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This book approaches the Dhamma, the Buddha's teaching, from a Buddhistic perspective, viewing various individual teachings presented in hundreds of early discourses of Pali canon, comprehending them under a single systemic thought of a single individual called the Buddha. It explicates the structure of this thought, going through various contextual teachings and teaching categories of the discourses, treating them as necessary parts of a liberating thought that constitutes the right view of one who embraces the Buddha's teaching as his or her sole philosophy of life. It interprets the diverse individual dhammas as being in congruence with each other; and as contributory to forming the whole of the Buddha's teaching, the Dhamma. By exploring some selected topics such as ignorance, configurations, not-self, and nibbana in thirteen chapters, the book enables readers to understand the whole (the Dhamma) in relation to the parts (the dhammas), and the parts in relation to the whole, while realizing the importance of studying every single dhamma category or topic not for its own sake but for understand the entirety of the teaching. This way of viewing and explaining the teachings of the discourses enables readers to clearly comprehend the teaching of the Buddha in early Buddhism.
List of contents
Introduction.- Learning the Dhamma.- The Middle Theory.- Ignorance of Ignorance.- Subjective Configurations.- Sensory Experience.- Not-self.- Craving for Sensuality.- Craving for Self-continuity.- Reckoned Suffering.- Three Sufferings.- The Birth-cycle.- The Ultimate Goal.- The Gradual Path.- Conclusion.
About the author
G. A. Somaratne is Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies, The University of Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan scholar in early Buddhism. He was formerly Co-director of Dhammachai Tipi¿aka Project, Rector of Sri Lanka international Buddhist Academy, Professor in P¿li and Buddhist Studies, University of Peradeniya, and Associate Professor in Religion, Miyazaki International College. His previous publications include a critical edition of the
Säyuttanik¿ya Vol. I (1998), and contributions to
Common Buddhist Text (2017).
