How About A Book?

Question

Last night we got talking about writing a book, and amidst much groaning about how I'd never want to do such a thing, we started speculating what sort of a book would be appealing to write. As we talked about it, it actually started to sound more appealing and more "doable" as well. So, with the help of Nagasena, I've started looking into writing a real book with chapters and everything.

The idea is to take past video and audio talks, as well as borrowing from talks given by my teacher and maybe Mahasi Sayadaw, Luang Po Jodok, etc., and put them in organized lesson format. It won't be so much of a cohesive manual as a collection of useful lessons. Each lesson will be prefixed by an appropriate quote. The working title so far is:

"Lessons in Practical Buddhism"

Why I'm posting this here is because we probably need help to see this through to some sort of completion. Nagasena has offered to select some of the YouTube videos and audio talks and transcribe them for me, but it would be nice to have a wider forum of input than just him. So, if you think any of the teachings I've given on YouTube or on my audio page (or even material from this forum) are worth putting in a book, and would be willing to transcribe them for us, here are instructions:

1. please let us know which you are working on by adding it to the wiki page for this project, so we don't double up on transcriptions.

2. Transcriptions are best in editable format (plain text is easiest, or odt, but .doc is okay too).

3. Once you have completed a transcription, please send them to my gmail address (just my monk name at gmail.com)

Once the talks are transcribed, I'll edit them as chapters for the book and put them in some sort of order - right now we're thinking four sections for the book:

1) overview
2) preparation
3) practice
4) realization
5) Q & A

Thanks in advance for your help, and for everyone's participation in this forum and our community. May this help bring light to the world!

Update: Added Wiki page, please mention your contributions there.

Update 2: added section on Q & A - Ask A Monk videos, or even questions and answers from this forum would be appropriate here.

Update 3: the book is now on my weblog here, so I will add chapters there as I edit them... sorry for the slow speed

http://yuttadhammo.sirimangalo.org/

Comments

finally!!!,,,

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I have the completed the transcription of "Reacting VS Experiencing" and ready for delivery, would a MS Word file or a PDF file be fine? And how can I send it to you (email?) This is a good way to remember talks by people, so get to it before someone graps your favorite talks hehe - just kidding : )

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great just email - MS Word would be better than PDF (plain text would be the best, though).

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I'm not sure I understand what the book is going to be about. In order to write a good book you need to have an overeaching central theme and relate everything in the book in light of that central theme. What is the overarching focus of the book going to be?

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@bakmoon - the theme is practice of the Buddha's teaching.  I'm not so worried about the theme - the Tipitika itself is quite broad, and yet when taken as a whole presents a complete picture of practice.  That's sort of the idea, on a micro scale.

Answer 1

Great idea! I just started on "Experience of Reality", one of my favorites.

Comments

thank you

Answer 2

I'll do the "The Middle Way", your teacher's nephew disrobed and you explain how not to suppress or indulge in lust. Great one

Comments

That's one of my all time favorite talks by Bhante too! He starts of simple and goes very deep with the topic, just like how the Buddha often gave talks.

Answer 3

This is a wonderful idea! Maybe add some short biographies on how you guys came to becoming monks to give the readers an idea of who you were and are now.

I would love to help in anyway I can! It's 1am now, I need to get to bed for work in the morning but I'll start first thing when I get home. I'll go through all the videos and pick out the ones that I really enjoyed to give you an idea of what I'd be willing to transcribe. Then just let me know if you want them or not.

Answer 4

Great. I am taking The Nature of Reality . In what format to write them pdf,doc. ?

edit: and
-Thailand: Finding One's Place
-Ask A Monk: Correct Observation of Thoughts
-Ask A Monk: Catching Distractions
-Ask A Monk: Fear of Reality
...

Comments

thanks, Vek - doc is okay, plain text would be better.

Answer 5

Hi, that sounds really interesting and would def. Make for a great book!
Have you thought about which talks are to be transcribed to the book? I will be glad to help (:

I suggest "Perception VS Reality" and "Reacting VS Experiencing" - I think they are good talks for beginner meditators and everyone, for that matter (:

Best wishes
Simon

Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.

Comments

"Perception VS Reality" is my favory Dhamma talk,,,

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Thanks for the feedback - whichever you transcribe, we'll probably include; the idea is to make a fairly substantial volume, more so than the booklet anyway.  Just post which you are working on so someone else doesn't start it as well.

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It really is a great talk, blew me away as well since I had never really encountered anything that could compare to the depths of the teaching laid out there. (+Edit: Okay ven. I will see to make the transcription of "Reacting VS experiencing" and probably ill make the transcription for the other one after that as well, if no one else has started, let us know if you do Peace

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This is going to be a lot of fun, I'm very excited for this community to be apart of something together such as this. Lets all work together and make this book as thick as we can! There are so many great talks to put in.

Should the meditation portion go in it as well? I know you did that free dvd and also a booklet.

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Yes, I'll probably add in the meditation part, since it's already done.  That will go in the preparatory section.

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Okay I just added Perception VS Reality to the list, I will transcribe that as the next one How about the talk "A good friend", that is a great one but is it one to be transcribed as well? Definitely I would suggest all to hear it

Answer 6

I think creating this book would be a great idea. Maybe including links to each video so it can be viewed easily.

I am not sure if you will be trying to disperse this book for free in hard copy or as a digital style but have you heard of Blurb.org?? You can upload text or photo's etc in to one of many book designs and they will print and publish it along with an ISBN.

Just a thought.

I have often wondered if it would be possible to write a book (not that I have theses skills in the slightest) that teaches the truth, teaches what the buddha taught, but didn't in any way come across as 'buddhist'. This may sound odd but us humans do have a tendency to be aversive to 'religion' or the apparent outer vision of things religious. So what about a fiction style book, like some other people have done such as Witch and the Wardrobe that has a lot of religious overtones.

Or is this not allowed, forgive my ignorance. B-)

Comments

I think it would be possible to have a fiction style book that teaches Buddhism through its themes, but I don't think it you could use it in the same way as other Buddhist literature because you couldn't give an exhaustive treatment. Such a book could still really help people though.

Answer 7

I'm going to tackle some in the second life files. I might not be able to do them all so If you would like work on some please do so. Just let me know so I don't end up working on the same one you are. Those that I feel would be beneficial are as follows.

Second Life: Becoming Buddhist (Finished)
Second Life: The Path to Nibbana (Currently working on. So far at 18mins and 2,141 words)
Second Life: What is the Buddha's Teaching?(To be worked on)
Second Life: How to Succeed in Meditation (Now being worked on by Ian)
Second Life: Path of Pirification (Now being worked on by Moritz)
Second Life: An Understanding of Mindfulness (To be worked on)
Second Life: Making A Change (Finished by Ian)
Second Life: The Meditative State of Mind (To be worked on)
Second Life: Realizations on the Path (To be worked on)

Edit 3/10/12: Sorry it's taking me so long, I've been getting side tracked with getting stuff ready for the move and work.

Comments

thanks, just email them to me; I think transcription software is probably not so useful; the YouTube machine generated transcriptions are pretty bad, anyway.

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Okay I'll work on them by hand. Any idea of a time frame, or are we just playing it by ear right now.

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No deadline, whenever it's done, it's done.  If you can, please visit the new wiki page and update the list with those you're actually working on:

http://ask.sirimangalo.org/wiki?id=BookProject

I've added the whole list you gave, just want to be clear which you're going to take on.

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Will do, I'll put new labels next to the ones that are being worked on and which ones are finished. The ones that are being worked on by others I'll list their name next to it.

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thank you for that.

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It looks like Moritz has taken up the Path of Purification, maybe you can skip that one?

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Yep, no problem

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Thanks for sharing this soft Dustin.Sound it might be of use.Definately will give it a try

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Finished Making a Change

Answer 8

I enjoyed One who lives by the Dhamma and How to Succeed in Meditation. Would those be good for the book?

Comments

Yes, both of those would be good.

Answer 9

the talk about preparing for death would be good to have in a book. As I'm not a native english speaker and write with a lot of mistakes please take my sincere encouragement as the help I put into this project. If you can think of anything else what I can do to help, please let me know.

Comments

That would be a good one, I was thinking the same thing last night.

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Okay, I'll do that.

Answer 10

This is a great idea. I get so much out of your videos but would love to have a collection of them in my hand to read when I am not able to be on the Internet. I will definitely get involved in transcribing some videos for you. Also, one of the lay teachers at the monastery I visit does professional indexing. If you would be interested in that service, I will ask her if she would be willing to volunteer.

Comments

Thank you on both counts indexing is something I didn't think of but it may be a good idea once the book takes shape.