Pariyatti
Donate Now | Daily Words | My Account
  • Vipassana
  • Free Resources
  • Books, Audio & Video
  • Pāli
  • Pilgrimage
  • About
 
 
 
Shopping Cart

Categories

  • Vipassana & Old Students
  • Assistant Teachers
  • Free Products
  • Bargain Bin
  • New Products
  • Bestsellers
  • Pariyatti Publishing
  • Ebooks
  • Audiobooks
  • Audio Video
  • Meditation Accessories
  • Buddha and His Teaching
  • Languages
  • Pali Canon
  • Pali Language
  • Pali Text Society
  • Buddhist Publication Society
  • Vipassana Research Institute
  • Gifts and Art
  • Children
  • Wholesale
  • Shipping and Returns
  • Non-U.S. Retailers
  • My Account
Author

CATEGORIES

  • Vipassana Meditation
    • Chain of Teachers
      • S.N. Goenka
      • Sayagyi U Ba Khin
      • Saya Thetgyi
      • Ledi Sayadaw
      • Webu Sayadaw
    • Discourses
    • Group Sittings for old students
    • Books & eBooks
    • Audiobooks
    • Audio/Video Streaming
    • Social Applications
      • Ethics
      • Psychology
      • Rehabilitation
    • Old Students
  • Assistant Teachers
  • Free Products
  • Bargain Bin
  • Bestsellers
  • New Products
  • Ebooks
  • Audiobooks
  • Meditation Accessories
  • Buddha and His Teaching
    • Life and Disciples
    • Introductory
    • The Buddha's Words
      • Vinaya
      • Suttas
      • Abhidhamma
    • Analysis
    • Modern Presentations
    • Dhammapada
    • Jataka
    • Sutta Nipata
    • In Asia
    • History
    • Pilgrimage
  • Languages
    • Africa
      • Afrikaans
      • Amharic
    • East Asia
      • Cantonese
      • Korean
      • Japanese
      • Mandarin
      • Mongolian
    • Southeast Asia
      • Burmese
      • Indonesian
      • Khmer
      • Thai
      • Vietnamese
    • Southwest Asia
      • Arabic
      • Farsi
      • Hebrew
    • Europe
      • Czech
      • Dutch
      • French
      • German
      • Greek
      • Hungarian
      • Italian
      • Portuguese
      • Polish
      • Russian
      • Serbo-Croatian
      • Spanish
    • Indian Subcontinent
      • Gujarati
      • Hindi
      • Kannada
      • Marathi
      • Nepali
      • Newari
      • Sindhi
      • Sinhala
      • Tamil
      • Telugu
    • Latin America
      • Portuguese
      • Spanish
  • Audio Video
    • Audiobooks
    • CD
      • Pali
      • Dhamma Talks
      • S.N. Goenka
    • DVD
    • Audio Downloads
    • Video Downloads
  • Pali Canon
    • English
      • The Basket of Discipline
      • The Basket of Discourses
        • Long - DN
        • Middle Length - MN
        • Connected - SN
        • Numerical - AN
        • Minor - KN
      • Abhidhamma
    • Pali
      • Vinaya Pitaka
      • Sutta Pitaka
        • Digha Nikaya
        • Majjhima Nikaya
        • Samyutta Nikaya
        • Anguttara Nikaya
        • Khuddaka Nikaya
      • Abhidhamma Pitaka
    • Tipitaka Sets
    • The Literature
  • Pali Language
    • Studies
    • Dual Language
    • Chanting
    • Dictionaries
  • Pali Text Society
    • Tipitaka Sets
    • Canonical Texts
      • Pali
      • English
    • Commentaries
      • Pali
      • English
    • Noncanonical Works
      • Pali
      • English
    • Ancillary Works
    • Reference
    • Paperbacks
  • Pariyatti Publishing
    • Vipassana Research Publications
    • Pariyatti Press
    • Pariyatti Digital Media
    • BPS Pariyatti Editions - BPE
  • Buddhist Publication Society
    • Books
    • Wheels
    • Bodhi Leaves
  • Vipassana Research Institute
  • Gifts and Art
    • Art Cards
    • Prints
  • Children
    • Storybooks
    • Audio & Video
    • Coloring Books
    • Activity Books
    • Teacher/Parent Resources
  • Wholesale
  • Shipping and Returns
  • Non-U.S. Retailers
  • My Account
  • Category Index
Store > Buddha and His Teaching  >  The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts
The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts
The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts

VIPASSANA PRODUCTS

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. More information about Vipassana as taught by S.N. Goenka is available at www.dhamma.org.

The tag Vipassana identifies products that are directly related to this tradition and differentiates them from other Theravada resources available on our site. While the main emphasis in Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka is on actual practice, this product may provide inspiration and guidance to a Vipassana meditator.

We also carry titles from the Theravada tradition, as we feel that by exploring the wider world of the Theravada texts, which include the Buddha’s discourses, commentaries, and scholarly articles and treatises, meditators have an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Dhamma and thereby enrich their meditation practice. This kind of intellectual exploration also helps a meditator to gain an understanding of the evolution and historical context of their meditation tradition. This understanding in turn deepens their practice and understanding of the Dhamma.

Why Amazon

Disclosure: Pariyatti is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.


Q: Why have you decided to partner with Amazon for the printing and distribution of your books?

A: Pariyatti is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help disseminate the words of the Buddha.

The generosity of our customers and donors (donations make up ~25% of our revenue) is what has allowed Pariyatti to cover our annual shortfall, and permitted us to continue operations. We strive to continue to find ways to make best use of this hard-earned money, generously donated by so many to Pariyatti. One of these is to explore ways to optimize our operations.

Our goal is to disseminate Dhamma content. The choice of working with a given distribution partner is solely based on whether they can provide you, our customer (no matter where you live) with the item(s) you ordered in an accurate, timely, and reliable manner.

With the advent of eBooks and the internet, the entire book publishing and distribution industry has faced significant challenges. With these industry changes, and Pariyatti's additional challenges in serving a niche market with low sales volumes, it has been financially difficult to staff our own warehouse and operations. Year after year, the costs of maintaining our own warehouse has far exceeded the income.

By focusing on what we do best (such as make Dhamma content available at low or no cost), and partnering with others who have already built robust printing, packing, and delivery systems, we free up resources that can be redirected towards expanding Pariyatti's offerings for you.

We are always on the lookout for creative ways to make Dhamma content as widely and freely available as possible. If you have any ideas along these lines, please feel free to be in touch via [email protected] .

The Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts

review
4 Review(s)
5

Price

Price: $9.95
Write a Review
  • Description
  • Customer Reviews
  • More Info

Are there any authentic Buddhist texts? If so, what are they? These are questions of tremendous spiritual and historical interest, about which there is a range of opinions that often appear to be irreconcilable. Traditionalists insist that the texts were "spoken by the Buddha" in the most literal of senses, while skeptics assert that we cannot know anything about the Buddha fore certain, and further, that the notion of authenticity is irrelevant or pernicious.

Most academic scholars of early Buddhism cautiously affirm that it is possible that the early Buddhist texts as contained in the Sutta and Vinaya Pitaka contain some authentic sayings of the Buddha. A sympathetic assessment of relevant evidence by the authors of this book shows that this is a drastic understatement and that it is very likely that the bulk of the sayings in the texts that are attributed to the Buddha were actually spoken by him.

Rarely has the question of authenticity of the Buddhist texts been systematically investigated. Seeing the lack of an easily accessible summary of the evidence, the authors assembled this survey.

5 Stars
Helpful and Pleasant
Other reviews discuss the contents. I want to mention the structure of the book. The authors describe that the book is structured in a "modular" form. What this means is that they have grouped a series of short essays with a common broader theme into each chapter. Some of these essays are quite brief (a few paragraphs), some a little longer (a few pages). This makes it possible to read one essay, and then when one wishes another, without having to recall where the argument left off. This made for a pleasant reading experience, though often these essays seemed more of an overview than in-depth exploration, but the authors do provide references with each essay so that one can dig deeper if one wants. The book has been nicely printed with highly readable print and an attractive cover.
Did you find this helpful? 
Reviewed by: Philip Jones from USA. on 4/12/2020
5/5
5 Stars
Great scholarship that gets to the core
This book by Bhikkhu Brahmali is thoroughly well researched, and it supplies an extensive bibliography for those wishing to dive deeper. It corroborates some of my sense of the teaching I had developed independently by seeing a disconnect between the core teachings and much of the supernatural aspects, the latter always seeming superfluous to me. This work (to me) verifies my instincts here, and who doesn't like his or her "views" to be supported. Of course, I have to be sure to not get too attached to them since the menace identity view is dangerous. ;-)
Did you find this helpful? 
Reviewed by: Devamitta from Tallmadge. on 4/10/2020
5/5
5 Stars
Liberation as Test
What appears to be missing from the discussion of the authenticity and primacy of Buddhist texts is the practical piece of whether the actual teachings lead to the end of suffering in samsara, as this was the purpose of 'all' of the Buddha's teachings, regardless of tradition. Liberation is from the binding or clinging to sense phenomena and objects of the mind that make us suffer, so the texts that incline one toward this end must be thought of as more authentic than those that do not. We cannot hesitate to apply this "does it liberate" test to all Buddhist texts, as the Buddha asks us to, stating in at least in the agamas and nikayas that we should disregard even his own words if they do not end our suffering in samsara. In this sense, being considered 'earlier' or 'authentic' - even if proven - is irrelevant if the text itself does not facilitate spiritual liberation.
Did you find this helpful?  7 of 7 Found Helpful
Reviewed by: Metteyya Brahmana from Colombo. on 3/5/2018
5/5
5 Stars
Book review
This is a terrific book. Its authors seek to establish the 'authenticity' of the oldest buddhist texts that we have, being the earliest recorded texts redacted in the language we now call Pali and cross-referenced to parallel texts (the Agamas) in Chinese translations, by reference to their age. This authenticity gives those texts an authority based on the likelihood that they reflected the thoughts of the buddha, Gotama. the book has a polemical intent; against those Western academics who downvalue or devalue the Pali texts, the authors drawn on historical (such as we might know them) events and a range of contextual evidence, e.g. from archeology, to foreground the value of the earliest buddhist texts. It is obvious that the authors are practitioners from a tradition that gives those texts, especially those recorded in Pali, special status, and so this is not an even-handed discussion. Yet drawing on a range of academic/scholarly sources, it does not come across as a 'mere propaganda'. Having some years ago read and been impressed by Gombrich's 'What the Buddha thought', I guess I was not a skeptic at the opening of the book. And to be honest, my own engagement with buddhism is mediated by the Pali texts; so that is my 'pre-judice'. But then I am not infatuated with the bombast that accompanies some of the Theravadin tradition (and more so the non-Theravadin traditions). So I was prepared not to go along with the argument, including not just because of the eminence of the scholar-monks who wrote the book. But the argument is methodical, referenced, consistent. And yes the book also has a nice flow and is a 'good' read. Is it convincing? Buy the book from Pariyatti and decide for yourself. After all, bhikkhus, like tathagatas, only show the way.
Did you find this helpful?  11 of 11 Found Helpful
Reviewed by: Craig Johnston from Sydney, Australia. on 9/1/2015
5/5
  • Author: Bhikkhu Sujato, Bhikkhu Brahmali
  • Publisher: Buddhist Publication Society
  • Publication Date: 2014
  • Product Type: Softcover Book
  • Pages or No. of Discs: 180
  • Language:
  • ISBN 13: 978-955-24-0410-8
  • ISBN 10: 9552404108
  • Weight (Pounds): 0.72
  • Product Code: BPS:404435

Related Items

Life of the Buddha, The
Life of the Buddha, The
Average Rating(5)
Price: $21.00
Connected Discourses of the Buddha
Connected Discourses of the Buddha
Average Rating(0)
Price: $75.00
What the Buddha Taught
What the Buddha Taught
Average Rating(0)
Price: $16.00
Long Discourses of the Buddha
Long Discourses of the Buddha
Average Rating(1)
Price: $50.00
Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha
Average Rating(2)
Price: $75.00
Discourses of Ancient Nuns
Discourses of Ancient Nuns
Average Rating(0)
Price: $0.99
Three Cardinal Discourses
Three Cardinal Discourses
Average Rating(0)
Price: $2.95
Out of Stock
Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
Average Rating(1)
Price: $75.00
 

Recently Viewed Items

Address
867 Larmon Road
Onalaska, WA 98570 USA
VIEW MAP


Pariyatti is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization

Security & Privacy

Store
+1.360.978.4998
[email protected]
Contact Us



Sign up for Pariyatti's bi-monthly newsletter!