The Buddha's Ancient Path

This is a book on basic Buddhism with a difference, for it is written by a monk who is native of Sri Lanka, a scholar and a well-known preacher. He has the Pali Canon and the Commentaries at his fingertips, so that the book is full of apposite stories and quotations of what Buddha said--many of them hard to find elsewhere in English. The author does not merely transport material from the ancient texts, but in his hands it is sifted, analyzed, and made the subject of independent thinking before being presented to the reader.