Traditional religious discourses have failed to account for the biological process involved in the attaining of Nirvana. Drawing from sources as varied as the Pali canon, Mahayana texts, Zen Buddhism, J. Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, U.G. Krishnamurti, Nietzsche, postmodernist thinkers and biological sciences, The Buddha retells the story of the Buddha and discusses his teachings in physical and physiological terms. This radical new reading turns most of the central spiritual concepts on their head, and hopes, in the course of time, to put an end to the rivalry between science and religion and, indeed, among the various religions.