The Dhammapada – Sacred Texts

The Essential Teachings of the Buddha.

Part of a series of sacred texts selected from the major writings of the world’s most recognized spiritual traditions.

In more than 400 verses the Buddha clearly expounds his noble path of virtue for everyman. This foundation scripture teaches the supreme doctrine of nirvana and the way to the highest possible happiness for mankind.

Translated by Oxford professor Dr. Max Muller, a great scholar and Orientalist with an introduction by Kevin Trainor, Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont. The Dhammapada – the Path of Truth – is a beautiful anthology of proverbs and aphorisms which are considered to be as close to the Buddha’s own words as we can ever reach.

The work outlines the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths: that life is full of suffering, which all of us must accept, that the cause of suffering is desire, that the removal of desire removes suffering; and finally that deliverance might be obtained by following the Noble Eightfold Path. The Dhammapada is arranged in chapters which cover themes and topics such as Choices, Wakefulness, the World, the Awakened, Joy, Pleasure, Anger, Impurity, Justice, the Way, Desire, the Seeker and The True Master.

Dr F. Max Muller was Professor of Philology at Oxford University and the celebrated editor of the fifty-volume Sacred Books of the East series, which brought the most important Eastern scriptures to the notice of the Western world. Muller’s elegant English prose is consistently faithful to the original Pali of the Dhammapada. Kevin Trainor is Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont. He has written a number of highly regarded books on Bhuddhism.