Books

Websites that offer free Dhamma Book downloads:
www.accesstoinsight.org/ www.dhammadownload.com
Pa Auk Forest Monastery Book downloads for free: www.paaukforestmonastery.org
http://www.pamc.org.sg/edhamma


My personal choice of highly recommended books:

Pa Auk
USEFUL TIP Information about Pa Auk: 100-page “Teaching and Training – Pa Auk Forest Monastery” available as a free download Pdf file. Describes what one needs to know about visas, how to get there, what to bring, time tables and a thorough description of the meditation system and techniques taught in Pa Auk.

The Most Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw
Knowing and Seeing: An overview of what he teaches systematically, written based on a retreat in Taiwan with Questions and Answers
Workings of Kamma
Light of WIsdom

Venerable U Revata: “The Truth Taught by All the Buddhas” 

Commentary: Meditation manual:
Path of Purification_ Visuddhimagga – Commentary Venerable Buddhaghosa Sri Lanka

Abhidhamma:
Dr Mehm Tin Mon – Buddha Abhidhamma Ultimate Science (English)


Category: accessible
Jataka Tales: A collection of stories about the past lives of the Buddha as Bodhisatta.
Dhammapada
Considered to be world heritage, a treasure of wisdom read by all. Many translations and prints are available, both for free and for sale. Profound wisdom on how to live life in a good way.

Digha Nikya:
“The Long Discourses of the Buddha” An excellent modern translation of the complete Digha Nikya is Maurice Walshe’s “The Long Discourses of the Buddha”. I have been reading so many books, always an interpretation or commentary. It was amazing to read the Sutta’s with the first-hand words as delivered by the Buddha himself. It was quite a mind-opener. The world was often different from what it is now, and in some cycles people were taller and lived longer. For me this was like the simile of the fish and the tortoise. The fish told the tortoise that he was mad – how can there be dry land? How can anybody see plants, flowers, sun, skies? Just look around you, there is nothing here, the world is filled with only water. The tortoise must be mad… This made me realise: If one cannot see it, does not mean that it does not exist.
Personal favourites were:
Sutta 26 Cakkavatti-Sihanada Sutta: The Lion’s Roar on the Turning of the Wheel How to live properly and share things equally to live in a successful world. This description of the wheel-turning monarchs changed my perception of the world as I knew it, just like the fish and tortoise simile..
Sutta 27 Aggañña Sutta: On Knowledge of Beginnings I still remember my surprise when I read this Sutta the first time. So many details of the “beginning” are similar in many religious and cosmological traditions, and the description of how beings live off the energy of “Piti” still make me feel dizzy…
Sutta 20 Maha Samaya Sutta: The Mighty Gathering Devas come to see the Buddha Devas live a long time, when they gathered to come and see the Buddha it was a few minutes in their live span. For them the Buddha was so special, this helped me realise how lucky we are to live in a time when the insight of a Buddha is available to human beings. I never had any idea of how the universe works, but if these are the beings from ten world systems, how wonderful the universe is! I am no longer just a little ashamed to enjoy Science Fiction films, they are often more correct than they themselves may know…!

A personal choice of western books that are easier to read:
Category: Complex but accessible

Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practise Handbook for Matering Jhana and Vipassana – Shaila Catherine, San Fransisco: Highly recommended, probably the best western book I ever read on how to practise meditation in the tradition as taught by the Pa Auk Sayadaw. http://www.imsb.org/about/teachers.php

The Meditator’s Atlas, an English commentary on the Visuddhi Magga – by Matthew Flickstein
Practising the Jhanas, by Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen Traditional Concentration Meditation as presented by the Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw
Author Jack Kornfield I read a number of his books when I started meditating and his background of having meditated in Asia and modern psychology really helped me to give a proper balanced place to this new experience, and the courage to go deeper into meditation.