The Eightfold Path is the most widely known formulation of the Buddha’s teaching. It is ancient, reaching back to the Buddha’s very first discourse, and it is highly venerated as a unique treasury of wisdom and practical guidance. The teaching of the Eightfold Path challenges us to grasp the implications of that vision, and asks us to transform ourselves in its light. Like the teaching itself, this work covers every aspect of life.
Londoner Dennis Lingwood realized at the age of 16 that he was a Buddhist. Conscripted during World War II, he went on Army service to India, where he stayed on to become a Buddhist monk with the name Sangharakshita. As hippies flocked eastward in the Sixties, he returned to England to establish the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order. This book, written by one of his leading disciples, tells Sangharakshita’s story.
The image of the Buddha, cross-legged and meditating, appears increasingly in magazines and on television in the West. But who was the Buddha?
Here we see the Buddha as a historical figure, a warrior prince searching for the truth; in the context of the evolution of the human race, as the pinnacle of human perfection; and as an archetype.