by SAYADAW U SILANANDA ISBN 983-3512-51-8 IJ156/08 Size: 5.5” X 8.25” Pages: 312

"As it is called The Fundamentals of Buddhism, this course is just the fundamentals. We will not go deep into the teachings. As to the fundamentals we need to know the Three Gems or Three Refuges in Buddhism.

The subjects we are going to teach in this course may be known already to many of you, but I hope there will be some subjects or some topics which you need to understand more clearly or which you need to polish your understanding of these subjects. So there may be things which are already known to you and there also may be some things which are new to you. So if there are things you already know, please be patient because hearing what you already know can fortify your understanding, (it can) make your understanding firmer and clearer.

With regard to the fundamentals of Buddhism, the first thing we should know is about the person with whom what we call Buddhism started. That person, as you all know, was the Buddha. Also we need to know something ?