Dhammapada
The Dhammapada (Skt. dharmapada; Pali dhammapada; Tib. ཆོས་ཀྱི་ཚིགས་སུ་བཅད་པ་, chö kyi tsik su chepa, Wyl. chos kyi tshigs su cad pa) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha, which was written down in Pali, in Sri Lanka in the first century BC. It did not exist in Tibetan until it was translated from the Pali by the great twentieth century polymath Gendün Chöpel.[1]
The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka Nikaya, the ‘collection of little texts’, the fifth section in the Sutta Pitaka division of the Pali Canon.
Quotations
"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.
“Look how he abused me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.”
Live with such thoughts and you live in hate.
“Look how he abused me,
How he threw me down and robbed me.”
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love.
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate.
This is the law,
Ancient and inexhaustible."[2]
English Translations (in chronological order)
Most Popular Translations
- 1881 The Dhammapada : a collection of verses; being one of the canonical books of the Buddhists translated from Pâli by F. Max Müller.
- 1931 CAF Rhys-Davids
- 1950 Radhakrishnan
- 1973 Juan Mascaro
Others
- 1965 Irving Babbit
- 1967 P. Lal
- 1971 Jack Austin
- 1980 Harischandra Kaviratna (Theosophical) (available online)
- 1985 Acharya Buddharakkhita (avaliable online)
- 1985 Dharma Publishing from the translation into Tibetan from Pali by Gendun Chöpel
- 1986 Eknath Easwaran
- 1986 Rhagavan Iyer
- 1993 Thomas Byrom
- 1993 John Richards
- 1994 Thomas Cleary
- 1995 Rose Kramer
- 1997 Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) (available online)
- 1997 K.R. Norman (Word of the Doctrine, Pali Text Society)
- 2000 Carter and Palihawadana
- 2001 Shakya Aryanatta
- 2002 Sangharakshita
- 2003 Geri Larkin
Unknown Dates
- Ajahn Munindo
- Sanderson Beck
French Translations
- 1976 André Chédel, Les Vers de la doctrine (Paris: Dervy, 1976)
- 1988 Guy Serraf, Dhammapada (Verdun: Louise Courteau, 1988)
- 1993 Prajñānanda (René Joly), Centre d'études dharmiques de Gretz, Les Dits du Bouddha - Le Dhammapada (Paris: Albin Michel, réédition 2004)
- 1999 Jean-Pierre Osier, Dhammapada - Les Stances de la Loi (Paris: Garnier-Flammarion, 1999)
- 2002 Le Dong, Dhammapada - La Voie du Bouddha (Paris: Le Seuil, 2002)