Thānissaro Bhikkhu

Handful of Leaves vol. 1: An Anthology from the Digha Nikaya

a red leaf with veins

This volume is the first in a four-volume anthology of suttas (discourses) drawn from the Sutta Piṭaka (discourse basket or repository) of the Pāli Canon.

This volume contains suttas drawn from the first of the five collections comprising the Sutta Piṭaka: the Dīgha Nikāya — or Long Collection — named after the length not of the collection, but of its individual suttas. There are 34 in all, many of them among the most polished literary compositions in the Pāli Canon. This anthology contains complete translations of twelve suttas, and partial translations of two.


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About Thānissaro Bhikkhu

Thānissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) is an American Buddhist monk in the kammaṭṭhāna (Thai forest) tradition. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1971 with a degree in European intellectual history, he traveled to Thailand where he studied meditation with Ajahn Fuang Jotiko, who was himself a disciple of the late Ajahn Lee.

He joined the order of monks in Wat Dhammasathit in 1976, where he remained after the death of his teacher in 1986. In 1991, he traveled to the San Diego County hills of the US, where he helped Ajahn Suwat Suvaco establish Metta Forest Monastery (Wat Mettavanaram). He has been abbot of that monastery since 1993.

Thānissaro Bhikkhu is perhaps best known for his translations of the Dhammapada and of many suttas from the Sutta Piṭaka, which make up the main share of the sutta translations on the website Accesstoinsight, and for his translations of “Dhamma talks” from the Thai forest Ajahns. He has also written several of his own works on the Dhamma and study guides for his Pāli translations.

You yourselves must strive, the Buddhas only point the way

Buddha, Dhp 276