Dear friends,

in Buddhism, there are many paths to the same goal. To most people,
toiling through Pali grammars and texts may be too challenging or too
painful a chore. I am glad to find friends like you who think
otherwise. However, as Piya has pointed out, we should not let this
seemingly bothersome task reduce us to some sort of "fundamentalists".

metta,
Yong Peng

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Ong Yong Peng wrote:
> Pali is not an easy language, especially if a person knows only
English (or even both English and Chinese as in my case). So, it
takes a while to get acquainted with the cases, noun and pronoun
declensions and conjugations. Furthermore, it will most likely be
theravada buddhists who are more interested to learn Pali so as to
read the Tipitaka. Pali may be considered a language with little
commercial or social value. To us, it still retains its religious or
literal value, and that's all. And, even for theravada buddhists,
most will not appreciate the value of reading the Tipitaka in Pali,
but would rather read it in another language. And it is not my
intention to change their views. To me, it will be a lifetime
aspiration, devotion and commitment to learn and read Pali texts.
That, I believe, is too appalling to many people. Many feel
intimidated and discouraged about learning Pali, some may not even
read the Tipitaka in the language they know, let alone reading it in
Pali. Some are satisfied with chanting and meditation. Some are happy
to read books and attend siminars without going deeply into the ocean
of Buddhavacana.