Noble Warrior

A biography of the Buddha using passages collected exclusively from the Pāli Canon. The translated passages are interspersed with a minimum of explanation, allowing the compilers of the Canon to speak for themselves. While the passages in the Canon are not sufficient for a strictly chronological account, they do contain ample material for a thematic one that highlights the Buddha’s three main accomplishments: 1) finding the path and attaining awakening, 2) teaching that path to his contemporaries, establishing a living apprenticeship for awakening, and 3) establishing the Dhamma and Vinaya to give structure to that apprenticeship so that the True Dhamma would last for many generations. Particular attention is given to the many accounts of the Buddha’s awakening and the role that his awakening played in shaping the Dhamma he taught.