Wings to Awakening An Anthology from the Pali Canon
There have been many collections of the Buddha’s teachings in English, but this is the first to be organized around the Wings to Awakening, which the Buddha said were the most important part of his message (bodhi-pakkhiya-dhamma).
The information is split into three parts, and a long introduction comes first. The Introduction tries to explain what Awakening is all about so that you can understand where the Wings to Awakening are going.
It does this by talking about the Buddha’s stories about his own awakening, with a focus on how the principle of skillful kamma (called karma in Sanskrit) was both the “how” and the “what” of his awakening: The only way for the Buddha to reach Awakening was to develop skillful kamma. This is the “how.” His understanding of how to develop skillful kamma led to the insights that made up Awakening. This is the “what.”
After giving this background, the rest of the book goes into detail about the Wings to Awakening as a more in-depth look at the “how.” Part One is about how the idea of skillful kamma influenced how the Wings to Awakening were made.
Part Two goes over the seven sets that make up the Wings to Awakening: the four foundations of mindfulness (called the four frames of reference here), the four right exertions, the four bases for power, the five faculties, the five strengths, the seven factors for Awakening, and the noble eightfold path.
In Part 3, all of the terms in the seven sets are boiled down to the five faculties, which are then looked at in depth. With the fifth and final faculty, discernment, the book ends by going back to the “what” of awakening and showing how discernment focuses on the Wings themselves as things to observe in a way that will lead to total release.
Wings of awakening back-slot transmog in 5 color variants
