The Buddha and His Teachings

Here is a short review on the book Old paths white clouds authored by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Nanh.

If ever asked anyone, “How about leading a life like Buddha’s life?” We immediately know that we cannot as we feel that it will be very difficult, in fact near to impossible. But in the actual sense, there is no simple lifestyle than Buddha’s lifestyle.

Buddha was not born as an enlightened one. He was born as a prince who naturally had so many responsibilities and day by day the responsibilities were swelling, sinking him deeper into the worldly human traps of impermanent happiness. But he realized the nature of happiness which was only going to breed sufferings, and renounced all of his royalty life. So Buddha’s life was complicated at first as an heir to the throne but he made it simple and abandoned everything.

 All he had with him was compassion and loving kindness to every living being. He was in search of his answers but he got his answers only when he abandoned his anger, greed, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, doubt and fear. This was his way: he didn’t hate anyone, he loved every one. He didn’t lie, he spoke only the truth. He abandoned his palace and lived in simple huts or under trees. He ate what he got from begging. He just imparted people to be compassionate with their mind in full awareness and concentration.

Buddha and the Sangha

This book has nourished my mind in the direction of mindfulness and awareness about so many things which I have been so much ignorant and taking it for granted. I am not claiming myself to be like Buddha. I just want to do what I can all do to fit into the image of the follower of Buddha.

This book gave me a clear account on the religious sites in present day Bodhgaya especially the Mahabodhi tree along with Mahabodhi temple, Sarnath, Nalanda, Kushinagar and yes the most important one is the Lumbini in Nepal where he was born.  The book even told me about his great ten disciples:

Buddha and his ten great disciples in SriLanka

• 1       Shariputra
• 2      Monggallana
•  3     Maha Kassapa
• 4     Subhuti
• 5     Purna Maitrayani-Putra
• 6     Katyayana
• 7      Anuruddha
• 8     Upali
• 9     Rahula
• 10   Ananda
• 
  

On top of this lots of chapters were talking about the conscious breathing and meditation in order to tame our monkey mind. The four noble truths and the noble eight fold path were also highlighted deeply.  There are lots of other incidents explained in detail that happened in the life of Lord Buddha and I must say that this book is a must-read one for a Buddhist or anyone who is in search of truth and liberation.

PS: Thank you Leki Dorji for sharing this book of yours. I cannot thank you enough!!