Acknowledgements

This book has been several years in the making. It began as a set of readings for a handful of people who were taking an introductory course on the Pāli Canon, and who asked me to provide extra readings to supplement what they were receiving from the teachers in charge of the course. From there, it grew into a much larger selection of readings for the bi-monthly study course that we provide here at the monastery. Only recently did I find the time to make the selection even more comprehensive and to provide introductory explanations. My aim is to provide a well-rounded picture of the noble eightfold path for people who are interested in taking guidance from the earliest extant records of the Buddha’s teachings on how to reach the end of suffering and stress.

I could not have completed this book without the help of many individuals. In addition to the monks here at the monastery, I would like to thank Ven. Atulo Bhikkhu, Anita Basu, Michael Barber, Geoffrey Galik, Addie Onsanit, Nathaniel Osgood, Dale Schultz, and Isabella Trauttmansdorff for their valuable suggestions for improving the manuscript. Isabella Trauttmansdorff also provided the index. I would also like to thank all those who read earlier incarnations of the reading selections for their questions and comments, which helped to sharpen the focus of the explanations offered here.

Any mistakes, of course—in either the translations or the explanations—are my own responsibility.

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu