Trevor Ling’s The Buddha and Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli’s The Life of the Buddha. Whereas the former sought to understand Gotama and his teaching in the context of the social, economic, and religious conditions of fifth century BCE India, the latter recounted the story of his life entirely on the basis of texts within the Pali Canon. Together, these works introduced me for the first time to a human being, rather than a quasi-god, who had lived and died on this same earth on which I also walked.
