In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

The works of the Buddha can feel vast, and it is sometimes difficult for even longtime students to know where to look, especially since the Buddha never explicitly defined the framework behind his teachings. Designed to provide just such a framework, In the Buddha's Words is an anthology of the Buddha's works that has been specifically compiled by a celebrated scholar and translator. For easy reference, the book is arrayed in ten thematic sections ranging from "The Human Condition" to "Mastering the Mind" to "The Planes of Realization." Each section comes with introductions, notes, and essays to help beginners and experts alike draw greater meaning from the Buddha's words. The book also features a general introduction by the author that fully lays out how and why he has arranged the Buddha's teachings in this volume. This thoughtful compilation is a valuable resource for both teachers and those who want to read the Buddha on their own.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Spirituality, Self Help, Meditation

513 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American Buddhist monk from New York City. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944, he obtained a BA in philosophy from Brooklyn College (1966) and a PhD in philosophy from Claremont Graduate School (1972).

Drawn to Buddhism in his early 20s, after completing his university studies he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he received novice ordination in 1972 and full ordination in 1973, both under the late Ven. Ananda Maitreya, the leading Sri Lankan scholar-monk of recent times.

He was appointed editor of the Buddhist Publication Society (in Sri Lanka) in 1984 and its president in 1988. Ven. Bodhi has many important publications to his credit, either as author, translator, or editor, including the Buddha — A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya (co-translated with Ven. Bhikkhu Nanamoli (1995), The Connected Discourses of the Buddha — a New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya (2000), and In the Buddha’s Words (2005).

In May 2000 he gave the keynote address at the United Nations on its first official celebration of Vesak (the day of the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing away). He returned to the U.S. in 2002. He currently resides at Chuang Yen Monastery and teaches there and at Bodhi Monastery. He is currently the chairman of Yin Shun Foundation.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Researchers believe that "The Buddha" ( a term meaning "The Awakened One" ) was an actual man named Siddhartha Gautama that lived in India over 2,600 years ago.

His teachings were passed down for several centuries after his death via an oral tradition until they were written down on collections of palm leaves. These are stored in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon, the texts of the oldest surviving form of Buddhism known as Theravada. The Sutta Pitaka consists of 5 "Nikayas" or books/collections.

These collection are thousands of pages long, contain much repetitive content and have only been translated into English as of the 19th century. Translations into English are still being perfected as ancient Pali and modern English are extremely different languages.

In other words, the reader who wants to read the Buddhist message for him/herself has the daunting task of combing through several large, expensive, repetitious volumes of translations that may not be clear to a modern reader.

"In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon" is an anthology of the Buddha's teachings compiled by Bhikkhu Bodhi. Bhikkhu Bodhi was born in New York City in 1944 as Jeffrey Block. He is an American Theravada Buddhist monk. Bhikkhu Bodhi has translated large portions of the Pali Canon himself and is a native English speaker.

His goal in compiling his anthology is to make the Buddha's message more accessible to the ordinary person and to encourage the ordinary person to read the Pali Canon themselves.

To this end, he has chosen what he thinks are the most essential of the Buddha's discourses. Bhikkhu Bodhi has also put these suttas ( discourses from the Buddha ) into a logical order by subject in his anthology -- something which doesn't exist in the Pali Canon, which is a scattered, repetitious collection of separate talks.

Bhikkhu Bodhi further aids the reader by reducing the repetition of phrases in the translations ( left over from the oral tradition ) and Bhikkhu Bodhi introduces each section with some extremely helpful essays on the suttas that follow.

The result is an easy to understand, scholarly anthology that gives the reader a sense of what can be found in the Sutta Pitaka in regards to the essentials of the Buddha's message - without having to make the larger investment of going through the significantly more voluminous, repetitious and expensive English translations of these collections.

This book will likely not be enjoyable to people whose exposure to Buddhism has been a mixture of inspirational poetry, psychological analysis and elements borrowed from other spiritual traditions.

People who are uncomfortable reading text that is more "religious" will find those elements in this collection.

Bhikkhu Bodhi has striven to given an honest snap shot of what someone can expect to find in translations of the Pali Canon. That snap shot includes the presence of preternatural beings, mythical realms and what is commonly known in the West as "reincarnation". If you have limited tolerance for reading such things, this book isn't for you.

This book can also be dry in many sections. It isn't a book that can be read, or understood by reading through it in many large chunks while laying on a couch after a taxing day. My recommendation would be to read it a tiny bit at a time, sitting up and during your best hours to get the most out of it.

I was surprised to see that a copies of the "The Peg" (Ani Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya XX.7), "The Unconjecturable" (Acintita Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya IV.77) and "To Sivaka" (Moliyasivaka Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya XXXVI.21) suttas (discourses from the Buddha ) were not included in this anthology.

These suttas state that the Buddha knew his teachings would get distorted over time, that the
Buddha believed that ordinary people could not explain the details of their current situation by tracing their karma ( kamma ) and that not all situations a person encounters in their lives are the result of karma. These are extremely important ideas and it is a bit strange that they are not included in an anthology of essential teachings attributed to the Buddha himself.

As stated previously, a big problem for those seeking to understand Buddhism directly from the original texts is that these texts haven't been translated very well into English. English and Pali are just very different languages. The modern world is also very different from the ancient world from where the texts came.

Given that Bhikkhu Bodhi is an American and a native English speaker I had different expectations for these translations than what I read.

As an example, throughout the anthology the root causes of "suffering" are listed as being "greed, hatred and delusion". The terms in quotes are not the only possible English translations. The English translations are technically correct, but I believe the terms used hold extreme connotations to the contemporary English speaker which rob the Buddhist message of its meaning and relevance to contemporary life.

Many people interpret "suffering" as agony, "greed" as extreme desire, "hatred" as an extremely strong emotion and "delusion" as close to being insane. Other translators have stated that the Pali word "dukha", commonly translated as "suffering" really refers to any dissatisfactory feeling from a vague sense of things not being the best as they could be on one end, to flat out agony on the other end.

So, an alternate translation like this one is possible:

"The root cause of feelings of unhappiness, distress or suffering come from desire, aversion or being ignorant to the nature of life."

To me, that speaks to me much more as a modern person and seems relevant to many more of my experiences than:

"The roots of suffering are greed, hatred and delusion".

The alternative translation doesn't come off as a recycled puritanism of which I want no part of as a secular person.

There are a number of other examples of alternative translations like this one.

I'm not a scholar of any kind and Bhikkhu Bodhi is. As an expert who has devoted his life to Buddhism I wouldn't be surprised to learn Bhikkhu Bodhi is correct in his translation choices.

I'm just saying my preference would have been for the other choices and I think that will be true for many people interested in this book.

I believe this book to be a first of its kind in what does and how well it does it. I heartily encourage anyone with an interest in Buddhism to endure the shortcomings of the book. Read it in little bits every day, read the whole thing and talk to people about it. Such an investment will keep coming back to you for the rest of your life.

[Maxwell Dalton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is probably the closest I've ever come to DNF-ing a book — even closer than Atlas Shrugged, which is really saying something. Long parts of this were just pure pain to get through. The fact that I'm a blithering atheist doesn't help either.

As the second book of the PewDiePie book-a-month challenge (that I for some reason decided to partake in), this is an anthology of some of the earliest Buddhist texts, the Pali Canon, compiled into 10 chapters by Buddhist monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, with introductions to each.

Previously, I was perhaps naively of the mind that Buddhism was relatively absent of absurd beliefs typical of most religions out there. I had always thought that it was really just about being stoic, and that Nirvana was just a fancy term for reaching a form of perfect stoicism through meditation.

I was, of course, dreadfully wrong. As trudging through this tome has revealed to me, Buddhism has plenty of plain ridiculous beliefs, many seemingly taken from Hinduism, which I suppose is a sort of father religion of Buddhism, much like how Judaism is a father religion to Christianity. There is samsara, the notion of the cycle of rebirths, which we are all apparently "doomed" to until we can stop our ignorance and do exactly what the Buddha tells us to. Funnily enough, included in the guidelines for getting a "better" rebirth is to contribute alms to Buddhist monks/ascetics.

Actually, going down that route, I think it's very interesting to think of religions in terms of their "genetic" traits that have given them such staying power over the years. There is, of course, the notion of fear, which for Buddhism would be getting a rebirth into a lower realm. Then there is the promise of "bliss", which here would be a rebirth into a heavenly realm, or going a step further and achieving Nirvana (or, more accurately, claiming that you have achieved something which has no basis in reality whatsoever). Karma also applies to both here, as any deeds that you do will either result in good or bad karma (funnily enough, you may not realize the karma in this life and can yield it in a future one; the texts actually even allude to illness / short lifespan being the result of you doing terrible things in a past life, so childhood leukemia patients: a past you did this to yourself!!!). Of course, the religion needs to sustain itself, so to get the rewards and avoid the punishments you are prescribed to a) join the religion and b) give them your money to the higher-ups of the religion in exchange for being instructed down the path of "enlightenment". Furthermore, to shield you from outsiders' doubts, a large emphasis on your achieving the rewards promised by the religion include you placing absolute dumb faith in the Buddha, and labelling all who don't agree with the Dhamma as ignorant.

Even without my ideological objections to religion in all its forms, however, this is still a very bad read. The repetitiveness is absolutely absurd. The "philosophies" provided have little to no value if you don't agree with the ridiculous notions of samsara and karma. Arbitrary lists abound everywhere, and are pseudo-intellectually analyzed to the nth degree: the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Five Aggregates of Clinging, etc etc. To his credit, Bodhi tries to tone down the repetition as much as possible, but it is not enough as this repetition is inherent to the text.

And it's frustrating. You're occasionally roped in with chapter titles like "Deepening One's Perspective on the World," the likes of which you see on some brain-dead TikTok vlogger's posts who takes 30 supplements daily and has read 5 books in the past 10 years (all self-help). You sit up expecting to be enlightened as is promised time and time again. Then you trudge through 30 dull pages and emerge with absolutely nothing but wasted time, all for the cycle to repeat itself with the next chapter (hey, samsara!!!).

But hey, I guess I'm the sucker for buying anything from "Wisdom Publications."

TL;DR: A pseudo-intellectual waste of time, unless you're a Buddhist.

Side note: It's disheartening that this was included in the PewDiePie challenge, as I imagine 95% of participants will drop-out after not being able to get through this.

[Rossdavidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, reviewing and assigning stars to the words of the Buddha, is kind of like pronouncing judgement on the prophecies of Christ, Moses, or Muhammad. It's a bit presumptuous. However, I'm not really evaluating the Buddha's thoughts, per se (that would take a lot longer to do than I have available here), but rather this book, including the translation and selection of these words by Bhikkhu Bodhi (an American Buddhist monk). In fact, in front of each section, there is a bit of commentary and explanation by Bodhi himself, partly to explain some of the content, and partly also to explain his choices in translation.

There are a lot of tricky choices, here, for a translator. First, these were handed down in an oral tradition for centuries before they were ever written down, so (like much else that was preserved orally) there is a LOT of repetition. How much of this to preserve, and how much to elide?

Second, there are terms like "karma", which has entered the English language but with not exactly the same meaning as the Buddha intended when he used that word. There are also words, like "dukkha", whose traditional translation of "suffering" is, to say the least, debatable. Bodhi chooses a fairly traditional route in the choices he makes, but he does a cogent and coherent job of explaining what those choices were.

Third, there are a lot of metaphors here which were clearly aimed at people living in a different technological era. An analogy that helps someone living in the 5th century B.C. to understand, may obscure more than it explains to a 21st century reader. One could, in theory, have justified a "translation" that substituted analogies with smartphones and automobiles and social networks, but (thankfully?) Bodhi does not do this. He does, however, do a decent job of explaining to us what the metaphors and analogies were intended to explain.

This is, perhaps obviously but I'll point it out anyway, not necessarily a read-it-in-one-go kind of book. I put it by the bed, reading it a few pages most nights, which makes me a literal "bedside table buddhist". It could probably have done as well as a first-thing-when-you-wake-up book. Each piece was interesting to read, and think about, and try to decipher and decrypt. It seems to be part of the nature of the Buddha's thought that it is not instantly approachable; it requires you to think for a while on each bit before you get anywhere, because it is not intended to be just intellectual understanding.

Also, one has to wonder how similar any of this was to what the historical figure now known as the Buddha, actually said. The language used in conversations between himself and his followers and questioners, cannot be a remotely accurate reflection of how the original conversations went. It is rather like hearing a folk tale, and trying to imagine what the original story was. The monks who passed it down, generation after generation, may have been extraordinarily diligent and faithful, and still the sheer quantity of time (something like 120 generations) would make it implausible that it has not changed at least a little. But perhaps, like DNA which mutates much more in the non-coding sections than the ones which encode fundamental metabolic reactions, the essence of his thought might be there. It is fun to think about.

You could spend lifetimes doing it.

[Beatriz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was read as part of the Pewdiepie challenge. I came into this with high expectations, since Felix mentioned how "awakened" he was by this.

I will not say that I gained nothing from this book. Each chapter begins with an explanation from the translator on the texts he chose and what they encompass. I found myself pondering the teachings and challenging myself on how I could apply them into my life. The idea of destroying a sense of self, for example, was one of the most radical and interesting ideas for me, and that I will do more research on.

That said, this was a very boring read. The translator says, in the beginning, that this is a religious text and, as such, there would be a lot of repetitions that he would simplify sometimes, but would not eliminate entirely. Boy, oh boy, were there repetitions. The text was so tedious to read I had difficulty getting through more than 1 page a day before falling asleep. It took me over two months to read this book, which is not a long book at all.

Pros:
More than being a religion, this is clearly a way of life in search of peace; You can only succeed by practice of the Dhamma, which is better than just praying your sins away; there is a focus in loving-kindness towards others, which I appreciated, and challenging yourself to look at your circumstances in a different perspective; Rooted in inner peace rather than any social standing.
Cons:
Very boring to read, repeating the same thing over and over; my pet peeve was this implication that by doing acts of kindness you can get a better rebirth ESPECIALLY if these are done in favor of monks - so, you can be charitable, but mostly to monks cause it's not as valuable for regular folk. This strikes me as very convenient. It shouldn't make a difference that I want to help someone else who is struggling, regardless of being enlightened; Also, you have to go into homelessness, follow the monk path for enlightenment, go for alms, etc - but it seems that enlightenment is not attainable for the people who are working and earning money to provide the alms. So if we all become enlightened monks and nuns, who provides the alms?

As a side note, I would've liked to know if the Pali Canon ever focuses on the female lay follower or how women are perceived in Buddhism.

It is entirely possible that I misinterpreted the book, or have judged it harshly due to my own expectations for an earth-shattering revelation, but in general I do not recommend this.

[Mohammad Ali Abedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not want to read a Buddhist book as envisioned by a self-help guru written primary for housewives, so I decided to read the original material. The book, "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon", has organized material from the Pali Canon, which is material supposed to be directly from Buddha himself. The Pali Canon is one of the earliest material and if I understand correctly, it’s something like 40+ volumes, so the book I am reading is a small introduction to it.

Aside from being an introduction, the book has also few important changes. First, it organizes the material in categories (the original Pali Canon has no specific framework) making it easier to read and it shortens the text sometimes, because the way it is originally written (well, originally recited), there is a lot of repetition. I know that sounds confusing, and that sounds confusing, but I will try to make it less to sound confusing by using this sentence which is going to make it less to sound confusing and by organizing the material in categories (the original Pali Canon has no specific framework) making it easier to read and it shortens the text sometimes which makes it sound less confusing which initially it was more confusing.

Something like that but for 80 lines, so the author just does a … on repetitions make it easier to read. Each section is introduced with commentary on the following material, but I would first read the sutras (the scriptures, like Quranic suras) and then once I finished the section, I would go back and read the commentary. I wanted to see my first reaction to the original text with as little outside influence as possible. Not that there isn’t any outside influence, given that first there is translation to English, but also translation to Sri Lankan before that, and that the written form was hundreds of years after Buddha, but at least I’m trying.

Now my opinion. I don’t know how much of the material is actually Buddha’s words and how much is post-Buddha dogma and certainly reading one book on Buddha does not make me Nirvana PHD maestro but I have a feeling that a lot of material is not Buddha’s. Because sometimes he sounds like a nice old chap, not sounding dogmatic, superstitious, or specific, but other times he sounds majestic, lavishing praise on his own brilliant Enlightened knowledge. I feel the latter was added by his followers and my gut (which is always wrong, but might be right here) tells me that Buddha was the sort of sage that used many of contemporary beliefs of his time and wrapped them around simple ways to improve one’s life. I almost feel like he himself did not believe many of it, but no prophet can come and teach the people from his area from a blank canvas. They all have to use material the people are familiar and comfortable with and try to slowly mold it into something else.

There is some wonderful material in Buddha’s statements, such as the allegory of the elephant to show that all diverging opinions on religion are not necessarily wrong but incomplete so no one should claim full authority on the subject. Or the one where he talks about being good and if we get rewarded for it by going to heaven (as some say) or rebirth (as others say) then great, but if neither exist, then we still haven’t lost anything, because at least we led a good life here on earth.

All these material is good, but I’m not so won over by the emphasis on life being a sort of suffering on earth and our goal is to escape from it. Than in itself is no problem, but it is the outcome of such an ideology that does not sit well with me. First of all, I don’t like the idea of the monks. Buddha places them on a higher level than the rest of the people, but monks don’t earn their own food, which irritates me a bit. The teachings show that people should ward off materialism, but the people who have given up materialism have to beg food from people who haven’t. This in turn means that the religion has made it beneficial to the hard-working materialistic layman to give his food and resources to these monks in exchange of gaining good points for his next life.

Which brings me to my next issue with the whole dogma. The concept of doing good and being reborn into a better life has meant that the rich and successful in the present life are born into that life due to the good deeds they did in the previous life and the sick, poor, and diseased are being punished. This creates a fatalistic, caste system, of which countries that were heavily influenced by reincarnation religions have the most of.

All in all, I’d hang out with Buddha himself, but probably not his followers.

[Craig Shoemake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most recent of several Pali-only anthologies of Buddhist texts I've read, the other two being Word of the Buddha and Path To Deliverance, both by the famous German monk Nyanatiloka. (The latter is especially good.) This one is easily the most comprehensive.

For those of you who find the suttas tough going on account of their lack of thematic organization, this book will be a godsend. As Bhikkhu Bodhi explains in the introduction, the idea for it had its genesis in a series of lectures he gave on the Majjhima Nikaya. His goal therein was to arrange materials from simplest to most profound, giving a progressive, graded course of theoretical and practical instruction. He then decided to turn that approach to the Sutta Pitaka as a whole. The result is the present work.

The specifics of this structure are as follows, where each number refers to a part of the book:

1.The Buddha's description of the human condition
2.The nature of the Buddha and his attainment
3.How to approach the Dhamma
4.How the Dhamma contributes to happiness in this life
5.How it can contribute to happiness in future rebirths
6.The Dhamma on why renunciation is the safest course to take (the perils of samsara)
7.The nature of the path to liberation
8.How to master the mind
9.The nature of transcendent wisdom
10.Stages of realization

Each of these sections is prefaced with a substantial introduction by Bhikkhu Bodhi, and some of these are surprisingly good. (I have often felt a little sour toward BB's writing because he is such a slave to the Commentaries and tends to express himself with a slightly stilted, pompous air.) I was especially impressed by his introduction to part 3 ("Approaching the Dhamma"), which is, in effect, an essay on the place and nature of faith (saddha) in the Buddha's teaching. I think anyone, no matter how knowledgeable, can benefit from these pages (81ff). It is especially useful as a contrast to Christian notions of faith.

So who would benefit most from this book? I think beginning students would especially be served by it, or at least those who have until now subsisted mainly on a diet of secondary texts and haven't yet plunged into the jungle of the suttas. This book is excellent for providing an orientation, and if read two or three times so that one really becomes familiar with the passages contained therein, when the passages are finally encountered in their full form it should prove very rewarding. But then, anyone who wants a refresher, or a different manner of presentation from, say, the four noble truths and the three-fold training (sila, samadhi, pañña), will also benefit.

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pick this book up again and again. It's just the end all book on Buddhism for me (if there could be an end all book). There's so much in here, you could spend a lifetime studying this one book. I heard Bhikkhu Bodhi speak last year, and he seemed so quiet and easygoing, such an unassuming man. But what a scholar. That an American monk has written such a definitive book on Buddhism is fantastic (Although I suppose a lot is translation, not commentary). I will never tire of this book.

I've read several reviews that said this book is excellent for beginners. I would disagree. I would not consider myself a beginner (no more than we ALL are beginners, just to go a little Zen on you) and this book is difficult. Easy to read, but heavy stuff and challenging concepts. There are many better books for the beginner.

[Stephen Rennolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Tantric practitioner for years it was wonderful to discover so many of my personal realizations in this book. If you aren't Buddhist and/or have no interest in Buddhism, obviously this book won't mean much to you.

If you are Buddhist, this is a very enlightening read. (Sorry, I couldn't resist. :)

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Gain and loss, disrepute and fame,
blame and praise, pleasure and pain:
these conditions that people meet
are impermanent, transient, and subject to change.

A wise and mindful person knows them
and sees that they are subject to change.
Desirable conditions don’t excite his mind
nor is he repelled by undesirable conditions.

He has dispelled attraction and repulsion;
they are gone and no longer present.
Having known the dustless, sorrowless state,
he understands rightly and has transcended existence.”
(AN8:5)

Below I have listed my favourite suttas in this anthology. The ones in bold are those that I especially like and recommend.

The suttas can be hit or miss. Some of them impart their ideas clearly, some of them are a muddled mess. I would not he surprised if some of the core ideas of Buddhism—especially the more abstract metaphysical concepts such as “dependent origination” have been irreparably warped and distorted before they were put to paper by centuries of oral transmission.

I saw a few reviewers complaining about how Bhikkhu Bodhi ‘has an agenda’ because he is providing readers with HIS specific interpretation of Buddhism as if it is representative of all traditions. It seems these critics forgotten that this is an anthology of suttas deriving from the Theravada Buddhist Tripitaka, and has been compiled by a leading Theravadin monk.

The author is evidently not trying to play a sleight of hand on unsuspecting readers. He does not approach his religion from a disconnected academic POV, precisely because it’s his religion. If anything, I would be disappointed if I wasn’t getting the hardcore Theravadin take on the religion if I picked up this book. (So yes, you won’t be getting an explanation of kenshō or rigpa here.)

Having said this, there are key texts by Buddhist philosophers which influence Bhikkhu Bodhi’s understanding of Buddhism which should’ve been explicitly mentioned in this book as being exclusively part of the Theravada literature. The Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa is chief among such texts—its contents are only ever provided as further reading in footnotes.

Buddhaghosa is kind of like the St Paul of Theravada Buddhism. Even though Buddhaghosa lived several hundreds of years after the Buddha, his scholastic interpretations of the suttas—also referred to as the ‘Abhidhamma’—are taken as authoritative and second only to the Buddha's words in the Theravada tradition.

Given its unique perspective, this should not be the first book that people interested in learning the basics of Buddhism should pick up. Doing so is analogous to someone interested in Protestant Christianity picking up a lengthy anthology and commentary of the Bible collated by a conservative Calvinist minister. There are easier books to read to learn the basic tenets. However, that being said, for someone who wants to drive right into the original Buddhist texts, I cannot think of any other English language resource out there that is better.

For some suttas, only their extracts are provided in this book. Some of the suttas of which only extracts are provided are worth reading in their entirety. A personal recommendation would be to read MN19.

A good online resource to read Buddhist suttas online for free is ‘Sutta Central’. The website provides multiple translations, including those by Bhikkhu Bodhi. It also has a bunch of nifty features, including one which indicates the parallels between variants of the Tripitaka.

List of favourite suttas:

Majihimma Nikaya:

MN 10 “The Four Establishments of Mindfulness”
MN 19 “Two Kinds of Thought"
MN 20 “The Removal of Distracting Thoughts"
MN 21 “The Simile of the Saw”
MN 27 “The Shorter Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant’s Footprint”
MN 42 “The Brahmins of Sālā”
MN 47 “The Inquirer” (investigate the teacher himself)
MN 54 “With Potaliya” (encounter with a Householder)
MN 63 “The Shorter Discourse with Māluṅkyaputta” (One of the Buddha’s responses to “irrelevant” metaphysical questions)
MN 64 “The Greater Discourse to Mālunkyāputta” (abandoning the five lower fetters)
MN 75 “With Magandiya” (the hedonist)
MN 99 “With Subha” (esp. the extract on the Four Divine Abodes)

Samyutta Nikaya:

SN 22.99 “Dog on a Leash”
SN 36.6 "The Dart"
SN 46:55 “Saṅgarava sutta” (The Hinderances to Mental Development)
SN 47:12 “Sariputta’s Lofty Utterance”
SN 54:13 “Mindfulness of Breathing”
SN 55:3 “With Dīghāvu” (The Buddha visits a terminally ill follower)
SN 56.11 “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma” (the first discourse)


Angrutta Nikaya:

AN 3.65 “Kalama Sutta” (no dogmas or blind belief)
AN 5:148 “A Person of Integrity’s Gifts”
AN 8.6 “The Eight Vicissitudes of Life"
AN 9:20 “Insight surpasses all possible merit/objects”
AN 9:26 “The Simile of the Stone Pillar” (A Mind Unshaken)

Khuddaka Nikāya:

It 22 “The Benefits of Love” (Meritorious Deeds)
It 27 “Mettābhāvanāsutta” (The Development of Loving-Kindness/Metta)

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rounding up to 2 stars, because this did in fact release me from the suffering of insomnia by rendering me unconscious

[Chetan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an inspirational book. Bikkhu Bodhi has woven together this excellent book on the Buddhist path. Using snippets of different sizes, like threads, from the many discourses of the Buddha. Explaining why the Dhamma is needed, how it benefits the world, and the fruits of its practice.

Making the dhamma understandable, bringing clarity, and underlining that which is important. Concluding with dependent origination which is the backbone of the teachings of the Buddhas. Explaining in the Blessed One's own words that understanding the whole of dependent origination through one's own experience. Is what brings one to Nibbana (Nirvana).

"THE HOLY LIFE, friend Visakha, is grounded upon Nibbana, culminates in Nibbana, ends in Nibbana." - MN 44

This book is a scholarly piece, reading this will give the reader clarity into the whole Buddhist path. It won't teach the practice required to reach its end. Nibbana can be experienced. For that, I would recommend reading David C. Johnson's The Path to Nibbana or Delson Armstrong's A Mind Without Craving. Both two excellent Dhamma books, teaching the practice of Brahmaviharas, the fastest route to Nibbana.

[Jer Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important book, but not a modern perspective

This is stating the obvious when it comes to the suttas themselves, but even the lengthy introductions to the suttas at the start of each chapter are seeped in a traditional attitude that made this book hard to read.

Bikkhu Bodhi’s immense work translating the Pali Cannon is of course to be commended, and his translations have a clarity and simplicity that is missing from a LOT of English versions of the suttas.

If your goal is to read a book with a nice, broad overview of example suttas, and clarity of the suttas themselves is important to you (it should be) this is a really valuable book! You’ll find the actual words passed down by his followers, carefully edited and condensed to avoid the droning repetition that is inherent to the oral format.

Reading these source texts can be difficult for modern Buddhists, because in so many cases (especially in Western convert Buddhist contexts such as the Insight movement in the US) what we are taught on retreat is a carefully curated subset of the actual teachings. Aspects of the cosmology which the Buddha took literally and mentioned often (gods, demons, heavens, hells) are either treated as metaphors or ignored completely. Not so in these sutta translations. You’ll find all these things and worse discussed frankly and as part of everyday life.

This was a challenge I welcomed, and something I was hoping for from the experience of reading the suttas themselves.

The issue I have is with the way the subjects are organized and explained by Bodhi, who comes off as a very conservative follower of Buddhist religion with a bit of an axe to grind with those who want to merge these teachings with modern perspectives. He regularly takes time to specifically denounce “secular” forms of Buddhism and point out how they are flawed, all the while taking seriously the wild cosmological claims of the suttas without any sense of awkwardness.

It’s his right to be a true believer of traditional Buddhism of course, and to defend it against the encroachment of modernity, but in this particular book it was a distraction. A more neutral presentation of the suttas, written to expose their contents to everyone without proselytizing, would in my opinion be a better use of the source translations themselves (which as I said above, are priceless).

Specifically, I wish the order of subjects was different. Bodhi subjects us to a series of offensively traditionalist suttas about social organization, including a lengthy section of misogynistic ideas about the appropriate role of women, before ever treating us to suttas about meditation, mindfulness or even psychological concepts like the aggregates. It almost felt like the more popular and uplifting aspects of the Dhamma were being held hostage behind a paywall of lecturing about traditional values. Was he afraid that if the “good stuff” was at the start, we’d stop reading when it got to the boring social lecturing? Maybe so, but I feel like the organization of this book probably turns a lot of people off, and results in them missing out on the suttas that would mean the most to them.

That said, having the introductions was invaluable. Without context and explanation, pulling out these sutta quotes leaves them pretty incoherent. I was happy to have him contextualize each sutta and their relationships to each other and the broader Dhamma.

If anything, I wish the explanations of each sutta and the suttas were more mixed. Reading a long introduction to 10 suttas, then all 10 suttas, left me often lost and confused.

I recommend reading the chapter introductions and suttas at the same time. Reading the introduction until it finishes explaining a particular sutta, then jumping to that sutta and reading before continuing. I switched to this method at the end of the book and while it’s a bit more effort, it helped my comprehension a lot.

I wish the Kindle version of this book would take this into account technologically, and insert links back and forth from the introductions mentioning a sutta and the sutta itself.

Finally I’ll say the footnotes are great, and I learned a lot about the nuances of translating Pali from them.

This is a really interesting book and I’m glad I read it. If you’re just starting out with Buddhism, it may be too much of a jump for you.

I’ll point out that all of these original sutta texts are available in English translation, for free, on suttacentral.net. If you want to compare translations, find other suttas etc. I recommend that site like crazy. It also has both English and Pali versions that you can read in parallel, so if you want the Pali version of texts from this book, SuttaCentral is the place to find them.

[Anmol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to Early Buddhist Sutras, but not to Buddhism itself. I also really like how the 10 chapters are almost like 10 levels of Buddhism, from basic lay practice to galaxy-brain metaphysics (which is still built on the 4 Noble Truths). Some things that I appreciate are how agnostic the Buddha was: maybe agnostic isn't the right term, but what I mean is that he didn't talk about a lot of the things people expect from systems of belief. He limited his teaching, in his own words, to the origin and cessation of suffering and other empirical concerns:

So too, monks, the things I have directly known but have not taught you are numerous, while the things I have taught you are few. And why, monks, have I not taught those many things? Because they are without benefit, irrelevant to the fundamentals of the spiritual life, and do not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbāna. Therefore I have not taught them

Another aspect that I really appreciated was this idea of Buddhist logic which is built on dependent origination: "if X, then Y; if no X, then no Y". This is used by the Buddha to argue that truths are only established based on the assumptions on which they rest:

If a person has faith, Bhāradvāja, he preserves truth when he says: ‘My faith is thus’; but he does not yet come to the definite conclusion: ‘Only this is true, anything else is wrong.’ In this way, Bhāradvāja, there is the preservation of truth; in this way he preserves truth; in this way we describe the preservation of truth. But as yet there is no discovery of truth

From this book, I also finally got a glimpse into the Buddha's refutation of Vedantic eternalism (the belief in an eternal soul as opposed to contingent maya). But not just that, the Buddha, again in a determinedly agnostic fashion, negates both materialism and eternalism as obstructing the empirical practice of Buddhism, ie. the observance of the inherent suffering in existence:

Māluṅkyāputta, if there is the view ‘the world is eternal,’ the spiritual life cannot be lived; and if there is the view ‘the world is not eternal, ’ the spiritual life cannot be lived. Whether there is the view ‘the world is eternal’ or the view ‘the world is not eternal,’ there is birth, there is aging, there is death, there are sorrow, lamentation, pain, dejection, and despair, the destruction of which I prescribe here and now.

This is continued by the Buddhist doctrine of sunyata(nothingness), which I found very interesting, though I'm not completely convinced by it as of now:

“The four great elements, monk, are the cause and condition for the manifestation of the form aggregate. Contact is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the feeling aggregate, the perception aggregate, and the volitional formations aggregate. Name-and-form is the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate

To me, the last sentence ^ seems to turn the logic of consciousness (which I hitherto believed) upside down. While Advaita (and most other nondualism I’m familiar with), says that consciousness is pure without names and forms (it is being-consciousness-bliss when consciousness is not adulterated by names and forms), the Buddha maintains that consciousness without names and forms ceases to exist. But if this is so, what does the meditator experience when his mind is stilled? It appears to me that that is consciousness without names and forms. But then who experiences it? There is no “I” in that state. Perhaps the Buddha is right. None the less, this debate on the nature of consciousness between Buddhism and Vedanta is central to contemporary questions on the philosophy of mind.

[Jordi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed it as a (long) introduction to Buddhism, but the constant repetition in almost every paragraph almost annoyed me whilst reading the pages. Felt like, because of this, i started skimming pages instead of reading them, let alone studying them (which, is what i think you must do in order to get a good understanding of the teachings and appreciate the book for what it truly is).

I could not appreciate it for what it was. Therefor. Bad rating booooo

[Ben]

A large portion of the text is redundant. For example, there is a teaching towards the end of the book that says the following: there are many followers of the Buddha who have attained perfect enlightenment via the Dhamma. It isn't merely the Buddha himself who has attained enlightenment via the Dhamma. Among those arahant disciples of the Buddha are many men and many women, not just men or just women. Among the lay disciples of the Buddha are many non-returners, once-returners and stream-enterers. Among each of these are many men and many women. If none of the Buddha's disciples had attained enlightenment, this would cast doubt on the teachings, but the fact that many of them have attained enlightenment is a reason to be confident in the teachings.

That is all the teaching says. Yet, it is multiple pages long. It manages to be multiple pages long by repeating chunks of irrelevant filler. The teaching begins by giving us a definition of an arahant (one who has attained enlightenment) which is itself too long - the definition is "when a monk has abandoned craving, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising, that monk is an arahant with taints destroyed, one who has lived the spiritual life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached his own goal, utterly destroyed the fetters of existence, and is completely liberated through final knowledge" - and then, rather than simply using the word "arahant" to refer to such people, writes out the definition each time instead. So instead of Vacchagotta asking the Buddha "are there any arahants among the disciples of the Master Gotama?", he asks "Apart from Master Gotama, is there any monk, Master Gotama's disciple, who by realising it for himself with direct knowledge, in this present life enters upon and dwells in the liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, that is taintless with the destruction of the taints?" This question is not just a longer version of "are there any arahants among the disciples of Master Gotama?", but it actually reduces the question to "are there any arahants among the male disciples of Master Gotama?", so the question will have to be asked again for women. And instead of saying "yes, there are many", the Buddha says "There are, Vaccha, not only one hundred, or two or three or four or five hundred, but far more monks, my disciples, who by realising it for themselves with direct knowledge, in this present life enter upon and dwell in the liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, that is taintless with the destruction of the taints." This exchange is repeated for female arahants, male non-returners, female non-returners, male once-returners or stream-enterers, and female once-returners or stream-enterers. Then, instead of saying "if only Master Gotama were accomplished in this Dhamma, the Dhamma would be insufficient, but since Master Gotama and many of his followers are accomplished, the Dhamma is sufficient", Vaccha first says "Master Gotama, if only Master Gotama were accomplished in this Dhamma, but no monks were accomplished, then this spiritual life would be deficient in that respect; but because Master Gotama and monks are accomplished in this Dhamma, this spiritual life is thus complete in that respect." And then he repeats this statement several more times, each time including one more from the list monks, nuns, laymen non-returners, laywomen non-returners, laymen once-returners or stream-enterers, and laywomen once-returners or stream-enters. Again, they do not use the words "non-returners", "once-returners" or "stream-enterers", or indeed "arahants", and instead write out a description of what that means every time they want to use those words.

It is rather painful to read such a bloated body of text, and that's coming from a Stephen King fan. This really is the standard writing style throughout the book. Not only does it make the book extraordinarily boring, but it actually impedes one's ability to understand the teachings. What could and should be succinct is instead like a great haystack through which the reader must rummage endlessly in search of a few needles. I realise I'm criticising the Pali Suttas themselves, rather than the writing style of the author of this book, but the book consists in large part of the Suttas - that is indeed the point of the book - and the Suttas are as poorly written as I have described. At the very least this book has given me an appreciation of why it may not be such a good idea to read Buddhist teachings "in the Buddha's words": serious editorial work is required to make the Buddha's words palatable.

One major advantage of certain aspects of Buddhism is that they don't actually require faith. One does not need to have faith that meditation is a way to eradicate suffering. Instead, one can try it, see for oneself that it at least reduces suffering and frees oneself from suffering to a certain extent, and conclude that continued practice would likely continue to reduce suffering. Moreover, one can get glimpses of total freedom, or selflessness, and become certain that meditation is a way to eradicate suffering. The "trying it out" does not require faith, it just requires an estimation of the probability of success that is high enough to warrant spending time trying it out, and this probability can be demonstrated to be high enough by listening to honest people who have tried it, with success, in the past. And the conclusion that continued practice is likely to further reduce suffering is merely logical. It is not knowledge, but again it is a high enough probability that continued practice is warranted. In the case of glimpsing total freedom, there is knowledge. The Buddha emphasises that one can see the Dhamma for oneself, through direct experience. This is, of course, a prominent theme in this book. However, the Buddha includes in the set of things which can be known by direct experience claims which are unlikely to be true. For example, the Buddha claims that during the course of enlightenment a person will obtain knowledge of all of their past lives. Of course I cannot prove that this is false, and it would be easy for a Buddhist to dismiss my criticism on the grounds that I am not accomplished enough in meditation to have remembered my past lives yet, but I find it extraordinarily unlikely that we live more than once. This puts an essentially unbridgeable gap between me and Buddhism. For one thing, the Buddha has made a false claim. One of the central tenets of Buddhism is that the Buddha is perfect, but a perfect being could not make a false claim. This casts doubt over the whole teaching. For another, the false claim is not just a peripheral detail, but is itself a central tenet of Buddhism. It is because of rebirth that suffering is immeasurable, and that we must escape it by becoming enlightened. If I will not be reborn, I essentially get Nibbana for free. I will not experience any suffering upon death. This is my last birth, the spiritual life has been lived, the burden has been laid down, yada yada yada. The benefits of meditation, for me, are limited to those that appear in this very life. These benefits are seen as greatly inferior to those benefits that appear on a larger scale in the rounds of rebirth, which are themselves greatly inferior to the benefit of escape from the rounds of rebirth. But if I can only get these inferior benefits, is it worth following the teaching at all? If my suffering is actually finite, if there is no threat of hell or infinite future births in the lower realms, what am I running from? Is it a good idea to spend my one life meditating in a cave? Probably not.

The fact that I will live only this one life also poses an issue for the truth of impermanence. There may be states that arise and do not subside from now until the end of life, or that take up a large proportion of life, and in fact it would make sense to attempt to avoid these states if they are painful. So it is not the fact that every state eventually subsides that should turn one to meditation, but rather the fact that meditation can cause any painful state to subside that should do so. But meditation is not the only thing that can cause a given painful state to subside. If one is lonely, meditation can help alleviate that feeling. However, it is difficult to be so good at meditating that one is not bothered whatsoever by the fact that one has no connections with others. So instead of merely meditating, one ought to use meditation in conjunction with a pursuit of the worldly solution to the problem. That is, developing relationships and nurturing those that exist. The fact that we live once turns meditation into a tool that can be used only in this present life, and then it is just one among many such tools.

Even if one believes in rebirth, the claims made, for example, surrounding the birth of the Buddha - the fact that, upon birth, he immediately took seven steps north and spoke a coherent sentence - are frankly silly. I don't think it is a good idea to take the supernatural elements of Buddhism seriously, in view of claims like these. Again, a false claim being made by the Buddha casts doubt upon the whole enterprise.

Bodhi claims that the view that a person lives once and is annihilated upon death "threatens to undermine ethics" and "leads to ethical anarchy". This is very similar to the opinion of Christians who claim that one cannot have morality without God. Both of these claims are false and display an appalling ignorance of philosophy. It is very easy to come up with counters to both of these claims, and so, when an intelligent person makes such claims, I can only conclude that they are wilfully deluded so that they may cling to ideas that they adore. Moreover, whether or not something presents an ethical problem has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not it is true. Buddhism, being as old as it is, being a religion, and therefore dogmatic in certain respects, and reluctant to change, is ignorant of other philosophy. I think it has some great wisdom. I think meditation is a useful tool. However, the wisdom of Buddhism should be removed from its religious elements, treated as a philosophy, and taken in conversation with other philosophy. One's worldview ought to be informed by Buddhism, and one would do well to take some its advice seriously, but one should not accept anything on faith, and certainly should not be ignorant of other philosophy.

[T.R. Preston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I consider it an indescribable tragedy that Buddhism is not the most popular religion/philosophy on Earth. It is, in my eyes, far superior to its peers.

[Jason Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the foundational text for Buddhist studies and for those who practice Buddhism. It is the most important Buddhist text to read for any school of Buddhism because it is the original Pali Canon, the actual discourses of the historical Buddha. This book gives you an insight to early Buddhism and the Theravada school of Buddhism. Most people will likely not start with this book when they begin their Buddhist studies, but in an ideal world this book would be the first book you should read on Buddhism and the Buddha. This book will give you a taste of what it is like to read the ancient suttas (sutras) with their unique repetitive style. And Bhikkhu Bodhi has done a tremendous job with the translation and commentary which makes for an enjoyable and enlightening read. All of his translations sparkle with clarity and wisdom, but none so more than this amazing book. So if you are interested in the wisdom of the Buddha then begin here to build a solid foundation for your future studies.

[Peter Crofts · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title says it all. This is as close as you will get to what the Buddha actually said. That may seem like an odd comment, but there is a lot of material out there that offers little to no reference to the initial building blocks of Buddhism.

The suttas are somewhat like Socratic dialogues, though the ultimate conclusion of each is predetermined.

If you are looking for an introductory text to early Buddhism you might want to start with the Dhammapada, or a primer like Glenn Wallis' "The Sayings of Buddha" (which is superb), as this is a much more demanding, austere tome.

When you encounter some of the initial sources of the Dharma you will understand why some describe it as a psychological discipline, rather than a religion. You will also realize how rigorous and demanding it really is, something that seems to get lost in a lot of present day Western Buddhist self help manuals, which try to peddle it as some sort of exotic version of the power of positive thinking.

[Lucio Constantine: has left this site for YouTube · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is both good and bad, there are some elements I agree with some I don’t and others I am still trying to work out with.
The Pali Canon is the standard book of Theravada Buddhism.
There are some comments of about the subject of truth. What is true? I hold that what is true is subjective to the individual. There are other comments about craving which I don’t agree with and at one point it says that desire is the root of all suffering. Now there are some desires to help people, to meditate, practice music would these be bad as well? I have heard of the saying attachment is the root of all suffering and I am unsure about the statement.
If you are interested in Eastern Philosophy this is a must read, otherwise the amount of repetition might annoy you to death.

[Samuel Saul Richardson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've had this book on my shelf forever but I don't even remember how I got it. I know that I quoted this book a few times but overall I am not a fan. Each chapter started out with a great introduction of the ideas and gave citations to where it was grabbing these ideas from but from there the rest of the chapter was long, drawn out, got away from the point, and repeated itself so many times. As an additional negative point I was looking for an introduction to Buddhism whereas this was more of a heavy doctrinal book that also didn't help with the translation to English of certain keywords.

I do not recommend.

#SelfTaughtReligion #Buddhism

[Phillip Moffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology is an excellent guide to the Buddha’s teachings. If you think you may be interested in studying the suttas, this is a good book to start with. The book is organized around various topics, from the human condition and how to approach the dharma to mastering the mind and planes of realization.

[Daniel Bisgaard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gets very repetative. At first i thought i was sleepy and i kept reading the same thing over and over. It does say before the book begins that its repetative and that you have to think of the suttas as a saying and not a text. It helps a bit with the read.

[Jake · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book begins by telling you that it exists because Buddhists complained that the texts of Buddhism were way too disorganised and repetitive. Yet this is exactly how I would describe this book. At least they're self aware. I suppose.

[Spojen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Følte til tider at eg havna i koma av denne.
Buddha sa mye ting, ikke alt som var like lett å ta innover seg i mitt møte med Buddismen.

[Chut Lohawatcharagul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book that dives deep into the foundation of early Buddhism. The introduction by Bhikku Bodhi primes the understanding required for reading the related Buddhist texts.

[Wade · Rating 2 out of 5]

done for now and wow, interesting but also challenging to remain engaged

[olta · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read almost all of it but it was really hard to get through. The writing style just wasn’t it for me but there were some really insightful things in this book.

[Wopke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessant, fijn om te lezen, introducties bij elk hoofdstuk helpen om het beter te begrijpen.

[jjfoerch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very approachable, very readable survey of early Buddhism through a selection of suttas from the Pāli Canon and accompanying commentary and explication by Bhikkhu Bodhi. The writing style was clear and easy to follow, definitions concise, and concepts well contextualized. Topics were often treated from several different angles, which not only helped elucidate subtle ideas, but also gave the impression that this anthology is a truly broad, representative slice of the teachings; and though the writing style of the original suttas was extreme in the use of repetition, Bhikkhu Bodhi wielded ellipsis systematically but judiciously to the effect that they were comfortably readable, and their finer points not lost in a swamp of redundancy.

The book is arranged in a logical structure that makes for an easy to follow progression of concepts from start to finish. As a reference work, this structure, along with the several indices and tables, also make it easy to find any given topic. Each chapter is comprised of an essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi, followed by translations of the suttas discussed in the essay. The essays introduce the topic of the chapter and discuss the suttas that follow in simple linear sequence, so the book is best read with two bookmarks, the two halves of each chapter in parallel.

This book answered a basketful of questions that I had about the Buddha's teachings, sparked my curiosity for some further lines of research, and introduced me to the truly strange subject of Buddhist cosmology, which figured more prominently than I expected. Very glad that I took the time to read this — it was, among other qualities, eye-opening — and I know that I will count it as a valuable reference in future.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful selection of the historical Buddha’s words as recalled by generations of followers prior to writing them down. Ancient texts can be voluminous and boring. This has collected the best of the best for you. Just noticed Audible has the audiobook for free download is you are a member already so it’s on my cue to listen again. I think the footnotes are pretty extensive to help explain meaning and context.