Shakyamuni Buddha

I am reading this as an assignment for Ministry school. I already know almost everything in the book but there is an interesting twist in the way it is written. The book doesn't have any teachings, sutras or Buddhist advice. It is exclusively the life of Buddha. I recommend this book to everyone has had a taste of Buddhism. To someone not familiar with the Buddha, the book may not mean much. I'm sure I will reread this publication as I find it most interesting.

This book is a quick read, but it nicely sums up the key points in the Buddha's life, and puts a few of the teachings into the biographical context, too. Niwano is himself a Buddhist, so the text is generally free from the usual misinterpretations often found in Buddha-bios written by mainstream non-Buddhist academics. However, he's aware of viewpoints from outside his own tradition, too, and takes care to point out some of the differences. Occasionally, the author mentions multiple tellings of the same story and their variations (for example, he points out that some traditions say Siddhartha meditated for 14 days during his last sitting before the awakening, where others say 21 days and some seven weeks.

Re-posted, after fixing typos! Updated Review 02/15/2010 My most favorite Book about Buddha and Buddhism, though simple but truthful and elegant language. If you would like to learn about religion, you have to understand that there is a whole of lots of myths, manipulation and incredibly, awfully meaningless concepts be incorporated in almost all the religion in this world, except Buddhism. However, almost 80-90% today's writers on Buddha and Buddhism is sprayed with pepper and salt all over, for example, the topics of Birth and Rebirth, Beliefs and worshipping etc, in none of which Buddha had any interest, belief or practices. Therefore, you need a book written by someone who is brutally honest about something that happened centuries ago. Author Nikkyo Niwano's Shakyamuni Buddha a Narrative Biography is the Book for you. I recently read this book and re-read twice, to my amazement I was just glued into it because of few reasons. This book is written in a simple language that flow across you so smooth, the content is as truthful as a real Buddhist can narrate!. And most importantly, it does not add the pepper and salt of mythical believes and myths about Buddha, myths and BS stories are the last thing you will see in a good Buddhist book. Thus, this combination makes it a better ingredient for a very truthful book on Buddha. I will read this book many more times and I decided to give or send this book as a gift to learners or people who wanted to know more about Buddha, mostly westerners who are not familiar with the Buddhism, and anyone I come across who strikes a conversation with me and if he or she asks if there is a simple and good Buddhist book, I will direct them to this and if possible, I can send this to them. I have already sent a few copies of this book to known as well as people I just met once........!, I think that is how a Dhamma mind work and should work, this is the very essence of Buddha's Dhamma. Let us discuss about this book and why this book is in my recommendation list: Lord Buddha, in my view and confirmation is the only highly enlightened human ever lived on this planet; he preached and practiced noble human service to the human society. It is not to discourage or to degrade any other great Buddhist that only Buddha is the enlightened, others over the centuries tried and still trying, but none of them never, ever practiced and attempted the same means and ways as how Buddha achieved, as it is probably the most difficult thing of all, therefore, do not be shortsighted about what I said on enlightenment. In all reality, every human has the ability to become enlightened, but not many makes effort. On the other hand, one need not be so highly enlightened to dhamma services or to reach a good state of mind, he spent years in most excruciating meditation practices that to an extent physically and physiologically hurt Buddha, then he gave up few and altered few techniques, finally reached the Nirvana or beyond to the highly

One of the main problems Westerners have in beginning to understand Buddhism is lack of knowledge of the Buddha himself, Siddhartha Gotama. Most people don't realize that the Buddha had been raised as royalty, that he came from modern-day Nepal, and not from China or Japan, and that he nerver claimed to be a god, only "awake". This re-telling of the Buddha's life from the founder of the second-biggest Buddhist organization in Japan (www.rk-world.org), is both accessible and complete. Why do the Buddha's teachings still inspire and enlighten 2500 years after his death? This book will help anyone--Buddhist or otherwise--appreciate the power of the Buddha's message, and the compassionate nature of his personality. A great book for introducing the Buddha to friends and family, too.