A very great collection of origibal Buddhist texts, with very little interpretation. This is special, because this gives one room to interpret the texts in a way one deems right. The collection is a broad overview of Budhist thought - differing from texts on The Order to Karma and Rebirth . I will surely be using this collection as a book of reference. However, due to the little iinterpretation some parts are really tough to understand. This is not a fault of the book, but it still makes certain parts hard to read - and I would have liked some more explanation by the author, especially the parts on karma. But as stated above: the lack of interpretation is at the same time the strength of this collection. Overall: a tough nut to crack, but definitely worth your while. ( )

This volume is strong particularly for Theravada Buddhism.

4. The Birth of the Buddha, pp. 46-47
Here is the story of how the Buddha, at birth, announced himself.

13. Questions Which Tend Not for Edification, pp. 120-121
This relates how the Buddha answered questions when he did not always provide the answers.

Said the elder, "Your majesty, why are not all trees alike, but some sour, some salt, some bitter, some pungent, some astringent, some sweet?" "I suppose, bhante, because of a difference in the seed." - from "The Cause of Inequality in the World."

Highly readable, this is no dry scholarly text, taken from the original palm-leaf manuscripts in the Pali language-akin to Sanskrit-and featuring simple yet radiant chapters on sentient existence, karma and rebirth, meditation and nirvana, and all the Buddha's wise and compassionate enlightenment. This much-cited scholarly anthology of key Theravada Buddhist documents originally appeared in 1896 as part of the renowned Harvard Oriental Series. An excellent, accessible presentation of the vast range of Pâli Buddhist literature, it was among the first English translations of the direct words of the Buddha. The materials for this book are drawn ultimately from the Pali writings of Ceylon & Burma, that is to say they are to be found in palm leaf manuscripts of those countries, written in the Singhalese or Burmese alphabet, as the case may be, but always in the same Pali language, a tongue very akin to the Sanskrit. These Pali writings furnish the most authoritative account of the Buddha & his doctrine that we have.