The Life Of Buddha And Its Lessons

The Life of Buddha and Its Lessons is an essay by Henry Steel Olcott. It deals with the Buddha learning about human anguish and how to manage such suffering.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Henry Olcott's biographic account of The Buddha combines experience and wisdom when introducing his life to a Western audience. While brief, Olcott's examination of the holy prophet's life is as vivid and fresh today as it was when it was published. Widely circulated, this account was responsible for introducing many otherwise knowledgeable scholars to the origins of Buddhism and the principles of the faith. The truth behind Gautama Buddha's early life, the time in which he lived, and the effect he had upon the religious life of India and the Eastern regions is detailed. Olcott first presents a series of facts about the founding sage, and then examines further the principles of the Buddhist religion. The key differences, such as the lack of a God figure and the notion of enlightenment and self-sacrifice as being a path to Nirvana, are noted as contrasting Buddhists to the other major world religions. Commonalities which Buddhism shares are also noted; good practises of thought wherein evil ideas and emotions are kept out of the mind through cultivating good attitudes to others and the world, have their equivalents in other faiths. This edition of The Life Of Buddha And Its Lessons is adapted from the revised text of 1919, which contains modest improvements to the tone and clarity of the original.

A short commentary on the historical life of Buddha, as well as an overview if Buddhist thought - including tolerance, peace, benevolence, a brotherhood of all men. Against that backdrop are also balance, detachment, concepts of an illusory world and self-control and self-purification. Olcott was a theosophist, so the book reflects that worldview. Nevertheless, it is a classic and interesting work on the life and teachings of one of the great teachers of all time.The thoughtful student, in scanning the religious history of the race, has one fact continually forced upon his notice, viz., that there is an invariable tendency to deify whomsoever shows himself superior to the weakness of our common humanity. Look where we will, we find the saint-like man exalted into a divine personage and worshipped for a god. Though perhaps misunderstood, reviled and even persecuted while living, the apotheosis is almost sure to come after death: and the victim of yesterday's mob, raised to the state of an Intercessor in Heaven, is besought with prayer and tears, and placatory penances, to mediate with God for the pardon of human sin.