Buddhism: the essentials

This book was created for our own need to have a small book containing the essentials of Buddhism for daily meditative reading. As with the body, the mind needs daily care and attention.

We think this book serves us as the bare minimum for the core of Buddhism.

The Dhammapada is included in this book because it is both the direct teaching of Gautama Buddha, and is the single text common to all branches of Buddhism. The Dhammapada refers to numerous lists, such as the Eightfold Path, some of which are not enumerated in the Dhammapada, but which are included in this book.

The Dhammapada text included in this book is translated from Pali by F. Max Muller (1900), and edited by us for clarity.