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Week 10 Update: EĀ Chapters 2-3, 8-9 Released
It’s been two months since I posted an update! Time flies sometimes. I will be making an effort to set aside time to blog more frequently in the future. I’m going to shoot for a post once a week, perhaps more. (Which means once a week or biweekly, probably.) The heavenly messengers of birth, illness, Continue reading
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Week 1 Update: EĀ Ch. 1 Released!
Hello, Everyone! Welcome to a New Year. 2023 is the Year of the Water Rabbit in East Asia, which is good, I suppose. Good-natured, adaptable, intelligent people — yes, the world needs more of them to take the wheel. Good-natured people, especially. The past two months have been a test period for a new translation Continue reading
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The Ekôttarika Āgama Project Begins
Tomorrow will be the official start of the Ekôttarika Āgama translation project at Dharma Pearls. This project is expected to take approximately two years to complete a well edited release, though actual time is dependent at how difficult the material turns out to be. I will be shooting for a process that translates around five Continue reading
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A Look at DĀ 1: Buddhas, Brahmins—and Bodhisattvas
This week, I want to begin a series of blog posts that take a look at selections from the Dīrgha Āgama, both in their own light and that of parallels that exist. These posts won’t be in-depth essays or particularly technical; rather, I’ll introduce a particular sūtra and attempt to draw out a few issues Continue reading
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Heat Waves, Data Entry, and Meta-Editing
This summer has been quite an experience for much of the world. Floods, droughts, and a creeping suspicion turned sudden realization: The World is changing, and humans are but bits of flotsam when the raging currents of that change arrive. Yes, it’s true: We aren’t as collectively invulnerable and omnipotent as we imagined a couple Continue reading
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July Update: Remainder of DĀ 30 Released
This month, I released the initial translations of DĀ 30’s chapters 8-12. This would also complete the Dīrgha Āgama except for DĀ 19, which will be delayed another month before it’s ready for release. With the completion of the rest of DĀ, I’ll be taking two or three months to work on polishing existing translations, Continue reading
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June Update: First Half of DĀ 30 Released
The editing of the Description of the World Sūtra (DĀ 30) continues, but I’ve released Chapters 1-7 of this large, multi-chapter sūtra that collects Buddhist cosmology and mythology into a single large text. This version that’s found in the Dīrgha Āgama (DĀ) is one of four Chinese translations of this sūtra which are dated between Continue reading
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April/May Update: Parinirvāṇa Sūtra Released
This month’s releases represent an important milestone for me as a translator. I’ve released translations of both the Mahāvadāna Sūtra (DĀ 1) and the Parinirvāṇa Sūtra (DĀ 2). I first read and considered translating these two large sūtras that begin the Dīrgha Āgama about 15 years ago when I first became seriously interesting in translating Continue reading
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March-April Update
I have great news. The Dīrgha Āgama is completely drafted, all 22 fascicles of it (which comes to about 235,000 words of English). The past few months have been non-stop drafting, and at times it’s been quite challenging, especially DĀ 19’s mysterious transliterations and the long tract in DĀ 30 about all the various Hells, which puts Continue reading
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The Noble Fivefold Samadhi – A Parallel Sutra Quote to AN 5.28
An important sutta in modern discourse about the four jhānas in Theravāda Buddhism is AN 5.28, which contains material that appears to have been subsumed into the larger Mindfulness of the Body Sutta (MN 119). To date, no parallel has been found in the four Chinese Āgama collections; however, a full quote of a parallel to this Continue reading
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