Volumes VII and VIII of this series deal with early Buddhism a few centuries after the life of the Buddha. These volumes render quite well the early schisms that emerged from the various understandings and interpretations of the followers of what one could call "the original Buddhist teachings" (which we have almost no chance to know what they really were). Buddhism is really that : a bunch of different and sometimes contradictory schisms that each show the particular biases of the members of each schism. However, being aware that the goal of Buddhism should not depend on the means to attain it, one should use his intelligence to determine what statement is due to the misbeliefs or assumptions of each schism to understand its purpose. Don't think that consistency is a good criterion to judge philosophy, scholarly accounts rely on scientific beliefs of consistency and logical thinking. Philosophy transcends such petty intellectual biases modern scientific thinking takes as true.

These two volumes coupled with the volumes edited by Bhikkhu Boddhi (Middle-length, long and connected discourses of the Buddha published by Wisdom books) will provide you with everything you need to undertand what Buddhism is about. Do not let scholars prevent your heart and soul to feel what the Buddhist teachings can provide.

the author basically failed to understand what is jain dharma.neither in digambar or shwetambar it is written that women can't achieve nirvana. digambar word itself says that when you attain nirvana your cloths automatically disappears. that means you reach such a level that you are away from worldly things.shwetambar is a panth which is seperated from digambar because they are not ready to part away with the wealth they have generated over the years.

IT CLEARLY INDICATES THE REASON FOR PARTITIONS INJAINISM.TODAY,JAINISM IS SUFFERING FROM AN UNWANTED SET-BACK IN THE FORM OF THIS PARTITIONS CALLED DIGAMBARA & SWETAMBARA.A TRUE DEBATE ON THIS TOPIC JUSTIFYING BOTH PARTITIONS WAS NECESSARY AT WORLD LEVEL,WHICH IS PROVIDED IN THIS BOOK.BUT ON THE SAME HAND, IT FOCUSSES ON JAINISM'S WEAK POINT,WHICH IS PARTITION IN WORLD'S MOST PEACEFULL & TRUE RELIGION.BUY THIS BOOK TO STUDY BOTH PARTY'S DEFENCE AND AGGRESIVENESS.