I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha!

Inspirational quotations attributed to the Buddha abound on social media, on quotes sites, in books, and even on mugs and t-shirts. However, many--even most--of these attributions are false. While some of these Fake Buddha Quotes are benign paraphrases of genuine spiritual principles, others are seriously misleading, meaning that the average person is woefully misinformed about what the Buddha taught.

In this light-hearted book, Bodhipaksa, a well-known Buddhist teacher and the founder of fakebuddhaquotes.com, takes a look at some of the quotes that are erroneously attributed to the Buddha, explains the ways in which these disagree (or sometimes agree) with Buddhist teachings, and offers some genuine examples of the Buddha's words.

Along the way he takes a quick look at whether it's even possible to know for sure what the Buddha said (we can't, but that probably doesn't matter), and whether he was "too spiritual" to bother about being misquoted (he wasn't, and that certainly does, or should, matter). And lastly, as well as discussing Fake Buddha Quotes, we'll have a quick discussion on one "fake Buddha"--the Chinese so-called "fat Buddha," Budai--who isn't of course the historical Buddha Shakyamuni at all, despite what many westerners think. Confusing the two figures, Bodhipaksa argues, is like mistaking Santa Claus for Jesus.