 |
|
Title: The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya (Teachings of the Buddha)
ISBN: 0861711033
Author:
Maurice Walshe
Publicate Date: 1995-10-25
Publish: 1995-10-25
List Price: $45.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
 |
|
|
|
|
Amazon Lowest New Price: $27.28
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $24.97
Amazon Merchant Price: $29.70
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Customer Review: |
|
1: Message lost in translator's editing
I found this translation frustrating to read.
The author has decided not to print any text that is a repitition of a previous portion. And these discourses can have a lot of repitions. But I would have preferred that the author had given the reader a choice of what portions to skip.
One of the portions that the author leaves out is about the conduct of a Buddhist follower. This portion is repeated in many chapters, but the author prefers to not repeat it. The result is that a lot of chapters are simply about whom Buddha talked to and in what context. Such chapters are completely devoid of any message or teaching.
Thus this book is helpful for somebody compiling a bibliography of Buddha's discourses, but not for somebody looking to absorb the Buddhist message.
|
2: A must buy text for those seriously interested in the Buddha's Teachings
This is one of the books that anybody seriously interested in studying the Teachings of Siddhattha Gotama, the Buddha, should acquire. It contains the English translation of the so called long discourses--34 in total--of the Pali Canon Division of Discourses. Of particular importance are the Mahasatipatthana Sutta (#22) and the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (#16), two of the most important discourses of Siddhattha Gotama. The latter describes the events that took place over the last three months of the Buddha's life. The former explains in detail the meditation techniques used by most Buddhist schools and emphasizes the importance of permanent mindfulness in everyday living. As a rule, the Buddha's discourses are tedious and repetitious due to the way they were written. Almost every sentence is reiterated several times, most likely for mnemonic purposes. As it is well known, the Pali Canon was orally transmitted over more than four hundred years before being committed to writing during the first century B. C. in what is today Sri Lanka. The "formulaic" format is not the translator's fault. What he did wonderfully, on the other hand, was adding excellent material of his own to the book. The Introduction is a very good presentation of the Buddha and his Teachings followed by abstracts of the 34 discourses which, together with the alphabetic index toward the end of the book, prove to be a really nice map to guide the reader toward the topics of his/her interest. The excellence of Maurice Walshe's work is complemented with more than 1,100 endnotes which offer expansions and clarifications to translations and references to other sacred Buddhist texts as well as hundreds of illustrative commentaries.
Hacia el Buda desde el occidente: Sus Ensenanzas sin mitos ni misterios
|
3: Digha Nikaya
This is a very handy excellent translation of the long discourses of the Buddha from the pali canon.
|
4: Excellent teachings, excellent translation.
A well-printed, well-annotated tranlation of one of the major collections of Buddhist suttas. Priceless.
|
5: You should get this if you want to know what the Buddha really taught
I admit it: I find most of the books written by monks interpreting the Buddha easier to read and more "inspiring" than the Buddha's actual words, or what we have available as memories and translations of Buddha's words.
However, after sitting down with this book for awhile, I am really liking it. At first it is a little strange, kind of dry. But the more I read it the more I like it. It's as if it was written in such a way that if you open up to it, it just kinda sinks in.
I have seen several other such books of the teachings of the Buddha, but this one is my favorite so far. Highly recommended.
|
|
|
|
|
