By now you’ve read a sizeable chunk of the suttas. I wonder if you have bits that ‘appear’ within the Mind off and on as you go through your day ?
That tended to happen for me - sometimes randomly and at other times, something in daily life would often trigger the thought ‘Hmmm… there is a sutta in which the Buddha says XYZ about this’. Going back and tracking down the exact sutta ( using a personalized Google powered SuttaCentral search) helped immensely in cementing the Buddha’s wisdom within the heart.
I meant that I started reading and taking notes on the suttas 3 years ago. I’m currently finishing up the Anguttura, so it is a bit late to do the SN first as I’ve already done other things since I started this thread 3 years ago. :-). I just post updates on how things are going with my project every 3 months.
Yes. If a subject comes up I will remember something I read. Sometimes the search in Google Docs will help me find the sutta and the notes I took. I wish I would have had the foresight to put deliberate keywords/tags in each bit of notes I made. That search engine doesn’t always find the sutta I am thinking of.
I wish I had done that on my first reading too! I’m currently on my second (far more leisurely) round - and immensely enjoying the background notes Ven Sujato has added recently.
Searching for that sutta which is just eluding you is half the fun!!!
PS : There is this SC indexing tool which can sometimes help - plus there’s always Discourse - its amazing how quickly our members can help track down a particularly hard to find sutta!
The thread is specifically about reading the Pali Canon.
That’s a great resource, but it’s rather limited. For folks who don’t know there is also the Comprehensive Index of Pali Suttas, still a work in progress.
And bringing it back to the topic at hand… This can be a tricky thing for some folks. It’s easy to get caught up in note taking and risking that dragging down the whole project. My advice is to have the attitude that if we live long enough we will start over again, so no need to capture everything on the first pass.
I agree with that, I’ve had problems in my life with taking notes killing enjoyment, but that hasn’t happened in the 3 years I’ve been at it so far. I just wish I would have added tag words to the notes I made on each sutta.
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I’m currently on my second (far more leisurely) round - and immensely enjoying the background notes Ven Sujato has added recently.