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Dhammapada: Words of Wisdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

W.L.A. Don Peter
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Extract

Of the many works which comprise the Tipitaka, the Buddhist canonical scriptures in Pali, none has had greater appeal to the Buddhist, whether monk or layman, than the Dhammapada. It is the favourite vademecum of the devout Buddhist. The reason for this is mainly the fact that it is a small work which contains in concise, epigrammatic form ‘the concentrated essence of the religion’.

The Tipitaka is a collection of the traditionally accepted canonical texts of the Theravada (also called Hinayana), the form of Buddhism which with local variations is dominant in South-East Asian countries—Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia—and is therefore known as the Southern School of Buddhism, which is one of the two main branches of the religion, the other being the Northern School, the Mahayana, which once flourished in India, whence it spread into Tibet, Nepal, China, Korea and Japan, in which countries it counts large numbers of adherents.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 55 , Issue 652 , September 1974, pp. 415 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

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References

1 K. J. Saunders in The Buddha's Way of Virtue, a translation of the Dhammapada by W. D. C. Wagiswara and K. J. Saunders, John Murray, London, 1912, p. 19.

2 Some of the hard sounds of Sanskrit are softened in Pali. For instance, the Sanskrit words dharma, karma, nirvana and amitya become dramma, kamma, nibbana and anicca respectively in Pali.

3 Bhikku: the Pali term for Buddhist monk. It literally means mendicant. The monk is expected to live on alms.

4 Cf. Mahavamsa, xxxiii: 100-101.

5 History of Ceylon (University of Ceylon), Ceylon University Press, Colombo, 1959, vol. i, part I, pp. 267-68.

6 Irving Babbitt, The Dhammapada, Oxford University Press, New York, 1936. p. x.

7 The English translation of the verses of the Dhammapada quoted in this article has been made by the author.

8 E. W. Adikaram, The Dhammapada, M. D. Gunasena & Co. Ltd., Colombo. 1954, p. v.

9 Cf.. e.g., verses 5, 82, 167-69, 21, 254-55.

10 Seeking alms but without inconveniencing anyone.

11 One excels not by birth but by virtue.

12 Cf. also verses 296-98.

13 It should be noted that suffering does not adequately render the meaning of dukkha which in addition to suffering or pain includes also such ideaa aa imperfection. impermanence and emptiness.

14 The path of right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

15 In the foreword to The Dhammapada, translation and notes by Narada Thera, introduction by Dr. E. J. Thomas, London, 1954. Dr Cassius A. Pereira later became a Buddhist monk as Kassapa Thera.