The Doctrine of the Buddha

Book excerpt: The present edition, revised and enlarged by the author himself, presents the old genuine Buddha doctrine with the aim of developing a new type of man, free from prejudices and intent on working out his own future with his self as the light. It represents not only the flower of Indian religious feeling and philosophy but also the crowning summit of religious introspection in general. The book deals with Truth as the theme and basis of the doctrine of the Buddha. It explains (1) Truth, Critrine, World and subject of suffering, (2) Truth of the arising of suffering, (3) Truth of the annihilation of suffering, (4) Truth of the path leading to the annihilation of suffering. The author presents the highest knowledge, the supreme reality to which Buddha is awakened, in so cogent a form, free from mythological and mythical clothing that it becomes positively self-evident to the reader. The study is prefixed with an Introduction and Appendix--as important as the text itself. Introduction answers the queries 'Who was the Buddha?' 'What is a Buddha?' and depicts the method of handing down the 'Marvel'. The Appendix deals with the Doctrine, the Metaphysics of the Buddha, Right cognition etc. There are four indexes: (1) Index of quotations from the Pali texts, (2) General Index, (3) Index of proper names (4) Pali and Sanskrit Index. An exhaustive Bibliography supplies the gap in our knowledge of Buddhist literature.