How to Find Buddhist Texts Online

Judging from the response I've had to some of my articles on Buddhism, people are interested in Buddhism (even if they are happy with their own religion) and would like to know more. With the Internet, it is possible to access quite a library of Buddhist texts without spending money or leaving your home.

The Internet Sacred Texts Archive (here) has quite a selection of Buddhist texts as well as texts from other traditions. Most of the translations are old enough to be out of copyright, but they will still get you started on a study of Buddhism.

The largest online library of Buddhist texts (and other Buddhist resources) on the Internet, at least that I know of, is BuddhaNet (here). Across the top, click on E- Book Library (or click here) or on File Library/ Resources (or here), an archive of even more Buddhist texts and audio. Although this is a Theravada (learn more) site, they have generous helpings of Mahayana and General Buddhist texts, so much that you can study Buddhism here for years.

At Access to Insight (here), you can access a huge website full of Theravada books in English. Best of all, with one click, you can download this entire site, some 900 suttas, sacred Theravada Buddhist texts (here). You will have a better library on Buddhism than some colleges.

Go to here for more Theravada Buddhist texts (in Pali, English, and Sinhala) as well as a single download of all of the Buddhist texts available on this site.

My suggestion for starting a study of the suttas (Theravada Buddhist texts) is to go to the

Buddhanet Theravada library page (here), and right click to download and save The Book of Protection in PDF format (or you can just right-click here). This is a compilation of basic Theravada Buddhist texts (including the first Buddhist text, "Turning the Wheel") used as a devotional book by laypeople in some countries.

If you want to learn more about Mahayana Buddhism (learn more), go to the Buddhanet Mahayana pages (here and here). These pages don't include many sutras, sacred Mahayana Buddhist texts; they have books more about Mahayana Buddhism in general.

"Mahayana Buddhist Sutras in English" (here) has links to about fifty sutras in English (most have more than one translation).

Here is an odd page in Dutch, with links to sutras in English (click on the icon, not on the words). Click here for "Buddhist Scriptures in Multiple Languages," a long, messy assortment of texts in Sanskrit, English, and other languages. On that page, click on "Sutras" to go here for resources, all in English, as well as some audio. You can find an extensive list of links to Theravada suttas and Mahayana sutras here.

There is no single book that has the significance for Buddhists that the Koran has for Muslims or the Bible has for Christians. The best single introductory text in Buddhism is the Dhammapada, a collection of 423 teachings of the Buddha. You can find several versions of it here (BuddhaNet) and here (Access to Insight). You can download audio files (MP3) of Gil Fronsdal, a teacher and translator, reading his translation of the Dhammapada here.

The Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American-born Buddhist monk, gave a series of ten lectures on basic Buddhism in 1979. These lectures were originally distributed on cassette tapes. Buddhists are certainly keeping up with technology; now these lectures are available for free download here. The topics include: the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, the Nature of Existence, Dependent Origination, Rebirth and Kamma (or Karma), Nibbana (or Nirvana), the Eightfold Path, Meditation, the Social Teachings of the Buddha, and the Sangha. In other words, this is a real treasure for anyone wanting to learn more about the teachings of the Buddha.

Now, to quote a Buddhist prayer, with which I believe all people of good will can agree, "May all beings be happy!"