Piyadassi Thera

The Buddha’s Ancient Path

The Buddha’s Ancient Path

Over the years, many expositions of the Buddha’s teachings have been published in English, but many lack authenticity and do not represent what the Buddha taught correctly.

Hence the need for this authentic and comprehensive book based on the Four Noble Truths, which are the central conception of Buddhism, and the Noble Eightfold Path, which is Buddhism in practice.

This is a book on basic Buddhism with a difference, for it was written by a monk who was a native of Sri Lanka, a scholar and a well-known preacher. He has the Pali Canon and the Commentaries at his fingertips, so that the book is full of apposite stories and quotations of what the Buddha said— many of them hard to find elsewhere in English.

Do you want to start meditating or deepen your practice?
We offer personal guidance, completely on a donation basis.

Free Meditation Course

About Piyadassi Thera

Piyadassi Thera (8 July 1914 – 18 August 1998) was born in Kotahena in Colombo, Sri Lanka and was educated at Nalanda College, Colombo, thereafter at the University of Sri Lanka and the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard University as a research student.

He is best known as a great preacher of the Dhamma both in Sinhala and in English and it was in this field that his popularity was foremost. Piyadassi Thera was one of the world's most eminent Buddhist monks having traveled widely carrying the message of the Buddha-Dhamma, both to the East and to West, he was able to write in a style that has universal appeal.

Piyadassi Thera was the Sinhala editor at the Buddhist Publication Society until his death. Along with Nyanaponika Thera, he was one of the chief kalyāṇamittas of well-known American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi.

All posts by Piyadassi Thera

You yourselves must strive, the Buddhas only point the way

Buddha, Dhp 276