[Buddha-l] Early Buddhist Discourses

[Richard Hayes]

Dear denizens,

As those of you who have followed my tirades and diatribes over the years will 
know, I am a great fan of the Pali canon. At the same time, I seem never to 
be able to find a translation that I really like. When it comes to reading 
for my own personal inspiration, I am not very fussy, but when it comes to 
putting a translation into the hands of students, I have somewhat higher 
standards. I want them to find the Pali canon interesting.

This year I am using yet another anthology of canonical texts, having used the 
translations of bhikkhus Thanissaro and Bodhi in the past, and lots of other 
things from www.accesstoinsight.org over the years. Each of them left me 
experiencing a bit of dissatisfaction (dukkha, as the folks in Magadha called 
it lo these many years ago).

The anthology I am using this semester is John J. Holder's Early Buddhist 
Discourses (Hackett 2006). The more I use this text, the more I like it. The 
translations are accessible and accurate, and each one has a very nice 
introductory essay. I recommend it highly, both for those of you who teach 
the Pali canon in translation from time to time and for those of you who like 
reading and rereading what the samana Gotama said to his friends on various 
occasions.

-- 
Richard P. Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes