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Plain Dharma: The Buddha's Foundational Teachings in Modern English
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781891328398
Publisher: Plain Dharma Press
Published: Jun 9 2026
Pages: 52
Weight: 0.13
Height: 0.12 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
Six of the Buddha's foundational teachings, rendered in plain modern English - clear enough to read in an afternoon, faithful enough to take seriously.
This is not a scholarly translation bristling with Pali and footnotes. It is a plain reading: the same teachings working scholars have translated for decades, set down in everyday language so a first-time reader can actually follow them - without watering down the substance.
Inside:
1. The Buddha's First Talk (Dhammacakkappavattana) - the middle path, the four noble truths, and the eightfold way to live.
2. The Buddha's Second Talk: Not-Self (Anattalakkhana) - why the body, feelings, perceptions, and even awareness aren't you.
3. The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya) - everything is on fire; what is burning, and how to cool down.
4. On Loving-Kindness (Metta) - hold the wish that every living thing, without exception, be at ease.
5. The Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana) - watch the body, feelings, mind, and experience clearly.
6. How to Decide What to Believe (Kalama) - don't take anything on authority; test it for yourself.
Each teaching opens with a one-line distillation and a simple illustration, and the book closes with a Sources & Further Reading appendix pointing to the rigorous scholarly translations (SuttaCentral, Access to Insight, Bhikkhu Bodhi) behind every plain-English rendering.
Released into the public domain under CC0 1.0. Copy it, print it, translate it, give it away - no permission needed, no attribution required, in keeping with the Buddhist tradition of free dharma distribution. Every format lives free at plaindharma.com.
A note on how it was made: the plain-English rendering was drafted with AI from the original Pāli, then refined by hand - argued out line by line, word by word, against the 2,600-year-old text. The full story is at plaindharma.com/how-it-was-made.
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