Doctrine of Awakening: The Attainment of Self-Mastery According to the Earliest Buddhist Texts (Original)

Buddhism as Aristocratic Discipline

Julius Evola's The Doctrine of Awakening, first published in Italian in 1943, presents early Buddhism as something radically different from the gentle, therapeutic practice that Western audiences have come to associate with the tradition. Evola reads the Pali Canon texts and argues that the Buddha's teaching was, at its core, an ascetic warrior discipline. The historical Buddha was a Kshatriya, a member of the warrior caste, and his path to awakening was not a retreat from the world but a conquest of the self, pursued with the rigor and severity of a military campaign.

Evola's Interpretation

Evola strips Buddhism of the devotional and egalitarian layers that later schools added. What remains is a doctrine of radical self-mastery: the practitioner wages war against attachment, illusion, and the biological will to live. Evola connects this to his broader philosophy of Tradition, positioning early Buddhism alongside the initiatory paths of other ancient civilizations. The book is controversial among Buddhist scholars, many of whom reject Evola's aristocratic framing, but it remains one of the most distinctive readings of the Pali texts ever published.

About This Edition

Author: Julius Evola
Publisher: Inner Traditions International
Format: Paperback