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What the Buddha Taught

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What the Buddha Taught

By: Walpola Sri Rahula
Narrated by: Taradasa
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About this listen

Long regarded as one of the best introductions to Buddhism, What the Buddha Taught draws on the actual words spoken by the Buddha to give a lucid and accurate account of the fundamental principles of Buddhist doctrine. Richly supported by extracts from the ancient texts, Walpola Rahula gives clear and direct explanations of Buddhism's essential teachings including:

  • the Buddhist attitude of mind
  • the Four Noble Truths
  • The Noble Eightfold Path
  • meditation and mental development
  • what the Buddha taught and the world today.

What the Buddha Taught also features an illustrative selection of texts from the Suttas and the Dhammapada. The Venerable Dr Walpola Sri Rahula was a Buddhist monk and scholar. He received a traditional training and education in his native Sri Lanka before studying at the University of Calcutta and the Sorbonne. He held a chair at Northwestern University, Illinois, and was Vice-Chancellor of Vidyodaya University, Colombo. He was widely regarded as one of the most qualified and enlightened scholars of the Buddhist tradition with a deep knowledge of the original texts.

©1959 The Estate of Walpola Sri Rahula (P)2016 Dharma Audiobooks Buddhism

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Critic reviews

"By far the best introduction to Buddhism available." (Professor R. F. Gombrich, Boden Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford)
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An interesting book, there was a lot of words that I didn’t understand, some were explained while others were not. The reader took a bit of getting used to but after a while I enjoyed his performance.

Meditation

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Enjoyed the book a lot, the Buddhas teachings are always a joy to hear and its well put together. Narration could be a bit more relaxed in voice and tone. Overall great book Thanks.

Solid book about the Buddhas teaching

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I liked that it drew from primary sources and showed what Buddha taught as opposed to how Buddhism is interpreted and practiced, particularly in the West.

People from other religious backgrounds need to brace themselves for their beliefs to be summarily dismissed. However it can work both ways and I was not convinced by the arguments presented.

Drawn from primary sources

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I thoroughly enjoyed this well-read text. The narrator has a calm peaceful voice that enhances the text. Whilst there are a few mispronounciations of pali words and names of historical characters, this doesn't detract from the author's beautifllly presented, epic work. this id a highly recommended introduction to Buddhism, a way of life that distills many complex texts into an easy to understand reference book. It is worth listening to many times.

Beautiful introduction to Buddhism

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Well read and a good text selection allthough sometimes irritatingly repetitive in a probably very authentic way :-) I have nothing to compare it with, but I feel well informed and do not think I need other supplementing books. I may hear this one a few times more.

To me an exelent first book on this subject.

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I have listened to this book over and over again and each time I learn something new. Clear explanations and easy to understand. A great book for anyone wanting to learn more about Buddhism and life in general.

Truly Enlightening

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Narrator was excellent. The content was delivered in a meaningful and illuminated way. Thank you.

Easy for beginners to enjoy

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This is the hardest audiobook I've ever had to listen to. I would genuinely say to choose ANY other book on the topic to understand Buddhism. It is repetitive to the point of being impossible to follow, even though I was writing notes and jumping back.
Dull performance and difficult repetitive language.

A painful listen

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This is a great book, wonderfully read by Taradasa. Taradasa has a terrific voice and perfect style of delivery for Buddhist texts, and I'm now enjoying his reading of 'The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha'.
My main issue with this particular audiobook, 'What the Buddha Taught', is that it contains a number of mistakes. The main ones that I picked up were as follows:
1. Chapter 6, p.66: Book text - "there is the fact of No-selfness"; Audiobook reads - "there is the fact of no selflessness" (42:30).
2. Chapter 7, p.73: Book text - "you should forget again the false idea of 'I'"; Audiobook reads - "you should not forget again the false idea of 'I'" (19:05)
3. Chapter 7, p.75: Book text - "investigating the question"; Audiobook reads - "investing the question" (25:20).
4. Chapter 8, p.76: Book text - "if they do live in a remote place"; Audiobook reads - 'if they do not live in a remote place" (01:50).
5. Chapter 8, p.81: Book text - "about his teaching on social, economic and political matters"; Audiobook reads - "about his social teaching on social, economic and political matters" (17:00).
6. Selected Texts, p.105 (Audiobook Chapter 14): Book text - "with detachment, passionlessness"; Audiobook reads - "with detachment, with passionless" (18:40 & 19:15).
7. Selected Texts, p.113 (Audiobook Chapter 16): Book text - "when experiencing a painful worldly feeling, he knows: 'I experience a painful worldly feeling'"; Audiobook misses this sentence out (10:40).
8. Selected Texts, p.114 (Audiobook Chapter 16): Book text - "and the unliberated state of mind as the unliberated state"; Audiobook reads - "and the unliberated state of mind as the liberated state" (12:55).
All in all, this is a good book, and the reading is very good indeed, but more care needs to be taken with the reading, as some of the mistakes distort the meaning quite badly.

Great book, very well read, but with some errors

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Readying foot notes was not necessary and too many repetitions. Rather dry could have been more storytelling

Good entry book to read on buddhism

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