Book450 BCE
Buddhist Suttas
Anonymous
Includes the Buddha's first sermon, setting out suffering, its cause, its cessation and the eightfold path as the structure the rest of the teaching builds on.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Buddhism
A tradition organised around a diagnosis of suffering.
10 topics · 10 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews
- 02Life of the Buddha2
- 03The Four Noble Truths1
- 04Theravada1
- 05Mahayana1
- 06Vajrayana & Tibetan Buddhism1
- 07Zen & Chan1
- 08Buddhist Meditation1
- 09Buddhist Ethics1
- 10Buddhism in the West1
Reading in Buddhism
10A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
Buddhist Suttas
Anonymous · 450 BCE
Includes the Buddha's first sermon, setting out suffering, its cause, its cessation and the eightfold path as the structure the rest of the teaching…
+2 more at this level
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Dialogues of the Buddha, Part I
Anonymous · 400 BCE
Contains the Buddha's detailed instructions for practising mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind and mental objects as the single way to…
+3 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
Buddhacarita
Ashvaghosha · 100
The earliest surviving full biography of the Buddha in verse, composed by a Sanskrit court poet who later converted, treating the Buddha's life as a…
+2 more at this level
10 works
Book300 BCE
The Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former Births
Anonymous
Hundreds of birth-stories in which the future Buddha, in earlier lives as animal, king or ascetic, embodies the virtues the tales use to teach ethics to audiences unable to follow technical doctrine.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book1879
The Light of Asia
Edwin Arnold
A Victorian narrative poem retelling the Buddha's life and renunciation, credited with introducing Buddhism to a mass Western readership more than any prior scholarly account.
about 2.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Book400 BCE
Dialogues of the Buddha, Part I
Anonymous
Contains the Buddha's detailed instructions for practising mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind and mental objects as the single way to purification, still the basis of Theravada meditation instruction today.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book100 BCE
The Questions of King Milinda
Anonymous
Stages a sustained dialogue between a Greek king and a Buddhist monk who answers each of the king's logical objections to rebirth and non-self, becoming a standard vehicle for explaining Theravada doctrine to sceptical outsiders.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book780
The Sutra of Wei Lang (Hui Neng)
Huineng
The sixth Chan patriarch's autobiographical sermon arguing enlightenment is sudden and already present in an unclouded mind, not a goal reached gradually through accumulated merit.
PaidIntermediate
Book1927
Essays in Zen Buddhism: First Series
D. T. Suzuki
Presents Zen to Western readers as a practical training in direct insight rather than a philosophy to be studied, and became the single most influential channel through which Zen entered American and European thought.
about 9 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book100
Buddhacarita
Ashvaghosha
The earliest surviving full biography of the Buddha in verse, composed by a Sanskrit court poet who later converted, treating the Buddha's life as a deliberate literary argument for renunciation.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Book100
The Lotus Sutra
Anonymous
Argues the Buddha's earlier teachings were a skilful but provisional simplification, and that all paths — however different they look — converge on a single vehicle to full buddhahood.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Book1350
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Anonymous
A guide read aloud to the dying and dead describing the visions encountered in the between-state, meant to help consciousness recognise them as its own projections rather than flee into a frightened rebirth.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
In order written
450 BCE – 1927- 450 BCEBuddhist SuttasAnonymous
- 400 BCEDialogues of the Buddha, Part IAnonymous
- 300 BCEThe Jataka, or Stories of the Buddha's Former BirthsAnonymous
- 100 BCEThe Questions of King MilindaAnonymous
- 100BuddhacaritaAshvaghosha
- 100The Lotus SutraAnonymous
- 780The Sutra of Wei Lang (Hui Neng)Huineng
- 1350The Tibetan Book of the DeadAnonymous
- 1879The Light of AsiaEdwin Arnold
- 1927Essays in Zen Buddhism: First SeriesD. T. Suzuki