Status Updates From Basic Teachings of the Budd...

This is FANTASTIC. The author (a) identifies the essential source material (Suttas) informing all of the various schools of Buddhism, (b) provides good English translations, and (c) minimal but useful commentary. Priceless!

"A reader encountering some nice words on a page may get a sense of 'spiritual uplift' for a moment, but until 'laborious skillfulness' becomes the operative term...he or she will remain 'like a cowherd counting the cows of others,' as the Buddha put it, cozying up to the matter but not penetrating it"

"Whether Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, or Christian, [sacred texts] are never pristine: every page is smudged with the handprints of its creators through the ages. This is not meant to belittle the claims made...it is simply an effort to remind the reader that we are concerned here in the first instance with literature"