The Outline of Buddhism (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Outline of Buddhism<br><br>The object of this book is intended to give the reader an outline of the general history of Buddhism, together with the life of Buddha Sakyamuni and his doctrine in brief.<br><br>It is but just, however, that I should own here, being far from an original, the bulk of the present volume is largely taken from the several works of older scholars of great fame on this subject, and the reader will, no doubt, also find many similar statements through the writings of some Western scholars.<br><br>Where I differ from my predecessors in this undertaking is, that I have endeavored to compile the present work in gathering materials considered only as orthodox Buddhism.<br><br>So the first chapter on the life of Buddha, for instance, is mostly derived from the Northern Buddhist canons, using seldom any of the Southern text. The second chapter on the general history of Buddhism is simply a rearrangement of older texts. The third chapter on the teachings of Buddha is, likewise, a translation of the common canon wildly used among the Japanese Buddhists.<br><br>The sole aim of my present undertaking, as stated above, being simply to present a fair glimpse of this much talked of Buddhism to the general readers of this continent.<br><br>If one desires to investigate more fully, I would respectfully refer the reader to those learned works of distinguished Orientalists, such as Max Mller, Oldenberg, Eitel, Beal, Rhys Davids, Childers and Dr. Paul Carus.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.