The Dhammapada
Words of
the Buddha
The Buddha was a wandering teacher who lived about 2,500 years ago.
Born Siddhartha Gautama into a noble family in ancient India, he gave up that life to search for a way beyond suffering. He found a deep and lasting peace, often called enlightenment, and spent the rest of his life as a monk, sharing it with anyone who would listen.
For generations his words were kept in memory and recited aloud.
About 400 years after his passing, they were finally written down.
The Dhammapada gathers some of them into one book.
All 423 verses, line by line, in plain modern language drawn from several translations. Each includes a short explanation and a real-life example.
“What you experience begins in the mind — the mind leads it, the mind makes it. When you speak or act from a place of goodwill, happiness follows you — like your own shadow on a sunny day, always right there.”
However you’re arriving today…
Even someone who knows only a single teaching — but truly lives it, letting go of greed, hate, and confusion — has found something real. One lived truth is worth more than a thousand memorized ones.Dhammapada, Verse 20
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The Dhammapada is organized into 26 chapters, and every one is annotated with a modern retranslation, a plain-language explanation, and a real-life example for each line.
Hatred never ends through more hatred; it ends only by letting hatred go. This truth is ancient and unchanging.Dhammapada, Verse 5