The books we have written might actually be better to give to a friend as an introduction, or as a study type book. The basic retreat handbook which covers the talks of the 10 day retreats day by day, is more for someone who wants more. The book titled "Compassion and Lovingkindness" has about 50 percent of what the retreat teaches, but we pulled out the easier parts so that if a friend is a little bit interested, not really serious, then that is a book that is actually easier to give to them. Then we have the little pocket book which is also translated into German. The pocket book is very nice, easy to read. It just has little sayings, sometimes a sentence, sometimes a little paragraph. Some of them are a bit strong but they are easier to read, something you can carry in a pocket somewhere. We tried to create a published book set, so that there are different levels for different people.
As to giving somebody a biography of the Buddha's life, be a little careful about that. That may become a bit too heavy for some people, depending on the biography. With all the biographies that I have personally read, I can't 100 percent recommend them, because they all have a bit of a different slant, this way or that way depending on who the author was. Whether it was a Buddhist, or it was not a Buddhist, whether it was woman or whether a man, whether it was a scholar or it was an average person, they all give a different slant. So when old students ask me about what to read I do recommend to read two good sized biographies of the Buddha. I say at least two. And I also say good sized ones, not just little things, but good sized ones. Because if you read two different biographies, then you can see where they don't agree and you can kind of drop that stuff out. And take whatever they do agree with. because that would be more the essence of the Buddha's life.
But as to giving a brand new person a biography of the Buddha I generally wouldn't do that. This is in the same way as to how we teach.
For example, in your first retreat, did we give you Buddhism or did we actually give you methods to work with to lessen your Dukkha, to find more inner peace? Then you realized, "Wow, these methods are great! What else can I get?" In your second retreat, what did we give you? We gave you bowing and we gave you the Triple Gem and we gave you more of what Buddhism has to offer. Also in these Questions and Answers, you have more opportunities to increase your understanding of the Buddhism.
So in the sense, when we give the first retreat, we don't give people a religion, we don't give them stories about some man who lived two and a half thousand years ago, but we give you the actual practice and techniques. Then if people are interested and see that these things work, they can go further into understanding more about the Buddha as a man and Buddhism as a tradition.