What are /r/theravada's favorite Products & Services?

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I bought the audiobook version on amazon.com. For now, only Mazzim Nikaya is published, but it is one of the best Buddhist books I have ever read. It does get repetitive and even boring at times, but there are too many gems in it. Here is the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Length-Discourses-Buddha-Translation/dp/B07W6K5J1H/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=nikaya&qid=1600370686&sprefix=nikaya&sr=8-2

I am not sure about contacting the Sangha in your area, but the two suggestions I would have would be to meditate each day (either a single sitting or two shorter ones - i try to do a short metta and a second short Vipassana; what works for you is entirely personal) and to start into the scripture, as you yourself suggested.
" In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon" (i hope that's a link to Amazon) is the best anthology i found and from there you can get into the actual volumes themselves such as the Middle Length Discourses, the Connected Discourses, etc.
Again, on Amazon, you can find those by searching for " The Teachings of the Buddha "; I believe most were translated by Bikkhu Bodhi. He also has some good lectures on Youtube if you are the sort who prefers watching those.

Best of luck as you start your study!

Thank you for such an incredibly informative post. I have just completed reading Mindfulness in Plain English and it is what prompted me to keep reading more about Buddhism.

Thank you again, I am just ordering What Buddha Taught for my Kindle now.

What is the Mahasi Sawadaw tradition?

I like the way that Bhante Gunaratana describes it in Mindfulness in Plain English:

> The Pali term for insight meditation is vipassana bhavana. *Bha-

vana* comes from the root bhu, which means to grow or to become.

Therefore bhavana means to cultivate, and the word is always used

in reference to the mind; bhavana means mental cultivation. *Vipas-

sana* is derived from two roots. Passana means seeing or perceiving.

Vi is a prefix with a complex set of connotations that can be roughly translated as “in a special way,” and also into and through “a special

way.” The whole meaning of the word vipassana is looking into some-

thing with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct,

and piercing all the way through to perceive the most fundamental

reality of that thing. This process leads to insight into the basic

reality of whatever is being examined. Put these words together

and vipassana bhavana means the cultivation of the mind toward

the aim of seeing in the special way that leads to insight and full

understanding.

I bought mine off amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Shakyamuni-Buddha-Decorative-Figurine-Bronze/dp/B008OD3ZP2/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1479453739&sr=8-14&keywords=buddha+statue

It's quite small but it works well for my shrine.

All of the available tts files available of the AN from SC using the Raveena voice.

If you can, I suggest using a audio app specifically developed for audiobooks. A nice feature to look for is variable playback speeds. For Android, Audiobook Player is an acceptable player that provides variable playback speeds for free.

There might be a few missing or redundant audio files. There were also a hand full of text sections that had no tts files available.

Ayya Khema's books are excellent. "Who is My Self" is a good one to read.

Bhante Gunaratana's books are also excellent. A standard go to of his is "Mindfulness in Plain English", which is available here for free if you don't feel like purchasing it.

What the Buddha Taught a pretty common book that is recommended, when I first attended a theravada temple, they handed a copy to me. Mindfulness in Plain English is a good one if you are looking into meditation, http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html. Yuttadhammo has a lot of good meditation videos on youtube on walking and sitting meditation, he has a lot of very approachable teachings and is Canadian, so lacks the accent or cultural difference that sometimes impedes learning about the Dhamma.

Ayya Khema is advanced. I would recommend reading books by Jack Kornfield or Joseph Goldstein and sitting some retreats before reading her. Mindfulness is relatively recent and pretty good.

"What The Buddha Taught" by Walpoa Rahula ( a Buddhist Monk ). This book is short (151 pages), refreshingly clear, and it covers most the important teachings of Buddhism. It even includes basic meditation instructions. The book is old enough that it can be found in many libraries and used book venues. You can also read a slightly different version of the book for free, based on a "not for sale" edition here.

I love the biographies of Mae Chee Keaw and the Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera. Both are inspiring figures from the Thai forest tradition.

In Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi's Abhidhamma Manual (linked the pdf above), the Chapter 7 (Compendium of Conditionality) also gives the explanation of Patthana too. But here's the hardcopy of the Abhidhamma Manual in Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Buddha-His-Teachings-Narada-Mahathera/dp/8179926176

About the Author The Venerable Narada Maha Thera, born Sumanapala Perera (14 July 1898 2 October 1983) was a Theravadan Buddhist monk and translator, the Superior of Vajirarama Temple in Colombo. He was a popular figure in his native country, Sri Lanka, and beyond. He was born in Kotahena, Colombo to a middle-class family, educated at St. Benedict's College and Ceylon University College, and ordained at the age of eighteen. In 1929 he represented Sri Lanka at the opening ceremony for the new Mulagandhakuti Vihara monastery at Sarnath, India, and in 1934 he visited Indonesia, the first Theravadan monk to do so in more than 450 years.From that point on he travelled to many countries to conduct missionary work: Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, South Vietnam, Singapore, Japan, Nepal, and Australia. In 1956, he visited the United Kingdom and the United States, and addressed a huge crowd at the Washington Monument. On 2 November 1960 Narada Maha Thera brought a bodhi tree to the South Vietnamese temple Thích Ca Ph t ài, and made many visits to the country during the 1960s. Along with others (such as Piyadassi Maha Thera) he contributed to the popularization of the bana style dharma talk in the 1960s and brought the Buddhist teachings "to the day-to-day lives of the Westernized middle class in Sri Lanka."

i like bhante narada's book a lot, the one by bhikkhu bodhi is good too as well

have fun and enjoy your adventure

hey If you're still looking for something comprehensive check this out

its got links to download every part of the Pali Canon and a nice graphic to visualize the Canon's structure

Mahasi was the progenitor of about half of the IMS/Spirit Rock American teachers (the other progenitor was Ajahn Chah).

https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Insight-Mahasi-Sayadaw/dp/1614292779/ref=pd_lpo_3?pd_rd_i=1614292779&psc=1

Prickly heat is a common thing to use in Thailand, it creates a barrier that ants (and probably other insects) don't like to cross. I've found it to be very useful for managing them without killing/harming them. Maybe if you get it on them, it burns them, or maybe not. I don't know, I'm not an ant.

Excursions into the Thought-World of the Pali Discourses by Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo

> For those who approach Buddhism as a system of mental development, this book is a reliable and accessible guide to understanding the significance of themes from the Pali discourses. Themes include grasping, right view, craving, passion, contemplation of feeling, happiness, and liberation. A rare combination of scholarly rigor and extensive meditation experience from the author provides veracity to these studies and explorations.

Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation.

And you can request Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translations, which I prefer, with the form at the bottom of this page. They generally take only a few weeks to arrive. They’re free, so it’d be good to offer a donation with the mail-in request form.

Maybe you would be interested in The Experience of Samadhi by Richard Shankman .

There's a phone app available, but it's just a dictionary: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.yuttadhammo.cped&hl=en

I own this one: https://www.amazon.com/Mahamevnawa-Pali-English-Paritta-Chanting-Book-ebook/dp/B01496JUCE/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=paritta&qid=1562913827&s=gateway&sr=8-2

​

I enjoy the Pali which is side by side the English, which is good and helpful for memorization of the original version.

Anapanasati can be divded into 4 tetrads.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.118.than.html

The first tetrad is relaxation and access concentration, second tetrad is the form jhanas up to 4th jhanas, 3rd tetrad is the formless jhanas up to 8th jhana, and the 4th tetrad is the frames of mindfulness for insight meditation.

I can personally go up to the 3rd jhana. The book "Right Concentration: practical guide to jhanas" by Leigh Brasington is what helped me get there. I highly recommend it.

Also check out Ayya Khema's video on Jhanas which is also helpful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUn8T3-ZFGQ

If you're completely new to meditation then checkout the book Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana

Something suggested by Bhante Gunaratara in his book 'Mindfulness in Plain English,' he suggests making a constant schedule of when to meditate, whether its in the morning, the middle of the day, or at night. Then you can always plan for it and work with that.

And as for learning how to meditate, "Mindfulness in Plain English" by Bhante Gunaratana, also a Theravada monk, is an excellent starting point.

After developing a firm foundation in all these core concepts and practices, I'd recommend beginning to read books by and listen to talks from any teachers that you find that you like. My personal favorites are Ajahn Brahm, Thanissaro Bhikku, and Jack Kornfield.

I'll also second (or third or fourth) the suggestions for the Dhammapada, What the Buddha Taught, and Mindfulness in Plain English. If you want a good overview of all (well, most) of the schools of Buddhism, Entering the Stream is excellent. It's the companion book to Bernardo Bertolucci's movie “Little Buddha.” It's actually not a book about the schools of Buddhism, its writings taken from each of the schools.

It's important to get some direct instruction from an experienced teacher as soon as possible. Western teachers are fine, but it's a good idea to get some experience with some native Asian teachers as well.

My only other recommendation would be to go on a retreat sooner rather than later. There are some things that you can only learn from extended practice. It's fine to start with a short retreat to test the waters, but you'll want to get a one- or two-week retreat under your belt by the end of your first year of practice.

EDIT: formatting

I see, so it's just larger than the other Nikayas, more cumbersome and expensive to translate and publish in full. Seems like what happened because of that is that choice selection of particular sections of it were translated and published, but not the whole thing.

A new Bhikkhu Bodhi translation of the Sutta Nipata is coming out later this month. I suppose if