The Book of Protection by Piyadassi Thera was published by the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka in 1999. The book was originally meant as a handbook for the newly ordained Buddhist novices. The idea was that novices who cannot study the large portions of the ‘Discourse Collection’ (sutta pitaka) should at least be conversant with the Book of Protection. Download the Book of Protection here (137 pages/367 KB):
Why read The Buddhist Bible – The Book of Protection?
The Book Of Protection is a collection of paritta discourses, in Sinhala, ‘ The Pirit Potha’ is the most widely known Pali book in Sri Lanka. It is called ‘ The Buddhist Bible’; it is given an essential place in the Buddhist home, and is even treated with veneration. In most houses where there is a small shrine, this book is kept there so that the inmates may refer to it during their devotional hour. Some have committed to memory the three well known discourses — Mangala, Ratana and Karaniya-metta suttas. 1 Even children are familiar with these discourses; for they learn them from their parents and elders or from the ‘dhamma school’. The habit of listening to the recital of paritta suttas among Westerners is growing slowly but steadily. The present writer, while on his missions in the European and American countries, has, at request of several residents there, tape-recorded the recital of paritta suttas for their benefit, and has air-mailed cassettes containing the sutta recitals to those who sent him such cassettes. Now what does this book contain? It is a collection of twenty four suttas or discourses almost all delivered by the Buddha, and found scattered in the five original collections ( nikāyas) in Pali, which form the Sutta Pitaka, the ‘Canonical Discourses’. These discourses are preceded by an enunciation of the Three Refuges; the Ten Precepts and the questions asked of a novice.