Batchelor, Ashoka, and other bits from across the web

Stephen Batchelor’s Dharma Talks… and SO MUCH MORE. Check out this site and its mountain of dhamma-talks. Wow.

What Can Ancient India Tell Us About Our World? – Bits from a new book on the Indian Emperor Asoka and his contribution to humanity. In it the author, Bruce Rich, examines “the lives and writings of Ashoka and Kautilya as archetypes, metaphors and sources of inspiration for a reflection on what many contemporary thinkers view as the overarching challenge of our age: a global world system and a global economy require a global ethic.”

A new Pāḷi-Engish (and reverse) dictionary, based on the work of A.P. Buddhadatta Mahathera. I haven’t used it much, but so far, so good. As with any such dictionary, especially an older one, be careful and double-check your definitions. With any words you get, you’d do well to cross-check with the PTS dictionary.

I also found a great Hindi/Devanagari script tutor online via SOAS, a division of my school in London. For those who are new to Sanksrit or other languages written in Devanagari such as Hindi, this is a great resource. I recall the tedious weeks of writing of letters back in Bristol, learning to recognize each one. Some of them are still with me, others are being re-learned.

‘Tis all for now – happy Friday to all!