PRETEXTS 1

Referencing Source Material
Buddhist Hybridised Text
Pāli Pronunciation Guide

Referencing Source Material

This book is a comprehensive treatise and does not need reading cover to cover. I suspect most readers are attracted more to the practical side of Buddhist meditation, rather than pretexts, referencing and disambiguating words. All readers understand how important citing one’s source is to credibility. Anyone with less academic concerns should use the table of contents which is deliberately extensive so readers can navigate to and around specific topics. If you are reading this electronically, the find facility is particularly useful.
    Buddhism emerged within the context of the prevailing Vedic paradigm of India, some 2300 years ago. In later chapters, I argue it was also seriously influenced by the arrival of Christianity. Hence, there is a need to reference 3 different paradigms.
    Referencing the teachings from several religions requires some help, hence the two tables below. The Buddhist Pali Canon is not always straight forward. This is in large part because publishers don’t all reference suttas (discourses/teachings) the same way. Generally speaking, the initials of the Nikaya are cited, then the number of the sutta, and then paragraph number. For example, MN1:1 means Majjhima Nikaya, sutta one, paragraph one, and similarly for the Dīgha Nikāya (the Long Discourses). However, the contents of the 3 other Nikāyas are uniquely arranged. Two will not concern us but the Saṃyutta Nikāya (Connected Discourses), is a challenge, as it is a vast collection of appositely arranged teachings totalling around 2,889. The Saṃyutta is arranged into 5 parts called Vaggas, Chapters (Saṃyutta), 56 titles, which I think of as sub-chapters, within which are sub-sub-chapters, and sub-sub-sub-chapters. Please excuse the terminology but it is the simplest way I can think of to discuss the structure of this Nikāya.
    With so much information to draw upon, there are more ways than one to reference a teaching in the Saṃyutta Nikaya, but there is a popular and very simple way to do this.

Let’s take the example reference SN56:11. Expressed in its full pomp, it reads as: Part V The Mahāvagga, Chapter XII, subchapter 56 Saccasaṃyutta Connected Discourses on the Truths, II SETTING IN MOTION THE WHEEL OF THE DHAMMA, 11 (1) Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma.

This can be reduced to SN56.11, because the sub-chapters are numbered 1 to 56, regardless of the Vagga and chapter they appear in, so we don’t need the Vagga or chapter numbers or titles. Similarly, the Sub-sub-sub-chapters, are also numbered 1 to however many hundred there are, regardless of the Sub-sub-Chapters they are in. This means we don’t need to use sub-sub-Chapter numbers or titles. The only 2 numbers needed are Subchapter and Sub-sub-sub-chapter numbers.

Table 1 Saṃyutta Example SN56:11

I recommend people make use of free online Nikaya, although these too are not without snags. On line searches permit titles to be used without using numbers. However, some Publishers use Pali, (Dhammacakkappavattana sutta SN56.11), some use Sanskrit (dharmachakrapravartana Samyukta) and some use English (‘Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma’). Some publishers compound words, while others split them up, for example, Dhamma cakkappavattana vagga. It can be testing.

The Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numerical Discourses) compiles teachings into numbered lists, (dhamma by numbers). The Khuddaka Nikāya (the Minor Collection) covers various topics attributed to Gautama Buddha, but this Nikāya is known to contain adulterated text. These latter two volumes do not cover anything not available in the Majjhima, Dīgha and Saṃyutta Nikāyas.

Table 2, shows how I reference the Vedas and books of the Bible. They are easier to reference as they are arranged in a regular way.

   Table 2 Referencing

The Vedic Canon of India has four volumes, each one containing a different discipline. These are the Upanishads, which are the philosophies and ethics, the Samhitas, and which contain mantras and hymns, the Brahmanas, which contain rituals, and the Aranyakas, which contain the spells and charms. It is the discipline of philosophy and ethics that will occasionally concern us. The Vedas are often cited just by discourse name.
    The Bible is comprised of two books; the Old Testament and the New Testament. Their contents are referenced by book name (usually abbreviated), chapter and verse. For example, Gen1:1 refers to the book of Genesis, chapter 1 and verse 1.
    Where possible references are shortened. A number standing alone in brackets refers to a verse from the previous reference. So, for example, a stand-alone number such as (9) that follows MN122:6 means MN122:9. Similarly, in the Bible, Gen 6:2 followed by a (4) reads Gen 6:4.
    All citations are the Buddha’s unless otherwise stated. Any citation from the Pāli Canon is a Wisdom Publication (Boston USA) unless otherwise indicated.
    Any text in square brackets with an asterisk [text*], found in a quotation, are my additions, as distinct from square brackets without an asterisk, which are the translator’s.

  Buddhist Hybridised Text  

    The prefix Mahā means noble or great, and often precedes proper nouns, such as MahāMoggallāna, or MahāKassapa. This tells us the character was considered a venerable. I have minimised its use in text I have composed.
    The use of some plural and singular Pāli words found in the Pāli Canon are inconsistent between translators. The word suttaṃ is singular and means discourse. The plural is sutta. And yet, an individual discourse is sometimes entitled sutta. In some Pāli Text Society Publications, translators have used suttanta. Similarly, the word jhānaṃ, which is a lower-level meditation, has the plural of jhāna, and yet I cannot ever recall seeing the singular form being used outside of a Pāli dictionary. For the text I have composed I use suttaṃ (sing.) sutta (pl.) jhānaṃ (Sing.) jhāna (pl.). I have reproduced the citations exactly as they were published.
     In common with other writers, I have preferred to use anglicised plurals by simply adding an ‘s’. For example, bhikkhu (masc. sing) becomes bhikkhus and bhikkhuno (fem. sing.) becomes bhikkhunis. Otherwise, these plurals forms are bhikkhavo (masc. pl.) and bhikkhuni (fem. pl.).

Pāli Pronunciation Guide

Tahoma type font has had to be used for some Pāli words, as the Times New Roman font lacks some diacritical markings.
    Because the attention can snag annoyingly on too many unusual spellings, even the casual reader might consider learning to pronounce some Pāli words. The pronunciation of Bhikkhu, jhānaṃ, suttaṃ and nimittaṃ are worth memorising. Other than this, most readers will not be particularly interested in the following pronunciation guide.
    Double consonants are pronounced separately, for example, dd as in bad dialogue, bb as in dab brush. The fact is, this is difficult and so one tends to elide the consonants and to stress the syllable that precedes or follows. For example, bhikkhu is pronounced b-hik-hu.

Vowels are pronounced as follows:

a pronounced as ‘u’ in ‘but’.
ā pronounced as ‘a’ in ‘father’.
e pronounced as ‘a’ in ‘way’.
i pronounced as ‘i’ in ‘pin’.
ī pronounced as ‘ee’ in ‘keen’.
o pronounced as ‘o’ in ‘home’.
ū pronounced as ‘oo’ of ‘pool’

   The vowels o and e are always stressed, otherwise the stress falls on ā, ī or ū.

   The dot below the letters ṇ ḍ ḷ ṭ indicates the tongue is placed at the back of the front, top two teeth (technically called a cerebral) before pronouncing these consonants. The effect is very subtle.  

ṃ and ṅ are both pronounced as in sing.
ñ as in banyan and signor.
m, y, r, l, s, h can be pronounced as in English.
h is audibly aspirated but subtly, no more than in Thomas. However, a beginner should not be afraid to over pronounce the h. It can always be lost latter.

g as in go.
gh as above but aspirated.
c is soft as in church.
ch is hard as in church.
j as in jet
jh as above but aspirated.
d as dark
dh as above but aspirated
b as in band
bh as above but aspirated
p as in past.
ph as above but aspirated
t as in Tom.
th as above but aspirated, as in Thomas (not as in the)

Tahoma type has had to be used for some Pāli words, as the Times New Roman font lacks some diacritical markings.