Meditation

An interesting book, there was a lot of words that I didn’t understand, some were explained while others were not. The reader took a bit of getting used to but after a while I enjoyed his performance.

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Solid book about the Buddhas teaching

Enjoyed the book a lot, the Buddhas teachings are always a joy to hear and its well put together. Narration could be a bit more relaxed in voice and tone. Overall great book Thanks.

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Drawn from primary sources

I liked that it drew from primary sources and showed what Buddha taught as opposed to how Buddhism is interpreted and practiced, particularly in the West.

People from other religious backgrounds need to brace themselves for their beliefs to be summarily dismissed. However it can work both ways and I was not convinced by the arguments presented.

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Beautiful introduction to Buddhism

I thoroughly enjoyed this well-read text. The narrator has a calm peaceful voice that enhances the text. Whilst there are a few mispronounciations of pali words and names of historical characters, this doesn't detract from the author's beautifllly presented, epic work. this id a highly recommended introduction to Buddhism, a way of life that distills many complex texts into an easy to understand reference book. It is worth listening to many times.

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8 people found this helpful

To me an exelent first book on this subject.

Well read and a good text selection allthough sometimes irritatingly repetitive in a probably very authentic way :-) I have nothing to compare it with, but I feel well informed and do not think I need other supplementing books. I may hear this one a few times more.

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3 people found this helpful

Truly Enlightening

I have listened to this book over and over again and each time I learn something new. Clear explanations and easy to understand. A great book for anyone wanting to learn more about Buddhism and life in general.

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3 people found this helpful

Easy for beginners to enjoy

Narrator was excellent. The content was delivered in a meaningful and illuminated way. Thank you.

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3 people found this helpful

A painful listen

This is the hardest audiobook I've ever had to listen to. I would genuinely say to choose ANY other book on the topic to understand Buddhism. It is repetitive to the point of being impossible to follow, even though I was writing notes and jumping back.
Dull performance and difficult repetitive language.

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Great book, very well read, but with some errors

This is a great book, wonderfully read by Taradasa. Taradasa has a terrific voice and perfect style of delivery for Buddhist texts, and I'm now enjoying his reading of 'The Middle-Length Discourses of the Buddha'.
My main issue with this particular audiobook, 'What the Buddha Taught', is that it contains a number of mistakes. The main ones that I picked up were as follows:
1. Chapter 6, p.66: Book text - "there is the fact of No-selfness"; Audiobook reads - "there is the fact of no selflessness" (42:30).
2. Chapter 7, p.73: Book text - "you should forget again the false idea of 'I'"; Audiobook reads - "you should not forget again the false idea of 'I'" (19:05)
3. Chapter 7, p.75: Book text - "investigating the question"; Audiobook reads - "investing the question" (25:20).
4. Chapter 8, p.76: Book text - "if they do live in a remote place"; Audiobook reads - 'if they do not live in a remote place" (01:50).
5. Chapter 8, p.81: Book text - "about his teaching on social, economic and political matters"; Audiobook reads - "about his social teaching on social, economic and political matters" (17:00).
6. Selected Texts, p.105 (Audiobook Chapter 14): Book text - "with detachment, passionlessness"; Audiobook reads - "with detachment, with passionless" (18:40 & 19:15).
7. Selected Texts, p.113 (Audiobook Chapter 16): Book text - "when experiencing a painful worldly feeling, he knows: 'I experience a painful worldly feeling'"; Audiobook misses this sentence out (10:40).
8. Selected Texts, p.114 (Audiobook Chapter 16): Book text - "and the unliberated state of mind as the unliberated state"; Audiobook reads - "and the unliberated state of mind as the liberated state" (12:55).
All in all, this is a good book, and the reading is very good indeed, but more care needs to be taken with the reading, as some of the mistakes distort the meaning quite badly.

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Good entry book to read on buddhism

Readying foot notes was not necessary and too many repetitions. Rather dry could have been more storytelling

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