Early Buddhist Teachings

Y. Karunadasa

• Publisher: Wisdom Publications
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781614294528
• eBook ISBN: 9781614294689
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

A clear, elegant clarification of the basic teachings of early Buddhism, ideal for both general readers and scholars.

 

Discover the birth of Buddhism and the essentials of Buddhist teachings with this clear, comprehensive explanation of early Buddhism’s key doctrines. You’ll come away with:

• insight into the beginning of Buddhism and the significance of its core beliefs—dependent arising, non-self, moral life, the diagnosis of the human condition, the critique of theoretical views, and the nature of Nibbana;
• a lucid understanding of the Buddha’s challenge to the concept of the subject as a self-entity and the reality of both the subject and object, perceiver and perceived, as a dynamic process;
• a grasp of early Buddhist teachings as representing a middle position (equally aloof from spiritual eternalism and materialist annihilation) and a middle path (equally aloof from self-mortification and sensual indulgence); and
• the experience of the Buddha’s teachings on attaining liberation as comprehensible, sensible, and something we can make part of our own practice.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Some Preliminary Observations
• 2. The Birth of Buddhism: A Critical Response to the Binary Opposition between Two Worldviews
• 3. Dependent Arising
• 4. Nonself and the Putative Overself
• 5. The Analysis of Mind
• 6. Diagnosis of the Human Condition
• 7. The Theory of Moral Life
• 8. The Practice of Moral Life
• 9. The Pursuit of Happiness
• 10. Nibbāna: The Final Goal
• 11. The Unanswered Questions: Why Are They Unanswered?
• 12. The Buddhist Attitude to the Idea of “God”
• Appendix: Buddhism and the Issue of Religious Fundamentalism
• Notes
• Abbreviations
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright