e
BU
DDHANET'SBOOK LIBRA
RY
E-mail: bdea@buddhanet.net
Web site: www.buddhanet.net
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu
Handbook for Mandkind
i
2
The Handbook for Mankind
Contents:
Foreword
3
About the translator
4
I.
Looking at Buddhism
5
II.
The true nature of things
20
III.
Three universal characteri
stics
32
IV.
Grasping and clinging
47
V.
The threefold training
57
VI.
The things we cling to
67
VII.
Insight by the nature method
80
VIII.
Insight by organized training
96
The seven purifications, etc
99
IX.
Eman
cipation from the world
114
3
Foreword
In 1956, the Venerable Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu gave a
series of lectures to a group of prospective judges,
which were subsequently edited and arranged into
what became The Handbook for Mankind
.
Since then, the success o
f this small book has been
astounding. Well over 100,000 copies have been
printed in Thai, and the book still enjoys widespread
popularity, more than three decades after the original
talks. The reason for The Handbook
’s endurance is
clear: that the Venerab
le Buddhadāsa offers fresh
insights into a timeless Truth (Dhamma), in the direct
and simple manner that characterizes all his teaching.
The clarity of his insight brings the Dhamma to life, so
that today, a new generation of readers, not yet born at
the t
ime of these talks, can find meaning in his words.
As a guide for newcomers to the Buddha Dhamma
(the Truth which the Buddha awakened to and
subsequently taught), this book is an invaluable guide.
In it are contained the essential teachings of
Buddhism. Th
e Handbook
is especially useful for
those who approach the Buddha’s teaching, not as a
subject for scholarly study, but as a means to
understand and enno