ISBN:  81-7508-196-1 

Vol. No: 671

Gautama, as we all know, renounced the world and left home to find an answer for human misery. He became Buddha, the enlightened one, when the universal truth suddenly dawned on him one day as he sat meditating under a Bodhi tree in Gaya.He came back with practical solutions, which any ordinary person could adopt. Buddha advocated the well-known middle path, the path of moderation. Those who followed him had to first accept and comprehend the four noble truths:·That worldly existence is full of misery;·That desire and attachment are the causes of worldly existence;·Keeping out desire and attachment could end that worldly existence;·That there is a way to do this.Buddha taught that right speech, right action and right means of livelihood help one achieve control on the physical plane, while right exertion, right-mindedness and right point of view are essential for intellectual development. The Buddhist tales that have come down to us through the ages illustrate that these guidelines – of moderation and righteousness – when implemented, bring peace of mind to the individual. A few such stories have been included in this Amar Chitra Katha. The last one in this book is a Zen Buddhist tale from Japan.