Some Gratitude fo Bhikkhu Sujato for making his Texts so friendly to me.
Today I got his translation of the Long Discourses and I sat to take a look at it and became so engrossed I realized when I stopped that I’d read the whole section called the Great Discourse on Traces Left Behind.
And I was surprised to find I was eager to Read On. Why was I surprised? Because my vision is getting poorer every year and I actually felt refreshed from the reading because of the enthusiasm I got from reading so easily. The book was oversized, (compared to most of the paperbacks I read), and the pages were very, very white and the print close to a large print book size. It has never occurred to me to look for editions of books that were easy to read before. I knew they had such books in the library, but they were all Harlequin Romances and detective novels. and part of the pleasure of reading was not just reading text that read that easily. the text practically sprang into my eyes. Moreover I found some of this Sutta very humorous which is not normal for reading Buddhist texts (and maybe I should check my attitude). But anyway genuine zest did come from unexpectedly finding a book I very much wanted to read was this easy to read. And I am curious as to whether scholarly and religious opinion is that Vipassī is the source prototype for Gautama’s biography. I’m thinking the Dhammapada next. Any suggestions? THANK YOU BHIKKHU SUJATO
PS: Yikes, 183, 184, and 185 are in this! First the Dhammapada, next in the Pātimokkha, the eight qualities of the ocean suttas and now this. Is there any consensus as to which is earliest and the source?