The Pāli Course
Learn to read the language our Visuddhimagga translation is made from — the same Roman transliteration (IAST), no separate script to learn. This course starts from zero and grows in step with the translation project itself: as more of the Visuddhimagga is translated, more of it becomes real reading material here.
How the course is built
Three tracks, meant to be worked in order at first and then drawn on as reference once the basics are solid.
Sounds & Script — the IAST alphabet, vowel length, place and manner of articulation, syllables. Four lessons, no prior grammar needed.
Grammar — noun declension, pronouns, verb conjugation, sandhi, and how to take apart a long Pāli compound (samāsa).
Reading — real sentences, starting with short public-domain ceremonial verses and moving into our own Visuddhimagga translation as soon as the grammar supports it.
Part I — Sounds & Script
4 of 4 publishedNo prerequisite. Start here.
Part II — Foundations of Grammar
14 of 14 publishedPlanned lesson sequence — titles and order may still shift as the material gets written.
Part III — Reading Track
6 readings live · open-endedThis track is deliberately open-ended rather than a fixed number of lessons. It begins with short, public-domain ceremonial Pāli, then adds one entry each time enough of the Visuddhimagga translation exists to support a new passage — annotated with exactly which grammar points (from Part II) it draws on, alongside our own English translation.
This course's explanations, examples, and exercises are written from scratch for this project. Grammatical facts about Pāli are, of course, part of the shared scholarly record and are taught here the way any settled field of knowledge is taught — but the wording, examples, and exercises are not adapted or paraphrased from any existing coursebook. Early lessons draw example sentences only from ordinary Buddhist vocabulary and from public-domain ceremonial verses; as the course reaches Part III, its reading material comes directly from Ru-Yi's own from-the-Pāli translation of the Visuddhimagga — see that page for the full translation method and source texts.