What the Buddha Thought

he book begins with a Preface in which Gombrich states his main purpose: to show that the Buddha was an exceptionally original thinker whose teachings must be understood through the historical and linguistic context of early India. The Background Information section introduces key languages, especially Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pāli, as well as basic data on Buddhism, the Three Jewels, the Pāli Canon, and the historical setting of early Buddhist thought. Chapter 1, “Introduction,” clarifies the author’s method and warns against misunderstanding the Buddha through later doctrinal simplifications. Chapter 2, “More about Karma, and Its Social Context,” examines karma as intentional action and connects it to social responsibility. Chapter 3, “The Antecedents of the Karma Doctrine in Brahminism,” and Chapter 4, “Jain Antecedents,” analyze the pre-Buddhist background against which the Buddha’s ideas developed. Chapter 5, “What Did the Buddha Mean by ‘No Soul’?” explains the meaning of no-self in relation to continuity, identity, and experience. Chapter 6, “The Buddha’s Positive Values: Love and Compassion,” presents the ethical and affective dimensions of Buddhist teaching. Chapter 7, “Assessing the Evidence,” discusses how early Buddhist sources should be evaluated. Chapter 8, “Everything Is Burning: The Centrality of Fire in the Buddha’s Thought,” highlights fire imagery as a key interpretive framework. Chapter 9, “Causation and Non-random Process,” analyzes dependent causation and moral order. Chapter 10, “Cognition; Language; Nirvana,” studies the relationship between thought, expression, and liberation. Chapter 11, “The Buddha’s Pragmatism and Intellectual Style,” presents the Buddha as a strategic and practical thinker. Chapter 12, “The Buddha as Satirist; Brahmin Terms as Social Metaphors,” explains how the Buddha transformed Brahminical vocabulary. Chapter 13, “Is This Book To Be Believed?” reflects on the plausibility of the reconstruction, followed by an appendix on the Buddha’s appropriation of Brahminical terms, notes, bibliography, and index.