Dhammapada Handbook

Chapter 0: Introduction

It is far too easy to be swept away in the drama when viewing the daily news headlines. With repeated viewings, one can mistakenly believe that our world is filled with nothing but highly dissatisfied and unhappy souls caught up in their own ongoing emotional and mental tempests. This appears to be a time of harsh judgments and accusations towards the 'other'. Leadership classes talk how this is increasingly a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) world with few easy remedies are in plain sight.

But a small yet growing number of determined beings are not buying into this discouraging narrative. They attempt to follow a different path and try quietly and continuously to upright their own lives. Part of this may be some sort of mindfulness or appropriate exercise. It could be part of a spiritual practice. Let no one tell you otherwise. It is hard work to keep ourselves 'together' against an everchanging world. Each day, one must start over to sustain whatever breakthroughs that they achieved. Because in one quick moment, all that progress could be easily lost. But that is why it called 'practice'. Fortunately, we have our relatively short lifetimes to get it right.

This is a constant struggle that I have experienced as well. What has worked for me was coming up with a regular daily routine to improve the mind, body, and spirit. (Something encouraged by Ken Wilber and others.) Whatever insights I have learned, I am sharing here with you, my precious readers.

This is not the first time I have covered this area. To aid in the personal journey, I published previously:

- Musings covering some daily practices for inner balance at the office and other topics.

- Transitions -- which present Theravada Buddhist teachings through short stories and Transitions 2 does the equivalent for the Mahayana tradition --

- Spiritual Storms which uses an unusual boot camp to discuss practices for Spiritual Project Management. However, the principles covered also apply well to everyday living.

Which brings us up to this book, the Dhammapada Handbook.

One of my personal favorite works is the poetic Theravada Buddhist text called the Dhammapada, the Pathway to the Buddha's Teachings. It comprises of 26 chapters and 423 verses. Many of these were given as advice by the Buddha as a direct response to those seeking him out. But these words are far more than beautiful verses. They are an invaluable guide on the practices for helping us reach ever closer to an awakened life.

Right from the start, the Dhammapada grabs our attention by describing some of the distractions and pain points in our lives with the use of clear language. It discusses what our life focus should be and some destructive behaviors to avoid.

The Dhammapada was originally written in the ancient language of Pali and has been translated to other languages. Because Pali words can be subject to different interpretations, numerous translations and commentaries exist.

(Buddha, Dhammapada 2013) summarizes the challenge of translation:

There are many different translations of the Dhammapada into English. Since Pali is a radically different language than English, and since shades of meaning are often lost to time, translators have a wide array of choices to make in every verse. Some translations attempt to convey the age and wisdom of the original text by using archaic English. Others try to maintain the poetic form by focusing on preserving the structure, assonance, and repetition of the original. Still others paraphrase the work in order to make it more approachable to a modern audience. The Dhammapada can serve many roles: as poetry, as anthropological description, as philosophical teaching, and as a guide for ethical living, just to name a few.

Each of these translations help reveal and unfold some new aspect of this teaching.

The Dhammapada has many versions already and commentaries. So why is another book needed? Why did I decide to write this?

This a personally important and meaningful book. I carried one of the three different versions that I owned while traveling on the road for six years. As a lay Buddhist practitioner, it seemed like a good time to share my thoughts on the Dhammapada. I have also listened to many spiritually-minded podcasts of all faiths that influenced the words written below.

What sort of tome this would be has changed over time. I remember the original starting point when I was thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool to do a series of tales based on this writing." And the original name was "Dhammapada Stories."

Some days later, I saw this book could be much more than that and offer a richer experience. So, I expanded this book's framework. It became simultaneously both a work of creative fiction and non-fiction that looks at this spiritual classic a little differently. This text uses a variety of approaches to help the reader better understand some of the Dhammapada verses as related to the contemplative practice.

For each topic, the book uses this framework:

- Start with selected translations of the verses as determined by Max Müller and/or Wikisource. (While the Dhammapada is 'all over the Internet', surprisingly few public domain versions exist in English.)

- My reinterpretation/paraphrasing of the verse. (Rather than a formal translation)

- My commentary on the verses. I wanted to keep it informal like you would hear at an evening Dharma/Dhamma talk. Or if I was having a one on one conversation with you.

- One or more original short story/stories based on the ideas of the verses but not necessarily Buddhist-like.

- And end with a few high-level practice activities you can follow to "get/stay on the path."

This is a unique and consciously incomplete experiment. I hope that the resulting work resonates with your own thoughts and experiences. This is the most involved effort that I have spent creating a book.

Each chapter will be released on completion. The whole book will be released at the end.

From time to time I mention a meditation teacher. They were not consulted about nor have endorsed this book.

If you like what you read, please share with others. I would like to hear about your efforts. A wiki page supplement for each chapter can be found at

The translations used are:

Buddha, Gautama. 2013. Dhammapada. September 12. Accessed January 6, 2018. Regrettably, this goes up to verse 79 only. .

Buddha, Gautama. 1881. Sacred Books of the East. Vol. 10, in Dhammapada, a Collection of Verses; Being One of the Canonical Books of the Buddhists, by Gautama Buddha, translated by F. Max Müller. Oxford: Clarendon Press. .

H.G. Williamsburg, Virginia January 2018