platforms. Currently, the Shambhala.com website embeds only four and five star user reviews from GoodReads.com. This practice should be stated explicitly on the website so that users know that they need to go elsewhere for a balanced representation.
Shambhala staff also should be required to disclose their affiliation with the company in their reviews. Not doing so, as is the case with your own review on GoodReads, is likely a violation of the terms of service.
As well, Shambhala has the responsibility to ensure that reader’s reviews from the first edition are not linked to the new edition.
Fourth, individually contact all libraries and alert them to the needed cataloging changes. According to WorldCat, over 100 libraries have shelved this book side by side with translations of the Therigatha. While some librarians may by chance find out about the changes through the Library of Congress, etc., most will not.
No response from the publisher was made.
For #1, we will have to wait and see what has changed in the content of the book. However, we do know that on the publishers page for the new edition, they have kept an endorsement from Jack Kornfield calling the book a translation. While some may say this is a minor thing, many of us do not.
It seems that #2 is not going to happen. Removing the Theri’s names would have been the most honest and simplest thing to do to make it clear that they were not their words.
Regarding #3, Nikko Odiseso has updated his review of the original publication on Goodreads to state that he works for Shambhala Publications. He is actually the president, but close enough! As far as SP having a policy so all employees disclose their affiliations, that’s not known because they never responded to the letter.
The original SP book page (which has now been deleted and doesn’t forward to the new book page) headed the reviews pulled from GoodReads as “Reader Reviews.” The current page heads that section as “Selected Revews.” That’s certainly an improvement. But it doesn’t disclose that it is only showing positive reviews. (from what I can tell, 4 or 5 stars). Of course the current top review refers to “this translation of the Therigatha.” Clearly the efforts of the publisher to make it clear that this is not a translation have failed.
Because of GoodRead policies, it is not possible to remove the original book page. The new book page is linked to the old book page because they are both books by Mr. Weingast. Also, nothing to be done about that.
With #4, since they haven’t written back, there is no way to know what they have done regarding informing libraries and offering to replace the book. For me personally, this is one of the easiest and most concrete things that those associated with the book could do to show that they truly believe that their actions were wrong and wish to undo any harm.
I’ll note that earlier in the thread Bhante @Sujato mentioned some other actions that he hopes those connected to the book will take to show that they wish to undo any harm caused by the misrepresentation of the book.
