Daily Buddha and the Daily Talmud

Read a page a day of what the Buddha said to support your daily life

I subscribe to online versions of the New York Times and The Guardian* with regular appreciation for some of the articles and Letters to the Editor, which appear on the pages of these two newspapers.

I read an interesting article in the 11 October 2024 issue of the New York Times.

Title: GRAPPLING WITH THE TALMUD IN THE MIDST OF CRISIS.

Sub-title: What the words of the ancient rabbis could and couldn’t teach me.

Feature writer, Michael David Lukas wrote that in 2019 he began the practice of a reading a single page of the Talmud every day. He said it would take more than seven and a half years to read the Talmud.

He commented he was looking for a ‘bit of spiritual direction,’ due to his wife’s cancer.

Lukas describes the Talmud as a primary source of Jewish religious law and practice. He said the texts “consists of a 63-volume collection of interpretation, storytelling and debate about how best to live in accordance with the precepts in the Hebrew Bible.”

I woke up today with an idea for those who love the wisdom of the Buddha, wish to know his teachings or deepen their understanding of his discourses (suttas). You could consider starting a daily reading.

You could read a single page of the words of the Buddha or to the end of the paragraph if text goes to next page.

Lukas described his daily “ritual of reading as transformative”

What the Talmud states

Talmud refers to the significance of the sanctity of human life with reference to protection of life and the destruction of life.

The same text also supports war when perceived as the divine will of God and the Torah. War is justified when used to defend the Jewish people. Daily readers are faced with such inconsistency in the Talmud between being anti-war and pro-war.

Sanhedrin 37

"…the first human was created alone, to teach you that whoever destroys a single life is considered by Scripture as if they destroyed an entire world, and whoever saves a single life is considered by Scripture as if they saved an entire world."

Sanhedrin 72a

"If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first."

Avot 5:8

The sword comes into the world because of justice delayed and justice denied.

Words of the Buddha remain consistent throughout, including his references to war. In 10,000 discourses, you will not find a single passage or maxim that supports war. He refers frequently to ending any form of violence, abuse and exploitation of another or others. He teaches the path to end suffering, not to perpetuating it.

The author of the article wrote. The reality is that the Talmud — like the entire Jewish tradition, like any religion — is big and messy enough to contain both charity and cruelty. This capaciousness can be infuriating.

If you read discourses of the Buddha, you will not find statements of support for charity AND cruelty, or any other infuriating capricious passages.

How to Start the Daily Buddha

I would suggest reading a page a day of Middle Length Discourses (MLD) of the Buddha. You might use your voice to read to increase receptivity to the text. Many Buddhists regard this book as a classic text offering a depth of explorations of the Buddha’s teachings.

You can order the book from Amazon worldwide, or support your local bookshop or Wisdom Books (US publisher). Here is the link to the publisher

https://wisdomexperience.org/product/middle-length-discourses-buddha/

You can also find a free PDF of the book online.

Middle Length Discourses contains 152 discourses in 1068 pages.

It will take you just under three years to complete reading of this book.

To Develop a Sangha of Readers

One or two people could consider setting up a Facebook group.

Participants could share experiences, reflections and commentaries available online with many of the discourses. I could contribute to FB or similar from time to time.

To email daily a page from MLD

Last month, I published with Amazon worldwide the Buddha Study Guide (135 pages). The book offers a brief outline of the 127 discourses in the MLD and a more comprehensive outline of the 25 remaining discourses. I will write a post about the book in a few days time

Love

Christopher

christopher@buddhawallah.org

www.thebuddhawallah.org

*On the two newspapers. I do not subscribe to the politics of the left, right or centre, nor liberal views, nor editorials of these two newspapers with their support for certain wars, capitalism, foreign policy and domestic, which bring suffering to people, creatures and the natural world.