This work is presented in the form of question and answer, compiled from the sacred writings of the southern Buddhists for the use of Europeans, with explanatory notes. The book is addressed to those for whom material progress and augmented means of luxury do not constitute the goal of life, and to whom the prevalent cruel strife for the possession of worldly goods and grandeur, which the general selfishness makes each day more pitiless, is abhorrent; who long for that peace of the heart and satisfaction of the understanding which alone give life its value, and who fail to find these things in the soulless dogmas of the various churches.