Gautama Buddha
The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One, by Vishvapani Blomfield, Quercus, 2011.
There are many accounts of the Buddha’s life that mix legend and history. This compelling new biography discriminates between fact and fiction to reveal Gautama, the remarkable human being behind the legends, and shed new light on his teachings.
Plunging us into the noise, smells and jostling streets of Gautama’s world, Vishvapani Blomfield brings the Buddha to life as a passionate and determined individual — a strikingly modern figure who rejected contemporary beliefs and found his own answers by mastering his mind.
Even after he gained Enlightenment and became the Buddha (‘the Awakened One’) Gautama experienced struggles as well as triumphs as he trod India’s dusty paths. Vishvapani shows how he sought to establish a community of practitioners amid his society’s divided culture and perilous politics and how the ideas that became the Buddhist teachings grew from Gautama’s efforts to address the needs and beliefs of his listeners.
Drawing on years of meticulous research into original sources, Gautama Buddha takes us within touching distance of one of history’s greatest figures.
The Buddha, Nature & Politics
In the second part of this interview with Will Buckingham on the ThinkBuddha blog, we discuss the place of nature in the Buddha’s life, his relationship with politics and the modern resonance of these subjects
Legend & History in the Buddha’s Life
Here’s Part 1 of an email interview with Will Buckingham of the ThinkBuddha blog about my book, Gautama Buddha: the Life & Teachings of the Awakened One. It explores why I wrote the book and how I approached the distinction between legend and history in the Buddha’s life
Secular Buddhist Reviews ‘Gautama Buddha’
This review of ‘Gautama Buddha’, my biography of the Buddha by Stephen Schettini appears on the website of the Secular Buddhist Association. “Vishvapani Blomfield’s Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One is one of a new breed of Buddha biographies…”
Video: Seeking the Buddha in History
The Buddha of history is not the same as the archetypal Buddha, but we can come close to him through the words he left behind and though imagination. This was a keynote talk at the 2011 Triratna Buddhist Order Convention and reveals the Buddha to be a man of humour and intelligence with an uncanny gift for communication as well … and something more as well