Dhammapada
धम्मपद
423 verses of the Buddha's teaching, arranged by theme, making almost no metaphysical demands.
Four hundred and twenty-three verses of the Buddha's teaching in Pali, arranged in twenty-six chapters by theme—the mind, the flowers, the fool, the sage, anger, craving. It is the most-read Buddhist text in the world and the easiest door into Buddhism, because its claims are psychological and testable: that suffering follows a mind badly used the way a cart-wheel follows the ox; that hatred is never ended by hatred; that you are the one who has to do the work. The verses are short, concrete, and mostly built on a single image.
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;
manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā,
tato naṁ dukkham anveti, cakkaṁ va vahato padaṁ.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
The first verse. Compare Bṛhadāraṇyaka 4.4.5: “a person is made of desire.”
Na hi verena verāni, sammantīdha kudācanaṁ;
averena ca sammanti, esa dhammo sanantano.
For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
Sri Aurobindo's “hate not the oppressor” and Valluvar's kural 314 are the same rule.
Yo sahassaṁ sahassena, saṅgāme mānuse jine;
ekañ ca jeyya attānaṁ, sa ve saṅgāmajuttamo.
If one man conquer in battle a thousand times thousand men, and if another conquer himself, he is the greatest of conquerors.
Tao Te Ching 33 says it in almost the same words.
Attanā hi kataṁ pāpaṁ, attanā saṅkilissati;
attanā akataṁ pāpaṁ, attanāva visujjhati;
suddhī asuddhi paccattaṁ, nāñño aññaṁ visodhaye.
By oneself evil is done; by oneself one is defiled. By oneself evil is left undone; by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself; no one can purify another.
Put this beside Gita 18.66 (“come to me alone for refuge; I will free you”). They disagree about who does the freeing.
Sabbapāpassa akaraṇaṁ, kusalassa upasampadā;
sacittapariyodapanaṁ, etaṁ buddhāna sāsanaṁ.
Not to commit any sin, to do good, and to purify one's mind, that is the teaching of the Awakened.
The whole teaching in one verse, as the tradition itself summarises it.
Akkodhena jine kodhaṁ, asādhuṁ sādhunā jine;
jine kadariyaṁ dānena, saccenālikavādinaṁ.
Let a man overcome anger by love, let him overcome evil by good; let him overcome the greedy by liberality, the liar by truth.
Four remedies, each the opposite of its disease. Yoga Sutra 2.33 gives the general rule.
Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā …
Sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā …
Sabbe dhammā anattā …
All conditioned things are impermanent. All conditioned things are unsatisfactory. All things are without self.
The three marks of existence. The third is where Buddhism and Vedanta part company; see the contrast on the Gita page.
Who does the freeing?
A. Dhammapada 165 — “By oneself one is purified … no one can purify another.”
B. Gita 18.66 — “Come to me alone for refuge. I will free you from all wrong.”
The Buddha's verse puts the whole responsibility on you; Krishna's takes it off you. Shirdi Sai Baba and Sarada Devi are on Krishna's side of this; Vivekananda, for all his devotion, often sounds like the Dhammapada. Most people need both at different times, and the traditions themselves know it: Buddhism has its bodhisattvas of grace, and the Gita has its verses on self-effort (6.5). But the emphasis is genuinely different, and it is worth knowing which one you are reaching for.
Where the translation is marked “Aumidhra”, the English is our own plain rendering from the original, made with the public-domain translations above as reference. Where a translator is named, the wording is theirs.
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