Tales and teachings of the Buddha

Originally published in 1979, Tales and Teachings of the Buddha aims to further the work done by scholars like Gombrich, Spiro and Tambiah in their field studies of lay Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Burma and Thailand. But whereas they highlight the syncretistic mix of imported Buddhist with indigenous animistic beliefs, Tales and Teachings demonstrates that within the Buddhist tradition itself there is, in the immensely popular Jataka tales, a vast fund of folkloric material that is much more congenial to the average layman than the more austere teaching found in the canon proper. In this book, the two aspects of Buddhist tradition are thoroughly explored, revealing the extent to which concessions have been made by the monks to the laity and also the extent to which the monks themselves have been influenced by the folk tradition in which they were reared. The author has completely revised the book for this new edition, correcting minor errors in the original, pruning dead wood, and incorporating some helpful observations gleaned from reviews and correspondence.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction, Nonfiction, Spiritual. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.