Trembling and quivering is the mind,
Difficult to guard and hard to restrain.
The person of wisdom sets it straight,
As a fletcher does an arrow.

The Dhammapada introduced the actual utterances of the Buddha nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, when the master teacher emerged from his long silence to illuminate for his followers the substance of humankind's deepest and most abiding concerns. The nature of the self, the value of relationships, the importance of moment-to-moment awareness, the destructiveness of anger, the suffering that attends attachment, the ambiguity of the earth's beauty, the inevitability of aging, the certainty of death of these dilemmas preoccupy us today as they did centuries ago. No other spiritual texts speak about them more clearly and profoundly than does the Dhammapada.

In this elegant new translation, Sanskrit scholar Glenn Wallis has exclusively referred to and quoted from the canonical suttas, the presumed earliest discourses of the Buddha, to bring us the heartwood of Buddhism, words as compelling today as when the Buddha first spoke them.

On violence:
All tremble before violence.
All fear death.
Having done the same yourself,
you should neither harm nor kill.

On ignorance:
An uninstructed person
ages like an ox,
his bulk increases,
his insight does not.

On skillfulness:
A person is not skilled
just because he talks a lot.
Peaceful, friendly, secure,
that one is called "skilled."

In 423 verses gathered by subject into chapters, the editor offers us a distillation of core Buddhist teachings that constitutes a prescription for enlightened living, even in the twenty-first century. He also includes a brilliantly informative guide to the verses--a chapter-by-chapter explication that greatly enhances our understanding of them. The text, at every turn, points to practical applications that lead to freedom from fear and suffering, toward the human state of spiritual virtuosity known as awakening.

Glenn Wallis's translation is an inspired successor to earlier versions of the suttas. Even those readers who are well acquainted with the Dhammapada will be enriched by this fresh encounter with a classic text.

The Dhammapada: Verses on the Way, Glenn Wallis, Modern Library, Paperback, 2007, 224 pages, $19.95.

Glenn Wallis holds a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University�s Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Prior to that, he studied at the renowned Institute for Indology and Buddhist Studies at the University of G�ttingen, Germany. Wallis has published widely on various aspects of Buddhism. His books are A Critique of Western Buddhism: Ruins of the Buddhist Real; Cruel Theory|Sublime Practice: Toward a Revaluation of Buddhism (with contributions from Tom Pepper and Matthias Steingass); Buddhavacana: A Pali Reader; Basic Teachings of the Buddha; The Dhammapada: Verses on the Way; and Mediating the Power of Buddhas: Ritual in the Manjusrimulakalpa. With Warbler Press he has published How to Fix Education: A Handbook for Direct Action (2020), An Anarchist�s Manifesto (2020), and his most recent book, Nietzsche NOW!: The Great Immoralist on the Vital Issues of Our Time (2024).

CONTENTS: Dhammapada: Verses on the Way
Foreword		xi
A Note on the Translation		xv
TRANSLATION
Chapter One: Contrasting Pairs (verses 1-20)		3
Chapter Two: Diligence (21-32)		7
Chapter Three: Mind (33-43)		10
Chapter Four: Flowers (44-59)		12
Chapter Five: The Childish Person (60-75)		15
Chapter Six: The Skilled Person (76-89)		18
Chapter Seven: The Accomplished Person (90-99)		21
Chapter Eight: Thousands (100-115)		23
Chapter Nine: Detriment (116-128)		26
Chapter Ten: Violence (129-145)		29
Chapter Eleven: Old Age (146-156)		32
Chapter Twelve: Oneself (157-166)		34
Chapter Thirteen: The World (167-178)		37
Chapter Fourteen: The Awakened (179-196)		40
Chapter Fifteen: Being at Ease (197-208)		43
Chapter Sixteen: Pleasing (209-220)		46
Chapter Seventeen: Anger (221-234)		48
Chapter Eighteen: Toxins (235-255)		51
Chapter Nineteen: Firmly on the Way (256-272)		55
Chapter Twenty: The Path (273-289)		58
Chapter Twenty-One: Scattered Themes (290-305)		61
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Lower Worlds (306-319)		64
Chapter Twenty-Three: Elephant (320-333)		67
Chapter Twenty-Four: Craving (334-359)		70
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Practitioner (360-382)		75
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Superior Person (383-423)		79
GUIDE TO READING THE TEXT
INTRODUCTION		89
	Genre, Use, and Themes	89
	Place in Buddhist Literature	89
	Approaching the Dhammapada	93
	The Reader in the Room	94
	A Comment on the Translation	96
	Notes to the Introduction	100
CHAPTER OVERVIEWS AND NOTES
	Chapter One: Contrasting Pairs (verses 1-20)	103
	Chapter Two: Diligence (21-32)	111
	Chapter Three: Mind (33-43)	118
	Chapter Four: Flowers (44-59)	121
	Chapter Five: The Childish Person (60-75)	125
	Chapter Six: The Skilled Person (76-89)	131
	Chapter Seven: The Accomplished Person (90-99)	135
	Chapter Eight: Thousands (100-115)	138
	Chapter Nine: Detriment (116-128)	139
	Chapter Ten: Violence (129-145)	142
	Chapter Eleven: Old Age (146-156)	144
	Chapter Twelve: Oneself (157-166)	147
	Chapter Thirteen: The World (167-178)	149
	Chapter Fourteen: The Awakened (179-196)	152
	Chapter Fifteen: Being at Ease (197-208)	159
	Chapter Sixteen: Pleasing (209-220)	161
	Chapter Seventeen: Anger (221-234)	163
	Chapter Eighteen: Toxins (235-255)	166
	Chapter Nineteen: Firmly on the Way (256-272)	170
	Chapter Twenty: The Path (273-289)	173
	Chapter Twenty-One: Scattered Themes (290-305)	176
	Chapter Twenty-Two: The Lower Worlds (306-319)	178
	Chapter Twenty-Three: Elephant (320-333)	181
	Chapter Twenty-Four: Craving (334-359)	183
	Chapter Twenty-Five: The Practitioner (360-382)	185
	Chapter Twenty-Six: The Superior Person (383-423)	188
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS		191
INDEX		193
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR		203