Phenomenal Books Revisited: THE DHAMMAPADA, translated by Eknath Easwaran
Spotlighting books I return to repeatedly as they contain abundant, applicable, evergreen wisdom.
The original intent for the Phenomenal Books Revisited series, as evidenced by installments one and two, was to feature books I first encountered years ago and return to time and again given their ever-abundant wisdom. These are my “top shelf” books — ie, those which reside literally on the topmost shelf of my bookcase so I never have to search for them. The ones I’ll always treasure. The books, along with the photo albums and emergency cash, I grab in case of fire.
The books on that top shelf have stood the test of time.
That said, thanks to the recommendation of my dear friend and Plum Village Dharma Teacher, Trish Thompson, my just-finished, savagely dogeared/annotated copy of Eknath Easwaran’s translation of The Dhammapada will be placed on the vaunted top shelf immediately. It’s that good. It’s that helpful. And this “revisiting” is happening mere days after its first completion.
The Premise
The Dhammapada is part of a core set of teachings expressed directly by the Buddha. As with all teachings of this vintage, it was passed down verbally for generations until first written down in the Pali language. Today, there exist a variety of translations/versions of the Dhammapada. Eknath’s translation is the second version recommended to me and I now see why.
Approximately 70% of the book is the Dhammapada itself, as translated directly from its original Pali and Sanskrit by Eknath. The rest consists of his exceptional introduction — itself an incredibly worthy read — and informative chapter introductions written by Stephen Ruppenthal.
As someone who values clarity, accessibility, and authenticity when it comes to these kinds of “original source” works, I submit that Eknath’s translation is A+ work. His language is instantly absorbable and modern, yet not dumbed-down. It reads/feels as if the Buddha is speaking directly to a modern, intelligent, sincere reader.
Most surprising and helpful was Eknath’s extensive introduction, which manages to provide a concise history of the Buddha’s life, descriptive + eye-opening details about the Buddha’s spiritual awakening/transformation, and insightful summaries of the foundational Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path. Simple as it may seem, something I valued most about his introduction were his elegant definitions of highly common Buddhist terms, words I’ve known for years but of which I now have a much better understanding. Words such as Dharma (“…dharma expresses the central law of life, that all things and events are part of an indivisible whole…the very underpinning of existence, the underlying unity of life, the essential support of all…the central law of creation.”), Karma (“Karma means something done, whether as cause or effect. Actions in harmony with dharma bring good karma and add to health and happiness. Selfish actions, at odds with the rest of life, bring unfavorably karma and pain.”), and Nirvana (“…the extinction of the sense of a separate ego. Nirvana has a beginning, but once attained it has no end.”).
“The Buddha sought to save, and the joy in his message is the joy of knowing that he has found a way for everyone, not just the great sages, to put an end to sorrow.” This line is just one example of Eknath’s similarly elegant and helpful commentary about what was and was not the Buddha’s purpose, notions further brought to life with his direct quotes of the Buddha such as:
“What do I teach? Only what is necessary to take you to the other shore.”
“What do I not teach? Whatever is fascinating to discuss, divides people against each other, and has no bearing on putting an end to sorrow.”
Three Inspiring Takeaways
Three takeaways (of many) that make this book worthy to revisit.
The spiritual path sometimes requires effort. Discipline. Vigilance. And that’s OK. My earliest foray into spirituality/meditation was Transcendental Meditation (TM), learned in 2015. One of the central teachings of that method, shared early and often, are three words representing what is said to be Maharishi’s most important teaching: Take It Easy. Time and again “simplicity” is emphasized. “Effortless” is a word used often by TM’s leaders. If you’re making an effort or exerting yourself, the TM teachings caution, you’re not doing it correctly. That early conditioning led me to interpret many of Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings in the same way, especially his frequent encouragements that if one embraces certain practices, one can start to feel better “right away.” Candidly and with respect to TM, Maharishi and Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) are not on the same level as teachers in my experience/practice — I’m confident I interpreted Maharishi’s “take it easy” guidance correctly whereas I’m pretty sure Thay’s teachings on simplicity are more nuanced and deeper than my first interpretations suggest — but the combination of these things led me to believe that if I was expending any overt effort in my spiritual practices, odds are high that I was doing it wrong. With this version of the Dhammapada, both Eknath’s words and those of the Buddha helped me to understand that right effort, discipline, vigilance, and actively working on one’s spiritual practices is not only OK, it’s essential. Old habit energies are too strong and the conditioned mind is too wild, too self-absorbed and self-aggrandizing to solely “take it easy.” A few illustrative quotes from the Dhammapada text:
“All the effort must be made by you; Buddhas only show the way”
“Be vigilant and go beyond death. If you lack vigilance, you cannot escape death. Those who strive earnestly will go beyond death; those who do not can never come to life.”
“Those who are vigilant, who train their minds day and night and strive continually for nirvana, enter the state of peace beyond all selfish passions.”
The core value and purpose of spiritual work is direct, personal, experiential transformation. Throughout the Buddha’s teachings in the Dhammapada, this point is made plain. This subject is often a centerpiece of my critiques of modern religion, including and especially the one I was born into, which too often emphasizes intellectual concepts, implorations to “worship,” and countless stories — literal or figurative — about what happened to other people (people not like you or me) thousands of years ago and how those events should inspire us by proxy. Richard Rohr is beautifully pointed about this, saying that if religious or spiritual practices are not first and foremost about experiencing personal transformation then they are simply “belonging systems.” Nothing wrong with belonging, but if that’s all there is, something huge, positive, and personally transformative is being missed. This book’s introduction to chapter 14 touches on this point directly as it describes the Buddha’s incarnation 2500 years ago as inspiring “an intense awakening in many people’s hearts of spiritual self-reliance: the faith to look within oneself and take spiritual growth into one’s own hands, independent of any outside influence.” “Do not accept something merely from tradition or out of blind faith,” the Buddha is quoted as saying, “Do not accept it even on the word of your teacher. Go and see for yourself, through the practice of meditation.” I love this. I’m inspired by this. I have moments like this. I believe this is absolutely true.
The link between the Buddha’s ancient teachings and the most modern, cutting-edge neuroscience is solid and clear. There’s nothing in me that somehow requires/desires spiritual wisdom and modern science to “agree,” but admittedly, when they sync something inside of me lights up. Though I’ve not yet written much about it in this forum, I have an abiding interest in modern studies of consciousness and neuroscience, especially the work of UC-Irvine professor, Donald Hoffman, whose book The Case Against Reality is a solid recommend. (Click the link of his name to go to a recent, terrific interview on YouTube). Quite literally, the opening line of the Dhammapada, the Buddha’s very first teaching is “Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think.” Hoffman would be the first to agree. The connection between the Buddha’s teachings and modern neuroscience is referenced quite a bit in Eknath’s introduction. “What the Buddha is telling us is precisely parallel to what the quantum physicists say: when we examine the universe closely, it dissolves into discontinuity and a flux of fields of energy,” Easwaran writes. He continues a few pages later with, “The Buddha would agree with the modern neuroscientist: we never really exprerience the world; we experience only our own nervous system.”
Favorite Quotes
From the introduction and chapter summaries:
“It is not life that brings sorrow, but the demands we make on life.”
“Suffering because life cannot satisfy selfish desire is like suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes.”
“Someone once asked the Buddha skeptically, ‘What have you gained through meditation?’ The Buddha replied, ‘Nothing at all. Let me tell you what I lost through meditation: sickness, anger, depression, insecurity, the burden of old age, the fear of death.’”
“Though probably the most brilliant intellect of his time, the Buddha maintained no intellectual positions whatever. They would be counter to his only purpose, which was to inspire greater effort in spiritual practice.”
From the Buddha directly, via the text of the Dhammapada:
“As irrigators guide water to their fields, as archers aim arrows, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their lives.”
“It is hard to obtain human birth, harder to live like a human being, harder still to understand the dharma, but hardest of all to attain nirvana.”
“If those who enjoy a lesser happiness beholds a greater one, let them leave aside the lesser to gain the greater.”