The Buddha before Buddhism: Wisdom from the Early Teachings

by Gil Fronsdal

This easy-to-understand translation of one of the earliest surviving Buddhist texts offers a pathway to awakening that is simple, straightforward, and free of religious doctrine

One of the earliest of all Buddhist texts, the Atthakavagga, or “Book of Eights,” is a remarkable document, not only because it comes from the earliest strain of the literature—before the Buddha, as the title suggests, came to be thought of as a “Buddhist”—but also because its approach to awakening is so simple and free of adherence to any kind of ideology. Instead the Atthakavagga points to a direct and simple approach for attaining peace without requiring the adherence to doctrine.

The value of the teachings it contains is not in the profundity of their philosophy or in their authority as scripture; rather, the value is found in the results they bring to those who live by them. Instead of doctrines to be believed, the “Book of Eights” describes means or practices for realizing peace. Gil Fronsdal’s rigorous translation with commentary reveals the text to be of interest not only to Buddhists, but also to the ever-growing demographic of spiritual-but-not-religious, who seek a spiritual life outside the structures of religion.

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

192 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2016

About the author

Gil Fronsdal is the guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) of Redwood City. He has a PhD in Buddhist Studies from Stanford University. His many dharma talks available online contain basic information on meditation and Buddhism, as well as subtle concepts of Buddhism explained at the level of the lay person.

Reviews

[Jer Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great ancient poetry with easy to read and excruciatingly helpful pre-analysis of each chapter by the translator. So glad I read this.

A very special book. The core message is radical and fascinating: let go of all firm opinions and instead approach knowledge and sense experience from the same lens: avoid all grasping and accept everything so that you can find internal peace and safety.

The premise that the teachings in this book are more ancient than most Buddhist texts is fascinating and compelling. We hear what sounds like the voice of a young, inspired Gotama, before the need for ordering and formalizing his teachings for a huge number of followers spoiled the purity of his message of release.

You can find criticism of Fronsdal’s translations from Pali online, but his footnotes are excellent, and allow the reader to explore these interpretative questions themselves.

I LOVE how Fronsdal uses gender neutral language! If you are a Buddhist reader sick of male/monk centered text you will be able to relax with this book which uses “monastic”, “they” and “their” instead of “monk”, “he” and “his”.

[John Stepper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading the earliest Buddhist texts is enlightening (pun, alas, intended). The themes and messages are simpler and clearer and…practical in everyday life. The commentary and translation make the early poems understandable and accessible. And inspired me to find and read more.

[Frank Jude · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Gil Fronsdal presents a translation and commentary on the Atthakavagga, an early collection of poems rendered in English as The Book of Eights. Despite this title, this is not yet another Buddhist list of eight items but refers to the central poems structure. There is much to admire about this very early text for any naturalist take on the Buddha's teaching, which is why as the originator of Zen Naturalism, I was happy to come across this text in such an accessible form.

In this collection of sixteen poems, there is no talk of what are generally accepted as the "core teachings of Buddhism" such as The Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eightfold Path, The Seven Factors of Awakening and so on. There is very little that refers to the deepest meditative states of jhana and refreshingly no dualistic talk dividing reality into a conditioned, worldly realm and an unconditional, transcendent realm that has nothing to do with the contingent world of ordinary life! But rather, in these texts we get the pared down most basic teachings designed for praxis and not doctrinal assertions.

There are, however, two themes that run through these texts that I find problematic for any vital, contemporary approach to practice. First, the emphasis is on personal peace of mind. In that, it feels like Buddhism is a its heart perfectly aligned with the neoliberal ideology that permeates what has been criticized as "McMindfulness." Fronsdal tries to argue that "while the attainment of peace is often referred to in personal terms, the Book of Eights also places its teaching in the context of social strife." This may be so, as in the opening of "The Discourse on Being Violent," but while the Buddha expresses dismay at the quarrels and conflicts of his time, his response of not getting involved and in asserting the view that the sage should shake off every view without embracing or rejecting anything is (as I tried to emphasize by italicizing "the view") both incoherent in that having the view that having views is unskillful is self-contradictory, and in a time like today (April 2025) at best irresponsible. I'm guessing that such a sage would have been fairly useless during the Holocaust. We live in the relative world and I believe taking a view against totalitarian government is necessary and sometimes life demands we take sides!

The other theme that I find problematic is the suspicion of sensual pleasure. Fronsdal again tries to soften the teaching, and to a degree I believe rightly, by saying that "the main emphasis is not the pleasures themselves but rather the way people are caught up in sensual pursuits." This is a position I wholeheartedly agree with. However, when sex enters into the picture, the only recourse according to the Buddha in these texts is celibacy because "it is not possible to engage in sexual activity without some attachment" and here ALL attachment is considered negatively. Here I prefer the Zen perspective that sexual activity, when mutually enthusiastically consented to is dana -- a gift that brings joy to the world!

With the emphasis on non-attachment it is important to note that as Ruth Whippman writes in America the Anxious about the "happiness" and "new age" movements positing that the only real solutions to human distress lie within, rather than without encourages a focus on the individual and the ignoring of genuine issues in the wider world. Along with that, a large and ever-growing body of research shows that the single biggest factor leading to happiness and a sense of well-being is strong social relationships and the more focus that is placed on the individual's pursuit of happiness the less happy and more lonely they are.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look at one of Buddhism's earliest works, the Book of Eights. I find most early Buddhist texts pretty dry, and the Book of Eights isn't an exception. Fronsdal's commentary, however, was worth the price of admission.

What I found most interesting is that these very early Buddhist teachings makes Buddhism look more like an ancient Greek philosophy than the complex and many-branched spirituality it would later become. These early Buddhist teachings are about not clinging to things in life and letting go of strongly held positions on any particular topic. Things that became fundamentally important to Buddhism, like meditation and reincarnation (or transmigration) take a back seat.

[Teo · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019.01.11–2019.01.12

Contents

Fronsdal G (2016) (03:17) Buddha before Buddhism, The - Wisdom from the Early Teachings

Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction
• Preserving the Dharma
• Four Themes of the Book of Eights
• • Letting Go of Views (Chapters 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13)
• • Sensual Craving (Chapters 1, 2, 7, and 9)
• • Description of the Sage (Chapters 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, and 15)
• • Training (Chapters 14, 15, and 16)
• Purity versus Peace
• Religious Context for the Book of Eights
• Buddhist Context for the Book of Eights
• The Book of Eights in Action
• Translating the Book of Eights
• Reading the Book of Eights
• Notes

01. The Discourse on Desire: Sidestepping Sensual Desire

02. The Eightfold Discourse on the Hiding Place: Seclusion from Entanglement

03. The Eightfold Discourse on the Corrupt: Shaking Off Every View

04. The Eightfold Discourse on the Pure: Nothing to Grasp

05. The Eightfold Discourse on the Ultimate: Not Relying on Anything

06. The Discourse on Old Age: Free from Selfishness

07. The Discourse to Tissa Metteyya: Seclusion from Sex

08. The Discourse to Pasūra: Not Opposing Any Views

09. The Discourse to Māgaṇḍiya: Peace without Views

10. The Discourse on Before Breaking Apart: Peaceful and Independent

11. The Discourse on Quarrels and Disputes: Understanding Conditionality

12. The Shorter Discourse on the Dead End: Living without Conflict

13. The Greater Discourse of the Dead End: Peace Instead of Doctrine

14. The Discourse on Being Quick: Release Is Peace

15. The Discourse on Being Violent: Training in Peace

16. The Discourse to Sāriputta: Monastic Training

Afterword

Appendix: Knowing and Seeing in the Book of Eights
• Positive Statements about Knowing
• Positive Statements about Seeing

Notes
Select Bibliography

[U Recife · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, though not being very long, offers an interesting glimpse onto a fundamental text of the Buddhist canon: the Book of Eights.

The superb translation of this canonical text is accompanied by a very thorough explanation of its context and meaning by the translator, making its content and subtleties more easily understandable and graspable by the modern reader.

It also provides a very insightful glimpse into the Buddhist scholarship around this text and how it supposedly came to be composed, as well as providing clues as to the authenticity of its author and content.

So, even if you’re not even interested in Buddhism, Buddha’s words, or Buddhist scholarship, this book will still provide you with many snippets of timeless wisdom that in some way will enrich your life and understanding. You won’t regret having read it.

[Fabio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gil Fronsdal's new translation of Atthakavaggha is a book to read. His story introduction is cured, interesting and food for thought for those interested in the first testimonies of Buddhism. Although its authenticity is discussed (for example Tillman Vetter) the text is in all likelihood among the very first sutras composed, since the title or portions of the text are mentioned in the four canonical collections. The content is relatively simple, there is no mention of the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path and so on. The text, as Fronsdal reiterates, seems to be directed towards a realization of Liberation in present time, through an orthopraxis to be followed. The notes proposed by Fronsdal are helpful and make you understand the text. However, I must confess that I do not agree on one point in his analysis. Fronsdal states that the text lacks any devotional aspect in the interpretation of the Buddha, a phenomenon that has become increasingly evident in the development of Buddhist doctrine. However, there’s one sutra, a dialogue between the Buddha and the Samgha whose vocabulary seems to me more of worship than devotion. Fronsdal minimizes by stating that it is the "normal" vocabulary with which the monastic order addresses its founder. Instead, reading the sutra gives me the opposite impression. Did the process of apotheosis of the Buddha start fun from the first whims of Buddhism?

[Somesh Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many ideas commonly associated with Buddhism today were added after the time of the Buddha. His original teachings were strikingly simple and free from complex philosophical systems. In fact, the Buddha actively discouraged ritual practices, notions of purity, and even the concept of rebirth—elements often linked to him in later traditions.

The Buddha did not advocate for a single, objective truth, nor did he promote belief in an ultimate truth at all. Instead, he encouraged individuals to discover insight through their own direct experience. He warned against clinging to doctrines, concepts, or fixed religious views.

At the heart of his teachings was a practical approach to life: avoid attachment and aversion, observe the world without imposing conceptual filters, let go of disputes, live with equanimity, renounce unnecessary desires, and be present—neither fixated on the past nor anxious about the future.

Perhaps most notably, the Buddha never claimed to be divine. He saw himself as a human being who had awakened, and his message was that others could do the same through their own understanding and effort.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lay reader I found Fronsdal’s commentary to be more enlightening than the actual text of poems. I appreciate the scholarly effort he brings in the Afterword to explain the context and evidence he uses to explain how these poems are possibly some of the earliest texts of Theravada Buddhism.

I appreciate a good scholar and Fronsdal is that!

As a practitioner I recommend Fronsdal as a teacher worth following. His teachings are clear and practical, yet nuanced due to his deep knowledge of the connotations of many of the Pali words.

I find his interpretations to be valuable even if, as these texts suggest, views should not be clung to as ultimate truth.

I appreciate this teaching so much as it is in stark contrast to the teachings of my earliest religious training in Christianity.

[Richie Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave different insights that I never had thought about before even with all of my yoga training and eastern religion studies. I was fascinated by the philosophies given throughout. I think that this was good to look at life in a new way and that the principles can be applied even if people are not religious but that it is a way of living that is a way of peace. I found that there is more to life when we can understand other religions and that we can respect others for what they believe in.

Over all this book changed my thinking and helped me not to be attached to the things in my life. over all great book to read and would highly recommend it to others.

[Claralynn Nunamaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely useful little book looking at some of the earliest of the Buddha's teachings. The introduction is extremely helpful in understanding the themes of the verses. Fronsdal's analysis demonstrates clarity and depth of understanding. I'm referencing this small volume quite a bit in a Buddhist Studies dissertation.
It would be a nice addition, for a future edition, to have the Pāli alongside the English translations. As Fronsdal points out on pages 33-35, one passage can yield many different translations, and it'd be nice for a reader to access the Pāli directly.
If you are interested in Early Buddhism, this is a must-have volume.

[Marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the first written teachings of Buddha focus on the core of Buddhism as we know it - the principle of non-clinging and thus-being. This is also where the term Nirvana originated and in this form doesn't stand for a transcendent reality like it does for many people today. I liked the teaching about how to change things in our lives - "If one strives to be peaceful, he act and seek peace in daily life until he actually becomes peaceful".

Unfortunately I didn't find anything much of substance here, other than remembering the core principles of release, holding no strong beliefs and striving to be peaceful, although it's good to know the origins of Buddha's plan.

[Eric Perreault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gil’s commentary is insightful as always. The translation is faithful to the literal meaning, at the cost of some musicality in English. Pair this with a more liberal, expressive translation (I like Pannobhasa Bhikkhu) for a fuller impression. These suttas were memorized and recited like poetry, with meter and tone that is impossible to capture without some poetic license and looser translation. Gil makes strong cases for his departures from the surface-level translations and his interpretative additions clarifying who is speaking at various times are well-supported.

[Maria Balsamo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This commentary on one of the earliest teachings of the Buddha addresses key issues facing today’s society including: divisiveness and self-restraint. Divisiveness which is tearing apart our social fabric and lack of restraint which is endangering the survival of life on this planet. Devoid of the metaphysical, these teachings are as practical today as they were in the time of the Buddha, perhaps more so.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The actual suttas were beautiful and Fronsdal's philological notes were illuminating. I got this out of the library but liked it so much I'll probably buy a copy.

One criticism: I don't know Pali myself, but the translation seemed a bit too literal--there were places where the English was awkward/ungrammatical and I assumed that was because it was tracking the source too closely.

[Chen Ann Siew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about the Book of Eight and the early teachings of the Buddha, before Buddhism became a religion, hence the title. A collection of 16 poems from the Book of Eight, translated with foreword for each poem. Essentially it’s about letting go, letting go of desires, possessions, even views (of anything).

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Atthakavaga presents a Buddhism very different from what most people think of as Buddhism. Almost Taoist in its emphasis on letting go rather than taking up anything. I'll be returning to this text often.

[Austin Allred · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book through a free giveaway.

Interesting read.
Ancient poetry which is believed to be the early teachings of Buddha.
Translated for the Book of Eights.

Really interesting how they prove it is from Buddha.

[Lauri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really disliked this format and found is horribly unreadable. I would have found a translation of The Book of Eights with a light accompanying 1 paragraph description much more enriching. This was trying too hard to make academic something that should be practical and liveable.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book of suttas called "The Book of Eights" about the possibility of peace, and the peace that comes from freedom from attachment to views. The translation, like all of Gils, renders the suttas in beautiful poetic form.

[Les Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, taking Buddhism back to the basics and focusing on what matters instead of arguing about sutras.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

[Laura Paglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful journey.

[Arvind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very meticulous work of scholarship from my first ever mindfulness teacher. Click-bait title, though.

[Vladimir Zivkovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well written book. I recommend it for anyone who is wanting to understand some of the written texts of Buddhas words before the more organized movement we see today.

[Paul Bard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short simply poems.on letting go, peace, avoiding concepts, and being free.

The poems are lovely.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this one.

[Sandeep Sudhakaran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Translation and explanation of The Book of Eight - the low rating because I found the source material very archaic and traditional.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poetic and captivating book which I would recommend to anyone interested in Buddhist writings. Easy to digest and relatively quick to read.