Buddha_A Very Short Introduction Read online

  The Buddha: A Very Short Introduction

  Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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  © Michael Carrithers 1983, 1996

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  Database right Oxford University Press (maker)

  First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1983

  First published as a Very Short Introduction 2001

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  British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

  Data available

  ISBN 0–19–285453–4

  7 9 10 8 6

  Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

  Printed in Great Britain by

  TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall

  Very Short Introductions available now:

  ADVERTISING • Winston Fletcher

  AFRICAN HISTORY • John Parker and Richard Rathbone

  AGNOSTICISM • Robin Le Poidevin

  AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS • L. Sandy Maisel

  THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY • Charles O. Jones

  ANARCHISM • Colin Ward

  ANCIENT EGYPT • Ian Shaw

  ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY • Julia Annas

  ANCIENT WARFARE • Harry Sidebottom

  ANGLICANISM • Mark Chapman

  THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE • John Blair

  ANIMAL RIGHTS • David DeGrazia

  ANTISEMITISM • Steven Beller

  THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS • Paul Foster

  ARCHAEOLOGY • Paul Bahn

  ARCHITECTURE • Andrew Ballantyne

  ARISTOCRACY • William Doyle

  ARISTOTLE • Jonathan Barnes

  ART HISTORY • Dana Arnold

  ART THEORY • Cynthia Freeland

  ATHEISM • Julian Baggini

  AUGUSTINE • Henry Chadwick

  AUTISM • Uta Frith

  BARTHES • Jonathan Culler

  BESTSELLERS • John Sutherland

  THE BIBLE • John Riches

  BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY • Eric H. Cline

  BIOGRAPHY • Hermione Lee

  THE BOOK OF MORMON • Terryl Givens

  THE BRAIN • Michael O'Shea

  BRITISH POLITICS • Anthony Wright

  BUDDHA • Michael Carrithers

  BUDDHISM • Damien Keown

  BUDDHIST ETHICS • Damien Keown

  CAPITALISM • James Fulcher

  CATHOLICISM • Gerald O'Collins

  THE CELTS • Barry Cunliffe

  CHAOS • Leonard Smith

  CHOICE THEORY • Michael Allingham

  CHRISTIAN ART • Beth Williamson

  CHRISTIAN ETHICS • D. Stephen Long

  CHRISTIANITY • Linda Woodhead

  CITIZENSHIP • Richard Bellamy

  CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY • Helen Morales

  CLASSICS • Mary Beard and John Henderson

  CLAUSEWITZ • Michael Howard

  THE COLD WAR • Robert McMahon

  COMMUNISM • Leslie Holmes

  CONSCIOUSNESS • Susan Blackmore

  CONTEMPORARY ART • Julian Stallabrass

  CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY • Simon Critchley

  COSMOLOGY • Peter Coles

  THE CRUSADES • Christopher Tyerman

  CRYPTOGRAPHY • Fred Piper and Sean Murphy

  DADA AND SURREALISM • David Hopkins

  DARWIN • Jonathan Howard

  THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS • Timothy Lim

  DEMOCRACY • Bernard Crick

  DESCARTES • Tom Sorell

  DESERTS • Nick Middleton

  DESIGN • John Heskett

  DINOSAURS • David Norman

  DIPLOMACY • Joseph M. Siracusa

  DOCUMENTARY FILM • Patricia Aufderheide

  DREAMING • J. Allan Hobson

  DRUGS • Leslie Iversen

  DRUIDS • Barry Cunliffe

  THE EARTH • Martin Redfern

  ECONOMICS • Partha Dasgupta

  EGYPTIAN MYTH • Geraldine Pinch

  EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN • Paul Langford

  THE ELEMENTS • Philip Ball

  EMOTION • Dylan Evans

  EMPIRE • Stephen Howe

  ENGELS • Terrell Carver

  ENGLISH LITERATURE • Jonathan Bate

  EPIDEMIOLOGY • Roldolfo Saracci

  ETHICS • Simon Blackburn

  THE EUROPEAN UNION • John Pinder and Simon Usherwood

  EVOLUTION • Brian and Deborah Charlesworth

  EXISTENTIALISM • Thomas Flynn

  FASCISM • Kevin Passmore

  FASHION • Rebecca Arnold

  FEMINISM • Margaret Walters

  FILM MUSIC • Kathryn Kalinak

  THE FIRST WORLD WAR • Michael Howard

  FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY • David Canter

  FORENSIC SCIENCE • Jim Fraser

  FOSSILS • Keith Thomson

  FOUCAULT • Gary Gutting

  FREE SPEECH • Nigel Warburton

  FREE WILL • Thomas Pink

  FRENCH LITERATURE • John D. Lyons

  THE FRENCH REVOLUTION • William Doyle

  FREUD • Anthony Storr

  FUNDAMENTALISM • Malise Ruthven

  GALAXIES • John Gribbin

  GALILEO • Stillman Drake

  GAME THEORY • Ken Binmore

  GANDHI • Bhikhu Parekh

  GEOGRAPHY • John Matthews and David Herbert

  GEOPOLITICS • Klaus Dodds

  GERMAN LITERATURE • Nicholas Boyle

  GERMAN PHILOSOPHY • Andrew Bowie

  GLOBAL CATASTROPHES • Bill McGuire

  GLOBAL WARMING • Mark Maslin

  GLOBALIZATION • Manfred Steger

  THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL • Eric Rauchway

  HABERMAS • James Gordon Finlayson

  HEGEL • Peter Singer

  HEIDEGGER • Michael Inwood

  HIEROGLYPHS • Penelope Wilson

  HINDUISM • Kim Knott

  HISTORY • John H. Arnold

  THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY • Michael Hoskin

  THE HISTORY OF LIFE • Michael Benton

  THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE • William Bynum

  THE HISTORY OF TIME • Leofranc Holford-Strevens

  HIV/AIDS • Alan Whiteside

  HOBBES • Richard Tuck

&nb
sp; HUMAN EVOLUTION • Bernard Wood

  HUMAN RIGHTS • Andrew Clapham

  HUME • A. J. Ayer

  IDEOLOGY • Michael Freeden

  INDIAN PHILOSOPHY • Sue Hamilton

  INFORMATION • Luciano Floridi

  INNOVATION • Mark Dodgson and David Gann

  INTELLIGENCE • Ian J. Deary

  INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION • Khalid Koser

  INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS • Paul Wilkinson

  ISLAM • Malise Ruthven

  ISLAMIC HISTORY • Adam Silverstein

  JOURNALISM • Ian Hargreaves

  JUDAISM • Norman Solomon

  JUNG • Anthony Stevens

  KABBALAH • Joseph Dan

  KAFKA • Ritchie Robertson

  KANT • Roger Scruton

  KEYNES • Robert Skidelsky

  KIERKEGAARD • Patrick Gardiner

  THE KORAN • Michael Cook

  LANDSCAPES AND CEOMORPHOLOGY • Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles

  LAW • Raymond Wacks

  THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS • Peter Atkins

  LEADERSHIP • Keth Grint

  LINCOLN • Allen C. Guelzo

  LINGUISTICS • Peter Matthews

  LITERARY THEORY • Jonathan Culler

  LOCKE • John Dunn

  LOGIC • Graham Priest

  MACHIAVELLI • Quentin Skinner

  MARTIN LUTHER • Scott H. Hendrix

  THE MARQUIS DE SADE • John Phillips

  MARX • Peter Singer

  MATHEMATICS • Timothy Gowers

  THE MEANING OF LIFE • Terry Eagleton

  MEDICAL ETHICS • Tony Hope

  MEDIEVAL BRITAIN • John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths

  MEMORY • Jonathan K. Foster

  MICHAEL FARADAY • Frank A. J. L. James

  MODERN ART • David Cottington

  MODERN CHINA • Rana Mitter

  MODERN IRELAND • Senia Paseta

  MODERN JAPAN • Christopher Goto-Jones

  MODERNISM • Christopher Butler

  MOLECULES • Philip Ball

  MORMONISM • Richard Lyman Bushman

  MUSIC • Nicholas Cook

  MYTH • Robert A. Segal

  NATIONALISM • Steven Grosby

  NELSON MANDELA • Elleke Boehmer

  NEOLIBERALISM • Manfred Steger and Ravi Roy

  THE NEW TESTAMENT • Luke Timothy Johnson

  THE NEW TESTAMENT AS LITERATURE • Kyle Keefer

  NEWTON • Robert Iliffe

  NIETZSCHE • Michael Tanner

  NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN • Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew

  THE NORMAN CONQUEST • George Garnett

  NORTHERN IRELAND • Marc Mulholland

  NOTHING • Frank Close

  NUCLEAR WEAPONS • Joseph M. Siracusa

  THE OLD TESTAMENT • Michael D. Coogan

  PARTICLE PHYSICS • Frank Close

  PAUL • E. P. Sanders

  PENTECOSTALISM • William K. Kay

  PHILOSOPHY • Edward Craig

  PHILOSOPHY OF LAW • Raymond Wacks

  PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE • Samir Okasha

  PHOTOGRAPHY • Steve Edwards

  PLANETS • David A. Rothery

  PLATO • Julia Annas

  POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY • David Miller

  POLITICS • Kenneth Minogue

  POSTCOLONIALISM • Robert Young

  POSTMODERNISM • Christopher Butler

  POSTSTRUCTURALISM • Catherine Belsey

  PREHISTORY • Chris Gosden

  PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY • Catherine Osborne

  PRIVACY • Raymond Wacks

  PROGRESSIVISM • Walter Nugent

  PSYCHIATRY • Tom Burns

  PSYCHOLOGY • Gillian Butler and Freda McManus

  PURITANISM • Francis J. Bremer

  THE QUAKERS • Pink Dandelion

  QUANTUM THEORY • John Polkinghorne

  RACISM • Ali Rattansi

  THE REAGAN REVOLUTION • Gil Troy

  THE REFORMATION • Peter Marshall

  RELATIVITY • Russell Stannard

  RELIGION IN AMERICA • Timothy Beal

  THE RENAISSANCE • Jerry Brotton

  RENAISSANCE ART • Geraldine A. Johnson

  ROMAN BRITAIN • Peter Salway

  THE ROMAN EMPIRE • Christopher Kelly

  ROMANTICISM • Michael Ferber

  ROUSSEAU • Robert Wokler