Sayings Of Buddha The Iti Vuttaka

Author : Justin Hartley Moore
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781502727879
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (278 download)

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Download or read book The Sayings of Buddha the Iti-vuttaka written by Justin Hartley Moore and published by . This book was released on 2014-10-05 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the PREFATORY NOTE In this book the Sayings, or Logia, of Buddha are translated for the first time into an Occidental language, and it is gratifying that Dr. Moore has accomplished the task of making them generally accessible. —A. V. Williams Jackson. From the PREFACE Since 1841, when Friedrich Spiegel published the first European edition of a Pali text, the interest taken in the life and teachings of Buddha has been keen and marked. Through the labors of Turnour, D'Alwis, Childers, Fausböll, Oldenberg, Hardy, Kern, Davids, and others, steady progress has been made, both in our knowledge of the career of this great Eastern teacher, and in the interpretation of the sacred books of his canon. Chief among the agencies for the publication of these texts has been and still is the Pali Text Society of London, under the direction of its scholarly founder and indefatigable worker, T. W. Rhys Davids. Up to its twenty-fifth anniversary in April, 1907, the society published, through the collaboration of many scholars, a total of 46 Buddhist texts in 59 volumes, amounting in all to over 17,000 octavo pages. In contrast with this great number of editions of the texts themselves, the work of translating and commenting upon them has not, however, made equal progress. Despite the translations of Rhys Davids, Oldenberg, Weber, Neumann, and others, along with the labors of many enthusiastic interpreters, the gaps to be filled in translating the canon are wide and many. For this reason almost any comment or argument on any Buddhist topic must inevitably be regarded as only provisional, if not in some cases even premature, until all the texts, together with their native commentaries, shall have been sifted, compared, interpreted, and criticized. There is an element of the charm of the unknown in translating a book that has not been previously rendered into a Western tongue. For that reason the work of translating the Iti-vuttaka has been to me a task of much interest, although the undertaking was somewhat like a dive into unfathomed waters. Before closing these prefatory remarks, I desire to express my thanks for a number of obligations which I owe to friends. In matters of typography and the like I have had throughout the invaluable assistance of Mr. George C. O. Haas, to whom I gladly take this occasion of expressing my sincere thanks for his kindness in so generously putting at my disposal his exceptional acumen in proof-reading. My friend and fellow-student, Mr. Charles J. Ogden, of Columbia University, has helped me more than once by his brilliant criticism, and Dr. Truman Michelson, among others, has given me willing advice and comment. But to one above all have I been a constant debtor throughout this task, from its inception to its completion; one who has played the role both of kindly guide and rigorous critic, and who has most generously allotted to me a goodly portion of his time, already filled to overflowing with multifarious duties. Pleasant indeed has been the inspiration gained from a long association with and apprenticeship under my friend and teacher, Professor A. V. Williams Jackson. —Justin Hartley Moore, Columbia University, New York City, May 18, 1908