Reddit mentions of In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha)

My favorite copypasta:

I highly recommend In the Buddha's Words, a curated presentation of the Pali Canon with guiding essays.

Here is an excerpt on the Buddhist definition of faith that you might find useful:



>It is not only theistic religions that teach doctrines beyond the range of immediate empirical confirmation. The Buddha too taught doctrines that an ordinary person cannot directly confirm by everyday experience, and these doctrines are fundamental to the structure of his teaching. We saw, for example, in the introduction to chapters I and II, that the Nikayas envisage a universe with many domains of sentient existence spread out in boundless space and time, a universe in which sentient beings roam and wander from life to life on account of their ignorance, craving, and kamma. The Nikayas presuppose that throughout beginningless time, Buddhas without number have arisen and turned the wheel of the Dhamma, and that each Buddha attains enlightenment after cultivating spiritual perfections over long periods of cosmic time. When we approach the Dhamma we are likely to resist such beliefs and feel that they make excessive demands on our capacity for trust. Thus we inevitably run up against the question whether, if we wish to follow the Buddha’s teaching, we must take on board the entire package of classical Buddhist doctrine.

>For Early Buddhism, all the problems we face in deciding how far we should go in placing faith can be disposed of at a single stroke. That single stroke involves reverting to direct experience as the ultimate basis for judgment. One of the distinctive features of the Buddha’s teaching is the respect it accords to direct experience. The texts of Early Buddhism do not teach a secret doctrine, nor do they leave scope for anything like an esoteric path reserved for an elite of initiates and withheld form others. According to Text III,1, secrecy in a religious teaching is the hallmark of wrong views and confused thinking. The teaching of the Buddha shines openly, as radiant and brilliant as the light of the sun and moon. Freedom from the cloak of secrecy is integral to a teaching that gives primacy to direct experience, inviting each individual to test its principles in the crucible of his or her own experience.

>This does not mean that an ordinary person can fully validate the Buddha’s doctrine by direct experience without special effort. To the contrary, the teaching can only be fully realized through the achievement of certain extraordinary types of experience that are far beyond the range of the ordinary person enmeshed in the concerns of mundane life. However, in sharp contrast to revealed religion, the Buddha does not demand that we begin our spiritual quest by placing faith in doctrines that lie beyond the range of our immediate experience. Rather than ask us to wrestle with issues that, for us in our present condition, no amount of experience can decide, he instead asks us to consider a few simple questions pertaining to our immediate welfare and happiness, questions that we can answer on the basis of personal experience. I highlight the expression “for us in our present condition,” because the fact that we cannot presently validate such matters does not constitute grounds for rejecting them as invalid or even as irrelevant. It only means that we should put them aside for the time being and concern ourselves with issues that come within the range of direct experience.

>The Buddha says that his teaching is about suffering and the cessation of suffering. This statement does not mean that the Dhamma is concerned only with our experience of suffering in the present life, but it does imply that we can use our present experience, backed by intelligent observation, as a criterion for determining what is beneficial and what detrimental to our spiritual progress. Our most insistent existential demand, springing up deep within us, is the need for freedom from harm, sorrow, and distress; or, positively stated, the need to achieve well-being and happiness. However, to avoid harm and to secure our well-being, it is not sufficient for us merely to hope. We first have to understand the conditions on which they depend. According to the Buddha, whatever arises arises through appropriate causes and conditions, and this applies with equal force to suffering and happiness. Thus we must ascertain the causes and conditions that lead to harm and suffering, and likewise the causes and conditions that lead to wellbeing and happiness. Once we have extracted these two principles - the conditions leading to well-being and happiness – we have at our disposal an outline of the entire process that leads to the ultimate goal, final liberation from suffering.

>One text offering an excellent example of this approach is a short discourse in the Anguttara Nikaya popularly known as the Kalama Sutta. The Kalamas were a people living in a remote area of the Ganges plain. Various religious teachers would come to visit them and each would extol his own doctrine and tear down the doctrines of his rivals. Confused and perplexed by this conflict of belief systems, the Kalamas did not know whom to trust. When the Buddha passed through their town, they approached him and asked him to clear away their doubts. Though the text does not specify what particular issues were troubling the Kalamas, the later part of the discourse makes it clear that their perplexities revolved around the questions of rebirth and kamma.

>The Buddha began by assuring the Kalamas that under such circumstances it was proper for them to doubt, for the issues that troubled them were indeed common sources of doubt and perplexity. He then told them not to rely on ten sources of belief. Four of these pertain to established scriptural authority (oral tradition, lineage of teaching, hearsay, and collections of texts); four to rational grounds (logic, inferential reasoning, reasoned cogitation, and the acceptance of a view after pondering it); and two to authoritative persons (impressive speakers and respected teachers). This advice is sometimes quoted to prove that the Buddha rejected all external authorities and invited each individual to fashion his or her own personal path to truth. Read in context, however, the message of the Kalama Sutta is quite different. The Buddha is not advising the Kalamas – who, it must be stressed, had at this point not yet become his own disciples – to reject all authoritative guides to spiritual understanding and fall back solely on their personal intuition. Rather, he is offering them a simple and pragmatic outlet from the morass of doubt and perplexity in which they are immersed. By the use of skillful methods of inquiry, he leads them to understand a number of basic principles that they can verify by their own experience and thereby acquire a sure starting point for further spiritual development…

>…The fact that such texts as this sutta and the Kalama Sutta do not dwell on the doctrines of kamma and rebirth does not mean, as is sometimes assumed, that such teachings are mere cultural accretions to the Dhamma that can be deleted or explained away without losing anything essential. It means only that, at the outset, the Dhamma can be approached in ways that do not require reference to past and future lives. The Buddha’s teaching has many sides, and thus, from certain angles, it can be directly evaluated against our concern for our present well-being and happiness. Once we see that the practice of the teaching does indeed bring peach, joy, and inner security in this very life, this will inspire our trust and confidence in the Dhamma as a whole, including those aspects that lie beyond our present capacity for personal verification. If we were to undertake certain practices – practices that require highly refined skills and determined effort – we would be able to acquire the faculties needed to validate those other aspects, such as the law of kamma, the reality of rebirth, and the existence of supersensible realms


-In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon The Dalai Lama and Bhikkhu Bodhi

The Buddhist equivalent of the bible is called the "Nikayas." The Buddha taught orally, and these oral teachings were passed down and eventually written down in the Nikayas. It is the closest thing we have to a record of what the Buddha said while alive.

​

The issue people have is that the Nikayas are long, and hard to read. You might not know where to start. Anthologies have been created, such as this one

​

https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings-ebook/dp/B003XF1LIO

​

But you don't need to buy a big book like this, you can just read individual suttas (passages from the Nikayas) in a website like accesstoinsight.org

> I was constantly bewildered by how the teachings of the church were different from the teachings of the scriptures.

there is NO difference in Buddhism, it's EXACTLY like that with rare exception. Many monastics barely know the suttas, let alone teach from them, they more often teach what their teacher taught or do their own thing.

anyways if you are interested in the suttas(discourses/scriptures), I highly suggest "In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon" (Teachings of the Buddha) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XF1LIO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

Start with Anguttarra Nikaya and Samyutta Nikaya, or "In The Buddha's Words" by Bhikkhu Bodhi https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Teachings-ebook/dp/B003XF1LIO

In the Buddha's Words

A great translation that is well organized to highlight the core of the Buddha's teachings from the oldest records we have, the Pali Canon

I have hundreds of books, all on an overly expensive device I bought to have when I am on the motorcycle and camping. I wanted a waterproof one that would be fine if it got damp. Kindle Oasis (9th Generation) 32GB Wifi w/ Cellular - much better overall for reading than my phone or iPad. Overspent on a simple device, but it has been wonderful.

There are two books I keep reading over and over.

1. At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teachings from a Monk's Life, Thich Nhat Hanh
   
2. In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon (The Teachings of the Buddha), The Dalai Lama
   
   I have also a bunch of Survival and Bushcrafting books and reference material. A lot I pulled from the Pathfinder School's FB page in their files list. If you are looking for something to cover a lot of topics, this one is a great collection: The Bushcraft Boxed Set: Bushcraft 101; Advanced Bushcraft; The Bushcraft Field Guide to Trapping, Gathering, & Cooking in the Wild; Bushcraft First Aid, Dave Canterbury & Jason A Hunt
   
   And while I have listed the 2 books above, I have a ton of one of my favorite genres right now (it's a phase, I know) but I love reading Zombie stories in the woods!
   
   As for keeping the Kindle charged up, that is easy. I pretty much leave it on Airplane mode unless I am getting a book pushed to it. It uses very little power if the screen backlighting is turned off. If it's low, I have a small solar charger I can use to charge it. I got the charger for my portable battery pack - 26000 mAH, charges in about 6 hours from 0 from the solar. OR, I take a few hours ride on the bike (go ahead, twist my arm) and recharge it from the charging USB plug on it. Same with phone.

Don't know which tradition you're following, but I recommend In The Buddha's Words. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XF1LIO/

Not Rks1157, but I've already asked him this question, and he recommended reading as much as possible from the Buddha's original teachings, as cited in the Pali Canon.

This recommendation brought me to the most important book I've read so far (out of several): "In the Buddha's Words" by Bhikkhu Bodhi.

You can get it in digital and audio form from Amazon. I recommend the audio form, since it is so powerful to listen to these words rather than read them.

The phenomenon you're noticing is because Buddhism is very old, very flexible, and very nomadic. It originated in India in one form, broke into different forms after the death of the Buddha, spread to various surrounding countries and absorbed and evolved with their own traditions, then changed again when it came to the west.

The second issue is that, whereas other religions tend to have one or two key texts (like the Bible), Buddhism has a whole library of them known as the Pali Canon. So there's a lot more material from which competing translations can be derived.

The core thread that runs through it all though - the noble eightfold path - is common to all schools, so start there.

The Mahayana path retains the eightfold path but adds a 'Bodhisattva path' to it, essentially shifting the perspective from the individual to the good of all beings.

IMO, the best guide to the core teachings is Bhikkhu Bodhi's In the Buddha's Words

Hope that helps.