The Dhammapada

Introduction

'Mind precedes all things; mind is their chief, they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with a corrupted mind, suffering follows as the wheel follows the foot of the ox.' The Dhammapada is the most widely recited book of the Pali canon. It gathers four hundred and twenty-three verses spoken by the Buddha on many occasions, arranged by theme in twenty-six chapters, among them the Pairs, Heedfulness, the Mind, Flowers, the Fool, the Wise, the Thousands, Evil, Old Age, the Self, the Buddha, Happiness, Anger and the Path. In the simplest and plainest language it speaks of the power of the mind, of impermanence, compassion and liberation; it is the best introduction to the Buddha's earliest teaching, and in the Buddhist countries of South and Southeast Asia almost everyone knows its verses by heart.