Linda and Stephen Batchelor
Have you done a translation of the 5 subjects of contemplation/ remembrances?
This translation ( https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN5_57.html ) and its abbreviated version are floating around our aging membered sangha, and I am in search of a secular translation.
Good to hear from you. I have not translated this well-known passage, but find the translation you sent me by Thanissaro fairly good. I can’t see many ways of “secularising it”. I have always found the fifth one the most ambiguous, since it is unclear exactly what is meant by “karma” in this context. Even so it can easily be read without having to invoke past lives etc., particularly if you don’t assume that “action” means only “my actions” but refers more generally to actions of past generations and collectivities like governments, religious institutions etc.