Thank you, Nina, for your welcome. I think I shall get Warder's too.

Thank you, Pakdi Yanawaro: It is so good to get some advice on this. There
are no Theravada Buddhist groups in the area where I live, and for a while
now I have been working on my own. That this has not been an inutile
effort is shown by my already having found the three Web sites you mention:
BuddhaNet, Access To Insight and Fundamental Buddhism. Please see below.

>The beginner in studying theravadan buddhism shld start with reading the
>important topics in , for example, www.buddhanet.net,
>www.accesstoinsigt.org , or www.fundamentalbuddhism.com ,by staring with
>the four noble truths as the framework and then the 8fold path(try to dig
>in details in each path) for practice in order to get a general idea or
>understanding of the basic principles.To read suttas is reccommended for
>the advanced scholars. Therefore, to master the pali language first is
>rather an indirect and hard way for approaching buddhism.

We are told that the first noble truth is to be comprehended; the second,
abandoned; the third, experienced; and the fourth, developed
(Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta, SN LVI.11, Thanissaro Bhikkhu's
translation). There are so many different ways to do this; some seem
indirect, unless one is following that way. All are hard.

For this one, precision is helpful. For example, in the above sutta there
are several translations of the same phrase:

~Naa.namoli Thera: the first is to be diagnosed; the second, abandoned;
the third, verified; the fourth, developed.

Piyadassi Thera: the first is to be fully realized; the second,
eradicated; the third, realized; the fourth, developed.

While there is agreement about the fourth, the words used to describe the
duties we have to the first three vary, at least in English: does one
comprehend, diagnose or fully realize the first? abandon or eradicate the
second? experience, verify or realize the third?

This lack of precision can get in the way of actually doing the duty. The
problem ceases if one can fall back to the original Pali.

Also, it recently occurred to me that we are in the latter half of the
Blessed One's dispensation and heading into decline. It thus seems good to
memorize at least some suttas, for books and computers do not last long,
while Buddhism has lasted millennia as an oral teaching and has grown
during the years. Memorization seems to be most effectively done in their
original language, for they were memorized in that language early and
transmitted in that form. It should be easier than having to memorize
English translations...once one gets the Pali down all right.

So, in brief, that is why I'm doing it. Thank you again for your advice.

Barb