Update Theravāda Collection on Monastic Law [html]

en/brahmali/pli-tv-vi/html/Theravāda-Collection-on-Monastic-Law-brahmali-2023-10-23.html → en/brahmali/pli-tv-vi/html/Theravāda-Collection-on-Monastic-Law-brahmali-2023-10-27.html

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-<td property="dc:date">2023-10-23 01:21:53</td>
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 <a href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
 </li>
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-<a href="#acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</a>
-</li>
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 <a href="#pli-tv-bu-vb">Monks’ Rules and Their Analysis </a>
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 <article class="foreword" id="foreword">
-<h1>The SuttaCentral Editions Series</h1>
+<h1>Publisher’s Foreword</h1>
+<p class="byline">Bhikkhu Sujato, 25 October 2023</p>
+<p>Ajahn Brahmal’s translation of the Pali Vinaya Piṭaka is the culmination of work that began in 2013 as a revision of the standard translation by I.B. Horner for the Pali Text Society. As these things go, he rapidly found that more revisions were required, and the project became a new translation independent of Horner’s.</p>
+<p>I have been honored to support Ven. Brahmali through this process as I was meanwhile developing my Sutta translations. We have discussed points of translation on many occasions, but the reader should be aware that this is a distinct work of his. We have not attempted to make the translations consistent, as there are only a few passages that directly overlap. I have, however, adopted Brahmali’s renderings for most Vinaya terms on the few occasions they appear in the Suttas.</p>
+<p>Details aside, one of the great advantages Brahmali brings to his work is the wisdom of experience. He has lived and practiced for many years in a community that lives by the Vinaya. This brings a whole wealth of perspective and clarity to his work, as issues that are debated theoretically in academic circles are a part of daily life in a community. Through this whole process, he has been deeply contemplating the meaning of the Pali text and its expression in English, creating a living document that speaks to both letter and spirit.</p>
 <p>Since 2005 SuttaCentral has provided access to the texts, translations, and parallels of early Buddhist texts. In 2018 we started creating and publishing our translations of these seminal spiritual classics. The “Editions” series now makes selected translations available as books in various forms, including print, PDF, and EPUB.</p>
 <p>Editions are selected from our most complete, well-crafted, and reliable translations. They aim to bring these texts to a wider audience in forms that reward mindful reading. Care is taken with every detail of the production, and we aim to meet or exceed professional best standards in every way. These are the core scriptures underlying the entire Buddhist tradition, and we believe that they deserve to be preserved and made available in the highest quality without compromise.</p>
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 </article>
 <article class="preface" id="preface">
 <h1>Preface to Vinaya</h1>
-<p>To be written.</p>
+<p class="byline">Ajahn Brahmali, 25 October 2023</p>
+<p>Voila! Welcome to the first absolutely complete translation into English of the Vinaya Piṭaka, the Monastic Law! It has been over ten years in the making, with the actual beginnings of the process no more than a hazy memory. When I started out, I had no clear sense that this would ever get published, and so it is especially satisfying to have reached this point.</p>
+<p>The purpose of this translation has been to produce an accurate, clear, and accessible rendering of the Monastic Law into English. I have tried, throughout, to have the true users of the Vinaya in mind, that is, the monastics who live their lives according to these scriptures. To this end, I have attempted to make the text both meaningful and easy to read, with the objective of producing an easy-to-use guide that can readily be applied to one’s monastic life. I have endeavored to find a balance between formality and natural spoken language. My aim has been to give the reader a sense that the most important parts of the Vinaya consists of real teachings, often spoken by the Buddha himself.</p>
+<p>A secondary purpose has been to improve on I. B. Horner’s incomplete and at times inaccurate translation. Despite her admirable and careful work as a pioneer, Horner’s translation suffers from a number of shortcomings. Especially problematic is her failure to translate the more risqué parts of the Vinaya, of which there are quite a few. It so happens, unfortunately, that these parts can be of critical importance to a monastic trying to understand the details of their training rules. Further, Horner’s translation is often inaccurate, and occasionally outright wrong. At times it is impossible to understand her renderings, giving the impression that she did not properly grasp the meaning of the underlying Pali. I have tried to avoid such issues by always translating clearly, even in case where the meaning was in doubt. In my view, it is better to translate meaningfully, even if sometimes wrongly, than to leave the reader bewildered. At least a text with a clear meaning can be duly criticized.</p>
+<p>This first edition is complete as far as the translation is concerned, but it is still lacking in detailed introductions, indices, and other aids to the reader. The footnotes regularly refer to an Appendix of Technical Terms, which unfortunately is not ready for this edition. All this ancillary material will be added over the course of the next year or two, when I will also add a proper acknowledgments page. For now, I will just say that I have been the recipient of much kindness and generosity from many people, without whose help this work might never have got published. A special thanks is nevertheless due to Ajahn Brahm who has taught me Vinaya over several decades, continuing into the present day! His pragmatic approach to the Vinaya, combined with his clarity on details and his ability to see the big picture, is in a class of its own. More immediately, I have received careful and indefatigable help from Tracy Lau, now an Anagarika at Dhammasara Monastery. It is a great blessing to have such dedicated and intelligent support. Last but not least, I need to mention my good friend and sometimes mentor, Bhante Sujato, who is ultimately responsible for this whole project. It is truly astonishing what he has been able to achieve as an extended result of his work on SuttaCentral.</p>
+<p>The Vinaya Piṭaka is a specialist’s corner of the Pali Canonical texts, and the readership will inevitably be limited. In fact, the Vinaya is really a kind of support literature, with the suttas being at the core of the Buddhist tradition. Never mind, I shall rest content with the tiniest of readership. At least one person has already benefitted. May you enjoy it too!</p>
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 <article class="introduction" id="introduction">
 <h1>The Monastic Law: how monastic communities should live</h1>
@@ -819,10 +825,6 @@ <h2 id="item6">References and Further Reading</h2>
 <li>Sujato, Bhikkhu; <cite>Bhikkhunī Vinaya Studies</cite>; Santipada, 2009</li>
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-<article class="acknowledgements" id="acknowledgements">
-<h1>Acknowledgements</h1>
-<p>To be written</p>
-</article>
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 <section id="mainmatter">
 <h1 class="section-title heading" id="pli-tv-bu-vb">Monks’ Rules and Their Analysis </h1>