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  • The Buddha Before Buddhism

  • Wisdom from the Early Teachings
  • By: Gil Fronsdal
  • Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
  • Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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The Buddha Before Buddhism

By: Gil Fronsdal
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
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Publisher's Summary

This book is in the tradition of the best-selling Dhammapada, a translation with commentary of one of the earliest of the surviving Buddhist texts, which reveals the teachings to be remarkably simple and free of religious trappings.

One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or Book of Eights, is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature - before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a "Buddhist" - but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine. The value of the teachings it contains is not in the profundity of their philosophy or in their authority as scripture; rather, the value is found in the results they bring to those who live by them. Instead of doctrines to be believed, the Book of Eights describes means or practices for realizing peace. Gil Fronsdal's rigorous translation with commentary reveals the text to be of interest not only to Buddhists, but also to the ever-growing demographic of the spiritual-but-not-religious, who seek a spiritual life outside the structures of religion.

©2016 Egil Fronsdal (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

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A great exposition of The Book of Eights

A book for those wanting to find out about the teachings of the Buddha unadorned by his later deification.

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