Archive | Archive

The Long Discourses – the Dīgha Nikāya translated by Bhikkhu Sujato

Taradasa

Dharma Audiobooks continues its recording of the Nikāyas, with what is regarded as the first in the central collection of suttas from the Pāli tradition. In spite of its name, the Dīgha Nikāya is actually the shortest of the four main Nikāyas, the ‘long’ referring to the length of the suttas themselves. Here are 34 suttas, some of which are among the most important and studied texts in Buddhism. These include The Longer Discourse on Mindfulness Meditation ( Mahāsatipatthāna Sutta) and The Great Discourse on the Buddha’s Extinguishment (Mahāparanibbāna Sutta). The translation of The Long Discourses is by the Australian-born monk Bhikkhu Sujato who has striven to present a modern, highly accessible version, dispensing often with standard Pāli terms to make the text more relevant to contemporary understanding. Nibbāna becomes ‘Extinguishment’, Tathāgata becomes ‘The Realized One’, Samādhi becomes ‘immersion’ and Jhana becomes ‘absorption.’ This bold and helpful enterprise, based not just on scholarly expertise but years of personal practice makes this new translation idea for audiobook.

It is read, as with The Middle Length Discourses and The Connected Discourses, by Taradasa in his customary engaged manner.

PDF to accompany The Long Discourses of the Buddha – click to download.

THE NUMBERED DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA – A NEW UNABRIDGED RECORDING

By Nicolas Soames

Taradasa

With the first three volumes of the Nikāyas released, it was ordained that Dharma Audiobooks and Taradasa would undertake the fourth – The Numbered Discourses of the Buddha (Aṅguttara Nikāya). And, like The Long Discourses, we have used the contemporary and very accessible translation by the Australian-born monk, Bhikkhu Sujato. Though, of course, his motivation to undertake the task comes from years of committed and formal practice, he has diverged from traditional paths of Pāli translation having made certain particular choices. Most immediately apparent are individual terms. For example, though samādhi has often been left untranslated, or termed ‘concentration’ Sujato uses ‘immersion’. Similarly, for nibbāna he offers ‘extinguishment’. Both are certainly justifiable. But perhaps most reflective of the tone of his translation is his choice for bhikkhu or monk – he chooses mendicant.  This may have been because it presents, in English, a vivid image of those figures who appear in the Pāli Canon, the wanderer committed to the spiritual life who lives on alms. But I suspect Sujato also chose it because it has a neutral gender. Of course, it is true that the Nikāyas are dominated by bhikkhus, and bhikkhunis make fewer observable appearances. And the bhikkhuni tradition died out, so it is not surprising that female practitioners with any kind of full-time role in the Theravadin tradition are far fewer in numbers. But times are changing. Sujato’s teacher Aajan Brahm has been expelled from the Thai Forest Lineage of Aajan Chah for taking the bold step of re-instituting the bhikkhuni tradition. This brought the old school more in line with Mahayana practice, and also reflected the increasingly active and fully committed presence of women in full-time dharma life. It was a significant step, and one which is reflected in Bhikkhu Sujato’s translations.

Bhikkhu Sujato

In The Numbered Discourses, the use of the gender neutral ‘they’, even in singular terms, is common place. Initially, to traditionalists, this may come as a bit of a jolt, though it is increasingly in everyday usage. But it does make these big edifices of the Nikāyas more approachable to those who read it for personal practice and elucidation. It also redresses, somewhat, the shock of encountering, in bald terms the restrictions the Buddha put upon bhikkhunis. It was a different time! So, Bhikkhu Sujato can be applauded in offering a translation for our time. I, too, have a continuing admiration and love for the words and cadence of the King James Bible and I can’t quite get the same feel from modern versions. But then I approach that work more as a literary document, not a training text. When Taradasa and I were in our little studio in Cambridge recording The Numbered Discourses, we did have Bhikkhu Bodhi’s exceptional and scholarly text by our side and referred to it from time to time. After all, Bhikkhu Sujato, in his introduction to The Numbered Discourses, salutes Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation and exemplary, fulsome explanatory notes (published in a handsome and MASSIVE volume by Wisdom). Furthermore, very unusually (and generously) Sujato makes his translations free for all use; and he even declares that any individual using his translations can make changes without consultation. There’s confidence for you! In fact, the only real changes we made during the weeks of recording were when it was necessary to adapt the text to make the immense amount of repetition (endemic to the form!) work for audio. Thank you, Bhikkhu Sujato!

In the end, Dharma Audiobooks is extremely pleased to make available these four great monuments to the Buddha – in the modern AND ancient medium of the spoken word.

Csoma de Kőrös on a yak! A commemorative statue in Budapest.

I would not like this final update to Dharma Audiobooks recordings of 2021 to go without mentioning the little gem of The Hungarian Who Walked To Heaven. This has the subtitle of The Remarkable Story of Csoma de Kőrös. But who was he? In Hungary, everyone knows him, even though he died, alone, in Darjeeling. Elsewhere, few do. Csoma (1784-1842) was an exceptional linguist who endured trials and overcame harsh obstacles. In an ascetic life spent on the road from Hungary to the Himalayas, often on foot, his endeavours culminated in the production of the first Tibetan-English dictionary. It can be said that he was the father of Western Tibetan Studies. Though not a Buddhist, he put his outstanding talents at the service of work, despite great hardship. The English writer Edward Fox has written the first English account of this singular man. Even set against the many fascinating biographies of Westerners who travelled East, the story of Csoma de Kőrös is extraordinary.

Nicolas Soames

Seated Buddha with teaching mudra. Sarnath Museum. Gupta period. 5th CE

THE SAṂYUTTA NIKĀYA

Ever since the recording of The Middle Length Discourses, in the translation by Bhikkhus Ñanamoli and Bodhi, was released in August 2019, Dharma Audiobooks has had numerous, regular requests for more of the complete Pāli translations of the Nikāyas.

Now, Taradasa’s recording of The Connected Discourses have been published on Audible – and quite a sizeable release it is, running to nearly 60 hours!!!

Bhikkhu Bodhi approached his task – started and finished by himself this time –initially in his normal meticulous, academic manner, balancing a very approachable translation of the text – and the Buddha was clearly concerned with communicating clearly without undue complexities and obfuscations!! – with an immense amount of introductory material.

In this, Bhikkhu Bodhi wanted to present the suttas in the best way possible for a 21^st century audience, providing a context of physical, historical, philosophical and doctrinal matters to support the original Pāli text. His considerable erudition is a great service to the original texts.

However, his approach was book-based: it was designed to work as notes, footnotes, extended classification etc. This doesn’t really work in the linear format in which audiobooks live! So we at Dharma Audiobooks went to some considerable trouble to re-work the supplementary material, for example – placing the general introductions, the background and the specific introductions before each section rather than in introductory blocs.

Therefore, this recording does not follow the book version at all times. But the heart and purpose of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s concept has been maintained, we hope!

The Connected Discourses were clearly collected in the manner which has come down to us in order to preserve the Buddha’s teaching for an oral environment. There are many repetitions, many suttas with tiny variations as, so tradition and the Nikāyas suggest, the Buddha often repeated a teaching; and his followers felt it was important to record in their prodigious memories, every instance. Therefore the listening experience of the Samyutta Nikāya has to take this on board. To repeat, repetition is frequent!

Nevertheless, this recording offers a very strong connection with many key teachings, including ‘dependent origination’, ‘the five aggregates’, ‘the six sense bases’, ‘the seven factors of enlightenment’, ‘the Noble Eightfold Path’, ‘the Four Noble Truths’ and many more.

In addition to the recording, you will receive a sizeable downloadable pdf containing information which makes the navigation of the audio very user-friendly. It not only lists the five Parts, every vagga and the sutta, but also where to find the key teachings.

We hope this new recording will be of value to you in the further understanding and enjoyment of the Dhamma. Taradasa and I spent weeks in a small but private recording studio in the heart of Cambridge – at a time when Covid-19 was creating its own challenges for everyone. We would go in at 9am and, with a break for lunch and the occasional 10 minutes ‘time out’, record, discuss when necessary and make the occasional adjustments…and then emerge at 5pm. It was a challenging time, but we generally ended each day with a feeling of enrichment rather than fatigue. For us, it meant that we could appreciate, even more, the message of the Buddha, and his temperate but uncompromising expression of that message. And, of course, it brings us closer to the world when the Dhamma made its first extraordinary impact 2,500 years ago.

Nicolas Soames