The best books on Theravada Buddhism

The Eightfold Path is the road map to freedom laid out by the Buddha. From this derives the mindfulness and concentration practices, as well as guidance on wisdom, ethics, and morality. Bhikkhu Bodhi packs more wisdom into this short book than any other Buddhist text you will read. So dense that a single sentence can send you off on days of reflection, I come back over and over to this book for guidance and inspiration.

The first of this great scholar’s series on the Buddha’s instructions for mindfulness, this sits as perhaps the greatest modern commentary on what has become a worldwide phenomenon. Building from the core “Satipatthana Sutta,” or “The Discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness,” Analayo draws from his extensive translations and studies of both the Pali Canon and the Chinese versions of suttas that branched off long ago. While the footnotes sometimes take up more space than the text itself, every digression is worth following for those who want to truly understand what the Buddha taught. Warning: most of this book will only make sense to you if you have sat for at least a couple of ten-day meditation retreats.

The early Buddhist texts do not follow any narrative or chronological order. Their purpose was not to tell us about the Buddha, but only to preserve and convey his teachings. This seminal figure of twentieth-century Buddhist scholarship takes those texts and organizes them as a story. The result is a biography infused with Theravada Buddhist teachings. This book is a great one for meeting the suttas in a more conventional form than the seemingly random order in which they are found in the Canon. Plus, you get to see the Buddha and his followers as human beings living in a particular place and time. 

Ajahn Chah was a Buddhist monk in the Thai Forest Tradition who taught and influenced a generation of Western Buddhist teachers, from Jack Kornfield to Ajahn Sumedho, Ajahn Amaro, and Ajahn Passano. Combining the commitment of an ascetic monk with the clarity of a Zen Master, Ajahn Chah’s teachings here are rich and alive. Far from the drier suttas of the Pali Canon, here we see Buddhism coming alive in practical and inspiring ways. Everything from how to meditate to how to be mindful in daily life is covered in stories and pithy teachings. Easy to pick up and read short passages.

These two students of Ajahn Chah, one Canadian, the other English, felt that there wasn’t enough focus in Western Buddhism on enlightenment. They set about compiling and doing commentary on a wide range of suttas from the Pali Canon. The result is perhaps the most extensive and detailed explanation of the why, what, and how of awakening through the lens of the Theravada tradition. Their encouragement for students to strive to at least attain the first stage of enlightenment (of four), will have you rethinking your meditation and spiritual practice.