Dhammapada : Annotated & Explained [Paperback]

Max Muller (Author), Jack Maguire (Author)

Book Description

Series: SkyLight Illuminations | Publication Date: November 2001

Ancient words of the Buddha ("awakened one") that can become a companion for your own spiritual journey. The Dhammapada ("Path of the Buddha's Teachings") is a daily inspiration for millions of Buddhists all over the world and for people of all spiritual traditions who have been impressed by its beauty and power. These words—believed to have been spoken by the Buddha himself over 2,500 years ago—contain most of Buddhism's central teachings. Originally composed in the ancient language of Pali, this timeless text concisely and inspirationally portrays the route a person travels as he or she advances toward enlightenment. With poetic sequence and rhythm, the Dhammapada describes the fundamental role of mental conditioning in making us who we are. It paints contrasting portraits of three levels of our human existence—the fool, the wise one, and the enlightened one—and addresses specific aspects of experience, conduct, and belief that characterize our transformation from one of these modes of being to another. Now you can experience the Dhammapada with understanding even if you have no previous knowledge of Buddhism. This SkyLight Illuminations edition offers insightful yet unobtrusive commentary that explains references and philosophical terms, shares the inspiring interpretations of famous spiritual teachers, and gives you deeper insight into the text.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nearly every line of the Dhammapada, from the first "All that we are is the result of what we have thought," is quotable and worth ruminating over. Eloquent, insightful, and brief, this Buddhist scripture is the kind of book that finds its way into purses, backpacks, and briefcases for perusal anytime, anywhere. The call of the Dhammapada is to the path of awakening, to undertake the effort of meditation, and to see through the veneer of the suffering life. In this rendition by author and Zen student Jack Maguire, it retains its purity and insight while offering more in the way of textual understanding. Maguire begins with Max Muller's late-19th-century translation, which, although problematic at points, stands the test of time. He then polishes and adds numerous notes on facing pages about the text itself and about Buddhist concepts. A fluid and critical translation of a masterpiece of Buddhist literature, Maguire's Dhammapada is worth taking out of your bag anytime, anywhere. --Brian Bruya

From Library Journal

SkyLight Paths has republished and augmented a classic translation of one of Buddhism's core texts, the Dhammapada, supposed to have been uttered by the Buddha himself. Muller's plain and graceful translation has been lightly amended by Zen student and author Maguire, who provides well-informed and helpful notes. This book offers a welcome reintroduction to the Buddha's teaching: "Hatred ceases by love." Highly recommended.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 129 pages
• Publisher: Skylight Paths Publishing (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189336142X
• ISBN-13: 978-1893361423
• Product Dimensions: 0.4 x 0.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #300,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The heart and soul of Buddhism, November 27, 2006

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Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dhammapada : Annotated & Explained (Paperback)

There are numerous translations into English from the original Pali of this most sacred and most fundamental scripture of Theravada Buddhism, a book that is of course revered by all Buddhists. It really doesn't matter much which one you choose since "the path of the dharma" or "the sayings of the Buddha" are fairly easily understood on a denotative level regardless of which professional did the translating. Such was the Buddha's intention (and more) as he transversed northern India some twenty-five hundred years ago speaking to people from all walks of life of his "awakening" and his formula for transcending human suffering. By tradition the Dhammapada is said to be derived from the very words the Buddha spoke as taken down from the oral recitations of disciples some years after his death.

This edition from the Skylight Illuminations series edited by Andrew Harvey does everything in a modest and easy to assimilate fashion. The translation is that of Max Muller from 1870 as updated by Jack Maguire who also wrote a short Introduction and did the page-facing annotations. The changes in the text are mostly to make the word choices more in accordance with nonsexist language and to use a vocabulary more in keeping with the twentieth rather than the nineteenth century. There are some style changes, but they are unimportant.

When I first came across the Dhammapada some thirty years ago I was not much impressed. Certainly the Buddha's opening dictum, essentially that "we are what we think" was not to be argued against; and certainly his injunction to do no harm to sentient being is advanced wisdom. Even as a young man that was obvious to me. But what bothered me was that again and again the Buddha would say do good, refrain from evil, follow the right path, etc. Ultimately there is the Eightfold Path: right understanding, right purpose, right speech, right conduct, right occupation, right effort, right attention, and right meditation. But, I wanted to know, just what is right and what is wrong? How great a thing is it to say that we should live life with the right understanding, the right purpose, etc., without defining exactly what right is?

And then after some years and some study in the Buddhist literature and elsewhere it became clear to me what is right and what is wrong. And then I returned to the Dhammapada and found it all spelled out in deceptively simple language. My "problem" as a young man was that I had prejudged the text (and my experience with the text), expecting some great and momentous revelation leading me dramatically from darkness to the light, when in fact the truth of liberation is to be found in the most mundane ideas and actions--which, by the way, is why there is a Zen tradition in Buddhism that eschews all the weighty tombs in the canon and cries out for spontaneity and simple living. It can even be said that all of the voluminous literature of Buddhism--more, much more than anyone could read in a lifetime, or several lifetimes--is superfluous.

Except for the Dhammapada. Toss all the rest of it away and take the Dhammapada with you wherever you go and you will be very well served. In fact, all the other Buddhist writings, some of them wondrous and magnificently insightful, may be just an obfuscation. Better to just study the Dhammapada.

The sayings themselves are dialectic. There is often a point and a counterpoint, or an illumination and then a variation on that illumination. There is plenty of repetition, but the text flows gracefully from the opening "Couplets" or "Twin Verses" through advice on joy and pleasure, on evil and anger, on the fool and the wise, on the nature of the self and its relationship to the world, to the final chapter on the "Brahmin," whom the Buddha sees as one who is liberated from the pairs of opposites, has conquered death and is ready to enter into nirvana. Still it should be remembered the Buddha's words are aimed most directly to those who would don the saffron robes.

In this translation and in the annotations and commentary it is taken for granted that the words of the Dhammapada are literal except where the Buddha clearly intends a metaphor or a parable. However, after years of study of not just Buddhism, Vedanta, the Tao, the main yogas and other ideas from the East, it is my belief that much of what is in the Dhammapada is to be taken symbolically. As in all great works of religion there is both a level for aspirants and for the laity. An "intentional language" is used so that the sage may speak simultaneously to both beginners and those with some considerable experience along the path.

Thus, from my point of view, the karma that befalls us is psychological (although often quite concrete and coming from without, and soon). The rebirths are the rebirths of consciousness. And when the Buddha spoke of the self, note well he also spoke of the non-self. Impermanence is all, change is all, and the self is a powerful illusion that can be dispelled only through insightful meditation.

These things and the illusion of death and the fact that we are always alive (which is why the Buddha was famously silent on the hereafter--it was irrelevant) cannot be gleaned at a first reading or even a tenth. Or if you are gifted perhaps they can be. But take the Buddha's advice and meditate as he did and then some enlightenments will follow, soon or late. And they will be lost and then they will be regained. Combine your meditation with reading the Dhammapada again and still again and gradually the weight of the Buddha's argument and the illumination of his insights will become clear and the dharma will be obvious.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Easy access to Buddhist wisdom., September 13, 2002

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G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dhammapada : Annotated & Explained (Paperback)

I read this translation of The Dhammapada ("the path of dharma") simultaneously, line by line, with Eknath Easwaran's translation. Although in the end I prefered the latter translation, I found the annotations and commentary in Muller's translation very insightful. You don't have to be a Buddhist nun or monk to appreciate the wisdom of The Dhammapada; rather, it has been said that The Buddha intended these teachings for everyone. Easwaran has observed that if all of the Buddha's other teachings were lost, The Dhammapada would be enough to understand Buddha's wisdom, and Muller's translation provides easy access to that wisdom. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought"--these opening lines set the theme of the entire Dhammapada: namely, the importance of training the mind. Muller's translation with its accompanying commentary is a good place to start down the path of Buddhist dharma.

G. Merritt

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Majestic Gift /Beautifully Translated, February 9, 2004

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cvairag (Allan Hancock College) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dhammapada : Annotated & Explained (Paperback)

The Dhammapada (in Pali/the Lankan scriptural language as derived from the original Pankrit), or the Dharmapada (in Sanskrit), the Pali being the original, in this case, is a pocket-size selection of the "essence" of Gotama Buddha's thought (the dhamma, or dharma) culled from the massive Tripitaka, the comprehensive collection of all of the Buddha's recorded discourses. The selection was made by the Sangha (the Buddhist community (in those days monks and nuns) somtime between 200 to 700 years after the death of Gotama Buddha in the fifth century B.C. The succintness, gravity, and beauty of these verses has more than stood the test of time.

The Dhammapada is, in my opinion (I first heard the dhamma formally in this lifetime in 1970), the best introduction to the buddha/dhamma: a bedside book, a wake-up book, a wonderful and lifelong friend.

This translation was among the first in a European language. Mueller was an enormous figure in religious studies, who in the late nineteeth century conceived, edited, and contributed to the encyclopediac fifty tome collection of translations of Sacred Texts of the East of which this work is one volume.The companion texts seemed to have been deleted for this paperbound edition. However, Muller's notes are informative although sometimes obscure.

The translation is strictly nineteeth century prose, and exhibits both pros and cons of the genre. At times the translation may not suit our criteria for either accuracy or aesthetic refinement. However, as Gracian has said, to be first is to be great, and Max M was most definitely, along with Szekeley the elder . . . first.

Which ever translation of the Dhammapada you choose, please do chose one. The work is exqisite and explains the dhamma (if possible) better than any book I know (Shobogenzo 2nd at this moment). Although I still have my Muller, I myself prefer the diminuitive translation with commentaries by The Mother (not Anadamayi, but the French sanyassin who hung out with Sri Aurobindo in the the mid twentieth century. The commentaries in this tiny book are brief talks she gave in the late fifties and always appropriate. The book can be procured through Auroville, Aurobindo's ashram, or perhaps on Amazon). However, the Muller is quite sufficient and inspiring.