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Has anyone studied or learnt Pali or Sanskrit?

AsshatAsshat
edited January 2012 in Buddhism Basics
If not then do you think it would be beneficial to study it? It would be nice to read the Buddhas teachings in his original language. Would you learn one of these languages?

Namaste :)

Comments

  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    It would be more likely for someone to learn pali than sanskrit as most of the chanting from the Theravada tradition is done in pali. In the mahayana traditions the original sanskrit sutras are largly translated into the native tongue and later commentaries are studied more.
  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    I'd learn it if it took a 3 weeks
  • auraaura Veteran
    I had a friend who attempted to learn Sanskrit from one of the world authorities
    of Sanskrit. He found it exceedingly difficult and said that it is extremely difficult to learn a language when it is only written and there is really no one with whom to study nor speak it. I do not think he continued beyond 3 months with it.
  • SileSile Veteran
    edited January 2012
    There are Sanskrit enthusiasts who include spoken Sanskrit in their focus - not unlike Latin clubs.

    Campus Samskritam is a network of students, alumni and faculty of several universities spread across the US, aimed to promote the learning and usage of spoken Sanskrit among the campus communities. Under the guidance of Samskrita-Bharati, the Campus Samskritam network helps organize workshops, regular study groups (called bhAShA-vargAH) and other Sanskrit related activities in several places in and around various campuses through which students learn to speak in Sanskrit. The existing members include groups from MIT, Stanford, University of Maryland, CMU/U Pitt, UPenn, Purdue, CalTech and PSU. Explore this website for everything you want to know including our webzine- Vishvavani.

    The beginner's level classes are designed in such a way that even someone without any prior knowledge of language can learn to speak in sanskrit very easily (though not necessary, knowing one Indian language would be helpful). A truly fun way of learning the ancient language, a veritable storehouse of knowledge and wisdom!

    http://www.speaksanskrit.org/index.shtml

    I haven't heard of any Pali equivalents to this...not to mention Oddiyana ;)
  • JasonJason God Emperor Arrakis Moderator
    edited January 2012
    If not then do you think it would be beneficial to study it? It would be nice to read the Buddhas teachings in his original language. Would you learn one of these languages?

    Namaste :)
    It certainly can't hurt. Pali grammar books are fairly pricey in my experience, though, because they're relatively rare. Probably easier to learn Sanskrit, I'd imagine, since it's a bit more common. But that won't do you as much good if you want to read/translate the earlier teachings, such as those found in the Pali Canon. The Mahayana equivalent to the Pali Canon, for example, which comes from the Sarvastivada tradition, is preserved in Chinese, with only a fraction surviving in the original Sanskrit.
  • SattvaPaulSattvaPaul South Wales, UK Veteran
    edited January 2012
    My friend is doing an MA in Buddhist studies and she is learning Sanskrit. I think there are many similarities in pronounciation between Sanskrit and Hindi, so much so that you can use online pronounciation lessons in Hindi to learn some of Sanskrit (I think). If your native language is Indo-European and you're good at languages, it makes it easier too. However as someone said, most Mahayana sutras are actually preserved in different languages (Chinese, Tibetan). So you may want to learn Pali instead and read the Pali Canon. However, I'm not sure how useful is that on the whole. There are good translations available.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    At 2:17 of this video you can see a monk chant the heart sutra in sanskrit. I find it very beautiful.

    Kotishka
  • AsshatAsshat
    Awesome ideas! I like languages and such so maybe I should just stick to my Japanese for now. I am going to learn Mandarin after so at least that will open allot of Chinese texts. I also like Taoism and Confucius which is good for when I learn Mandarin.

    Is anyone else learning any other language? :)
  • ArjquadArjquad Veteran

    Is anyone else learning any other language? :)
    I took 2 years of Spanish (so I speak Spanglish), and am currently trying to self teach myself Japanese. I want to take formal classes when I go to college next year.
  • AsshatAsshat
    @Arjquad That's cool, I tried to go to classes to learn Japanese but I prefer self learning myself. :) Let me know how that goes when you try college! I only did part-time classes anyway.
  • ArjquadArjquad Veteran
    Ha ok, I'm not a good self teacher. I can only read/write hiragana and I only know a few words how to introduce myself and the sentence "I will kill you" (long story).
  • SileSile Veteran
    Three free resources for learning Pali (downloadable books):

    http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/pali.html
    Kotishka
  • auraaura Veteran
    There are Sanskrit enthusiasts who include spoken Sanskrit in their focus - not unlike Latin clubs.
    http://www.speaksanskrit.org/index.shtml
    How wonderful! Thank you!

  • SileSile Veteran
    Here's a lovely Pali prayer - I'm trying to find out which one (maybe someone here will know):

  • newtechnewtech Veteran
    Hello:

    Well im on the opinion learning Pali can become a hindrance to the path.
    Mainly because u can end up becoming a man of books, not a practitioner.
    If u already are an advanced practitioner, i see not problem.

    With metta.













  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Hello:

    Well im on the opinion learning Pali can become a hindrance to the path.
    Mainly because u can end up becoming a man of books, not a practitioner.
    If u already are an advanced practitioner, i see not problem.

    With metta.
    Good point, there are plenty of good translations of the texts available and the time would probably be better spent learning what they actually mean instead.
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