Draft Response Letter to Shambhala Feb 2021

The following is the (near final) draft of a response to Shambhala’s public statement as well as Mr Odiseso’s letter.

If you would like to be added as a signatory, please send us a message through the contact form.

The following (in the green box) are changes proposed to soften the language. Additions are underlined:

Remove the Pali names of all of the Theris from the titles of the poems. Already the internet is filling up with people falsely attributing Weingast’s words to specific enlightened nuns. This is a serious problem that we request you address by removing their Pali names. Then you also have a responsibility to ask people you have misled to correct their quotations.


This is likely a violation of the GoodReads.com terms of service. As an ethical company, you should have a written policy to prevent this for all employees.


As well, we trust you see that you have the responsibility to ensure that reader reviews from the first edition are not linked to the new edition.


While some librarians may by chance find out about your efforts, most will not. Thus, we urgently request that you personally contact all libraries that currently hold your book to fix this problem.


These are just a few of the most urgent responsibilities that we feel you have if you hope to maintain your reputation of being one of the leading publishers of Buddhist books. We hope you take this seriously.

The letter…

Subject: Issues regarding the republication of The First Free Women

Dear Mr. Odiseso

We are very happy to hear that Shambhala Publications has started to take steps to address the ethical issues around your publication of The First Free Women by Matthew Weingast. We hope that as you move forward you will recognize that you have an ethical responsibility to:

  1. Remove all mentions that the book “is not an X translation.”
  2. Remove the Pali names of all of the Theris from the titles of the poems.
  3. Address the ethical issues around user reviews including staff disclosures and filtering negative reviews.
  4. Individually contact all libraries that have been misled by your actions to catalog the book with translations of the Therigatha.

Remove all mentions that the book “is not an X translation.” Use of such qualifying statements is deliberately deceitful and implies that the work in question is a translation of some variety, when it is not and bears only a loose connection to the alleged source. You cannot publish original poetry and hide behind a shield of “not a literal translation,” or “not a scholarly translation.” Even the use of “adaptation” or “re-imagining” here would wrongly imply that there is some essential core remaining of the Therigatha’s poems represented in this new and original work. Nothing short of clearly labeling the text as an original composition is acceptable. Book endorsers that you choose to accept must also follow these principles.

In “A Brief Note” the author describes his poems as either “variations on a classic tune” or closely resembling the originals, “with shifts here and there”. This leaves the average reader the impression that there are just melodic changes or shifts in metaphor from the Pali Therīgāthā ‘s enlightenment poems. However, there are deviations from the original throughout that are major and significant to the point that ethically he should be warning the reader of the extent of his impact. Instead the author suggests each enlightened nun’s voice is to be heard, going as far as saying, “even in the freest renderings I don’t hear my voice.” He then doubles down with “in all cases I worked with the original Pali texts.” The Introduction and Brief Note need to be rewritten to give unmistakable clarity that these poems contain content and implications not in the Therīgāthā and are not to be relied upon as close to the original.

Remove the Pali names of all of the Theris from the titles of the poems. Already the internet is filling up with people falsely attributing Weingast’s words to specific enlightened nuns. This is a serious problem that you must address initially by removing their Pali names. Then you have a responsibility to ask people you have misled to correct their quotations.

Address the ethical issues around user reviews including staff disclosures and filtering negative reviews. Currently the Shambhala.com website embeds user reviews from GoodReads.com. However, you only embed four and five star reviews. This is unethical without at least stating explicitly that you are only showing positive reviews. As well, you personally have publicly reviewed the book using your GoodReads.com account without disclosing that you are the president of Shambhala Publications. This is likely a violation of the GoodReads.com terms of service. You need to have a written policy to prevent this for all employees.

As well, you have the responsibility to ensure that reader reviews from the first edition are not linked to the new edition.

Individually contact all libraries that have been misled by your actions to catalog the book with translations of the Therigatha. Because you submitted false in-publication cataloging data, over 100 libraries have shelved your book side by side with translations of the Therigatha. While some librarians may by chance find out about your efforts, most will not. At your own time and expense, you need to personally contact all libraries that currently hold your book.

These are just a few of the most urgent responsibilities that you have if you hope to maintain your claim of being one of the leading publishers of Buddhist books. We hope you take this seriously.

Throughout the efforts to correct the misinformation about this book, we have tried to act with compassion and integrity while also encouraging others to do the same. If we have failed at this at any point, we ask your forgiveness.

Dheerayupa Sukonthapanthu, Buddhist Translator
John Kelly, Pāli teacher and assistant translator, MA Buddhist Studies
Dr Gillian Perrett PhD Linguistics
Bhikkhunī (Ayyā) Sudhammā Therī
Richard Daley, Simsapa Grove Meditation Society
Robert Hunt (Chair) and the Board of New Zealand Buddhist Council (NZBC)
An Tran, author of Meditations on the Mother Tongue
Lynn J. Kelly, Dhamma teacher (CDL 2000)
Nadine L Bucich
Prof Michael Reid
Tasfan, Indonesian Buddhist Translator and Interpreter.
Gabriel L. Volunteer contributing translator (English to Portuguese) at SuttaCentral
Seniya, Volunteer and Translator of DhammaCitta and SuttaCentral
Vimalañāṇī Bhikkhunī, Vihāra Kanda Hermitage, Sri Lanka
Dhammānando Bhikkhu, former Chairman of the Buddhist Association of Iceland.
Michael F. Roe, Esq. Buddhist Chaplain/Karuna Foundation