Contributor: Michelle Smeby

This book is the source to which I refer whenever I seek an explanation of exactly what Gautama Buddha taught. Dr. Rahula has most thoroughly researched and quoted the Buddhist texts (Tipitaka, Agama, Nikaya), and provides translations of the ancient Pali and Sanskrit, explaining in footnotes where previous authors have mistranslated the original meanings.

Though there are chapters that can seem daunting by the sheer magnitude of material, I found that by dedicating myself to continuing onward, it all began to take a lucid shape. Dr. Rahula makes the teachings of Gautama Buddha come alive by sharing Buddha’s sermons, and by walking us methodically down the path and showing us the Buddhist approach to achieving enlightenment.

My favorite chapter is Chapter VIII, where Dr. Rahula describes how we who do not live in a monastery, yet desire to live by Buddha’s teachings of love, compassion, equanimity, and joy, can practice this approach in our current world. Buddha’s teachings on social, economic, and political conditions opened up a world of possibilities for how we in the West can learn from the best of the East and find the happiness we have been seeking. May we all realize Nirvana in this life!