Buddhism Explained
The fact, faith, fable, fiction, and fear-based teachings
of the Pali Canon.

Buddhism Explained is a book I started writing around 2005 and took nine years of my free time. However, still not finished, and seriously jaded by the effort, I left it as it was for nine more years. I am now publishing it piece-meal, on this website, and for free. The book started as research for my own benefit. I felt the need to make this effort because I needed to know the truth behind Buddha’s teaching as a direct experience. I didn't want to defer to others for my wisdom and I didn't want a religion. Besides, asking others for answers was precarious, as it had rarely brought satisfaction, and often drew contempt, and people were getting younger.

I didn't anticipate my quest would take a fraction of the time it did. But the extensive, questionable and even sometimes plainly contradictory teachings of the Buddhist canon drew me in, and the more time I gave it, the more I was determined to finish what I’d started. To do this, I gave up on my cherished musical aspirations.

The conundrums in the Canon were so confounding, I was forced to find ways to analyse many of its teachings. Hence the subtitle; The fact, faith, fable, fiction, and fear-based teachings of the Pali Canon. Curiously, some teachings are similar to biblical teachings, while being in plain contradiction to other discourses in the Canon. There had to be a reason behind this. It took several years before I thought the unthinkable: The arrival of Christianity in southern India had spawned and catalysed what is today called Mahayana Buddhism.

This is consistent with history. Siddhatta Gotama existed several hundred years before Christ, and there are no written Buddhist texts dating from pre-Christian India, they all emerged in the Christian era in Southern India, where Christianity first arrived.

But what could make Christianity so popular? Significantly, unlike the Vedic religions of India, and other faiths based on reincarnation, Christianity offered liberation from suffering in one life-time, rather than countless. Also, Christianity promulgates brotherly love far more effectively than Buddhism. Simply put, Mahayana Buddhism was an attempt to compete with Christianity.

Fortunately, the Pali Canon contains the very criteria to distinguish Siddhatta Gotama’s original teachings, from the questionable entries. But, they have to be looked for and the comparisons made. Making a compelling job of this task has now taken over a decade of work.

Not all of the contents of this book will appeal to all readers. Its contents is comprehensive, as I had a lot of questions. What was very time consuming was the need to disambiguate the different use of words, as well as other scholarly issues that had to be cleared up. But the reader can meaningfully simply skip a subject that isn’t of interest.

What is presented here as one book, could be presented as two; one as a theory and practice, and another as disambiguations and critique of the Canon. This is something I do not envisage doing. I have a need to move on to other things.  But the book is free and the reader can choose discreet subjects from the extensive list of contents. The book does not have to be read beginning to end.
This book is not for the dogmatic. It presents years of my analytical thinking that gives the serious student of Buddhism a good start and unique perspectives.

This is consistent with Siddhatta Gotama's teachings. He chastised adherents of his practice to study well the words of senior practitioners (bhikkhus). Thus, there are well over one hundred citations from 40 discourses from the Pali Canon used for study and elucidation. For simplification, I have tabulated teachings where I can, covered all Buddhist meditations, including the meditation I used for my own 'descent into Voidness'. The book also covers Buddhist ethics, the doctrine of impermanence of matter and self, reincarnation and the echelons of existence, and Gotama's teaching on miracles. I also elucidate why Siddhatta Gotama not only refused to teach laity but was also reluctant to teach other renunciants.

Many Canonical teachings are couched in the Vedic cosmology prevalent for Gotama's time period. Some he accepted, some he qualified, and some he rejected. I am far from the first to question the origins and veracity of the Pali Canon. The serious inconsistences in the Canon do not devalue it wholesale. The original teaching is still in there and I present my findings after years of analysis. It gives the serious student of Buddhism a good start and unique perspectives. It is not for the dogmatic. The book does not have to be read beginning to end. The reader can just read any discreet topic.

I have referred to Sidhatta Gotama as The Buddha, throughout the book. Even though this title was posthumously applied, and my personal choice would be to refer to him as Gotama, I use the term not only out of respect for Buddhists, but also, because there is no doubting he merits his place in history: He has been the inspiration behind the ethical behaviour of billions