What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula

All over the world today there is growing interest in Buddhism. Numerous. Societies and study-groups have come into being, and scores of books have appeared on the teaching of the Buddha. It is to be regretted, however, that most of them have been written by those who are not really competent, or who bring to their task misleading assumptions derived from other religions, which must misinterpret and misrepresent their subject.

A professor of comparative religion who recently wrote a book on Buddhism did not even know that Ananda, the devoted attendant of the Buddha, was a bhikkhu (a monk), but thought he was a layman! The knowledge of Buddhism propagated by books like these can be left to the reader's imagination.