DHAMMA BOOKS

A thorough exposition of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path by a reknowned scholar-monk from Sri Lanka, who also travelled and studied in the West. The lively explanations are illuminated with many appropriate stories and quotations from the Buddha’s words.Indices of proper names, and Pali and English terms

Paperback, 239 pages
Published by Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 955-24-0024-4

Now in softcover: This volume combines all past issues of the BPS's popular Lives of the Disciples series of Wheel publications. It offers heartening and engaging accounts of twenty-four of the Buddha's most celebrated disciples, such as Ven. Sariputta, Moggallana, Ananda, Mahakassapa, Mother Visakha, Kisagotami, etc. The portraits and examples of these men and women will inspire and encourage those trying to walk in their footsteps. Edited by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi.


Published by: Wisdom Publications
Publication Date: 03

According to the Pali Canon

Though born a prince surrounded by luxuries, Gotama Buddha was transformed by realizing that no one escapes unhappiness or suffering. He found, and for the remainder of his life taught, the answer to the great question: "Is there a way out of this cycle? The Life of the Buddha not only illustrates how to walk on the path to freedom; it offers us profound inspiration and guidance for doing so.

Published by: BPS Pariyatti Editions
Publication Date: August 2001

No pilgrim should set out to visit the many sites where the events of the Buddha’s life took place without this comprehensive guidebook in hand. The author, an Australian monk, begins with an account of the pilgrimage, then covers sixteen places in detail. Maps, color photographs and suggestions of how to get to the sites make this an essential travel companion for the pilgrim as well as the general traveler in India.

Paperback, 208 pages
Published by Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 955-24-0095-3

This perennial favorite presents the basic tenets of the Buddha’s teaching by drawing on the original Pali and explaining the meaning in a thoroughly modern way. The theoretical explanations are very helpful to anyone with a growing interest in the Buddha's teaching.Illustrations, translations of selected suttas, bibliography, glossary, index

Paperback, 151 pages
Published by Buddhist Missionary Society
ISBN 967-9920-02-X

This short work by the eminent German scholar-monk presents extracts from the original Pali texts, arranged to present the teaching in a concise, coherent fashion.

Paperback, 101 pages
Published by Buddhist Publication Society

This small booklet contains two essays:
Four Sublime States by Ven. Nyanaponika and
The Practice of Loving-Kindness (Metta) by Ven. Ñanamoli.

The "four sublime states", known as the brahmaviharas, are the lofty mental states of love, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Ven. Nyanaponika gives us a brief description of all four with a section of contemplation exercises for each. He closes with a section on the inter-relationship of all four.

Ven. Ñanamoli's essay focuses on the the basic brahmavihara of metta, translating for us in his usual lucid style the key passages from the Pali Canon in which the Buddha taught the practice of metta.

Published by: Buddhist Publication Society
Publication Date: 1981

Noble Eightfold Path

Way to the End of Suffering

By Bhikkhu Bodhi
A concise, clear, and thorough account of the eightfold path. Explains each path-factor from the angle both of theory and practice, with a final chapter on the unity of the Buddhist path and its culmination in enlightenment.

A quote from the preface by the author:

"The essence of the Buddha's teaching can be summed up in two principles: the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. The first covers the side of doctrine, and the primary response its elicits is understanding; the second covers the side of discipline, in the broadest sense of that word, and the primary response if calls for is practice."

This classic anthology from the Pali Canon charts the entire course of spiritual development as prescribed in the most ancient Buddhist texts. Drawing upon the Buddha's own words from the Sutta Pitaka, the compiler has arranged them in accordance with two overlapping schems of practice: the threefold training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom, and the seven stages of purification. A long chapter on concentration provides sutta sources for all the forty classical subjects of meditation, while the chapter on wisdom cites texts relating to the development of insight.

Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera (1878-1957) was a prolific and highly regarded translator of Pali Buddhist texts into German and English. He spent more than 50 years in the Buddhist order, most of this time in Sri Lanka.

Published by: BPS Pariyatti Editions
Publication Date: January 02
Softcover, 215 pages
ISBN: 1928706185

This work covers the entire range of meditation approaches, described in the Visuddhimagga, in the two divisions of samatha (concentration or tranquillity) and vipassana (insight). It also examines the two major contemporary forms of the traditional meditation practice.

Paperback, 176 pages
Published by Buddhist Publication Society
ISBN 955-24-0101-1