"Classical Buddhism" is dedicated to the initial - South Asian - stage of the history of this world religion, which arose in the middle of the 1st millennium BC among the Indo-Aryan military aristocracy. Based on many years of experience in the study of Buddhist written monuments created in India during the ancient and early eras Middle Ages and included in the world treasury of religious and philosophical thought, the authors recreated the contours of the teachings of the Enlightened sage Buddha Shakyamuni using the modern language of the Russian intellectual tradition. The reader will find out how the collection of Buddhist sacred texts (Tripitaka) was formed, why Shakyamuni’s religion denies the idea of God the Creator and the eternal soul, what Buddhists believe in, under the influence of what ideals schools and directions of Buddhist classical philosophy took shape. Getting acquainted with “Classical Buddhism” will allow you to see the image of the universe captured in the works of Buddhist teachers - mentally visit the transcendental abodes of the celestials, descend into the ominous hellish prisons, look into the monstrous world of hungry ghosts and ghosts. The reader will discover the law of karma - the cosmic essence of any conscious activity and the meaning of those moral precepts that guide Buddhists in everyday life.