Buddhism

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548br

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>>8334559
>pic related

It's the words of the Buddha himself.
Enjoy, it actually changed my life for the better.

>>8335228
>Eknath Easwaran translation

>>8335236
It's good, and his introduction is equally worth reading. You are going to have to give more than just green text to convince me.

>>8334559
There is no Buddhist Bible.
The closest equivalent is the Sutta Pitaka or the Agamas, plus various Mahayana sutras if you want to into Mahayana.

Read a good introduction and some basic texts first. As always I recommend 'The Foundations of Buddhism' and 'In the Buddha's Words'. You'll have a pretty good (even though far from complete) picture by the time you're done and can delve deeper.

>>8335253
I was being memey.

Just view it as Easwaran's Dhammapada rather than the words of the Buddha

>>8335258
That's why I worded my question that way. It'd be great if someone could explain the basic structure of Buddhism to me. What the primary sources are, what cmplementary knowledge I need; what denominations there are etc.
I thought I could just read Buddha's teachings and Idk be through with it but that seems to not be the case so please inform me about Buddhism in general too

>>8335271
It is a well critically acclaimed translation.
Easwaran was actually a very good translator.

His translations of The Upanishads was equally impressive.

>>8335274
See>>8335228

It's a primary source.

>>8335281
okay cool

>>8335274
Christianity is a religion of revelation. One cannot reason ones one to its truths, they are revealed to us. This is why such religions tends to have an authoritative text. Buddhism is a religion of inquiry where (asides from perhaps the regional inherited folk religion aspects) the precepts of the faith are arrived at through reason and subject to change as scholarly understanding of the teachings evolve, hence no bible equivalent.

I actually wouldn't recommend a primary source. It's hard to know without prior knowledge on Buddhism what sects read what sutras, how universal the ideas in any sutra are to Buddhist adherents, and not being sure of how the translation works. I would instead recommend respected western books on the subject that are meant as an introduction. A personal favourite of mine is Siderits' Buddhism as Philosophy. It removes all the religious elements, sets down the core ethical and metaphysical beliefs, and shows the logical connection between ideas. In short it treats the claims philosophically. This provides a good basis from which to do further reading.