The Life of Buddha and Its Lessons

by Henry Steel Olcott

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Spirituality, Religion, Buddhism, Classics, History

76 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

1832-1907

Reviews

[Apoorva]

Ughh! This book was more of a rant about irrelevant ideas and I didn't learn anything useful.

[Carolina]

I think this book is not about getting all the answers to Buddhism but to understand a bit the way It has changed in the western world. HSO was one of the first Occidentals to turned to Buddhism and it's really interesting reading his catholic mentality speaking about something completely different.

[Galicius]

The author extols Buddhism and denigrates several other religious figures including “apocryphal Jesus.” The few meager sources he refers to are mythical and dubious. I did not know when I came across this that the author was one of Helen Blavatsky’s spiritualist cohorts.

[Prabhani TG ✨]

It’s a brief explanation about the life of buddha and the author has explained briefly about other religious leaders in the beginning.

It explains the early life of buddha’s as a king’s son and how he spent the life after giving up all the wealth. It’s much brief on the lessons that the buddha has given. The Author uses heavy vocabulary and bit difficult to read But it’s pretty good for an introduction to the life of Buddha.

[dorotea]

Author was very opinionated and quite close minded. He focused on many irrelevant points and certainly made some questionable claims. For a book about theosophy it was too close minded for someone who has different opinions to enjoy it.

[V]

A specious beginning, proclaiming the ills of euhemerization deteriorates with laughable rapidity into a grandiloquent deification of Buddha.

Olcott's self-view as a gimlet-eyed critic is apparent from his self-aggrandising spree of religion-bashing. In reality, his perspicacity extends no further than his sometime decision to buy a good thesaurus.

Exotic quotes, flowery vocabulary and saccharine expression serve to powder a turd. I have never seen the central tenets of Buddhism so grossly misinterpreted.

The sole educational value is to aid the reader in understanding the possible necessity for censorship, or a least strong disclaimers, around 'works' apparently representative of a belief system.

Psychogen? Bitch, please ...

[Mirela]

A very short book, more an essay than a book. A very convoluted language, but keeping in mind when was written probably I should expected. Anyway, I didn't enjoy it. The good thing was short and free on amazon kindle.

[Baneen]

Absolutely brilliant. I highly recommend it. A must read book.

[Catina Wilson]

Horrible and hard to follow

I was looking for a book to help me better understand Buddhism.....this isn't it. The good thing about the book is that it is short

[Sandeep Gupta]

Thoroughly confused, I am!!!!!

[Mckinley]

Short. Introduction discusses making men into (demi) gods. Intellectual look at history and fiction of Sakyamuni Buddha

[Anant Chandra]

A quick read into the beliefs

Just a short read into the life lessons and how it is interpreted by the author . Fine perceptions but could be different for others to understand.

[Maik]

Mainly interesting this point as an artefact.
Olcott was obviously trying to fit Buddhism and the Buddha into the framework of the time and while that perspective is interesting, it should not be confused for anything approaching authoritative.

[Jumi]

24 pages...It’s this for real?

[Billie Pritchett]

Henry Steel Olcott's Life of Buddha and Its Lessons is a little book/essay with a good strong half but which falls quite short in its delivery thereafter. At first, Olcott writes of the misfortune that so many people deify, or practically deify, a normal person thought to have spiritual powers, which, Olcott argues, denigrates the ordinary lives that other people experience. Then Olcott writes briefly about the Buddha learning about human suffering and being a model for dealing with human suffering. But surely, as would be consistent with Olcott's earlier sections, the Buddha was just a person too, and one who suffered from back pain later in his life and died of food poisoning at that. I am not saying that the Buddha cannot be a model for how to live but rather that Olcott was not careful enough in his essay to avoid the trappings of practically deifying someone, a position he so acutely militated against.

[Tanuj]

This book is very concise in what it tries to express. I understand this is a part of a larger book that explore theosophy. Reading only this short piece, for someone without a basic understanding of Buddhism, can be very confusing and difficult to comprehend what the author is really trying to express. As this is part of a larger book, what is written is basis on the understanding that the author seems to have provided in earlier chapters.
While this is an attempt to provide a concise understanding of Buddhist philosophy stemming from Buddha's life, I would not recommend it to anyone who isn't acquainted with the basic philosophy of Buddhism or is looking to understand it through this text.

[sebastian]

Good knowledge provided

Add some.more knowledge in getting to understand Buddhism. There are plenty of books it there about Buddha. Not so easy to find That one that fully completes you. This one helps a bit more.

[Harsh Dutta]

The Life of Buddha and its Lessons at best is an attempt to articulate very mingled thoughts of the author. Speaking of profound philosophies of Euhemerization and of the Buddha and of Christianity in a short book, Olcott leaves a lot to be desired. Partially intriguing and largely disappointing, the books gives a spine-jerk in the beginning but an eye ache as it moves towards the end. For those who have studied the Buddha (especially the works of Thic Naht Hanh) would remain largely disappointed by this very random work.

[Alicia]

I was not impressed by this book. The author was very closed minded and opinionated and his arguments were very unbalanced and one-sided, which I feel is not in sync with writing about a spiritual philosophy. His writing borders on fanaticism with is antithetical to Buddhism.

[Harshal]

Understanding religion

The author covers the broad aspects of every religion and derives from it the essence of Buddhism that separates it from its peers. A lot of research has gone into creating this quality work.

[Jay Kamble]

Good half an hour read, finishes to early tough

The book is good. It briefly tells the teachings of Buddha. But as you keep reading it you want to know more and suddenly the book ends. Leaving behind some questions in your mind.

[Emma]

I thought I'd feel enlightened and like I understood a bit more about Buddha and the lessons after reading this, unfortunately I didn't.

[Miguel David]

Very elaborate wording for simple Buddhist concepts. Jumping from his own ideas to others's without doing proper quoting. Not worthwhile.

[Grace Loughran]

Concluded on many assumptions that were never addressed. I found myself flicking backwards, wondering if I'd missed a few pages.

[Jeremy Smith]

This short book is a little gem. Father finishing this book I feel that Buddhism has some insights into the human psyche that Christianity misses

[Sandhya]

The author is overly dramatic and exaggerates on irrelevant points.

[Rohit Bharadwaj]

Generalization of different theories is bound to miss some points.

[Benjamin Barnes]

Theosophy

Read it and in the end I was to find out it was Theosophy. Quick read and it was free so I can't complain.

[Athena Anderson]

It was ok

It was good be not the best of books I have read before interesting though for what it was may read it again

[Chris leggett]

Well meaning

Heavy going, too much time dissing other religions ,but just in its accountabilities of mankind. for me a little too negative ,notspeaking of direction.