If you want your Buddha knowledge to be more than “coffee cup” or “chic designer shirt quote” deep this is a good gentle place to start. The title isn’t just witty, it means what it says, jump in and find out what the real Buddha said about something versus the marketable contortion you’ve been mislead into memorizing.
Let a genuine teacher and practitioner of Buddhism help you navigate the kitschy landscape of fake Buddha quotes and Pinterest ready inspirations.
The ebook I read was well formatted as well.

Wow. Can we just take a moment to fully appreciate the title of this book? "I Can’t Believe It's Not Buddha!"?? If I was scoring this book purely on the title, for that it would immediately get five stars. Bravo.
But that is not the case. Although, the inner pages of this slim book do a lot to reflect their outer cover. By steeping the book in a multitude of references to popular culture and social media, Bodhipaksa reflects on one of the oldest religions in the modern world, is interpreted by society of the twenty-first century.
It is a truly fascinating concept, and one that clearly shows Buddhism’s core principles and how its universality has managed the survive the tribulations of the changing centuries.
For a long time, despite living in England and not be much exposed to Buddhism outside of the occasional article online, I have been fascinated by the religion and have always stated that - when comparing all of the world’s major religions - Buddhism is the one that I would feel the most comfortable following if, at any point, I was to abandon the atheistic affect and surrender to a religion.
Therefore, I Can’t Believe It's Not Buddha! acted as an initial stepping-stone away from the vagaries and misconceptions that I had read up until this point, and introduced me instead to the formal teachings of the Buddha and the resulting interpreted philosophies. And, having been brought up in a country that pushes the Christianity-or-bust rhetoric, it was a perfect introduction to a set of beliefs that I had little to no framework for.
Which should have meant that the book would have been hard to get through; as I imagine any non-Christian person approaching the Bible or a related text would have found but, with Bodhipaksa’s inclusion of humour and wit and sense of modernity, it managed to be accessible and I flew through it over the course of a single afternoon.
And, I think that’s where most religions hit their speed-bumps - in this materialistic, consumer-driven, technology-enhanced world, for many of my own generation, they seem to be rendered out-dated and even obsolete.
Why should we care about what some old dude thinks about gay marriage?
I mean, unless he wants to engage in it, he really shouldn’t be saying anything.
They seem archaic, small-minded and stuffy, whereas Buddhism (probably the oldest of the lot) feels relevant and filled with light and new possibility. And I think, when others read I Can’t Believe It's Not Buddha!, that they will feel the same.

Very insightful and quick to read. I really enjoyed the author's humor. Thanks for the opportunity! Will be definitely recommending it!

I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha offers "worldlings," "householders" and Buddhists a fun, lighthearted, yet well-researched take on misquotes from the Buddha and beyond.

I loved this book, the premise, and the delivery. The title? Sheer perfection. I wish I'd named my book something equally apt.

The author starts gently, with humor, understanding that their readers likely need support and guidance in this whole misquoting thing. I mean, we've all likely shared some of these ill-attributed quotes on social media, right? The author admits they have, too.

Quickly, however, they move into the quotes themselves (arranged alphabetically), and the history behind where and how they became attached to Buddha. Not a simple process! I appreciated how the author took sometimes politically charged details, or religiously debated information, and did their best to tacticfully share the facts. As well, they share how to spot a fake quote (there's even a quiz!) and some 'real' things the Buddha supposedly said. Because, like all things long ago, it's tough to get proper attribution and a decent translation for languages nothing like English.

What I didn't like? The errors with formatting (in the Kindle version). They took me out of the book often, so much so I didn't finish it in one sitting. Normally, I would have read this until the wee hours - it's that kind of book.

I found a few parts dry, challenging, or difficult to slog through. I've experienced the same with some Buddhist meditations and discussions I've attended, too, so I can't fault the author. Beautifully though, it doesn't matter if you skip to a passage or quote you prefer or feel more resonance with. It works however you choose to read the book.

HIghly recommended for fans of posting social media quotes, or for those that can't get out of their head the first quote in the book (paraphrased), "I can't go to bed, someone on the Internet is wrong".

Thank you Parralax Press and Netgalley for an ARC in return for my honest opinion.

This book is a compilation of quotes the author has found that have been wrongly attributed to Buddha. The author spends time on each quote, attributing it to its correct source with an explanation.

Unfortunately I found the book dry and lacking much of the heart fullness that I enjoy from other authors spreading the word of Buddha.


.

This was a fun and quick read. I laugh at and abhor "fake" or misattributed quotes that are pervasive on social media. While this book did not cover every potential fake Buddha quote it did cover 50 of them, which I think is a good amount. The author did a great job of tracking down where most of the quotes actually came from and how they do or do not follow the teachings of Buddha. As with most books about religion, it's difficult to know if the author's interpretations of Buddha are completely correct. Those words have been translated many times and they're being interpreted in a modern time with a modern lens. That said, I still really enjoyed this book.

Most of us are aware that there are misquotes that weave their way into what I believe is true. Consider “Luke, I am your father” or “Play it again, Sam” or “Do you feel lucky, punk?” All three are believed to be direct quotes from movies, yet all three are wrong.

Somewhere around 2003, Buddhist teacher Bodhipaksa began researching quotes misattributed to The Buddha, and the results are shared in this book. The author does this in a playful and interesting way while at the same time teaching and revealing the truth to readers. While most of the misquotes still have something to teach, Bodhipaska’s excellent research allows us to give credit where credit is due.

We also learn that sometimes the misquotes are contrary to Buddhist scripture. One misattribution states “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” The author’s initial response explains this is “…a Buddhist scripture that’s rendered in such a fashion that it ends up saying the opposite of what the Buddha taught.” After an interesting commentary, Bodhipaksa points out that the line in the misquote “…no matter where you read it…” is a giveaway this is not from the Buddha, who lived at a time when teachings were transmitted in an oral fashion. In this fashion, the author educates us so we may be able to spot erroneous quotes we may come across in the future.

The book achieves a scholarly approach that is accessible to the masses, achieving a humor one wouldn’t expect in this type of book. Recommended to everyone from Buddhist students to those who wish to have a more discerning eye when it comes to deciphering the truth on the Internet. Five stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Parallax Press for a complimentary advance ebook.

This book was very insightful. A great insight into the current phenomenon of quotes being attributed to everyone but the person who actually said them!

I found it interesting and a good book to flick through. Not one I’d sit and read in one go, but a perfect coffee table book.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Light hearted and funny. An interesting read from start to finish although I couldn't read it all in one sitting.

This is a good book to help wade through the seemingly unending "inspirational" quotes that are always plastered across Instagram. Be prepared to laugh and learn about yourself and the world at large.

This was an interesting read but unfortunately I won't take out a lot out of it.

The author has done good research and I certainly understand the importance of attributing quotes properly, nonetheless this book wouldn't help me much in my life.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.

This is a fun book to pick up because we’ve all known people who share inspirational quotes with pretty backgrounds that look great on social media. I myself have fallen for a widely-shared quote that is misattributed to Dr. Seuss.

The author is a great teacher who keeps a lighthearted and often humorous tone throughout the book. He explains why this search for truth is important, and candidly relates it to the spread of fake information on social media over the past two years.

The book includes 50 fake quotes which aren’t categorized in any way, they are just listed one after the other, with some information about each one.

He tracks down the true origin of the quote, sometimes mentions other famous people who have mistakenly perpetuated it, and always explains how it may or may not relate to the Buddha’s teachings, and why people will fall for it so easily. By the end of the book, you’ll have picked up on many red flags to help you detect fake quotes in the future.

At the end there’s 25 real quotes, but these are just listed without any commentary.

It’s a fun little book to flip through at leisure, the kind of thing you can leave on a bedside or coffee table, or read in short bursts during your commute.

Also, don’t feel dissuaded from reading this if you’re Buddhist or not, this book is accessible to anyone, and hell, it might even spark an interest in Buddhism if you’re receptive to it.

I would recommend this to curious people, and people who just want a quick little fun read that is also educational without being stuffy.

I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved it! I thought it was funny. I really appreciate all the time it must of took to gather all the information for this book.

I loved it.. it. Was funny and eye opener.
I appreciate the time taken and all the research put into this book.
I have been a victim of falsely quotient Buddha I'm afraid...

Pretty basic, some interesting tidbits but not enough depth... I would have liked a little bit more detail on the history etc.

I saw this quote from attributed to Abraham Lincoln on Facebook which I shared where Lincoln states that "the problem with internet quotes is that you don't that you don't know if they are true.".. Obviously, this quote is not true as there was no internet when Lincoln lived and the quote was meant as a joke.. I have shared many philosophical./positive living quotes on Facebook. Thus, I was interested in finding out what Buddha quotes were true.

Unfortunately, this book did not help me. The book did not cover Buddha's teachings on mindfulness which is
widely used now in stress management, The two quotes from Buddha which I wondered whether they are true are::
1) The Loving Kindness Meditation
2) A quote that goes something like this: When you sit, sit and when you walk, walk(ithe quote refers that it is good to do one thing at a time)..

The author discusses many fake Buddha quotes that have appeared on the web(fy-i I have not seen these quotes on the internet). Some of these quotes come from Westerners that seem to have nothing to do with Buddha or Buddhism. Another, more interesting group of quotes, come from modern Buddhists. One might think some of these quotes might contain some of the spirit of the true Buddha.

The author presents us with some true Buddha quotes. However most of these "true" quotes I found very dull and undistinguished. The author states that what Buddha said was written down after he died and the language of a "true" Buddha quote would sound archaic. The analogy he used was that if the language sounds too modern one knows that Shakespeare did not write it.

.While this argument sounds logical, it contains one major flaw. The Shakespeare we are reading what he wrote in his native language, English while Buddha we are reading a translation of what was written in Sanskrit, Many translators translate the works of ancient writers into modern English(My grandfather's whose first language was German liked Shakespeare better in German than English because the German version was translated into modern German).. Dante is usually translated in to modern English rather fourteenth century English. Obviously translators have some discretion how close to the original language they want to make the irtranslation but many translators seem to want convey the spirit of the writing rather than a literal translation.

Thus, I did not find this book helpful in either explaining Buddhism or fake Buddha quotes.

This guy is funny.

I'm not a Buddhist.

But I enjoy reading and quotes.

Buddha quotes make my heart smile. So when I saw “I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha” I jumped at the chance to download it.

It was a super comical and informative read. It's cut and dry read about what Buddha has and has not said, and you won't be disappointed if you decide to read it for yourself.

In this modern times in which most people, including children, have access to the internet and social networks, has become increasingly common to notice misattributed quotes. As the author also said in this book, it's easy to write something and stick a popular name under it.

I'm not a buddhist, I suppose my belief could be best described as questioning, but I do enjoy learning about religions.

This book contains 50 quotes the Buddha never said, with explanations, and 25 quotes he did say. The author has a straightforward and humorous style, while making sure to also be accurate. At the end is also included a list, of websites and books, the author suggest using to check for a quote's reliability or to learn more about Buddhism.

Bodhipaksa also has a blog where he lists and explain the sources of popular quotes attributed to the Buddha, as well as another one for real quotes. I'll suggest you to browse these sites, then buy the book to show your appreciation and support.
https://fakebuddhaquotes.com/
http://www.realbuddhaquotes.com/

<i>Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley, for the chance to read an ARC of this book. This is my honest review.</i>

What Bodhipaksa does in this delightfully honest book of research is explain just a handful (meaning 50) of the most common quotes attributed to the Buddha which end up circulating online in memes. Sometimes it’s as simple as a misattribution; other times, it’s because of interpretation of translations which can be far removed from original Pali texts.

The Buddha lived in a time when teachings were orally passed down. There was a lot of repetitive phrases for students to get the flow and cadence of sentences in order to commit to memory. Then scriptures or suttas or sutras depending on the language, were finally written down. Those went through translations and then translated again into English. The English translations vary from Victorian England’s dialects to modern American. Bodhipaksa explains all of this and that once in while, the translations weren’t so far off from what the Buddha actually meant.

Part of what makes I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha exceptionally cool and fun to read is that Bodhipaksa explains things so plainly and with a considerable amount of humor interspersed to keep the reader going. There are quite frankly a ton of misconceptions about what it is to be Buddhist and part of that is because there are different types of Buddhists: from Tibet to Japan to the western world. It all ends up going back to who taught you Buddhism and that’s why lineage often becomes emphasized in different schools of yoga.

For example: the Buddha didn’t mean for “worldlings,” – meaning non-monks or nuns, every day people with households — to go without materialism or income. As the author explained:

“And in a more material sense, he encouraged his householder followers (that is, those who weren’t monks and nuns but had families and jobs) to work hard and to create wealth.

Heedful at administering or working at one’s occupation, maintaining one’s life in tune, one protects one’s store of wealth.

The important thing, however, was that they were to practice nonattachment to their wealth by using it to help others.”

This common misunderstanding crops up across any religion, I would bet. I personally don’t go for required tithing as it always seems to be the people with the least that end up giving the most proportionally.

Another clever way that Bodhipaksa reveals frequently seen quotes being misattributed comes from what he calls “quotation promotion.” It’s when someone lesser known — at least by today’s audience — is replaced with someone famous. Bodhipaksa even caught me personally on Instagram when I posted what I believed to be a Maya Angelou quote — but since it’s his passion and he is a die-hard fan of hers, he corrected me. I’m usually in the habit of checking quoteinvestigator.com if I’m skeptical, but that particular quote was something I believed she would have said. If you ever find yourself about to share a meme claiming to be a quote from Abraham Lincoln or Taylor Swift, check Quote Investigator first.

“They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.” —Carl W. Buehner, not Maya Angelou

Any reader with even a cursory interest in Hinduism or Buddhism would appreciate the facts which Bodhipaksa lays out clearly for the layman. You don’t need to be a linguist with PhD to have a great time reading this book.

“While the Hindu tradition teaches that we need to realize the atman, or true Self, the Buddhist tradition teaches that we should realize the opposite: anatman, or the absence of a true Self.”

As a student of metta meditation (mindfulness) which was born from the Buddhist religion though practiced secularly around the world, I was surprised to learn that the Buddha didn’t speak about “the present moment” which a common device used in meditation. We guide students to be in the now, the present, and to let go of the past or the fantasies of the future. According to Bodhipaksa, this mantra of “be in the present” was something that came around into popularity in the 1960s. There are plenty of catchphrases that came out of the 1960s hippie revolution where New Thought and New Age studies latched on and spread what those practitioners believed; which in turn cultivated brand new off-shoots sort of, kind of related to Buddhism but not Buddhism. This happened a lot with various Native American appropriations and probably when a lot of people began to “be Cherokee” in a past life.

The author also clears up how the Buddha really discussed mental illness. In fact, he didn’t. The Buddha’s meanings for “the mind” or “the mental state” are not at all related to what we think of in modern DSM5 clinical terminology.

Here’s an example of a quote that Bodhipaksa debunked as a quote from Buddha:

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.” — Not Buddha

He states that this particularly popular on Twitter and has been around since 2005 which, to my amusement the author calls “The Year Fact-Checking Died.” The Buddha did not want nor have desire for living things to suffer. Calling life suffering is shorthand for something that requires a much deeper dive. There’s no victim-blaming by the Buddha.

Here’s another favorite of mine:

“Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” — Not Buddha

I see the quote above quite often, but usually there’s never any credit given. It’s a meme that people doing public speaking recite on a regular basis. It’s become part of the zeitgeist the same way as “I treat female characters as human beings” has. They may have been said by a contemporary celebrity or person in the news, but they aren’t the originators of those quotes. Plus as it’s said today, “Anonymous was a woman,” because women were so rarely allowed to be free thinkers worthy of quoting. There are quite a few successful women in I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha who had their words attributed, sometimes with a twist, to the Buddha. Toni Morrison, Marie Curie, and others.

There’s also a fantastic reveal about someone often included in quote generators and websites. The man by the names of Osho or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. This man was a scoundrel who bilked people for lots of money. He had a Rolls Royce collection. And if that’s not enough to find him disreputable, he was also a terrorist. So don’t quote him. Like, ever.

There are several reasons why popular sentiments are misattributed and Bodhipaksa goes into them with plenty of examples and when possible, full credit to the true originator. The fact that so many people have books where “Buddha” is in the title such as “What the Buddha Taught” by Walpola Rahula or “The Teachings of Buddha” by Jack Kornfield makes it seem like what those authors wrote is what the Buddha actually said. They paraphrase and, as noted before, work from translations.

The final twenty-five quotations are things the Buddha actually said as close to genuine translation as possible. Bodhipaksa loves to give credit where its due. His acknowledgments end with a cheerful note: “Three contemporary translators stand out for me: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Sujato. These three men are, to me, Dharma Superheroes, and I hereby dub them ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentle-Bhikkus.'”

The estimated reading time was around three hours so this is perfect for people who can’t dedicate months to researching Buddha’s teachings; or quite honestly, for people who like a great bathroom read (and that’s not an insult).

Rating: 5 stars

The book is exactly what the title implies: a guide to some classically mis-attributed quotes that Buddha did not actually say, as well as how to spot more of them in the future. It was an interesting read, particularly finding that there were a number of scholars who's sole focus is Buddhism that weren't always able to identify which were true and which were not.