THE DHAMMAPADA

The Dhammapada is an important, self-contained book of The Tripitaka, the Buddhist canon.  It contains an anthology of essential teachings of the Buddha, with narrative passages.  The Pali version, which is the most widely known, has 423 verses divided into 26 chapters.  Slightly different are Tibetan and Chinese versions. 

The verses date probably from the period of the First Buddhist Council (B.C. 477), which set most of the canon.  While The Dhammapada may not contain the actual words of the Buddha, it does embody the spirit of his teachings as recalled by the first generation of disciples. 

The verses are a simple but profound statement of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.  The considerable popularity of The Dhammapada places it on the same height for Buddhists as the Bhagavad Gita for Hindus. 

Since it is easily memorized, The Dhammapada is the one book most likely to be carried about by wandering monks, especially among Theravadins who feel that they alone possess the true doctrines and disciplines of Buddhism.