Tripitaka
I am finishing up two months of studying Theravada Buddhism. I have been doing a weekly interview of a well-read devout orthodox Thai Theravada Buddhist as a part of my studies. My seminary class starts in a week and I will need to focus on that so I will set this study aside for a season. I do not have the freedom to share much of what I have discovered and how I feel about it. It is an extremely sensitive issue to broach here. What I read in the พระไตรปิฎก Tripitaka surprised me. I had Western understandings and expectations, I’m afraid, and although I have learned about Theravada Buddhism from Thai adherents, I thought perhaps the Tripitaka readings would be different, that perhaps what I had been hearing were distortions and unorthodox expansions. I was mistaken. Reading it in Thai was certainly different than reading it in English. It is possible that in translation there are elements that the translator knew would be rather unpalatable for the Western...