What is the Dharma?: the essential teachings of the Buddha

What is the meaning of life? How can we be truly happy? These questions are no less pressing for having been asked so many times. In Buddhism, the answer is to be found in the Dharma - a traditional term which means both 'the Truth' and 'the Path'.

Guided by a lifetime's experience of Buddhist practice, Sangharakshita tackles the question: 'What is the Dharma?' from many different angles. The result is a basic starter kit of teachings and practices, which emphasizes the fundamentally practical nature of Buddhism.

In turn refreshing, unsettling, and inspiring, this book lays before us the essential Dharma, timeless and universal: the Truth that addresses the deepest questions of our hearts and minds and the Path that shows us how we can renew our lives.

PART 1: The Truth

1 The Essential Truth
2 The Dynamics of Being
3 The Texture of Reality
4 Nirvana
5 The Mystery of the Void

PART 2: The Path

6 The Gravitational Pull and the Point of No Return
7 The Spiral Path
8 The Journey to Enlightenment
9 The Pattern of Buddhist life and Work
10 The Threefold Way - Ethics
11 The Threefold Way - Meditation
12 The Threefold Way - Wisdom
13 The Cosmic Significance of the Bodhisattva Ideal

Notes and References
Further Reading
Index