Dear Nina, Jon and friends,

all this time, the main focus of our discussions are the beginners in Pali grammar. We have covered a good number of the elementary texts, including Pali Primer, An Elementary Pali Course, New Pali Course Parts I and II, and even the early chapters of Warder's Introduction to Pali. The only remaining text I can really think of to be in this category is Pali Made Easy by Ven. B A Maitreya Mahanayaka Thera. There is an answer key for this book, making self-study easy.

I hope this list would remain as a helping place for new students and beginners to Pali. Even as we advance ourselves, which we would naturally, we should always assist newcomers with their (sensible) questions.

We have also covered intermediate texts, such as A New Course in Reading Pali by Gair and Karunatilleke. Currently, I am posting, in tiny segments, from New Pali Course III (NPC3), which I consider at the intermediate level. I also consider the last few chapters in Warder's to be at the intermediate level. There are also a few more intermediate texts out there, but I do not have a list at hand.

Members who are studying texts at this level are also welcome to post their questions. We can also recommend each other texts and reference materials on various grammar topics at this level. We may even consider doing a group study on some books, say Steven Collins' grammar, or Warder's Pali Metre, in the future.

At the advance level, we are currently reading the Saddaniti, at a very slow pace. I am doing a monthly post, and we have Nina, Jim and Mahinda helping to correct my translations. It is not easy, but I am glad to be working on it. It is a long term project. We are also expecting a second thread for the second chapter, but it hasn't yet materialise. ;-) Even so, I think we can only handle one classic at a time, we can speed up on Saddaniti, such as increasing the frequency of posts or extending the length of each post, but it is not advisable to attempt another classical grammar at the same time.

On the other hand, we have the sutta translation exercises. Again, I am posting AN on a monthly basis. Currently, we are at AN2, and I do think the pace is a bit slow. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post, with AN2, Saddaniti, NPC3 (Florent and I are completing NPC2) and the upcoming group study of Warder's, that is a good load for me. However, I will still consider speeding up AN2. I can appreciate that sometime we have to pause and elaborate on certain topics, which also generates some good discussions, but I find a strength of AN is it helps us familiarise with key concepts without going into great details, which can be found in the other Nikayas.

As usual, we always have room for a couple more regular threads. Let's open the floor for suggestions. A mailing list does have its limitations, but we can still be creative and practical and make good use of it.

Hope to hear from you soon.


metta,
Yong Peng.