'The Gospel of Buddha' is an 1894 book by Paul Carus. It is modeled on the New Testament and tells the story of Buddha through parables. It was an important tool in introducing Buddhism to the west and is used as a teaching tool by some Asian sects. The work was assembled from existing English translations of Buddhists texts, with significant amendments and reworkings. His selection of texts favored Buddhism as a philosophy without any supernatural elements.

The Gospel of Buddha, the classic text on Buddhism that first introduced many Westerners to Buddha and his teachings, was first published in 1894 and immediately became a worldwide bestseller. Author Paul Carus (1852-1919) collected many accounts of Buddha's life, teachings, and death, and fashioned a coherent and gripping narrative. It was easily understood and popular with Americans because it resembled a Christian gospel. Martin Verhoeven's detailed introduction describes the circumstances surrounding Carus's achievement, and the book's relation to other strands of Buddhist teaching. This edition also includes 25 newly rediscovered paintings by the renowned Buddhist artist Yamada.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1915 Edition.

"The Gospel of Buddha: Compiled from Ancient Records" book has a beautiful glossy cover and a blank page for the dedication. "Buddhism, like Christianity, is split up into innumerable sects, and these sects not infrequently cling to their sectarian tenets as being the main and most indispensable features of their religion. The present book follows none of the sectarian doctrines, but takes an ideal position upon which all true Buddhists may stand as upon common ground. Thus the arrangement into a harmonious and systematic form is the main original feature of this Gospel of Buddha. Considering the bulk of the various details of the Buddhist canon, however, it must be regarded as a mere compilation, and the aim of the compiler has been to treat his material in about the same way as he thinks that the author of the Fourth Gospel of the New Testament utilized the accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He has ventured to present the data of the Buddha's life in the light of their religio-philosophical importance; he has cut out most of their apocryphal adornments, especially those in which the Northern traditions abound, yet he did not deem it wise to shrink from preserving the marvellous that appears in the old records, whenever its moral seemed to justify its mention; he only pruned away the exuberance of wonder which delights in relating the most incredible things, apparently put on to impress while in fact they can only tire. Miracles have ceased to be a religious test; yet the belief in the miraculous powers of the Master still bears witness to the holy awe of the first disciples and reflects their religious enthusiasm."

The Gospel of Buddha was first published in 1894. It soon became a worldwide bestseller, completely eclipsing the one previous attempt to popularize Buddhism in the West, Sir Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia. Carus collected accounts of the life and teaching of the Buddha from many sources and fashioned a coherent and gripping narative which would be understood by Americans as very much like a Christian "gospel". The Gospel of Buddha was quickly translated into Japanese and other Eastern languages, and was taken up by teachers in the Buddhist world.This Gospel tells the story of the Prince Siddhattha, raised by his parents to be ignorant of all evil and suffering, and then was traumatically confronted by the spectacle of old age, sickness, and death. Giving up his family and his kingdom to seek Enlightenment, Siddhattha became a holy man, asking questions of religious authorities and practicing abstention. Then he found Enlightenment and became the Buddha when he understood the Four Noble Truths, and became a travelling preacher, spreading the word of the new religion, based on freedom from suffering by renunciation of the ego.