Buddhism: the essentials

Stefan Hollos and J. Richard Hollos

Format and pricing: Paperback 5.0 x 8.0 inch (72 pages) $9.95, pdf $0.00+ (pay what you want)
ISBN: 9781887187466 (paperback)
Publication date: May 2023

This book was created for our own need to have a small book containing the essentials of Buddhism for daily meditative reading. As with the body, the mind needs daily care and attention.

We think this book serves us as the bare minimum for the core of Buddhism.

The Dhammapada is included in this book because it is both the direct teaching of Gautama Buddha, and is the single text common to all branches of Buddhism. The Dhammapada refers to numerous lists, such as the Eightfold Path, some of which are not enumerated in the Dhammapada, but which are included in this book.

The Dhammapada text included in this book is translated from Pali by F. Max Muller (1900), and edited by us for clarity. We have dedicated this book to the public domain.

About the creators of this book

Stefan Hollos and J. Richard Hollos are physicists and electrical engineers by training, and enjoy anything related to math, physics, engineering and computing. They are brothers and business partners at Exstrom Laboratories LLC in Longmont, Colorado.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Four Noble Truths
• Eightfold Path
• Five Hindrances
• Five Attachments
• Seven Fields of Awakening
• Four Stages of Awakening
• Dhammapada
• The Twin-Verses
• On Earnestness
• Thought
• Flowers
• The Fool
• The Wise Man (Pandita)
• The Venerable (Arhat)
• The Thousands
• Evil
• Punishment
• Old Age
• Self
• The World
• The Buddha (The Awakened)
• Happiness
• Pleasure
• Anger
• Impurity
• The Just
• The Way
• Miscellaneous
• The Downward Course
• The Elephant
• Thirst
• The Bhikshu (Mendicant)
• The Brahmin (Arhat)
• Further Reading