Mark Epstein, M.D. author, Going on Being; Thoughts without a Thinker
"...this translation lets us experience the power of the Buddha's teachings for ourselves. [Reflects] tenderness, scholarship and beauty..."

Paul R. Fleischman, M.D. author, Cultivating Inner Peace; Karma and Chaos
"If you want to read only one book abou the Buddha, this is the undisputed best choice."

Richard Gombrich, Ph.D., University of Oxford, author, Theravada Buddhism
The excellence of this book has long been acknowledged. Bhikkhu Nanamoli was a translator of taste and discrimination.

Book Description
Composed entirely of texts from the Pali canon, this unique biography presents the oldest authentic record of the Buddha's life and revolutionary philosophy. The ancient texts are rendered here in a language marked by lucidity and dignity. A framework of narrators and voices connect the canonical texts. Vivid recollections of his personal attendant Ananda and other disciples bring the reader into the Buddha's presence, where his example offers profound inspiration and guidance on the path to freedom.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)

From the Publisher
The Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon was first published in 1972 by the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka. BPS Pariyatti Editions is pleased to republish this esteemed book for the first time in the Americas and reach a new and wider audience seeking original material from the Buddha's teachings. Bhikkhu Nanamoli, translator and arranger of this work, was one of the first Englishmen to embrace Buddhism. He created a unique framework of narrators to tell the story of the Buddha's life, suggested by the material itself, which was originally recited. As the Pali scholar R.W. Rhys Davids noted, during his long life and career as a teacher the Buddha had ample time to repeat the principals and details of the system to his disciples, and to test their knowledge, so that great reliance may be placed upon the doctrinal parts of the Buddhist Scriptures. This account of the Buddha's life and times provides rich context for his teaching, illuminating the compassion, loving kindness, wisdom and other exceptional qualities that informed his actions and interactions. As such it offers profound inspiration for all.

About the Author
Bhikkhu Ñanamoli was ordained as a monk in Sri Lanka, where he spent 11 years living in a monastery and translating the texts of Theravada Buddhism into English. He is the author of The Discourse on Right View, Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, and The Path of Purification.

Excerpted from The Life of the Buddha : According to the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Nanamoli. Copyright © 1992. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter 1: The Birth and the Early Years Narrator One. Indian history actually begins with the story of the Buddha Gotama's life: or to put it perhaps more exactly, that is the point where history as record replaces archaeology and legend; for the documents of the Buddha's life and teaching—the earliest Indian documents to be accorded historical standing—reveal a civilization already stable and highly developed which can only have matured after a very long period indeed. Now the Buddha attained his complete enlightenment at Uruvela in the Ganges plain, which is called the "Middle Country." As distances are reckoned in India, it was not very far from the immemorial holy city of Benares. His struggle to attain enlightenment had lasted six years, and he was then thirty-five years old. From that time onward he wandered from place to place in central India for the space of forty-five years, constantly explaining the Four Noble Truths that he had discovered. The final Parinibanna took place as it is now cacluated in Europe!, in the year 483 B.C. (traditionally on the full-moon day of the month of May.) The period through which he lived seems to have been outstandingly quiet with governments well organized and a stable society, in marked contrast with what must have gone before and came after. Narrator Two. Three months from the time of the Buddha's Parinibbana his senior disciples who survived him summoned a council of five hundred senior monks in order to agree upon the form in which the Master's teaching should be handed down to posterity. Among these five hundred, all of whom had realized enlightenment, the Elder Upali was the acknowledged authority on the rules of conduct for the Sangha or monastic order, which are called the "Vinaya" or "Discipline." In lay life a barber, he had gone forth into the life of homelessness along with the Buddha's cousin, Ananda, and others. He was appointed to receite before the council the rules of conduct together with the circumstances that caused them to be laid down. The main part of the "Coffer of the Discipline" (the Vinaya Pitaka) was composed there from his recitation. When he had finished, the Elder Ananda was invited to recite the Discourses. During the last twenty-four years of the Buddha's life he had been the Buddha's personal attendant, and he was gifted with an extraordinary memory..Almost the whole of the collections of discourses in the "Coffer of Discourses" (the Sutta Pitaka) was composed from his recitation of them with their settings. ...the Elder Ananda prefaced each discourse with an account of where and to whom it was spoken, beginning with the words evam me sutam, "thus I have heard." Narrator One. This narrative of the Buddha's life is taken from those two "Coffers." How they survived to this day is a story to be given later on; but here, to begin with, is the account of the Buddha's last birth, told by himself and related afterwards at the Council by the Elder Ananda. The words were actually spoken in the Buddha's own language now known as Pali. First Voice. Thus I heard. One one occasion the Blessed One was living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park. There a number of bhikkhus were waiting in an assembly hall where they had met together on return from their alms-round after their meal was over. Meanwhile it was said among them "It is wonderful, friends, it is marvellous how the Perfect One's power and might enable him to know of past Buddhas who attained the complete extinction of defilement, cut the tangle, broke the circle, ended the round, and surmounted all suffering: such were those Blessed Ones' births, such their names, such their clans, such their virture, such their concentration, such their understanding, such their abiding, such the manner of their deliverance." When this was said, the venerable Ananda told the bhikkhus: "Perfect Ones are wonderful, friends, and have wonderful qualities; Perfect Ones are marvellous and have marvellous qualities."

FROM THE PUBLISHER