Dave's book review for In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon

This is going to be impossible to "review" in the traditional sense for a bunch of reasons. Parts of it are going to be rough because they’re things I found interesting, but I’m not going to work all of them into my own prose. Think of this more as a "commonplace book" entry than a proper review.

I read this book because I wish to get a deeper understanding of the "two arrows" or "two darts" analogy as used in a video by Dr. K, which I mentioned at the bottom of This too shall pass.

For my purposes, the most relevant selections from the Pali Canon were near the beginning of the book.

But first, the introduction was very helpful to understand what the Pali Canon even is. Here’s two other helpful links:

That second website, by the way, is an excellent free resource:

This book, writes Bhikkhu Bodhi, is an, "attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the Buddha’s teaching" with a sampling of the variety available.

"At some point, the term was misunderstood to mean 'the Pali language'…​"

The Pali article explains (wikipedia.org):

Bodhi tells us that the Pali Canon was collated and edited to make it ideal for hearing and memorizing and reciting.

"Readers are often annoyed at the repetitiveness of the texts" and de-duplication has required "frequent use of ellipsis."

That’s no joke. There are whole sections that consist of a paragraph that will be repeated five times with just a single word changed in each five. It’s incredibly repetitious.

As mentioned above, this is the subject that caused me to read this book in the first place. Some highlights:

The worldling is elated by success. The noble disciple is not.

The two darts (or the two arrows) are a metaphor for two painful feelings. The first dart is the actual physical or mental pain, the second is the purely mental pain caused by your reaction to the first pain.

Here’s the translation from SuttaCentral:

https://suttacentral.net/sn36.6/en/sujato

We’re addicted to pleasure. "Because the uninstructed worldling does not know of any escape from painful feeling other than sensual pleasure." And so we’re always looking for pleasure as a wait to avoid displeasure.

There’s a way out of this: By seeking neither pain nor pleasure. Accept the physical feelings but don’t make them better or worse with mental feelings.

Even good things are temporary and "bound up with suffering, subject to change".

Bodhi says that the Buddha "gives primacy to direct experience, inviting each individual to test its principles in the crucible of his or her own experience."

"What lies beyond the round of rebirths is an unconditional state called Nibbana."

Buddha does not recommend either of two extremes:

The way to live is somewhere in between. This is mentioned in several different places. There is a lot of misunderstanding about "giving up attachment". We are not meant to immediately sell off everything and put on a hair shirt and suffer. (Although ultimately giving up pretty much every worldly possession does seem to be a result of fulfilling the true goal.)

The ultimate goal is not a blissful rebirth, but the cessation of all suffering. The final state of Nibbana (Nirvana).

By dropping the need for objects (all of which have hidden dangers, addictions), you can escape from being trapped by attachment.

On meditating: Compare the taming of the mind to the taming of a wild animal. The meditator has multiple methods to tame the mind, not just one. It is not enough to master one single technique. (I think this is very helpful to have in mind and was not at all obvious to me, a non-meditator.)