Dhammapada
The Dhammapada is a revered collection of verses that embodies the teachings of Buddhism, specifically within the Theravāda tradition. Comprising 423 verses across 26 chapters, it serves as a guide to the path of truth, virtue, and moral conduct, reflecting the core principles of dharma, which can encompass duty, moral law, and ultimate reality. This text is considered one of the most significant scriptures in the Pāli Tipiṭaka, the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism, which is practiced primarily in Southeast Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Burma.
Each verse of the Dhammapada is believed to have been spoken by the Buddha in response to specific situations, making it a practical anthology of his teachings. It addresses fundamental concepts such as the notion of anātman, or the absence of a permanent self, emphasizing that attachment to the idea of a personal identity leads to suffering. By discarding this illusion, individuals can attain a deeper understanding of reality and ultimately overcome suffering. As a result, the Dhammapada has transcended its origins to become a world religious classic, valued for its insights into the human condition and moral development.
Dhammapada
Related civilizations: India, Southeast and Far East Asia.
Also known as:Dharmapada (Sanskrit).
Date: second century b.c.e.-third century c.e.
Locale: Indian subcontinent
Authorship: Attributed to Siddhārtha Gautama (the Buddha)
Dhammapada
The Dhammapada (English translation in Buddhist Legends, 1921; the name means “path of truth/virtue/morality” in the Pāli languages; the Sanskrit is Dharmapada) is a collection of 423 verses in 26 chapters that treats the way or teaching of the dharma. The word “dharma” is central to Buddhist teachings and has many meanings depending on context. It can mean variously the teachings of the Buddha, the truth, ultimate reality, the moral law or the right way, duty, and the true religion. The Dhammapada (DAH-mah-PAH-dah) is the best known and most widely esteemed text in the Pāli Tipiṭaka (collected c. 250 b.c.e.; English translation in Buddhist Scriptures, 1913), the sacred scriptures or canon of Theravāda (Hināyāna) Buddhism, which is the conservative southern Asian school of Pāli Buddhism found in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, in contrast to the Mahāyāna Buddhism of the East Asian countries of China, Korea, and Japan. It is included in the Khuddaka Nikāya (“minor collection”) of the Sūtra Piṭaka .
Its popularity has raised it far above the place it occupies in the Pāli scriptures to the status of a world religious classic. This short anthology of verses constitutes a perfect compendium of the Buddha’s teaching, containing between its covers all the essential principles elaborated at length in the forty volumes of the Pāli canon. According to the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, each verse in the Dhammapada was originally spoken by the Buddha in response to a particular episode (reputedly on 305 separate occasions).
The Dhammapada contains certain of the Buddha’s central teachings such as that of anātman or the idea that no real self (personality or soul) exists. There is only the ultimate reality or “true suchness” of being. The Buddha taught in a time of Vedantic mysticism that maintained that absolute reality (brahman) exists, as does the individual soul or self (ātman), and that they are identical. The Buddha resolutely denied the concept of the individual personality because suffering—another pivotal notion in his teachings—is produced by the mistaken attachment to this “idea” of a self that is in truth only the product of illusory sense perceptions. The self must be discarded in order to perceive absolute reality (tathata) and to overcome suffering.
Bibliography
Brough, John, ed. The Gandhari Dhartnapada. London: Oxford University Press, 1962.
Norman, K. R., trans. The Word of the Doctrine. Oxford, England: The Pali Text Society, 1997.
Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, ed. The Dhammapada: With Introductory Essays, Pali Text, and English Translation and Notes. London: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Robinson, Richard H., and Willard L. Johnson. The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1982.
Von Hinuber, O., and K. R. Norman, eds. Dhammapada. Oxford, England: The Pali Text Society, 1995.