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....
Supreme Awakening!
Through the round of many births I roamed
without reward,
without rest,
seeking the house builder.
Painful is birth
again and again.
House builder, youre seen!
You will not build a house again.
All your rafters broken,
the ridgepole destroyed,
gone to the Unformed, the mind
has come to the end of craving.
[Dhp 153-4]