I’m dealing with some unexpected stuff at the moment, so I can’t sit down and spend much time on this project for now. I will return to it in a week or so, most likely.
In the meantime, some more replies to various matters:
My plan is three titled book sets: The Longer Discourses of the Buddha (complete), The Middle Discourses of the Buddha (complete), and then Selected Shorter Discourses of the Buddha, because the shorter ones in most cases seem like the most repetitive, and many repetitive discourses in a row wouldn’t fit what most people expect when they pick up a book. I didn’t see much value to the word “Length” in the title, so I dropped it.
The spaces between paragraphs are an artifact of the HTML, but I’ve kept them on purpose. I’d considered making the margins much smaller to allow for notes (I love writing in my books), but spaces between paragraphs also serve that function, and they’re already in place, so they’ve stayed.
Please do port these files elsewhere to publish. I went to Lulu because I’ve published some other projects there before, mostly reprinting out-of-print public domain books that I’d wanted in paper form.
If anyone produces a spiral-bound version, I’d love to hear feedback about how it went and address any potential problems in that format.
Excellent! The next volume is on its way to me now, and it should be available for buying and gifting in just a few more days, once I’ve addressed the publishing or typographic issues.
Volume 1 remains available, and Volume 3 is now underway. Copies have also been ordered as gifts to those to whom I’d promised; others may buy the books at cost by following the first link above.
And here’s the front and back of volume 2. This is the proof copy; the right hand margin of the front will be slightly more generous in the publicly available version.
Love the paean to the paragraph, so terribly victimized by its older brother the thesis. Your reference to the noble first sentence was what Mrs. Chasens , my heavily accented Russian English teacher in my tenth year of public school-way back when parsing or diagramming sentences was de riguer in English comp-called the ‘topic sentence’. Oy!
I am both grateful, and eager to read and learn more. Thank you so much for your work, and nice karma.
With much literary Metta, Sadu!
Thanks a lot for making the new translations available in print, Gus!
I noticed something on Lulu: Bhante Sujato has two different contributor IDs: 1612867 (Vols. I-II) and 1627092 (Vol. III). Perhaps we could ask Lulu to merge those so that people can find the trilogy more easily on Lulu.
Do you have the free files for Vol. III?
RE: “Selected Shorter Discourses of the Buddha.”
i) I think one of the advantages of Bhante Sujato’s translations is its completeness. There are already countless anthologies out there. Though I agree the shorter discourses are repetitious, many present the teachings from a slightly different angle or with a different emphasis; something I find quite valuable. (I don’t think I’m alone in that.) For the time being, Bhikkhu Bodhi’s full translations of SN and AN in print remain unequaled. I’d love to see this status quo challenged.
ii) Speaking of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translations: I do think they have paved the way for full physical copies of SN and AN in print. His The Connected Discourses has been in print for two decades, and has gained acclaim in Buddhist circles. People have had the time to get used to complete printed editions.
iii) Finally, any anthology is pretty much guaranteed to leave out someone’s favorite suttas.
Of course, I do not know how much work complete editions would entail. My intention is only to provide a few arguments in favor of them.
Really? I don’t agree. In any case, this series is not an anthology, rather a volumized (is that a word?) set of a complete translation. I think one thing that is certainly missing is a series like this that would allow someone who wanted to read, in this case, the complete MN, to have smaller volumes they could carry around with them.
Dear Snowbird, that’s fair enough, I may have overstated my case by describing them as ‘countless.’ But as someone whose profile links to Reading Faithfully, you must surely know about this page which lists quite a few.
Just to clarify, I’m a huge fan of Gus’s work, in part for the reasons you mention. I’m reading Vol. I of the Majjhima now and will order Vols. II and III soon
I’m familiar with that page. Revisiting it, I still feel like there are almost no sutta anthology books out there. Not trying to be argumentative. But other than those by Ajahn Thanissaro, the pickings are slim. Especially compared to the number of “Buddhist” books that line the shelves of bookstores. I would just hate to see the seeds of doubt planted in the hearts of someone planning on making an anthology. Least of which my own.
Sorry, I didn’t realize which post you were commenting on.
I can see where you’re coming from, Snowbird. I’d love to see an anthology with Bhante’s translations myself, just like I’d love to see a complete edition in print. I think such a collection of selected suttas would be especially useful for someone new to the Dhamma.
The 2018 translations are clear, accurate, and accessible.
After falling in love with some of the suttas, there’s so much more for our hero to explore! A full edition of the Digha in print, for example. Or the new thig translations on SC. Or SCV. All in the same accessible style and consistent with the very first suttas our hero read. There’s an internal harmony, which reverberates with the unity of the suttas, and makes the words of the Teacher, the Buddha, shine and come alive!
The Digha is in draft on my desk. It’s going to be available in couple more weeks. Ven. @yodha has produced a lovely drawing of the Mahaparinibbana Sutta that will appear on the cover.
I agree that the harmony among the different texts is an especially appealing feature of the translation.
I suppose one reason I’ve gone about publishing as I have, though, is that the Majjhima was my first love, and I have enjoyed reading the teaching in narrative form especially. It’s my hope that distributing this set to others will prompt a similar response.
If you have one spare, a copy for Santi Forest Monastery would be amazing!
