About

This is a personal project to post a reflection on every verse of the Dhammapada. The reflection may be an image, saying or poem but mostly it will just be some prose inspired by the verse. Sometimes the reflection will be directly inspired by the verse as I understand it. On other occasions it may be simply a word or phrase in the verse that particularly inspires or triggers remembrance.

Mostly I will go through the verses in the order they appear in the Dhammapada. Sometimes I’ll jump ahead and pick out a text further on. Whatever I do, I aim to reflect on each verse at least once. I imagine it will take around 8 years. After 8 years I shall likely start again; around and around like the wheel of life.


All quoted verses of the Dhammapada in accordance with the source copyright. Translations used are

Trans by F. Max Muller from the Gutenberg project .

Trans by Daw Mya Tin, M.A. on tipitaka.net

Trans by Acharya Buddharakkhita on Access to Insight

Trans by Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Access to Insight

Trans by Bhikkhu Ānandajoti on suttacentral.net

Bhikkhu Pesala’s version of Ven. Narada’s Dhammapada

Ven. Weragoda Sarada Thero’s translation of Dhammapada

Thomas Byrom’s translation of Dhammapada rendered into English poetry

There is a good summary of freely available Dhammapada translations on this stack exchange forum.


This is an act of creativity, devotion and gratitude for the Dharma. My all beings be well, may all beings be happy, may all beings be free from suffering