Teaching Buddhism through Primary Texts Alone Andy Davis - Assistant Professor of Philosophy - Belmont University

Teaching Buddhism through Primary Texts Alone Andy Davis - Assistant Professor of Philosophy - Belmont University Abstract: Most courses on Buddhism rely on excerpted text compilations to introduce students to primary texts. Aside from the loss of control that such collections carry with them, reading excerpts makes it difficult for students to grasp broader context on their own. This encourages passivity. Students learn that readings need to be explained by someone else who has read the whole book or knows the broader context. Teaching excerpts is understandable due to the nature of the Buddhist textual corpus which seems designed for a lifetime of monastic study and poses several problems for new readers. The challenging nature of the classical canon has led many teachers to foreground contemporary texts and films. Scholars have also turned from the canon, claiming that the classical canon gives us a distorted picture of Buddhist life. In this essay, I present a strategy for selecting and working closely with original, complete, classical Buddhist texts that responds to some of these difficulties. By highlighting the diversity of genres within Buddhist writing, we can give students a broad experience of Buddhist thinking and storytelling while empowering them to connect the dots within texts themselves instead of relying on lectures and scholarly essays. The Method: In what follows I make a case for teaching Buddhism through seminars on primary texts. I raise some challenges to teaching Buddhist primary texts and respond with a suggestion that we read across the many genres or styles of Buddhist writing rather than choosing readings for the sake of historical or geographical completeness. I cannot take the time here to make a comprehensive case for seminar teaching, but it is necessary at the beginning to say something. In a seminar, a participant (usually a teacher or experienced reader) opens and guides a discussion with a question about a shared text and steers away from non-shared knowledge or expertise. The teacher does not lecture and does not explain (since these rely on outside information not held in common by the seminar participants) but invites students to answer their own questions based on the common text. Seminars aim to develop each student s capacity to make and evaluate judgments by making the text the authority rather than the teacher. When a claim is made, the question is not What does the teacher think? but rather Does this seem like the best reading of the passage in question? We focus on what can be defended through a careful reading of the text we have before us, not the opinion of an expert. This promotes open dialogue and encourages students to think for themselves. When students in a seminar make or receive a claim, they know the source of the claim. They can point to the text that gave rise to the claim and that can become grounds for further discussion. When a student in a lecture-discussion hybrid class is asked to provide evidence for a claim they often can only point to notes or the authority of the teacher who, in the interest of time, may not provide the source for them to consult on their own. If a course is framed mostly in the teacher s terms, the teacher is required to make sense of each new text. If a course is a more open inquiry into each

text on its own terms, students are empowered to generate context and broader significance for themselves. In the typical model of teaching, our goal is correctness and our timeframe is the semester. In seminar learning, the goal is intellectual emancipation and the timeframe is the human lifetime. The Problem: Seminar teaching requires that the books we read be carefully composed and generative of discussion. They must spur competing interpretations and also offer grounds for decision between competing claims. The books should be multivalent but not vague. Buddhism names a set of traditions that seem unsuited for pure seminar due to the nature of the textual corpus. Buddhist texts present a number of challenges: 1) Shifting sacred value: Buddhism is the largest global religious tradition without a central revealed text. This means, among other things, that the sacred value of text is not uniformly established in the tradition. What texts are venerated and how is often a local arrangement. 2) Authenticity: For several hundred years, Buddhist teaching was transmitted orally without a substantial written record at all. We have evidence of early redaction of suttas but the complete texts are late productions (18th century and after). 3) Quantity of Texts: The Pali canon fills the equivalent of some 50 odd printed volumes. This means that even the earliest textual canon (probably redacted in its present form around the 5th century CE) is so dauntingly large that a teacher would be justifiably at a loss as to where to begin. And this is only one of three major canons. The Chinese and the Tibetan canons are significantly larger. 4) Length of texts: Add to this that many important Buddhist texts are expansive and so long as to be unteachable as whole texts. E.g. Avatamsaka Sutra clocks in at ~2000 pages, the Visuddhimagga is ~800 pages. 5) Orality: Add to this that due to the oral nature of transmission, much of the Pali canon was not designed for engaging reading. The tipitaka is full of repetition and lists. One might say it is like trying to listen to music by reading sheet music. Not impossible, but not exactly pleasant. 6) Elitism: Add to this that starting at least with Gregory Schopen s work 1 many scholars have become increasingly convinced that the canons were productions by elites for elites and tell us relatively little about Buddhism as it was and is actually practiced. Schopen has pointed out many aspects of the epigraphic record that directly contradict the monastic ideal of the suttas and vinayas. 1 Schopen, Gregory. Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism. In: Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks. Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 1997. Schopen has a number of articles providing more research and detail, but the basic platform is present in this classic essay.

In light of these problems, the obvious choice for the teacher of Buddhism would seem to be textbooks that select excerpts of primary source texts combined with contextualizing lectures that express the teacher s take on the issues presented in the textbook. Books such as John Strong s Experience of Buddhism or Donald Lopez s Buddhist Scripture often fit the bill for the lecturer aiming to use primary sources as a supplement to lecture. Further, without looking at recent scholarship and offering contextualizing lectures, teachers would, it seems, only be presenting elite, idealized or lopsided Buddhism, a mere shadow of complex historical and contemporary practices. Is it even possible to teach Buddhism through pure seminar discussion with minimal authoritative framing of content from the teacher? If it is possible, how would it be possible? A Middle Path: Two styles of interpretation have formed centers of hermeneutic gravity in the 20th and 21st centuries. The first could be called modern or colonial and focuses on classical Buddhist canons but tends to seek a single uniform teaching in the canon, weeding out rather than emphasizing conflicts. The second, which we might call postmodern or postcolonial, often turns away from the canon and emphasizes marginalized or overlooked texts and non-textual practices. Oliver Freiberger s The Buddhist Canon and the Canon of Buddhist Studies responds to these approaches, offering something of a middle path. 2 Freiberger suggests that we embrace the diversity already present in canonical Buddhist sources. In part Freiberger s call to the canon is responding to what he takes to be problematic regionalism that has emerged from the postmodern interpretive approach. Freiberger notes that in addition to emphasizing a vertical complexity we should also emphasize horizontal complexity. (Freiberger 280-1) This means that showing the diversity and changes across time and place (vertical complexity) could be accompanied by more attention to the complexity of canonical source texts themselves (horizontal complexity). In addition to the already widespread emphasis on the historical and geographic complexity of Buddhism, work needs to be done showing the hermeneutic complexity of even the most sterile seeming canonical Buddhist works. We would be greatly served by close attention to textual detail, by what some might call more literary reading of all Buddhist texts not just those considered to be literature. One of Freiberger s examples is that the Pali suttas offer different pictures of the laity. Some suttas show the laity as supporters of monks with no hope of personal salvation in this life, others show the laity as working toward a parallel salvation. (Freiberger, 273) When Schopen and others complain about Buddhist studies being locked in to a superficial reading based on canonical texts, they misidentify the problem as stemming from the sources chosen rather than the readers. If we pick good texts, students will experience complexity first hand through close reading. The first and most obvious way to teach a pure seminar using Buddhist texts is to read suttas and sutras (most of which are discourses reported to have been given by 2 Freiberger, Oliver. The Buddhist Canon and the Canon of Buddhist Studies In: Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. Volume 27 No, 2; 2004.

the Buddha). I suggest, however, that a broader selection of textual styles would work in the classroom and help provide a first hand understanding of suttas and sutras as part of a broader textual transmission. Reading across multiple genres will help students develop a broader understanding of the Buddhist world and will help them become close readers. How might one select books for seminar? 1. Books for seminar should be discussion worthy. 2. Texts should be, as much as possible, wholes. This offers students the ability to evaluate sentences in the authors own full compositions. This replaces the teacher s responsibility for always providing context. The textual whole is the context. 3. Books should cover some of the range of successful written styles in the tradition, offering students the ability to study differences in form, encouraging close attention to textual detail. 4. Texts should be well translated, erring on the side of literal translation so students can track an author s use of key terms. 5. Texts should be important to and referenced by later tradition, so that students build up a competency in prerequisite texts for later texts. 6. Texts should be layered and multivalent. Texts should be capable of fomenting student questioning and discussion without teacher commentary. Notice that with this strategy, we do not select texts based on 1) historical completeness or 2) geographical completeness or 3) social completeness (urban and rural, monastic and lay, etc.). All these tend to force us to pick texts just to fill holes rather than because they are the best for discussion. Many classes are organized to result in maximal completeness of information. This, of course, requires heavy excerpting and systematic lecturing. The only completeness goal here is the aim of giving students a fair advantage when they try to read later Buddhist texts that refer to earlier texts. This is mainly to keep the experience of reading rewarding. Still, good authors write to multiple audiences at once and find a way to engage the neophyte and the initiate. The Selection: My hypothesis is that a pure seminar in Buddhism might be most successful if it takes a formalist approach and is organized around exposure to the great variety of Buddhist writing. This should demand constant reflection on the form as well as the content and spur careful reading of a kind that textbooks tend to eviscerate by telling us what to read and how. The goal of a good seminar is to let the books frame themselves through critical, engaged discussion that typically begins with a clear textual problem or question, usually posed by an experienced reader. Seminars cannot succeed with open ended So, what did you think? questions or simply fielding participant s opinions. Seminar discussion requires a clearly posed, yet open and rich problem or question so that comments can be interactive rather than merely agglutinative. The goal is to expose and explore the complexity of the text, not to simply get its main contents on the

table. It is perfectly acceptable for seminars to end in confusion or perplexity if the perplexity is spurred by an awareness of competing and conflicting interpretations. I address ten Buddhist textual genres: Pali Suttas, Vinayas, Abhidharmas, Buddhist Logic, Buddhist Poetry, Karma stories, Mahayana Sutras, Sasana Texts (e.g. pilgrimage stories & lineage stories), Koans and Encounter Dialogues and Commentaries. Other divisions could certainly be made. My primary objective is not to codify the genres but to use them as a means to diversifying reading lists. My aim is to provide something of an argument for including each kind of text in a course on Buddhism together with some ideas about which texts might work well in the classroom. All I can give here is a preliminary sketch that hopefully engenders some discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of using Buddhist primary texts in the classroom. 3 Students of a seminar with diverse classical sources will be well armed to resist a host of simplifications of Buddhism that proliferate both in popular culture and in academic circles. I am encouraging a textual basis that respects no disciplinary boundary since disciplines like history, literature, psychology, anthropology, philosophy and religious studies were not formative for the writers of these works. I see no problem with assigning a text that is readable, even if the assigning teacher does not have a strong interpretation of it. In fact, this is often better as it allows the class to work together to develop a collective reading. It is crucial to this approach that the teacher be comfortable with the fact that they cannot fully control what gets covered and discussed. Since covering material (even with exams) has no one-to-one relation to student learning, it may not involve as much sacrifice as we sometimes think. A last note: I focus mostly on texts redacted or composed in the 1st millenium CE because this is the formative and foundational textual basis for later writings. Pali Suttas The Pali suttas are texts reported to be recorded dialogues, typically with the Buddha himself. There are five collections of suttas in the Pali canon s sutta pitaka: the long discourses, the middle discourses, the connected discourses, the numerical discourses and the minor discourses. If one aimed to read through them all, one might prioritize them in just that order. The long discourses offer the broadest view of Gautama Buddha s teaching, contain the most interesting and elaborate frame narratives and the most thoroughgoing illustrations and stories. The middle discourses contain many justly famous teachings and the connected discourses and numerical discourses offer a great deal as well. There are many volumes of selections from the Pali suttas. Interestingly, there is almost no overlap between them. Early Buddhist Discourses, Basic Teachings of the 3 A note about my approach: many teachers may choose the kinds of text that suit their discipline. I teach in a philosophy department and when I taught Buddhism in the past, I tended to teach the most conceptual texts. Yet after broad exposure to Buddhist writing at an NEH summer institute on Buddhist Asia hosted by the East West Center, I am thoroughly convinced that students will benefit most from seeing the range of Buddhist texts. By focusing on classical primary texts, we empower students in seminar to think through a challenging tradition. By focusing on diverse texts, we hopefully avoid the sort of one-sided readings associated with colonialism and orientalism.

Buddha and Sayings of the Buddha are all worth consideration as they do not excerpt the suttas. Another good option is to choose the Long Discourses of the Buddha from Wisdom Books. This is an excellent one stop shop for sutta reading. I often have students buy this and then photocopy a few additional things from the Middle Discourses. Strong suttas for seminar discussion include: Samannaphala Sutta, Mahanidana Sutta, Mahasatipatthani Sutta, Mahaparanibbana Sutta, Agganna Sutta, Mahapadana Sutta and Cakkavatisihananda Sutta. Many of these also contain some of the more elaborate framing narratives which can be fruitfully explored in relation to the teachings. Minimally I think every course on Buddhism should spend some time reading and discussing the Mahaparanibbana Sutta which offers not only key teachings and complex drama between characters but also critical indications for the transmission of Buddhism after Buddha s passing. For this reason, I suggest Gethin s Sayings of the Buddha as a good basis for a course. With the addition of a f Vinaya No teacher would deny the importance of teaching at least a few of the early Pali suttas. When it comes to the rest of the Tripitika, however, there are no truly introductory volumes available for students to encounter source texts directly (outside brief excerpts in textbooks). The vinayas are an essential part of the transmission of Buddhism. From 399 CE to 412 CE, Faxian undertook the arduous journey from Chang an, China to India for the explicit purpose of acquiring and translating vinaya texts. He frequently comments that Indian monastaries are more organized and disciplined than their Chinese brethren due to the influence of the vinayas. Modern readers often ignore the importance of conduct, focusing instead on concepts and meditation techniques. Yet moral conduct (sila) provides the foundation for all other parts of the 8 fold path. We may read past it since we assume that our own social codes are against killing, lying and stealing. Yet other aspects such as generosity and abstaining from sex go against many of our social codes and are worth further discussion. If killing is understood broadly, this also goes against our established military and dietary habits. Two options seem viable for student readers. Prebish s Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras gives students a good foundation in one key vinaya tradition. A second option is to assign Thich Nhat Hanh s book on the vinaya Freedom Wherever We Go. Though a recent book, Hanh relates an updated Pratimoksa code. It can therefore be used to teach a modern take on vinaya and should spur good conversation about the nature of monastic codes and their purposes. Abhidhamma Here we find another key aspect of Buddhist tradition that consists mostly of lists and their explanations. Abhidhamma is also probably the most intimidating part of the Buddhist textual tradition. The suggestion of teaching Abhidhamma to anything but the most advanced undergraduates will strike many as problematic. Yet I see no way

around it. They are a vital part of the transmission of Buddhism and must be addressed head on, first hand, even if the course of reading is brief and fails to grapple with whole works. Bhikku Bodhi has edited a translation of the Abhidhammattha Sangaha under the title A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma. This is the best single volume source for encountering a canonical abhidhamma with commentary. Abhidhamma is technical and challenging but students will benefit a great deal from seeing how detailed the Buddhist tradition s treatment of psychology can be. This encounter can unseat prejudices about the superiority of modern sciences over premodern sciences. Additionally it will show how the kind of attention to experience cultivated in the Buddhist meditative tradition can give rise to detailed classifications of the forms of experience. Students will see that meditation is not just sitting and blanking the mind, but often a concentrated activity of subtle observation with a goal of increased discrimination and knowledge. Study of the Abhidhamma also serves as a check that one has grasped basics of Buddha s teaching such as the skandhas, the kleshas and the eightfold path from the Suttas. To engage Abhidhamma in a brief way, one might read the first chapter of the Dhammasangani, translated by the Pali Text Society and available online. This is still a substantial reading and has the advantage of being first in line in the Pitaka. Buddhist Poetry By poetry I simply mean enjambed verse. Many forms of Buddhist writing include gathas or other short verses, so here I treat texts that are exclusively verse. Perhaps the most accessible way to encounter Buddhism is in the poetry of the Dhammapada, traditionally included in the Sutta pitaka but here addressed as poetry due to its difference in form. I have found the Dhammapada to spur significant discussions and therefore tend to teach it. It often forms an entry point for students who struggle with other texts. One can find a wealth of Buddhist poetry to engage and much of it is seminar friendly. One might teach poems from the Thera-gatha or Theri-gatha. One might also teach any of a number of accomplished Chinese or Japanese Buddhist poets. Karma Stories Buddhist storytelling often centers on the long term effects of actions. They can thus be said to be explorations of karma (action and its consequences). Jatakas are stories of the Buddha s previous births (Jati). Many are entertaining and make for good reading. Some are quite ethically complex and engender good discussion. Perhaps the most complex and discussion worthy is the Vessantara jataka which relates the last of the Buddha s births before his birth as Gotama. An engaging translation by Cone and Gombrich is available, though difficult to obtain. I find it worth seeking out and photocopying for students. Another strong volume of Karma stories is Rotman s translation of stories from the Divyavadana. A key Karma story for the Chinese language traditions is the story of Maudgalyayana or Mulian. Another appealing choice

after the 1st millenium to show the development of Karma storytelling in Japan might be the Tale of the Fuji Cave. Mahayana Sutras If the Pali suttas are difficult to select due to a lack of agreement about which suttas are most important, the later Mahayana oriented suttas fare somewhat better. Buddhism entered China as a textual tradition and Chinese cultures placed great value and power in written texts. Chinese Buddhist schools often clarified themselves vis a vis one another by claiming different central texts. Texts were often ranked in terms of their importance. The problem, then, is that one simply cannot read all of the key Mahayana Sutras in a single course. It is clear that for all schools in China the Lotus Sutra is central, though it is the explicit centerpiece of the Tiantai school (and the Japanese Nichiren tradition). Additionally Prajnaparamita texts, especially the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra are important. The Avatamsaka sutra is crucial to the development of the bodhisattva path and also the foundation for the Huayan school but is simply too long to teach. The Tathagatagarbha Sutra is crucial to developments in Mahayana accounts of the universality of enlightenment. The Lankavatara Sutra is also worthy of consideration. A sutra that should make it into any seminar is the Vimilakirti sutra. It is engaging, profound and influential. If only all text choices were so obvious. Land of Pure Bliss makes the Pure Land Sutras available in good translation. Principle Yogacara Texts collects some shorter Yogacara texts and sutras. The Platform Sutra offers an excellent entry into Ch an Buddhism. Though many of these texts were composed in India some time during the first 500 years of the common era, they are often best known through their impact on east Asian Buddhism. In Tibet, these Mahayana sutras are still read, but there is a heavier emphasis on tantras, many composed in India (such as the Kalacakra Tantra) and others in Tibet (such as the texts of the Dzogchen tradition). Tantras are complex and often long mostly not seminar friendly. The closest text to a tantric or ritual text that has wide popularity in the west is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is available in many translations and might be considered for seminar. Logic Nagarjuna s Mulamadhyamakakarika is the most significant book showcasing Buddhist dialectics and logic. It is available in a few translations. Some students usually become fascinated by Nagarjuna, though others find it perplexing. This alone typically creates a good atmosphere for peer to peer student discussion. My preference is the Sidirits and Katsura translation. As logic and epistemology develop in India in the latter half of the first millenium, Buddhist schools engage in these debates as well. Later texts could be selected as well. Sasana texts

I treat pilgrimage stories and lineage stories together since they are in a way inverses of each other - one establishes the remoteness of the Buddha s dispensation (Sasana), the other, its nearness. The clear choice for pilgrimage stories in Faxian s due to its relative brevity. Yijing s and Xuanzang s pilgrimage stories are also worthy of consideration. The Mahavamsa is a significant lineage story for Lankan Buddhism, but is fairly long. One might consider the Legend of King Asoka, translated by John Strong. Asoka is the first and paradigmatic Cakravardin of wheel-turning king, and this early mythic history is engaging and readable. One might consider some version of the Legend of Prince Shotoku, the mythic history that plays a key role in founding Japan s relationship to Buddhism. Going outside the 1st millenium, one might consider The Legend of Queen Cama, an interesting account of the establishment of Buddhist rule in Thailand. Hagiographies, biographies and autobiographies offer another sort of Sasana text. There are several compelling biographies and autobiographies throughout Buddhist traditions. They seem particularly numerous in the Chan traditions and in Tibetan traditions. Koans and Encounter Dialogues Koan is the style of Buddhist writing that has perhaps most captured the imagination of European and North American readers. As a result, many koan compilations are readily available and students are quite willing to discuss them. In a class that has readings of more classical monastic style (vinaya, abhidhamma and commentary) koans and encounter dialogues will play an important role in considering the limits of monastic writing. The most convenient book here is Two Zen Classics which contains the Gateless Gate and the Blue Cliff record. One might also consider teaching the records of encounter dialogues with Ma Zu (Sun face Buddha) or the Record of Lin Ji. Commentaries Commentary is a broad and essential category of Buddhist writing. Indeed, commentary on key sutra texts forms the dominant mode of Buddhist monastic and scholastic reading and writing. Page for page, commentary accounts for the bulk of Buddhist writing. Most commentaries are long and detailed and arguably not the most fruitful texts for student discussion. An interesting exception concerns shorter commentaries on the Heart Sutra, which can be read together and contrasted to show differences in commentarial strategy and style. Lopez s Elaborations on Emptiness includes the translation of eight later Indian commentaries on the Heart Sutra. Dogen and Hakuin both have engaging and vastly different commentaries on the Heart Sutra that make for interesting discussion. The Way of the Bodhisattva is a text that offers perhaps the most engaging account of Mahayana ethics. It is a commentary on the six paramitas or perfections and explores how one practices them. It is eminently teachable and spurs fine discussions.

A final set of texts I often teach which might be considered commentaries are those Dharma talks given by Dogen in the Shobogenzo. These talks are often commentaries on different aspects of meditation practice. As such they have remained popular in the more meditation focused transmission of Buddhism in Europe and North America. Conclusion: It should be clear that the boundaries outlined above are fluid and should not be used in teaching itself but only to guide teachers toward diverse textual selection. Naming textual categories for students would be limiting in a way that I think would provide a stumbling block for discussion. A seminar designed around this kind of textual diversity would move between history, literature, philosophy and religion and keep students on their toes. I would predict the conflicts over interpretation would spark interest to learn more about intellectual history and other issues that are not adequately addressed in seminar. Working solely or mostly with primary source texts empowers students to think for themselves and find alternative readings. A secondary text intervenes on the student s behalf and frames material for them. Our goal should not be that our students have the right or up to date understanding of Buddhism, but rather that they become critically engaged with questions of meaning and significance within Buddhist traditions in relation to each other and to human life more broadly. A final note about teaching in a seminar style. A great deal depends on cultivating the art of good opening questions. Seminars cannot simply field student impressions but need an agenda, a direction into which students may channel their ideas and impressions. Ideally, this direction provided by questioning that is provocative and neither too narrow nor too broad. The safest bet, if one does not have a question that itself serves as a kind of key to working through the whole text, is to begin by quoting a central passage and asking a specific question about it. One should be prepared to keep the conversation open when some students close it off with a seemingly definitive answer. Good questions are never so easily set to rest. Yet we often ask and answer questions in a very finite way in the academy. Seminar demands we change this habit. I owe a great debt of gratitude to teachers and colleagues at the 2015 NEH and ASDP sponsored summer institute on Buddhist Asia at the East West Center and to Peter Hershock and East West center staff for organizing the event. Many of these texts came to my attention with the guidance of this group. Bibliography of Some Teachable Unexcerpted Buddhist Primary Texts Please excuse the lack of diacritical marks.

Pali Suttas: Selections: Sayings of the Buddha. Tr./Ed. Rupert Gethin. 978-0192839251. -The most balanced one stop shop for early Pali suttas with longer and shorter suttas; represents cosmology more fully than other Sutta collections do. Early Buddhist Discourses. Tr./Ed. John Holder. 978-0872207929. -A good collection for quickly getting the conceptual basics of no self, dependent origination, the Buddha s life and meditation. Basic Teachings of the Buddha. Tr./Ed. Glenn Wallis. 978-0812975239. -A fresh and interesting selection that builds up to the meditation oriented suttas (Anapanasati and Mahasatipatthana) with insightful commentary. Whole Nikayas: **The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Tr. Maurice Walshe. 978-0861711031. -My choice over the sutta selections for a more Sutta focussed class. Contains the most complex and discussion worthy suttas such as Sammanaphala, Agganna, Mahanidana, Mahaparinibbana, Cakkavatisihananda, Mahapadana and Mahasatipatthana. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya. Tr. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, ed. Bhikkhu Bodhi. 978-0861710720 -1000+ pages containing many famous suttas such as: 10. Satipatthana, 18. Madhupindika, 20. Vitakkasanthana, 22. Alagaddupama, 26. Ariyapariyesana, 38. Mahatanhasankhaya, 63. Culamalunkya, 118. Anapanasati, etc. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya. Tr. Bhikkhu Bodhi. 978-0861713318 The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Complete Translation of the Anguttara Nikaya. Tr. Bhikkhu Bodhi. 978-1614290407 Mahayana Sutras: **The Diamond Sutra and the Sutra of Hui-Neng. Tr. Mou-Lam and Price.978-1590301371 -Two for one in good translation. The Lotus Sutra. Tr. Hurvitz. 978-0231148955 -I find this is better than the Watson. But Watson s is good too. **The Vimilakirti Sutra. Tr. Robert Thurman. 978-0271006017.

-I find this better than Watson s Vimilakirti. An obvious choice for seminar, full of discussion worthy stuff. The Lankavatara Sutra. Tr. Red Pine. 978-1619020993 -A crucial sutra for Yogacara, among other schools. Tathagathagarbha Sutra. Tr. Gonslick in Buddhism in Practice. pp. 92-106. 978-0691129686 -A classic and very short. Could be read alongside a later Buddha nature text like Dogen s Bussho. The Lion s Roar of Queen Srimala. Tr. Wayman. 978-8120807310 -Another key Tathagatagarbha Sutra, relatively short. Land of Bliss. Tr. Luis Gomez. 978-0824817602. -For teaching pure land sutras. Principle Yogacara Texts. Tr. Rodney Devenish. 978-1304481924. -For teaching brief Yogacara texts. Vinaya: **Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras. Charles Prebish. 978-8120813397 -The best single volume for a good translation of a classic vinaya text. Freedom Wherever We Go. Thich Nhat Hanh. 978-1935209614 -A modern take on the vinaya, discussion worthy. Abhidhamma: *Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma. Bhikku Bodhi. 978-1928706021. -Teaching Abhidhamma will be tough. I think this book has sections that could be used to jumpstart successful conversations though. Buddhist Logic: **Nagarjuna s Middle Way. Sidirits and Katsura. 978-1614290506. -Some will love it, others not so much, but capable of generating great discussions. Buddhist Poetry: **The Dhammapada. Glenn Wallis 978-0812977271 (alternate translation: Fronsdal)

-A classic. Especially great for students new to Buddhism. Poems of Early Buddhist Monks (Theraga tha ), by K. R. Norman. 978-0860133391 Poems of Early Buddhist Nuns (Theri ga tha ). Davids and Norman. 978-0860132899 Full Load of Moonlight: Chinese Chan Buddhist Poems. 978-9881263025 -An interesting collection of Chinese poems. The Clouds Should Know Me By Now. Tr. Red Pine and O conner. 978-0861711437 -A collection of Chinese Buddhist poets, spanning from 779 CE-1912 CE. The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain. Tr. Red Pine. 978-1556591402 -A good collection of the famous poetry of Han Shan or Cold Mountain. Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death. Tr. Yuel Hoffmann. 978-0804831796 -Interesting selection of short poems with problematic commentary/introduction. Reading Buddhists on death always seems to lead to interesting discussion. Buddhist Stories: Jatakas: Birth Stories of the Bodhisatta. Tr. Sara Janet Shaw. 978-0144001477 Divine Stories: Divyavadana, part I. Tr. Andy Rotman Wisdom Books. 978-0861712953 **Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara. Tr. Cone and Gombrich. Marvelous Stories from the Perfection of Wisdom. Pseudo-Nagarjuna? Tr. Bhikshu Dharmamitra -The only text containing excerpts on this list, but stories about 6 paramitas would pair nicely with Shantideva s Way of The Bodhisattva. Manimekhalai: The Dance With the Magic Bowl. Tr. Danielou. 978-0811210980 -500 CE Tamil epic centered on heroine and her conversion to Buddhism Traditional Chinese Stories. Ed. Lau & Ma. 978-0887270710 For the Chinese Buddhist classic, The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues His Mother from Hell pp. 443-455. Sasana Texts (lineage, biography, myth, pilgrimage, history): Legend of King Asoka. Tr. John Strong. 978-8120806160. -an early, engaging and important mythic history. (pp. 173-294)

**Lives of Great Monks and Nuns. Tr. Li Rongxi. 978-1886439146. -For The Journey of the Eminent Monk Faxian. pp. 163-214. Legend of Queen Cama. Tr. Swearer and Premchit. 978-0791437766 -Fascinating story of founding Buddhist rule in Northern Thailand. **The Life of Milarepa. Tr. Quintman. 978-0143106227 -Perhaps the most popular book composed in Tibet. Milarepa: 1052-1135. Apparitions of the Self. Tr. Janet Gyatso. 978-8120817968 -The secret autobiography Jigme Lingpa 1730-1798. Engaging Tibetan biography. Koans and Encounter Dialogues: Sun Face Buddha. Tr. Cheng Chien Bhikshu. 978-0875730226. -For encounter dialogues with Ma Zu. The Zen Teaching of Huang Po. Blofield. 978-0802150929. Record of Lin Ji. Tr. Kirchner and Sasaki. 978-0824833190 (other trans. available) *Two Zen Classics. Tr. Katsuki Sekida. 978-1590302828 -Contains Gateless Gate and Blue Cliff Record, two classic Koan collections. True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen s Three Hundred Koans. Tr. Loori and Tanahashi. 978-1590304655 Commentary: **Zen Words for the Heart. Hakuin, Tr. Waddell. 978-1570621659 -Contains the Heart Sutra and Hakuin s idiosyncratic and lively commentary with helpful notes. A way to explore both the heart sutra and Rinzai Zen. Elaborations on Emptiness. Tr. Donald Lopez. 978-0691001883. -contains 8 translations of premodern commentaries on the Heart Sutra. **Way of the Bodhisattva. Shantideva, Tr. Padmakara Translation Group. 978-1590303887 -For teaching the Bodhisattva path and later developments in Buddhist ethics. Could be considered a commentary on the six paramitas. **The Heart of Dogen s Shobogenzo. Tr. Waddell and Abe. 978-0791452424 -My choice over Tanahashi. I also like Nishijima & Cross for the whole Shobogenzo. The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Tr. Dorje. 978-0143104940

** - Strongly recommended Collections with Excerpted (and some whole) Primary Text: Experience of Buddhism. John Strong ; Buddhist Scripture. Donald Lopez. ; Buddhism in Practice. Lopez. Buddhist Meditation An Anthology of Texts. Sarah Shaw; Japanese Philosophy: A Sourcebook. Heisig and Kasulis ; A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Wing-Tsit Chan ; Zen Sourcebook. Addiss, Lombardo, Roitman ; In the Buddha s Words. Bhikku Bodhi ; The Life of the Buddha according to the Pali Canon. Bhikku Nanimoli.

A Sample Seminar on Buddhism using Diverse Canonical Texts (focused on reading and discussion with no excerpts and no lectures) Week 1 The Dhammapada. Glenn Wallis 978-0812977271 Week 2 Early Buddhist Discourses. Tr./Ed. John Holder. 978-0872207929. Noble Quest, Cause, Craving, Snake, Mindfulness Week 3 Sayings of the Buddha. Tr./Ed. Rupert Gethin. 978-0192839251. Mahaparanibbana: recitation sections 1-3, then 4-6 Week 4 Buddhist Monastic Discipline Charles Prebish. 978-8120813397 Week 5 Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara. Tr. Cone and Gombrich. Week 6 Legend of King Asoka. Tr. John Strong. 978-8120806160. Week 7 The Journey of the Eminent Monk Faxian. pp. 163-214 in Lives of Great Monks and Nuns. Tr. Li Rongxi. 978-1886439146. Week 8 and 9 Heart Sutra and The Vimilakirti Sutra. Tr. Robert Thurman. 978-0271006017. Week 10 and 11 Way of the Bodhisattva. Shantideva, Tr. Padmakara Translation Group. Week 12 and 13 The Life of Milarepa. Tr. Quintman. 978-0143106227 Week 14 Record of Lin Ji. Tr. Kirchner and Sasaki. 978-0824833190. Week 15 The Heart of Dogen s Shobogenzo. Tr. Waddell and Abe. 978-0791452424