Theravada

This text of Kaccāyana's Pāli grammar is intended to be used as a companion to its English translation book. In fact, the study of English translation alone will be incomplete without its original grammar text in Pāli as both of them can only enhance each other in the form of a handy reference and a practical learning aid for all students. 

Bibliography:

Kaccayana Pali Grammar. Ed. Vol. 1.  A. Thitzana. Washington: Pariyatti Publishing, 2016. Print.

Keawkungwal, Sriruen. Therapeutic Approaches in Theravada Buddhism and Existentialism: A Comparison. Canada, Edmonton: University of Alberta. 1971.

This book presents a comprehensive study of the Abhayagiri Fraternity of ancient Sri Lanka, with a special reference to its new Buddhist practices and trends, which made a great contribution to the development of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It involves a consideration of both primary and secondary literary sources, and also takes into account archaeological findings, epigraphic material and liturgical artifacts. It contains a detailed examination of how the Abhayagiri School adopted heterodoxy Buddhism of other Buddhist traditions apart from the orthodox Theravada teachings and practices.

Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body Through Abhidhamma by Sayalay Susil. Abhidhamma is a Pali word , the language in which the Theravadin records of the teachings of the Buddha have been recorded. The word is composed of the two parts, ‘abhi’ meaning ‘higher’ or ‘greater’ and ‘dhamma’ which means ‘reality’ or ‘truth’ (it can be loosely translated as to mean ‘everything which is real’). The teachings of Abhidhamma may appear dull or complicated in daily life and meditation practices. Therefore it is largely ignored.

The Doctrine Of Paticcasamuppada By U Than Daing with the subtitle “The Law of Dependent Origination” is a guide for the yogi who seeks the path to end all suffering and for the English speaking reader an explanation of the various mental and physical phenomena we call personality. This work has a great insight to the Buddhist doctrines of Anatta, Non-Ego og Not-self (something only found in Buddhism and a very few temporary schools).

Early Buddhism borrowed two of its central terms from the workings of fire. Upadana, or clinging, originally referred to the fuel that kept fire burning; nibbana, the name of the goal, to a fire's going out. This is the first book to examine these terms from the perspective of how the early Buddhists themselves viewed fire--what they saw happening as a fire burned, and what happened to the fire when it went out--to show what light this perspective throws on Buddhist doctrine in general, and the practice of meditation in particular.

The Seventy Three Kinds of Knowledge describes at a glance the knowledges Buddhas and their disciples gain in the attainment of mundane and supramundane states. Since these knowledges are, as a Summary, very briefly stated, the present translation has explanatory notes in order to facilitate the reader understand them, at least intellectually, more easily. These explanations are based on the Pañisambhidà-magga, the Visuddhi-magga and their corresponding commentaries, and their references are clearly distinguished.

The body is thought to be most obviously “me,” what I regard as the most tangible part of myself. Around it therefore are constructed many views, all of them distorted to some extent, which prevent insight arising into the body as it really is. This book is a small anthology relating to the body in various ways, and presents material which, if contemplated by the earnest and sincere student of Dhamma, will eventually provide fruitful insight and, thereby, freedom from the many desires and fears centered on the body.

As Buddhist meditation becomes more popular, it is vital that clear and accurate guidance is available. For many years, there has been an unfortunate lack of thorough instruction in simple English on the deeper states of meditation called Jhanas. Even though the Jhanas are, perhaps, the theme most repeated by the Buddha in the Suttas, and in spite of the fact that the old teachers of the Thai forest tradition encouraged, preached and taught Jhanas, a description of their development is hard to come by. This ebook, then, serves to remedy this lack of practical information.

Clearing the Path is a work book. Its purpose is to help the user to acquire a point of view that is different from his customary frame of reference. Necessarily, an early step in accomplishing this change is the abandonment of specific mistaken notions about the Buddha’s Teaching and about the nature of experience.

The Seven Stages of Purification and The Insight Knowledges is a guide to the progressive states of Buddhist meditation by Matara Sri Nanarama. The seven stages of purification provide the framework for the practising disciple’s gradual progress from the cultivation of virtue up to the attainment of the final goal. Integral to the higher stages of purification are the nine types of insight-knowledge, by which the disciple breaks through the delusions covering his mental vision and penetrates through the the real nature of phenomena.

Samadhi for Liberation consists of short, advanced and personal instructions for medition by Ajahn Anan Akincano: “With the heart being at ease, there may be the feeling that our body expand. Our body becomes imbued with blissful feelings called piti, waves of joy and rapture rolling on to the shore. When piti is strong, we might experience the body becoming light, as if it was floating up in the air. The body is light, the mind is light, still and peaceful. If these experiences in meditation come up for just for a few moments, they are called khanika-samadhi, momentary concentration.

The Perfections Leading to Enlightenment by Sujin Boriharnwanaket is a 200 page guide to The Ten Perfections, paramís, are most important as conditions for the complete eradication of defilements. Sujin Boriharnwanaket writes that all should study the paramís, understand their significance and further develop them:

In this booklet five practising Buddhists, all with modern backgrounds, offer their reflections on the significance of karma and its relation to ethics, spiritual practice, and philosophical understanding. The contributers include: Nyanaponika Thera, Bhikkhu Nanajivako, Francis Story, Nina Van Gorkom, and Leonard Bullen.

The idea of nirvaṇa (Pāli: nibbāna) is alluring but elusive for nonspecialists and specialists alike. Offering his own interpretation of key texts, Steven Collins explains the idea in a new, accessible way – as a concept, as an image (metaphor) and as an element in the process of narrating both linear and cyclical time. Exploring nirvana from literary and philosophical perspectives, he argues that it has a specific role: to provide ‘the sense of an ending’ in both the systematic and the narrative thought of the Pāli imaginaire.

Buddhaghosa. The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. tr. By Nyanamoli. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 2010. PDF, <http://www.bps.lk>

There is another scanned image edition, you can get it here: http://elibrary.ibc.ac.th/node/218

This volume examines the Abhidhamma perspective on the nature of phenomenal existence. It begins with a discussion of the dhamma-theory (the theory of real existents) which provides the ontological foundation for the Abhidhamma philosophy. It then explains the category of the nominal and the conceptual as the Abhidhamma’s answer to the objects of common-sense realism. Among the other topics discussed are the theory of double truth, analysis of mind, theory of cognition, analysis of matter, the nature of time and space, the theory of momentary being, and conditional relations.

"Early Buddhist Metaphysics" provides a philosophical account of the major doctrinal shift in the history of early Theravada tradition in India: the transition from the earliest stratum of Buddhist thought to the systematic and allegedly scholastic philosophy of the Pali Abhidhamma movement. Entwining comparative philosophy and Buddhology, the author probes the Abhidhamma's metaphysical transition in terms of the Aristotelian tradition and vis-a-vis modern philosophy, and exploits Western philosophical literature from Plato to contemporary texts in the fields of philosophy of mind and cultural criticism.

This book is in 2 volumes and has become a classic in Pali studies. It provides a vast amount of information about early Buddhism and about early Indian ancient history. It is a valuable reference book for the scholar as well as the general reader interested in Buddhism.

From the preface: "This small booklet was compiled and edited from talks given by Venerable Ajahn Sumedho on the central teaching of the Buddha: that the unhappiness of humanity can be overcome through spiritual means. The teaching is conveyed through the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths, first expounded in 528 BC in the Deer Park at Sarnath near Varanasi and kept alive in the Buddhist world ever since."

This book helps to fill what has long been a gap in the scholarship on Early Buddhism, offering us detailed textual study of the Sattipatthana Sutta the foundational Buddhist discourse on meditation practice.

The Jinakalamali is intended to be a study of the epochs of Buddhism as representing its origin in India and the spread to Ceylon and thence to the establishment of the Singhalese form of Buddhism in South-East Asia. It falls in the same category of literature as the Pali Chronicles of Ceylon and Thailand.

"Paticcasamuppada is a profound teaching," - said the Buddha - "so profound, in fact, that most people are not able to penetrate the Law of Dependent Origination." The Buddha's words to Ananda are as true today as they were 2,500 years ago. Paticcasamuppada, which is the heart of Buddhism, is difficult to see clearly and, thus, has become the center of grave misunderstandings and distortions.