Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Old repository of Thai language Dhamma lectures by Sathien Bodhinanda


While conducting search on Sunjata สุญญตา, I found some informational treasure trove in Thai language about it. (This post might benefit some people who know Thai language)

The website of Young Buddhist Association of Thailand (YBAT) has a download page for old recorded lectures in Thai by a prominent Thai expert on both Mahayana and Theravada (Hinayana) Buddhism, Mr. Sathien Bodhinanda เสถียร โพธินันทะ (1929-1966). There are 59 mp3 files there. I just downloaded them to keep in my notebook for future listening.  The relevant recorded voice file on Sunjata (in Thai language) is file no. 7 and 8.
If you want to know more of him, there is a Thai language wiki of his biography, and a copy of Thai language obituary for Sathien Bodhinanda by another prominent Thai Buddhist Tipitaka scholar, Sujeep Punyanuparb.

I also found old pictures of the speaker, who died at the young age of 38 in B.E. 2509 (1966)
A portrait picture of Sathien Bodhinanda, apparently scanned from his commemorative book freely distributed as gift to well-wishers during his cremation, is respectfully put here for future reference purpose only, which I obtained from this website with thanks. I don't claim ownership of this picture.



Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Good free ebook: Samadhi in Buddhism

I just found a small free ebook entitled "Samadhi in Buddhism" by Bhikku P.A. Payutto.  The venerable Payutto, also known by Thai in his recent royal monastic title "Phra Bromgunaborn", is the most well-regarded expert on Tipitaka and Buddhist Dhamma in Thailand.  The content was based on one of  his old talk in Chicago in 1996, perhaps just translated recently by Janet Chan, and edited by Susan Kirschoff.  The small book (of 41 pages) is very informative and I highly recommend it. I just finished it in less than an hour.  There are a few Pali words in there, but for beginners, you can initially skip those jargons without any problem, although I would think if you can manage to learn those Pali terms, the knowledge will prevent your misunderstanding or confusion over generic English terms used in various other faiths in the future. I think he covered all the areas of Samadhi in Buddhism well.

It is available from the author's website linked here.

By the way, if you look around at that site, there are other ebooks there as well, in English or Thai. Make your choices.