Customer Reviews

The Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy

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This is a really good resource for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge in addition to the prose of all the ancient Pali texts. As the title of this book suggests, what you are setting out to read here is ultimately an exploration into the careers and character of the Buddha's greatest disciples. He covers tough subjects such as their ambiguous and esoteric past lives and their aspirations towards enlightenment. Sometimes Nyanaponika, when possible, gives us an account as to the nature of the individual's death. For anyone who studies the Pali Cannon, or who wants to further their understanding of Buddhist theological history - this is your book.

The lives depicted here demonstrate that indeed upholding spiritual ideals are apparently documented as having paid off. And not necessarily by means of having gained some "thing." Here are examples of people who struggled against their human existence as much as we all do. Only through faith in the Buddhist path and their practice, were they able to transverse the mundane realm of existence into the realm of the spiritually noble. What a wonderful book we have here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

This book saves everybody a lot of searching around. It covers the main Disciples of the Buddha plus a number of Disciples not particularly well known in the Buddhist Lay Community, every Monastic I know who has read it, applauds it.

One has to read the work on Sariputta and Ananda to know that great virtues do live in the heart of mankinds. Especially at the reading of 'Last Debt Paid' concerning to last days of Sariputta, I cannot help but to be moved by the details of the event. Each reading, makes me feel the presence of the Great Disciples near me. So inspiring and motivating. A good read and re-read for the future. A must have!

Yes it is that good. I refrained from purchasing it to avoid stocking books in my house. But been borrowing it for a couple of times from the Buddhist Library before thinking of acquiring it. It is a must have - it brought so much inspiration. I felt I knew the disciples of the Buddha so well after reading the book, as though I was fortunate enough to be in the presence of the Buddha. I am a tibetan mahayana buddhist despite this book being a theravadian sectarian, I still find great benefits to be drawn from it. Trust me, if you are into the path, you'll appreciate the companionship of this book. That's my word for you.

A unique book that collates all the relevant material on the key disciples of the Buddha Gotama. Beautifully and movingly done. An inspiration.

People who can fly, walk on water, multiply themselves or have x-ray vision are usually associated with comic books. According to Buddhist teachings, these powers are accessible to those who can perfect their concentration. Apart from including biographies of some individuals credited with the above sorts of psychic abilities, it also has equally gripping accounts of the more ordinary aspects of these and many other disciples of the Buddha most of whom became enlightened. It is thus an account of the principal individuals after the Buddha who were supposed to have finished everything that needs accomplishing with no further burdens or debts to pay having gained superknowledge.

The book includes several self contained short biographies, mainly by the Germans Helmuth Hecker and the late Ven Nanyaponika. It is sadly short on details on the great female disciples. Perhaps more room can be created later.

A must for anyone inspired by Buddhism and the potentiality of the human mind for lasting freedom.

I have read and reread this book over 5 times. Each time I am able to extract new and significant understandings about each person in the book.

This book was written vastly different from other Buddhist books. Most Buddhist books focus on the Buddha (understandably so) and not the disciples. This book, tells the same story that other books present, but from a different angle. They also present new information that is not commonly known in other tellings.

This is a great book for inspiration. I have recommended this book to over 20 people, all of whom admit that this book has positively affected them.

Each of the disciples and laypersons traveled different paths to where they were. This is the beauty of it. We, while reading, can relate to certain disciples more than others. For example, I related to Sariputta and Ananda most, while not so much Mahakassapa and Mahamoggalana. I felt that they represented what I believe and I also feel that I have some of their character traits. It gives me hope to see that people who I am relate to, have achieved that which we should all strive for.

Overall, this is a great book, and before my life is done, I will probably read it another 10 times.

Thank you for taking the time to read my review

Buddha's Blessings to All

The book collects information both from the Canon and from commentaries to give a full account of the individuals that were closer to the Buddha in his lifetime. Quite naturally most of the accounts regard the period BEFORE enlightenment, for those that eventually got there as the list includes people in most parts of the path (Arahat, Anagamin, Ekagamin, Sotapatti) including Mallika, wife of King Pasanadi, which not even entered it.

This is a great book to read before jumping into the suttas. In the original texts, so many people meet the Buddha, debate him, come and go, live, die, say this and that, it can be hard to keep their stories straight. Of course, some show up repeatedly or are particularly memorable, but the suttas proper don't always fill you in on their details. Nor do they typically provide a coherent narrative all in one place, even of the great disciples like Ananda or Sariputta. I don't know of any other book that puts all these stories together to provide what approximates biographies in the modern sense.

This book started off in 1966 as a series of separate publications by Hellmuth Hecker in the German Buddhist periodical Wissen und Wandel. Hecker singlehandedly researched and wrote the monographs that make up the bulk of the book, and when one considers the amount of material he had to go through to arrive at the reasonably comprehensive accounts offered here, the impressiveness of his achievement becomes clear. Also in 1966 Nyanaponika, then president of the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka, wrote and published a biography of the Buddha's preeminent disciple, Sariputta. However, it remained to Bhikkhu Bodhi to bring the work of these men together between two covers, to perform the necessary editorial tasks, and to round out the text with a biography of his own, that of Mahakaccana. The result is an indispensable addition to the library of any Buddhist devotee.

Following is a list of the disciples whose lives are reviewed: Sariputta, Mahamoggallana, Mahakassapa, Ananda, Anuruddha, Mahakaccana, Visakha, Angulimala, Anathapindika, and fourteen other lesser known people. Bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are here, as well as laymen and laywomen. The tone throughout is pious and uncritical, and while some people may be bothered by this, Bhikkhu Bodhi makes clear at the beginning that the purpose of the book is not to try to find the historical "truth" of these people, but to present them as the Buddhist world has known and revered them. At times, the accumulation of legend weighs heavily, but very often too one can detect biographical truth and get the feeling for the reality of these people. As I read, I found myself wondering how it would have been, for example, to have had Ananda as a college roommate. I can see it even now: everybody loves him; his incredible memory means that studies are a cakewalk, women are drawn irresistibly to him and he gets voted "Most Likely to Succeed." On other hand, if I'd had to room with Mahakasspa I think I would have been a little intimidated-he was one tough daddy. All in all, this is a most worthy and informative book and I highly recommend it.

Well, I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about Buddhism. I did learn more, but it was painful. The information in this book is valuable and important, but the book is poorly written and, frankly, boring. I suppose that good writing is another aspect of worldliness that the authors have shunned.