Dhammapada

The Dhammapada is a versified Buddhist scripturetraditionally ascribed to the Buddha himself. It is one of the best-known texts from the Theravada canon.

The title, Dhammapada, is a compound term composed of dhamma and pada, each word having a number of denotations and connotations. Generally, dhamma can refer to the Buddha's "doctrine" or an "eternal truth" or "righteousness" or all "phenomena"; and, at its root, pada means "foot" and thus by extension, especially in this context, means either "path" or "verse" (cf. "prosodic foot") or both. English translations of this text's title have used various combinations of these and related words.

Siddhārtha Gautama lived from around 563 to 483 BCE in India. After an intense spiritual quest as a young man, he became "enlightened," and is still called "The Buddha" - The Enlightened or Awakened One.

The followers of the Buddha collected and recorded his talks and sayings; and, of course, later Buddhists added to these spiritual riches with commentaries, compilations, summaries, interpretations, revelations and insights. By 400 BCE, there was an extensive collection of handwritten Buddhist scriptures in both the Sanskrit and Pali languages, and some contend (e.g., Georg Feuerstein)that compilations of the Sayings of the Buddha, like the Dhammapada, were in existence. By 100 BCE there were organized and "standardized" or "approved" collections of these handwritten scriptures, including the Dhammapada.

The collection in the Pali language, the canonical language of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, is called the Tipitaka(Three Baskets) Canon. The Abdhidharma and Dharmapada writings are included in the Tipitaka Canon. After nearly 2,300 years the standard Pali Tipitaka Canon has become very large. The Pali Text Society version of theTipitaka, printed in 1877, consists of 57 large volumes.

For over twenty centuries, the most quoted scripture (Sutta) from the Three Baskets Canon (Tipitaka) has been the "Dhammapada Sutta." In the Pali language, Dhamma means truth, principles, Buddhist doctrine, law, and discipline; and, Pada means path, way, step, foot. Sutta means threads, terse sayings, proverbs, wisdom, scripture, holy book, etc.. Dhammapada Sutta is the Pali name for the scripture, and Dharmapada Sutra is the Sanskrit name of the collection of verses. Thus, this traditional Buddhist teaching text and revered scripture tells us how to walk the path of truth, or follow the path of wisdom.

The Dhammapada Sutta has a long and vibrant oral tradition. Serious followers of Buddhism, and many Southeast Asian monks, would memorize the Dharmapada Sutra. The sayings, or "threads (sutras) of wisdom," were widely repeated for teaching and inspiration in East Asian Buddhist cultures for over twenty centuries. Many verses are part of the folk wisdom, and some verses are clichés in those cultures.

The earliest extant handwritten version of the Dhammapada Sutta is on birch bark scrolls found in clay jars buried in a monastery in Eastern Afghanistan. These ancient manuscripts, called the "Gandhāran Buddhist Texts" or the "Kharosthi Manuscripts" are now in the possession of the British Museum Library. It has been estimated by archeologists and Buddhist scholars that these manuscripts come from around 100 CE.

One influential commentary on the Dhammapada Sutta by the Buddhist monk and scholar, Buddhaghosa, circa the Fifth Century CE, arranged the Sutta into 423 verses arranged into 26 chapters, and provided 305 stories or parables which give some context for each of the verses. There are Tibetan versions of the Dharmapada Sutra which include up to 1,000 verses, arranged in 33 chapters. Today, nearly all translations of the Dhammapada Sutta include 423 verses arranged into 26 chapters.

Initially, the Tipitaka Canon in the Pali language represented the Theravada, rather than Mahayana, traditions of Buddhism. However, over many centuries, aspects of the Mahayana and Tibetan Schools of Buddhism appeared in a number of the sayings included in the later Dhammapada and Udanavarga compilations in other languages. For example, vivid ideas of rewards in heaven and punishment in hell are more rooted in the lay person's Mahayana traditions, as well as Hindu and Islamic religions, rather than the early Theravada Buddhism. Even the Buddha himself kept a polite silence about supernatural realms, so as to avoid theological disagreements that did not contribute to the quest for enlightenment. On the other hand, the Dhammapada still lacks emphasis upon the Mahayana vision ofbodhicitta - the altruistic motivation to become a Buddha for the sake of others.

There are many translations of the Dhammapada Scripture from the Pali or Sanskrit languages into the English language, and, of course, into all other major languages. One of the earliest published translations of the Dhammapada Sutta from the Pali language into the English language was prepared by the scholar Friedrich Max Müller in 1869. There is a Tibetan version of the Dharmapada Sutra, from Sanskrit sources, called the Udanavarga, compiled by a scholar-monk named Dharmatrata, from around 200 CE; which was first translated into English in 1892 by W.W. Rockhill. The Chinese version of the Dhammapada was translated into English by Samuel Beal in 1878.

In the English translations of the Dharmapada Sutra that I have studied, there are some verses that have considerable literary elegance and poetic force, while the majority of the verses favor a plain and matter of fact prose style. There is some repetition of specific verses, and extensive repetition of the central ideas, e.g., "do good and avoid evil; or, pacify and purify the mind."

The primary emphasis in the Dhammapada is on personal behavior, morals, Buddhist precepts, ethics, rightness, personal responsibility, living a good life, control of the emotions and desires, reducing suffering and sadness, and cultivating a tranquil mind. I have included a number of publications in the bibliography below that deal with these topics, but are not specifically related to the Dhammapada.

For readers who want a good introduction and informative guide to the chapters, may I suggest The Dhammapada: Verses on the Way by Glen Wallis. Juan Mascaro's translation includes a longer introduction, in the spirit of R. H. Blyth, with many cross-cultural comparisons. Osho has given a series of 12 longer lectures on the Dhamapada Sutta. There is an online commentary on each verse based on Mr. Burlingame's commentary (2 volumes) on the Dhammapada Sutta for the Pali Text Society. There is also a commentary by the Venerable Narada available online. There is an illustrated version of the Dhammapada Sutta with a color painting for each verse. The stories and parables included in Buddhagosha's commentary in the 5th Century CE are best presented by Daw Mya Tin.