The Dhammapada
The Buddha c. 250 BCE
Short verses present Buddhist teachings on the mind, conduct, and the path away from suffering. A chapter called Flowers compares a wise person's journey through a village to a bee gathering nectar.
45 pages 53 min reading time
- One of the best-known and most loved books of Buddhist teaching, read across Asia for more than two thousand years.
- Opens with the idea that our thoughts shape who we are, so a mind full of hate brings suffering just as surely as a cart wheel follows the ox that pulls it.
- Teaches that hatred is never ended by more hatred, only by its absence, and that conquering yourself is a greater victory than winning a thousand battles.
- Its verses are still memorized and recited by Buddhist monks and lay people in countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand.
- Has been translated into many languages and became one of the main ways Western readers first came to know Buddhist ideas.
Found on birch bark
An ancient copy written on birch bark in a Gandhari language was found near Khotan in Central Asia in 1892.
Passed on by memory
For centuries, monks kept these verses alive by reciting them aloud before anyone wrote them down.
Many versions survive
Besides the Pali text, early versions exist in other ancient Indian languages and in Chinese and Tibetan.
Stories behind each verse
A later Sri Lankan commentary adds a story for each verse, telling when the Buddha is said to have spoken it.
Translated by F. Max Müller 1881