Reading Room Live Tours – Sign Up Now!

In conjunction with the opening of the reading room, we will be offering two free online tours for all our supporters. We will show you how to navigate the reading room, where to read the translations, how to use the glossaries, as well as many other exciting features available. The live tours will be led by Jeff Wallman, Chair of 84000’s Technology Committee and Executive Director of TBRC. To sign up, please click on the registration links below.

REGISTER HERE
For 84000 Reading Room Live Tour (North America and Europe)

REGISTER HERE
For 84000 Reading Room Live Tour (Asia)

Please enjoy your reading room. Thank you for your continuing support.

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These texts show nothing less than how to cultivate wisdom and compassion to achieve lasting peace and happiness. They are as relevant today as ever. Grants from 84000 are funding 8,000 pages of translation by more than a hundred translators at this very moment. Each page of translation involves, on average, 12.5 hours of translator effort. We invite and welcome the support of anyone who wishes to help preserve this universal treasure.

The Reading Room showcases the first eight translations of the Words of the Buddha in English. Launched as “proof of concept” almost two years ago, these eight texts that we are now ready to publish are mostly very short ones. There are many more texts in the pipeline – some of them quite short (only a few pages in the original), and some of them very long (700 pages or more). We hope to have several more short and medium-length texts appearing in the Reading Room in the next few months. The longer texts will take several years to complete – and in the meantime, we hope, many more will have been started.

Two translation teams are represented in the first batch of translations to reach completion; however, there are currently more than a hundred people at work on 8,000 pages of translation, in several different countries of Europe, America and Asia.

Even for a short text, the whole process from preliminary planning up to final publication is a very long one. Even when the translators’ final draft is complete, discussions with the editor in chief, the preparation of the ancillary materials, several stages of internal and external review, and the final stages of editing, layout, and proofing, take many weeks of painstaking effort.

The eight texts that are now available in the Reading Room are:

Sustaining the Translation Effort

Currently, 10% of the Kangyur is in the process of being translated. This has been made possible by the generous support of 74 Founding Sponsors and more than a thousand page sponsors.

84000 and the translators we support have committed to translate all 70,000 pages of the Kangyur as our first major goal. How quickly we can do so depends on funding. So far, 3,630 pages have been sponsored. Please sponsor one or more pages of translation (at US $250/page) or make a gift of any amount with an online donation today. DONATE NOW.

Please contact deborah@84000.co, if you would like more information about how to become a Founding Sponsor with a donation of US $50,000 or more.

We invite you to use and enjoy your Reading Room. Thank you for your continuing support.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite

Grants from 84000 are funding 8,000 pages of translation by more than a hundred translators at this very moment. Each page of translation involves, on average, 12.5 hours of translator effort.

THE RELEVANCE OF THE TRANSLATIONS

The words of the Buddha are the very heart of an ancient tradition that belongs to and merits preservation by and for all of humanity. While initial support for 84000 has come from within the Buddhist community, this is far more than a Buddhist project. It is an effort to prevent an entire library of texts about the science of mind and human ethics from being lost from the world forever.

These texts show nothing less than how to cultivate wisdom and compassion to achieve lasting peace and happiness. They are as relevant today as ever. We invite and welcome the support of anyone who wishes to help preserve this universal treasure.

SUSTAINING THE TRANSLATION EFFORT

Currently, 10% of the Kangyur is in the process of being translated. This has been made possible by the generous support of 74 Founding Sponsors and more than a thousand page sponsors.

84000 and the translators we support have committed to translate all 70,000 pages of the Kangyur as the first major goal. How quickly we can do so depends on funding. So far, 3,630 pages have been sponsored. Please sponsor one or more pages of translation (at $250/page) or make a gift of any amount with an online donation today. DONATE NOW.

Please contact deborah@84000.co, if you would like more information about how to become a Founding Sponsor with a donation of $50,000 or more.

We invite you to use and enjoy your reading room. Thank you for your continuing support.

Considering the cultural norms of the time, the fact that the teaching contained in this sutra was given entirely to a lay woman and, moreover, to a very old and impoverished lay woman, makes it stand apart. The setting of this text is the ancient capital city of Vaiśali. The old lady, whose name we are never told, asks the Buddha such profound questions that Ananda realizes she is not an ordinary woman, but one whose wisdom comes from merit collected in past lifetimes. As it turns out, the Buddha reveals that she has been his mother for five hundred lifetimes.

The main body of the text, which consists of the Buddha’s teachings in answer to the old lady’s questions, is an explanation of emptiness. To put it briefly, the Buddha says no phenomenon arises of its own accord. Neither does any phenomenon give rise to any other phenomenon. All phenomena arise owing to their dependence upon collections of causes and conditions. Hence, there is no independent phenomenon, though we may use terms to indicate various phenomena as if they were independent. After the Buddha’s teaching, the old lady realizes this profound truth. The Buddha prophesies that she herself will one day become a buddha. In earlier lifetimes he had planted roots of virtue and made strong aspirations for her to do so.

The featured sutra was translated from Tibetan into English under the supervision of Khenpo Ngawang Jorden by the Venerable Jampa Losal and the laywoman YangDol Tsatultsang, members of the Sakya Pandita Translation Group – International Buddhist Academy Division in Kathmandu, Nepal. 84000 provided a grant in support of the translation effort.

Please enjoy your reading room. Thank you for your continuing support.

Translation involves the delicate art of finding the correct balance between having fidelity to the source language (i.e. Tibetan or Sanskrit) and providing accurate and reader-friendly translations in the target language (i.e. English). In cases where the two languages involved have culturally distinct origins, clashes between accuracy and readability are often difficult to resolve.

84000 enlists translators who have a comprehensive understanding of the underlying philosophical and cultural contexts of the Indo-Tibetan languages and source texts. In order to prevent misinterpretation of the translated words, the translator must also have a mastery of the philosophical, etymological, and cultural roots of the English language.

As such, 84000 recommends a team approach. Led by experts in both the source and target languages, translation teams work together with those who are able to provide specific strengths and expertise. While individual cases vary, a typical team is comprised of Buddhist teacher-scholars, Western academics, editors, proofreaders and, in some cases, experts in Sanskrit, Chinese, and/or other European languages.

View the list of the 60 translators that we are currently funding.

The 84000 editorial team, led by Dr. John Canti (Editorial Chair) and Dr. Tom Tillemans (Editor in Chief), supports translators in producing quality works that meet the standards of the 84000 editorial policy.

An external Board of Reviewers comprised of qualified Buddhist teachers, Western scholars and Sanskrit experts, are also consulted throughout the editorial process.

View members of the 84000 editorial committee and review board.

The campaign director will work closely with and report to 84000’s operations committee on all development operations in North America; and will inspire, manage, and develop the North American volunteer fundraising team.
An ideal candidate will be a proven fundraising professional who is passionate about our mission, has substantial relevant experience, has a successful fundraising track record, well networked with heritage groups and web technology groups, and has excellent communications skills. The candidate is expected to work from home, and is not city dependent as long as he/she can access networks and funders in person as required.

Fundraising Goals:

In 3 months: to develop a cogent fundraising plan for the West.

In 6 months: to introduce 84000 into well-established relevant organisations and foundations; and to have meaningful meetings set up with decision makers inside these organizations.

In 12 months: to have raised a substantive amount to be mutually agreed upon from outside of the Buddhist networks.

Compensation will commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Click here for more information.

If you know someone suitable for the position, or if you personally feel passionate about the 84000 cause, and have relevant skills and experience, please contact us at recruitment@84000.co.

Applications close on October 21, 2011.