PREFACE

The DHAMMAPADA, an anthology of four hundred and twenty-three verses, compiled approximately six hundred years before Christ, belongs to the Khuddaka Nikāya (“Compact Collection") of the sacred Buddhist scripture, the Tipitaka. Handed down in the Pāli language, in which the Buddha spoke, the Tipitaka (lit., "Three Baskets") has preserved the original teachings of the Enlightened One.

The Buddha enunciated his Dhamma (Teachings) in two different forms. Though distinct, they ultimately converge in the unfolding of insight into the realities of existence and the Beyond. One approach was in philosophical terms, incisive and analytical. The other took the form of discourses in simple, direct language intelligible to the masses, and often precipitated by a specific question or incident. It is from this body of material that the Dhammapada was compiled. Each verse was prompted by a particular episode, accounts of which are preserved in the Dhammapada Aļļhakathā, one of the commentaries on the Pali canon,...............