Books are published every month retelling stories of the life of Siddhartha, the Buddha, and his teachings. We review only perhaps one in fifty of these. We would usually point you, instead, to the essential works of biography. One was even published earlier this year: The Buddha by Philip C. Almond. There’s also the classic biography of the Buddha by Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path White Clouds.
This small color-illustrated book is still special. The author speaks of “pouring oneself” into the life of the Buddha, and that is encouraged with the skillful use of fine-art illustrations sourced from museum collections around the world. You’ll linger on a cave painting of Buddha preaching the law, a Japanese scroll painting of a dragon in the clouds, and a seventeenth-century bronze sculpture of an emaciated Shaka after fasting, among many others.
The stories are here too, beautifully and briefly told, supplemented with original translations from the Dhammapada and the Blue Cliff Record.
