Books

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2025, Where Dharma Meets Practice: an introduction to early Buddhism

Soon available from your favorite bookseller.

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2025, Rethinking Satipaṭṭāna: from investigating Dhamma to dwelling in Jhāna.

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2024, Satipṭṭhāna Rethought: a meditation manual based on earliest Buddhist texts.

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2021, Dependent Coarising: meaning construction in the twelve links.

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2019, Buddhist Life/Buddhist Path: foundations of Buddhism based on earliest sources.

Bhikkhu Cintita, 2014, A Culture of Awakening: the life and times of the Buddha-sasana.

This book examines the living Dhamma in its cultural, social, and historic dimensions set in motion with the Buddha’s establishment of the monastic Sangha. It looks at its relatively tolerance of an inauthentic “folk Buddhism,” and suggests that this enabled the emergence of Buddhism as the first world religion.

Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2005, In the Buddha’s Words: an anthology of discourses from the Pali Canon.

I recommend this large anthology of suttas and passages from suttas as an entry point for the student’s encounter with the early Budhist texts themselves. Bhikkhu Bodhi is the foremost living translator from Pali into English, and has organized these texts by subject matter with extensive explanation.

Various translators, various years, The [Long/Middle-length/Connected /Numbered] Discourses of the Buddha, Wisdom Publications.

These four volumes are recommended translations of the first three of the four sutta compilations (nikāyas) of the Pali canon, referred to throughout this site as DN, MN, SN, and AN. The translators are Maurice Walsh (DN), Bhikkhu Ñaṇamoli & Bhikkhu Bodhi (MN), and Bhikkhu Bodhi (SN, AN). I always keep these close at hand.

Gil Fransdal (trans.), 2005, The Dhammapada, Shambhala Publications.

John D. Ireland (trans), 1998, The Udāna and the Itivuttaka: two classics from the Pali Canon, Buddhist Publication Society.

Bhikkhu Bodhi, (translator), 2016, The Buddha’s Teachings on So­cial and Com­munal Harmony: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, Wisdom Publi­cations.

This book provided early Buddhist advice about how to live communally, how to live harmoniously, mixing like milk and water, and how to settle disputes, viewing each other with kind eyes. This book is relevant even in non-Buddhist communities.

Sarah Shaw, 2008, Buddhist Meditation: An anthology of texts from the Pali Canon, Routledge.

Ajahn Sujāto & Ajahn Brahmali, 2016, Authenticity of the Early Buddhist Texts, Buddhist Publication Society.

Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda, 19xx, The Magic of the Mind: an exposition of the Kālakārāma Sutta, seeingthroughthenet.net.

Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda, 19xx, Concept and Reality, seeingthroughthenet.net.

Kaṭukurunde Ñāṇananda, 2016, The Law of Dependent Arising: the secret of bondage and release, seeingthroughthenet.net.

This is a transcript of a series of Dhamma talks on this topic. The author is very critical of the neglect of serious contemplation on a topic the Buddha claimed to comprehend all of the Dhamma. I think he has penetrated its early meaning. This is not an easy book to read for the reader not already immersed in the study of the early teachings

Sue Hamilton, 2000, Early Buddhism: a new approach, Routledge.

Eviatar Shulman, 2014, Rethinking the Buddha: early Buddhist philosophy as meditative perception, Cambridge University Press.

Demien Keown, 1992, The Nature of Buddhist Ethics, Palgrave.

Bhante Gunaratana, 2002, Mindfulness in Plain English, Buddhist Publication Society.

David McMahan, 2008, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford.

This is a thorough study of the absorption of modern preconceptions into the content of what is taught as Buddhism in modern Buddhism. It method is to trace the sources of individual modern Dhamma teachings, either in some Asian Buddhist tradition, or in some western cultural/religious/intellectual tradition. The results are surprising.

Trevor Ling, 2013 [1973], The Buddha: social-revolutionary potential of Buddhism, Pariyatti.

Trevor Ling shows the ways the Buddhism does not make sense without understanding its profound social dimension. He examines the early history of Buddhist communities, the role of the Sangha as the center from which pro-social values spread, and Buddhist practice as a means of breaking down the autonomous individual.

Bhikkhu Ariyesako, 1999, The Bhikkhus’ Rules: a Guide for Householders, pdf at AccesstoInsight.org.

This short book gives an overview of the precepts found in theVinaya, the monastic code. These precepts have been followed by the Sangha continuously since the time of the Buddha until today throughout most of the Buddhist world. This book is a clear introduction intended for lay readers.