TO GET YOU ON TRACK...

It may be that you don’t read prefaces – if so, go ahead and dip in. But if you’re interested, this introduction explains the wrap that binds the ensuing passages together.

In Buddhist culture, one celebrates one’s birthday by making offerings and sharing the good kamma of such offering with one’s parents or departed relatives. So, as I was coming up to my 75th birthday, I was moved to consider what would be a suitable offering.

All I have to offer are my explanations of Buddhist teaching and practice; something I’ve been doing for a number of years now. But I rather like those collections of sayings and brief quotes that one can read in a few minutes and yet leave a point for recollection through the day. So I thought I would like to present such a collection.

This story is intended to be a partner to the two novels ‘The Pilgrim Kamanita ~ A Legendary Romance’, written by Karl Gjellerup in 1906, and ‘The Killer ~ Mara and the Mangala, Book I’, written by myself, published in 2019.

This present book exists as a tale that both stands on its own and serves as a continuation of the stories in the previous volumes. There is no need to have read the earlier books in order to make sense of this one; however, should the reader wish to go to the source from which many of the characters and scenes of this tale have sprung, the previously published books can be found here and here.

In the tradition of such eminent authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Alexandre Dumas, the present book is being released as a serial novel, one chapter every fortnight, over the years 2025-26. It is planned that, once all the chapters have been released, an edition of the whole story will be published as a single book.

One of the worst things that can happen to a tale to be read for pleasure is to have it surrounded by footnotes and appendices. This is true; but it’s also true that some readers might like to know: ‘Did this come from the Buddha?’ ‘Where can I find the rest of that quote?’ ‘Did that really happen!?’

An appendix of notes and references has therefore been created, which outlines the sources of the derived material that has been used. The main body of the text is not marked in any way to indicate these notes; however, if the reader is curious about a certain passage, they can go to the end of the chapter, look for the page and quotation in question, and see if there’s a comment or reference for it. In this way, if one just wants to read the story and ignore the rest one can easily do so but, if one is interested in finding out more and checking the facts, the origins are mostly outlined there.

Also, gentle reader, please note that the original author (Karl Gjellerup) switched freely between using Sanskrit (the language of the Northern Buddhist and Hindu scriptures) and Pali (the language of the Southern Buddhist scriptures) during the course of his foundational tale. In our efforts to be true to his style this mixture of usage has been maintained in the two subsequent volumes.

Ajahn Amaro
Amaravati Monastery
Spring, 2025

[...] Beth Steff has been practising at the monasteries associated with the traditions of Ajahn Chah in the West now for many years. She spent six years with us at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California, USA. After returning to her home country of New Zealand, Beth was feeling inspired by the examples of living a life of mindfulness that she experienced in the monasteries and wanted to share that with others.

She then started compiling talks by some of the different teachers in the western branches of the Ajahn Chah monasteries. The result is this book, which hopes to convey the techniques and benefits of different perspectives of applying Buddhist practice in our day-to-day life. Hopefully, it will expand the reader’s focus to further understand and integrate the way of practice that the Buddha laid down and give people the opportunity to appreciate how this path of integrity, clarity and discernment works to free the human heart from its entanglements.