Born in Imphal, Manipur, graduated as an engineer in Kolkata, having participated in the Indian Freedom Movement, this extraordinary person joined the army and saw enough violence of the II World War. That led him to renounce everything and he went in search of peace and truth. At last through reading the holy Dhammapada, he came to the path of the Buddha and got ordained in Kushinagar under the most Venerable Chandamani Mahathera and came to be known as Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita.
A visionary and hard working Buddhist monk, he scarified his whole life in study, practice and teaching of the Buddha's words and putting that compassionate teachings into practice by establishing Maha Bodhi Society, Bengaluru in 1956. Since then he worked tirelessly in the field of spirituality, education, medical and social services and established meditation centers, hospitals and educational institutions in India and abroad. He had the distinction of being a member of the Editorial Board of the Sixth Buddhist Synod (Chattha Sangayana) in Yangon, which brought out a complete edition of the Buddhist scriptures in the original Pali language.
This is the centenary year of his birth and Mahabodhi organizations and his countless disciples are celebrating the Birth Centenary with meaningful activities as mark of paying respect to the great teacher Most Venerable Acharya Buddharakkhita. We feel privileged to present this book as a part of this centenary celebrations series.
This anthology of suttas consists of twenty seven discourses of the Buddhaculled fromthree collections of discourses, (Nikayas), namely: Majjhimanikaya, Middle Length Discourses, Samyuttanikäya, Connected Discourses and Anguttaranikaya, Numerical Discourses. There are three suttas from the Majjhimanikäya, two from the Samyuttanikaya and the rest twenty one from the Anguttaranikaya. These discourses of the Buddha are of great relevance to modern life. For they provide practical guidance for day to day spiritual life.
The book starts with a discourse entitled Ja?a Sitta, the Tangle, which, in miniature, represents all that the Buddha taught during his forty-five years of compassionate mission of spreading the message of truth. The famous world classic on Theravada Buddhism known as Visuddhimagga, the Path of Purification, (translated by Venerable Nyanamoli Thera) was written by the great savant, Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa, based on just this one sutta. Venerable Buddhaghosa went to Ceylon in 412 A.C. on the instruction of his teacher the Venerable Arahat Revata to bring back the commentaries of the Pali Tipitaka handed down by the great Arahat Maha Mahinda, the son of Emperor Ashoka, which were preserved in Srilanka.
He was born in a Brahmin family in the vicinity of Buddhagaya. He became a master of the Vedas and all other literature connected therewith. Adopting the life of a Paribbajaka, a mendicant ascetic, for years he wandered throughout the length and breadth of India debating with expert debaters and scholars. After returning to his native village he was camping in a pilgrimage centre of the Mahabodhi monastery.
The head of the monastery, the Venerable Arahat Revata, one night heard him reciting Patañjali yoga sutra and recognized: "This is a person of great understanding and he ought to be tamed.' He exclaimed: 'Who is that braying the ass's-bray?' Buddhaghosa replied: 'What do you know about the meaning of this ass's-bray?' The Arahat answered: 'I know it and expounded in a brilliant way the meaning of and the contradictions in the text.
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