This is a book on basic Buddhism with a difference, for it is written by a monk who was native of Ceylon, a scholar and a well-known preacher and broadcaster in Ceylon. He had the Pali canon and the commentaries at his fingertips, so that his book is full of apposite stories and quotations of what the Buddha said- many of them appearing in English for the first time. In recent years a number of expositions of the Buddha's teachings have been published in English, but most of them lack authenticity and do not represent what the Buddha taught correctly. Hence the need for this authentic book based on the Four Noble Truths about suffering which are the central conception of Buddhism and on the Noble Eightfold Path which is Buddhism in practice. This should prove the standard textbook from which basic Buddhism of the Theravada is taught for many years to come. It cannot be stressed too strongly that the Mahayana Buddhism of Tibet , China and Japan is based on and developed out of this basic Buddhism of the Theravadins in Ceylon.
