It was over 20 years ago now that I first heard Ayya Sudhammā preach on the verses in the Therīgāthā while living at the Bhāvanā Society. Like her novice preceptor, Bhante Guṇaratana, she can make the people in the suttas come to life. And most importantly, she does this without any need to alter the words of the Therīs themselves.
So when a non-translation of the Therīgāthā came to light recently, I thought the world could benefit from the experience Ayya Sudhammā has gathered over the years, both as someone living the life of a bhikkhunī, but also as someone who teaches this text with great compassion and wisdom.
So far there are nine therīs. Check it out:
The website has some nifty features
- Audio recordings of the verses in Pali and English (not all yet)
- Links to other existing translations
- Links to the suttas given by or to the Therīs
- Links to the legends about the Therīs
- Links to the digitalpalireader.online so you can do a deeper investigation on your own.
- Even a Hipster version of one translation for the cool kids.
- Complete bibliography of other translations of the Therīgāthā.
And there’s a podcast too! For now the podcast is simply an easy way to get copies of new recordings of translations as soon as they come out. Here’s the feed for your favorite podcast app.
If you are on social media you can follow the new translations as they come out. Sharing them with your friends is a great way to make sure that the real voices of the Enlightened Nuns are preserved. The pages for each therī are optimized for sharing.
- https://twitter.com/therigathaorg
- https://www.instagram.com/therigathaorg/
- https://www.facebook.com/therigatha.org
And anyone can leave questions or comments (or appreciations!) at the bottom of each Therī’s page
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