I bought some other religious texts

[rossum]

I’d like to get more into apologetics, specifically when it comes to engaging those of other faiths. I want to have a fair knowledge of other faiths so any conversation wouldn’t have to be totally one-sided.

In general you cannot understand a faith just by reading its sacred books. If you gave an intelligent alien a copy of the Bible and no other information would they derive the Christian religion? There is a great deal of history and interpretation layered on top of any sacred text to produce the modern version(s) of the religion. By all means read the sacred texts, but you need to add a standard interpretation of the text from a member of the relevant religion as well – which passages are important, which passages are less important and which passages are ignored. For example, would an intelligent alien know, just from reading the Bible, that “You shall not allow a witch to live” is now ignored?

For Buddhism, I would suggest the Dhammapada and the Vimalakirtinirdesa sutra. The first is a Theravada text and the second a Mahayana text. The difference between their styles is typical of the two schools.

rossum