Long regarded as one of the best introductions to Buddhism, What the Buddha Taught draws on the actual words spoken by the Buddha to give a lucid and accurate account of the fundamental principles of Buddhist doctrine. Richly supported by extracts from the ancient texts, Walpola Rahula gives clear and direct explanations of Buddhism's essential teachings including:the Buddhist attitude of mindthe Four Noble TruthsThe Noble Eightfold Pathmeditation and mental de...

This book offers a complete translation of the Majjhima Nikaya, or Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, one of the major collections of texts in the Pali Canon, the authorised scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. This collection - among the oldest records of the historical Buddha's original teachings - consists of 152 suttas or discourses of middle length, distinguished as such from the longer and shorter suttas of the other collections.The Majjhima Nikaya might be concisely descri...

The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important Mahayana texts and the most widely read, chanted and revered, particularly in Asian Buddhist countries, notably China and Japan. It is certainly a remarkable document, replete with the Mahayana characteristics of fantastical images, extraordinary appearances, magical happenings, views of time and space which are galactic in size; and pronouncements which are definite, unequivocal, practical in some areas and dependent upon a faith commitment in ...

This volume offers a complete translation of the Sam?yutta Nika¯ya, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, the third of the four great collections in the Sutta Pitaka of the Pali Canon.The Sam?yutta Nika¯ya consists of 56 chapters, each governed by a unifying theme that binds together the Buddha's suttas or discourses.The chapters are organised into five major parts. The first, 'The Book with Verses', is a compilation of suttas composed largely in verse. This book ranks as...

Theravada, Tibetan and Zen may be the most well-known forms of Buddhism in the West, but in many parts of the East it is the Pure Land schools which dominate. Though their roots are clearly embedded in the initial teachings of the historical figure of Shakyamuni, the richly devotional nature of Pure Land Buddhism lends a unique character to its approach and practice.Pure Land, part of the Mahayana tradition, is especially popular in China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam. It places i...

The Khuddaka Nikaya is different in character from the other four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravada Pali Canon in that rather than being a single work it is, as its customary translation ‘Minor Anthologies’ suggests, a collection of independent works. A true anthology!It contains some of the most important and well-known works in the Pali Canon, including the Dhammapada, the Udana, the Sutta Nipata and the Jataka Tales; and, in some recensions, Milinda’s Questions. There...

The Vimalakirti Sutra is one of the most popular of all Mahayana sutras, being especially loved and revered in the Far East. One of the reasons for the sutra’s popularity is that its principal character, Vimalakirti, is not a Buddha or a Bodhisattva or even a monk, but a layman with a family living in Vaishali in India, leading - apparently - a secular life.This does not hinder his ability, the Sutra proclaims to be a man of remarkable spiritual understanding and attainment - so mu...

The Long Discourses of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya) is the first of the five Nikayas (Collections) in the Sutta Pitaka and has its own particular character. Unlike the others which contain thousands of shorter discourses (suttas), it comprises just 34 but of much longer length - as the name indicates! This makes it in some ways a more focused collection of teachings of the Buddha and especially accessible in audio. Among them are some important texts distinctive in character and crucial to th...

This is Volume 2 of Dharma Audiobooks’ ground-breaking overview of Principal Texts of the Khuddaka Nikaya, the fifth section of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravada Pali Canon. Far less known than the first four (Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Sa?yutta Nikaya, A?guttara Nikaya) perhaps because of its character as an anthology rather than a self-contained work, it nevertheless contains gems which are only too easily overlooked or even underappreciated!As with Volume 1, Volume 2 follows...

The Numbered Discourses (A?guttara Nikaya) is the last and longest of the four primary divisions of the Sutta Pi?aka, (Baskets of Discourses) that make up the main original teachings of the Buddha.The word a?guttara literally means 'up by one factor', i.e. 'incremental'. It refers to the fact that the discourses are arranged by numbered sets, with the numbers increasing by one. It is divided into 11 Books (nipata), each arranged in varying number of Chapters (vaggas), which themsel...

In this, the final volume in Dharma Audiobooks’ compilation of the Principal Texts of the Khuddaka Nikaya, the major work, and in some ways the most unusual, is Milinda’s Questions. For while the other two, the Buddhava?sa and the Cariyapitaka, may date from the early years of Buddhism, there is no doubt that Milinda’s Questions comes from a later period.Modern scholars place it between 100 BCE and 200 CE – with sections being added as the years passed. And even though only the Bur...