Sayings of the Dhamma
The Dhammapada is part of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the fifth and most varied of the five collections of the Pāli Canon — a collection of fifteen very different kinds of text, from verse anthologies to birth stories to technical treatises. Of all of them, the Dhammapada is by far the most widely read: 423 short verses arranged in 26 thematic chapters, prized for millennia for their clarity and quotability, and almost certainly the single most translated text in the entire Buddhist canon.
Unlike the Majjhima, Dīgha, and other Nikāya discourses on this site, the Dhammapada has no narrative frame, no dialogue, no setting — just concentrated verse, often paired for contrast (the fool and the wise person, the corrupt mind and the clear one). Each chapter here gets the same treatment as our other series: a reading guide, the full Sujato translation, and a self-check quiz.
Linked rows have a published reading guide. Unlinked rows are listed for navigation and will become available as the series progresses.
