Basic readings and references: where to start

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You can use the book by bikkhu Nyanatusita to learn the vinaya. It has the pali, then the english translation, then the definition of all the pali words. The draft from 2008 is here https://www.dhammatalks.net/Books14/Bhikkhu_Nyanatusita-Analysis_of_the_Bhikkhupatimokkha.pdf

the book from 2014 is here https://books.google.com/books?id=6s3iBQAAQBAJ

For a list of suttas and a super short summary, there is always An Analysis of the Pali Canon and a Reference Table of Pali Literature By Russell Webb and Bhikkhu Nyanatusita https://www.bps.lk/olib/bp/bp607s_Webb_Analysis-Of-The-Pali-Canon.pdf which has also a huge catalog of texts on buddhism, as of 2011, and it has also A Reference List of Pali Literature, which is also found here separately http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil_elib/Nyt008__Nyanatusita_ReferenceTableOfPaliLiterature.pdf

The course by bikkhu bodhi for Pali is a good introduction https://bodhimonastery.org/a-course-in-the-pali-language.html

and the little help for Pali Verb Conjugation and Noun/Pronoun Declension Tables, by Bhikkhu Nyanatusita (2005; 486k) https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanatusita/index.html

For the suttas themselves, you can begin with the short ones, so DN which is some copies of suttas form SN and AN, MN, dhammapada, sutta nipata, then SN and AN

Also do not forget the parallel suttas. Scholars already know about this since the 80s, like lamotte says in HISTORY OF INDIAN BUDDHISM (Peeters Press, 1988, page 156):

However, with the exception of the Mahayanist interpolations in the Ekottara [the Chinese equivalent to the Pali Canon's Anguttara], which are easily discernable, the variations in question affect hardly anything save the method of expression or arrangement of the subjects. The doctrinal basis common to the agamas [preserved in Chinese and partially Sanskrit and Tibetan] is remarkably uniform. Preserved and transmitted by the schools, the sutras [discourses] do not however constitute scholastic documents, but are the common heritage of all the sects.

THere is a short book The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism: A Comparative Study Based on the Sutranga Portion of the Pali Samyutta-Nikaya and the Chinese Samyuktagama by Mun-keat Choong http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/The%20Fundamental%20Teachings%20of%20Early%20Buddhism_Mun-keat.pdf

and of course lots of work by Bikkhu Analayo

A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/compstudyvol1.pdf

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/compstudyvol2.pdf

Madhyama-āgama Studies

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/mastudies.pdf

Saṃyukta-āgama Studies

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/sastudies.pdf

Dīrgha-āgama Studies

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/dastudies.pdf

Ekottarika-āgama Studies

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/ekottarikastudies.pdf

Vinaya Studies https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/vinayastudies.pdf

Early Buddhist Meditation Studies

https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/ebms.pdf

Perspectives on Satipaṭṭhāna https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/5-personen/analayo/perspectives.pdf

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I found the https://www.buddha-vacana.org/ site an interesting introduction to Pali -- see for example https://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samyutta/maha/sn56-011.html -- use a mouse to hover over Pali words to see a popup with a translation and a link to a dictionary definition.

Another site with Pali and English on the same page is https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/ for example https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=001

And all of Ven. Sujato's translations on suttacentral have side-by-side or line-by-line copies of the Pali -- see for example https://suttacentral.net/sn56.11/en/sujato -- click on the Settings icon near the top of the page, and activate "View original text with translation" and "Activate Pali word lookup", then again use a mouse to hover over the words of interest.


Pali nouns have "case" -- i.e. nominative, accusative, ablative, etc., which show what place they have in a sentence -- that's instead of word-order being significant, and using conjunctions -- so it's like Latin or Greek.

There are several online resources for that -- grammar and dictionaries -- an introductory one is https://www.buddha-vacana.org/toolbox.html

And there are compound nouns, often you might guess how a word is compounded in order to look up each portion individually -- for example "manopubbaṅgama is a Pali compound consisting of the words mano and pubbaṅgama" (with mano being one of the words for "mind").

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My advice is to stick around where people quote and recite texts known to be true.

You can learn effectively just by following the public discourse and asking questions.

What will be most important is the self-study of the referenced texts and remembering them. This is more important than how other people interpret it.

Eventually you will learn many texts, various interpretations and controversy.

Reading about the pali sutta is not as important as reading the sutta and the public discourse is more or less an introduction because questions repeat themselves quite a lot.

As you study the Buddha's pali discourses you will also learn a bit about commentary and pick up on things here & there from the public discourse.

As for Pali language you will eventually learn many technical terms from the public discourse and comparing pali translations.

If you want to learn the grammar and to expand your vocabulary you can attemp reading stories from jataka, vinaya and dhp commentaries.

For grammar one can find some course.

One can also memorize pali for recitation, ie the patimokkha. One will learn some this way but it's rather negligible in & by itself.

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