Feature Articles

The Gem Set in Gold displays English translations of the Pāli and Hindi chanting by S.N. Goenka from a ten-day Vipassana meditation course—from the opening night to the end of the course, including each day’s morning chanting and all other chantings.

A lot changed in Pariyatti’s publishing over the 40 years we have been in existence. In the early days, publishing was a capital-intensive labor of love. Thousands of dollars had to be invested upfront to pay for large, offset print runs. And how this opened new possibilities for VRI.

The year was 1982. Land was purchased in the late summer/early fall in Shelburne, MA for the first North American Vipassana Center: Dhamma Dhara. Goenkaji conducted a course there in 1983, and for a while, this was the major hub of Dhamma activity for this tradition in the Western hemisphere.

As she translated The Moon Appears When the Water Is Still into her native German, volunteer translator Julia was naturally drawn into Dhamma reflection. 

It was at Dhamma Siri, during the 2014 Latin American AT meeting that the idea of organizing a Pāli Workshop in Colombia first arose. León Naranjo, a Vipassana teacher (as taught by S.N. Goenka) from Colombia, approached Adriana Patiño about it; while discussing the idea, they already got into the “hows, whens and wheres”, but it took another eight years for the volition to actually bear fruit.

The current President of the Pariyatti Board of Directors, Nishant Choudhary, learned at the start of 2019 that the Western Theravadā monk Bhikkhu Bodhi would travel to Hyderabad, India, mid-January. The Venerable would officiate at a ceremony held to enshrine the relics of the Buddha at the Mahabodhi Buddha Vihara. To see if there was a possibility to meet with the Venerable, Nishant decided to go to the monastery and ask around. He was guided to the organizers and was able to make an offering to the Sangha on behalf of Pariyatti. Once the Sangha Danā—which was a public event—was over, he also had the opportunity to meet in private with Ven. Bodhi.

We have shared the photo collection by Robert Hover before, but with the running theme of this year’s campaign being ‘highlights and milestones,’ the story of how those photos became available can not be left out.

Pariyatti’s most recent imprint republishes titles from the Myanmar Piṭaka Association (MPA), formerly known as the Burma Piṭaka Association. This imprint is called MPA Pariyatti Editions (MPE). Dhammapada: Verses & Stories, published in 2019, was our first MPE title. The volition to print books from the MPA first came up around 2005, when Brihas Sarathy, our current Executive Director, was involved with Pariyatti as a volunteer and later as a board member.

In the previous newsletter we shared the story about how Pariyatti came to distribute books of the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) and soon after that started publishing them under the BPE imprint.

In the December 9 newsletter we shared the story of how Pariyatti got into publishing, even though neither of the two organisations that merged to form Pariyatti, originally set out as publishers. Once the Pariyatti Bookstore Service and Vipassana Research Publications of America (VRPA) had merged, VRPA/Pariyatti had an inventory of books that Vipassana Research Institute (VRI) had not printed and did not sell; these were the books from the ‘Recommended Reading List’ (RRL) that meditators received at the end of courses.

Publishing VRP title The Gem Set in Gold is an example of a project that started off with a simple idea but became quite an intricate undertaking. Rebecca Lemov wrote an article in 2006 to celebrate its release, after it had been a decade in the making. The Gem Set in Gold displays English translations of the Pāli and Hindi chanting by S.N. Goenka from a ten-day Vipassana meditation course—from the opening night to the end of the course, including each day’s morning chanting and all other chantings.

Pariyatti publishes titles under five different imprints. This is noteworthy, as neither of the two organisations that merged to form Pariyatti originally set out as publishers.

Pariyatti Presents… is an example of a program that took some time to find its present form. The initial idea the program started off with, was to invite speakers to come to the USA for in-person events.

The Buddha wanted people from all social background to understand his teachings, to understand how to practice Dhamma. He chose to teach in common dialects and not in Sanskrit, a scholarly language at the time. When the Buddha passed away at the age of eighty, one monk, old in age but not wisdom, expressed his joy as ‘they were now freed of his clutches, free to do as they liked’. The Buddha’s own teaching after all was: Attāhi attano nāho — You are your own master.

For Pariyatti the COVID-19 era began with a 5 a.m. distress phone call. It was January 27, and 16 pilgrims were one week into their three-week pilgrimage through India and Nepal.

Calling from India, the Pariyatti team member said one of the pilgrims had become dizzy while climbing to Vulture’s Peak, one of the Buddha’s favorite places to meditate. She said, “Could it be the novel coronavirus?”

“Will this be the white board for the workshop? It will be too small,” said Adriana Patiño when she saw the board I had brought for our one-day Pāli workshop in Marrakesh, Morocco.
In the last four years, several 10-day courses have been held in Marrakesh at a non-center site. When we invited Adriana to conduct the first Satipaṭṭhāna course in Morocco, she suggested conducting a Pāli workshop as well, to take advantage of the time and space available.

One of the imprints Pariyatti publishes under is BPE (BPS Pariyatti Editions). We republish classic Theravāda titles by the Buddhist Publication Society (Sri Lanka), meeting current western printing standards. The BPE Pariyatti Editions are quality prints with an ergonomic page size, an easy-to-read font, and a sturdy spine. We keep the actual content unchanged, however all titles do go through a meticulous copy-editing process before being brought out.
The way Barry got involved with Pariyatti was quite organic. While buying books via www.pariyatti.org he started occasionally submitting errata (suggestions for corrections) of books in our catalog. Those errata were of such a high standard that we were very pleased when he agreed to volunteer as a regular copy editor.

If you work on a PC, make sure to check out the Words of Dhamma application. You can download it from our website. We love this tool as it allows you to start your breaks off with Dhamma inspiration!

Fulfilling our mission—of making the words of the Buddha in the Theravada tradition available to as many people as possible—is attainable only with the support we receive from many selfless volunteers. The time and effort of these Dhamma servers helps us to keep our book prices low, and to offer many resources for free.

It’s been 20 years since we started our ‘Daily Words of the Buddha’ service. A good moment to express a heartfelt ‘thank you’ and ‘congratulations’ to all those who have been involved with this wonderful project over the years.

As a small organization with a big mission (enriching the world by disseminating the words of the Buddha) Pariyatti receives support from invaluable volunteers, or Dhamma servers, to be able to offer its services. In past newsletter issues we reported on the Art of Reading Dhamma Books and the production of the film ‘Seeds of Awareness’. This time we want to shed some light behind the scenes of the Pariyatti Learning Center (PLC).
We asked Klaus Nothnagel about what’s involved in creating these helpful online tools for studying Pāli. Below is a report of the information he sent us, giving an unexpected and wonderful insight in the olden days as well.

Let us take you on a Buddhist pilgrimage. Let us visit the main places where Gotama Buddha lived and taught the Dhamma. Let us see what they look like now, recall what happened there in the days of the Buddha, and practise his Dhamma at these sites. We will take you on a digital journey to Lumbini (Nepal), Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar (India) and touch on the life and teachings of Gotama the Buddha along the way. (excerpt from Bodhi Leaf 118 (Collected Bodhi Leaves IV), On Pilgrimage by Susan Elbaum Jootla)

Lumbini Bodh Gaya Sarnath Kushinagar

Over recent years about a dozen different narrators have been involved in the recording of Pariyatti’s audiobooks. Sophia, one of our regular volunteering voices, was happy to share her experience and tell all about the process.

Many Vipassana meditators feel deep sympathetic joy when children receive the Dhamma. Young people’s minds are very fertile and walking on the path of Dhamma will prepare them to live a happy, peaceful life.

In mid-November 2016 we received a letter from a participant of our 2014 pilgrimage. Enclosed were 8000 rupees, in Rs500 and Rs1000 notes.