A Sketch of the Buddha's Life

Readings from the Pali Canon

13,055 words

This modest selection of excerpts from the Pali Canon provides a rough sketch of the life of the Buddha. I hope you will find enough in this rather sparse selection to gain at least an inkling both of the range of the Buddhas teachings and of the sweeping trajectory of his extraordinary life....

The Twelve-spoked Wheel Of Dhamma

"And, monks, as long as this knowledge and vision of mine -- with its three rounds and twelve permutations concerning these four noble truths as they actually are present -- was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened to the right self awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras, and Brahmas, with its contemplatives and priests, its royalty and common folk. But as soon as this knowledge and vision of mine -- with its three rounds and twelve permutations concerning these four noble truths as they actually are present -- was truly pure, then I did claim to have directly awakened to the right self awakening unexcelled in the cosmos with its deities, Maras and Brahmas, with its contemplatives and priests, its royalty and common folk. Knowledge and vision arose in me: Unprovoked is my release. This is the last birth. There is now no further becoming."

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