BUDDHISM

What This Book Covers

1. Chapter One - Life Before the Path
2. Chapter Two - Siddhartha Wakes Up
3. Chapter Three - Dharma Goes Public
4. Chapter Four - What the Buddha Actually Taught
5. Chapter Five - The First Council (and the First Fracture)
6. Chapter Six - Theravāda: The Way of the Elders
7. Chapter Seven - Mahāyāna: The Great Vehicle
8. Chapter Eight - The Rise of Zen
9. Chapter Nine - Vajrayāna: Lightning in a Bottle
10. Chapter Ten - Emperors and Monasteries
11. Chapter Eleven - Colonialism and Collapse
12. Chapter Twelve - Buddhism Comes West
13. Chapter Thirteen - The Modern Rebirth
14. Chapter Fourteen - The Core Never Changed

Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE Life Before the Path BEFORE BUDDHISM, THERE was no Buddhism. There was just life. And the quiet suspicion that something was wrong with it. People were born, worked, suffered, got sick, aged, lost people, and died. Then, somehow, started over again. Nobody had to explain this. Everyone just kind of knew it. Life felt stuck on a loop. Like some invisible wheel was turning underneath everything, pulling you back in the moment you tried to get out. The world was full of rules. Rules about birth. Rules about duty. Rules about sacrifice. Your life wasn’t just yours, it came with a script. You were born into a role, and that role came with obligations. If you played it right, maybe...