Dhammapada: A Practical Guide for Right Living

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The Dhammapada is the best known scripture of Theravada Buddhism and one of the most beloved spiritual classic of all time. An anthology of 423 verses spoken by the Buddha, the Dhammapada serves as a perfect compendium of his teachings for study and contemplation. Insights that flashed into the heart of the Buddha have crystallized into these luminous verses of pure wisdom. As profound expressions of practical spirituality, each verse is a guideline to right living. The Buddha unambiguously pointed that whoever earnestly practises the teachings found in the Dhammapada will taste the bliss of emancipation.
Each verse of the Dhammapada has its backdrop a significant historical incident. The stories have been translated by the Ven. Acharya Buddharakkhita and published by Buddha Vacana Trust, Bangalore under the title "AN UNFORGETTABLE INHERITANCE SERIES."

The DHAMMAPADA, an anthology of four hundred and twenty-three verses, compiled approximately six hundred years before Christ, belongs to the Khuddaka Nikaya ("Compact Collection") of the sacred Buddhist scripture, the Tipitaka. Handed down in the Pali language, in which the Buddha spoke, the Tipitaka (lit., "Three Baskets") has preserved the original teachings of the Enlightened One.
The Buddha enunciated his Dhamma (Teachings) in two different forms. Though distinct, they ultimately converge in the unfolding of insight into the realities of existence and the Beyond. One approach was in philosophical terms, incisive and analytical. The other took the form of discourses in simple, direct language intelligible to the masses, and often precipitated by a specific question or incident. It is from this body of material that the Dhammapada was compiled. Each verse was prompted by a particular episode, accounts of which are preserved in the Dhammapada Atthakatha, one of the commentaries on the Pali canon.
What the Gita is to Hindus, the Bible to Christendom and the Koran to Islamic people, the Dhammapada is to the Buddhist world. For the simple and unsophisticated, it is a sympathetic counsellor; for the intellectually overburdened its clear and direct teachings inspire humility and reflection; for the earnest seeker, it is a perennial source of inspiration. Insights that flashed into the heart of the Buddha have crystallized into these luminous verses of pure wisdom. As profound expressions of practical spirituality, each verse is a guideline to right living. The Buddha unambiguously pointed out that whoever earnestly practises the verses of the Dhammapada would taste the bliss of emancipation.

From ancient times to the present, the Dhammapada has been regarded as the most succinct expression of the Buddha's teaching. In the countries following Theravada Buddhism, it is a guidebook for everyday life. Even withdrawn contemplatives must possess a copy of the book. Yet the admiration of Dhammapada has not been confined to followers of Buddhism. Wherever it has become known its aphoristic wisdom and stirring message have won veneration of all.
The son of a king, the Buddha, was born in sixth century B.C. His name was Siddhattha and family name Gotama (Sanskrit: Siddhartha Gautama). Groomed to be heir to the throne, he encountered disturbing facts of suffering and lost all interest in the pleasures and privileges of rulership. One night, in his twenty-ninth year, he left home and became an ascetic, resolved to find the way to deliverance from suffering. For six years he experimented with different religious systems, subjected himself to severe austerities, but found that these practices did not bring him any closer to his goal. Finally, in his thirty-fifth year, sitting in deep meditation beneath the Bodhi tree at Gaya, he attained Supreme Enlightenment and become the Buddha. Thereafter, for forty-five years, he travelled throughout India, proclaiming the truths he had discovered and founding an order of monks and nuns to carry on his message. At the age of eighty, after a long and fruitful life, he passed away peacefully in Kusinara, surrounded by a large number of disciples.