notes on the Dhamma

Ajahn Brahm says margarine is the same as butter. This is not a direct quote, but that's essentially the type of claim he is making. from this thread on suttacentral: A Conversation between Ven. Aggacitta and Ajahn Brahm Bhikkhu Kumara wrote kumara  wrote: Year: 2002 Place: Grand BlueWave Hotel, Shah Alam, Malaysia Event: Global Conference on Buddhism Ven. Aggacitta: Ajahn Chah didn’t teach the (absorption) jhānas. So, where did you learn it form? Ajahn Brahm: Samatha Trust, when I was a layperson. As told by Ven. Aggacitta to Ven. Kumāra. Erika quoting from tricyle article responded Erika_ODonnell The Tricycle article This is from the article: “Ajahn Chah did teach jhanas, but not publicly,” Ajahn Brahm said in an email. “He would call it appana samadhi , which is the Abhidhamma term. Ajahn Jayasaro, who translated Ajahn Chah’s biography, told me that many old recordings exist of Ajahn Chah teaching appana samadhi.” Frankk pointing out margarine is not the same as butter I haven...

  The Abhidhamma Piṭaka is obviously the product of a later phase in the evolution of Buddhist thought than the other two Piṭakas. The Pāli version represents the Theravāda school’s attempt to systematize the older teachings. Other early schools apparently had their own Abhidhamma systems. The Sarvāstivāda system is the only one whose canonical texts have survived intact in their entirety. Its canonical collection, like the Pāli version, also consists of seven texts. These were originally composed in Sanskrit but are preserved in full only in Chinese translation. The system they define differs significantly from that of its Theravāda counterpart in both formulation and philosophy. (from Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Buddha’s Words introduction)  ☸ Lucid 24.org 

AI generated translations, quality is really good. Much of it looks to be based off of Nanamoli's translations, much of it is correct, although there will be errors I'm sure.   Tv commentary for 4 main nikāyas:  AN‍-a     DN‍-a     MN‍-a     SN‍-a    What is super cool about it is the navigation. For example, Python, a language I don't even know,  I used the AI to help me write code to map the DPR (digital pali reader) archaic sutta numbering systems and tag them with modern sutta numbers.  It's not an easy or quick thing to do, even if you're a programming expert AND knowledgable about the differences between the two numbering systems.  With AI, I was able to tag the modern sutta citations in a few hours of work coaxing and coaching the AI to write the code for me.  Python program to append a modern sutta ref. number next to DPR pāḷi source with archaic numbering import re def create_authoritative_maps():     ""...

 In the early suttas, the Buddha only talks about Dhamma (teachings) and Vinaya (monastic code). There is no Abhidhamma mentioned in the EBT (early buddhist teachings), there is no tipitaka (3 baskets). How did this concept "Ti-piṭaka" (3 baskets) come about? Abhi-dhamma (systematic treatise/analysis of Buddha's Dhamma)  came 100 to 200 years after the Buddha. Some of it is compatible with EBT (early buddhist teachings),  some of it is not. The LBT (late Buddhist teachings) Theravadins wanted to grant Abhidhamma the same status as the Buddha's original words, so they created a pretty ridiculous origin story claiming Abhidhamma actually was spoken by the Buddha secretly and passed on secretly through only one disciple.  And then they created the concept of  "Ti-piṭaka" (3 baskets), putting Abhidhamma as the 3rd basket, along with Dhamma (the Buddha's actual words), and vinaya (monastic code).  Do you accord a middle manager the same respect and status as ...

  2025 Bhikkhu Bodhi‍-esque collection:  All the EBT (early buddhist teachings) suttas, translated by AI in Bhikkhu Bodhi style,  pāḷi  + english side by side How to use this collection You can trust the Pāḷi, it's straight from Suttacentral and/or DPR.  Use the AI English translation as a way to help you understand the pāḷi, Don't trust the English without checking against human produced (or human edited/curated/verified) English sutta translations from reliable sources. Bhikkhu Bodhi‍-esque collection  AN‍-qb   DN‍-qb   MN‍-qb   SN‍-qb   KN:   Dhp-qb   Iti-qb   Snp-qb   Thag‍-qb   Thig‍-qb   Ud-qb  

  (2) Dhp = Dhammapada Dhp | commentary: Dhp-a‍ | bodhi-esque: Dhp-qb | thānissaro-esque: Dhp-qt Dhp   is my translation based off of Buddharakkhita and Sujato's translations. Dhp-a‍   is Theravada commentary, AI translation line by line. Cursory glance (of translation quality) seems quite good, but I'm sure there will be errors. There are some existing partial translations of this work, but I've never read it before, assuming it comes from the same fiction writing department that created the Jataka commentary birth stories which are non Buddhist in origin and often teach highly questionable if not idiotic moral 'lessons'.  But now there is a full [unreliable AI] translation, I will give it a read this week. Dhp-qb   is AI translation of Dhp using terms preferred by Bhikkhu Bodhi Dhp-qt  is AI translation of Dhp using terms preferred by Thanissaro, based on anthology of Thanissaro's actual translations where available, altered at times t...

  https://lucid24.org/an/esq/frn/index.html AN‍q  1  - AN 1 - Ekaka Nipāta: Book of the Ones     20 (or 31) vaggas, 627 suttas total AN‍q  2  - AN 2 - Duka Nipāta: Book of the Twos     19 vaggas, 479 suttas. 180-479 are repetition series. AN‍q  3  - AN 3 - Tika Nipāta: Book of the Threes     18 vaggas, 352 suttas. AN 3.156 and on are repetition series AN‍q  4  - AN 4 - Catukka Nipāta: Book of the Fours     28 vaggas, 783 suttas. very short or repetition series from 201 on AN‍q  5  - AN 5 - Pañcaka Nipāta: Book of the Fives     26 vaggas, 1152 suttas, after 250 mostly repetition series AN‍q  6  - AN 6 - Chakka Nipāta: Book of the Sixes     12 vaggas, 649 suttas. repetition series from 120 on AN‍q  7  - AN 7 - Sattaka Nipāta: Book of the Sevens     94 suttas unique, remainder 1124 are repetition series AN‍q  8  - AN 8 - Aṭṭhaka Nipāta: Book of the Eights     ~90 suttas that are unique, the rest is repetit...

The English sutta translations on lucid24.org are derived from B. Sujato and the sutta central team's 2018 translation of the whole nikāya collection .  Since then, they've fixed many things through user feedback, corrected errors, made changes to the tranlsations.. Now in 2025, I've been wanting to incorporate their fixes into my translations, but how? I'm a team of one.  Ideally, I could just start again with a clean copy  Sujato's 2025 English tranlsations, run some scripts to substitute my preferred terms, for example samādhi = 'undistractible-lucidity' instead of "immersion", "monk" instead of 'mendicant', etc.  The problem is, Sujato is not so consistent in how he translates some important terms. I could never run scripts to remove "love" from Sujato's translations, because he ambiguates the term so heavily it could be metta, it could be abyāpāda (non-ill will), it could be kāma (lust), it could nandi, rati (de...