Eknath Easwaran's The Dhammapada: A Guide to Living with Wisdom, Compassion, and Peace

C Orr: I like this translation of the Dhammapada. Easwaran’s introduction at the beginning, as well as the introduction and explanation for each chapter is very informative and promotes understanding of the text.

United States on Nov 04, 2023

Gajanan: I regret buying this book ( i bought new one). I can clearly see that the author is trying to mislead the audience by discussing Upanishads/Vedas, which Buddha clearly denied. He is also telling lies by claiming that Buddha didn't introduce anything new, which is false. I would strongly advise against purchasing any form of this book that attempts to deviate from Buddhist ideas and promote the author's own religion.

India on Oct 01, 2023

Sly: Classics Endure the Test of Time—Virtues Are Friends Faithful to the End

When I see how few people comment or rate this book compared to contemporary bestsellers with all their sex and violence, my heart is hooked into commenting on how much I enjoyed my copy of this edition.

Reverend Easwaran’s edition of Siddhartha Gautama’s (the Buddha’s) DHAMMAPADA was my first real introduction to Buddhism. And I love it! You too can dive into the thrills of the Four Noble Truths and Noble Eightfold Path—the teachings central to the whole of Buddhism. (This translator’s introduction, by the way, explains the Eightfold Path in a colorful and inspiring way which is lacking in Siddhartha Gautama’s DHAMMAPADA itself and in Paul Carus’s GOSPEL OF BUDDHA.) The loveliness of the original sacred text is that it has been around long enough to become widely affordable and available to the masses; that it is life-changing and helps you to become awakened or enlightened, doesn’t hurt either.

I myself am something of a holy madman, having obsessed for much of my adult life with Christian salvation as well as living in poverty (wrongfully thinking that opinions and...

United States on Sep 25, 2023

Cyrus Pieris: Please get this if you want to learn the Dhammapada 🙏

United Kingdom on Jul 15, 2023

F C Freijo: Llegó puntualmente y todo muy bien

Spain on Jan 28, 2023

worthless nobody: There are many "translations" that have
torquing us into obeying their ideology/presumptions,
as their primary motivation.

Eknath Easwaran gives us simple, plain, profound understanding,
as best as he can, through English's limitations...

My EternallyAbidingMind's previous life/SoulDay/incarnation was
as some old guy who had spent decades of nights,
in a monastery in the Himalayas, meditating into Eternity.

Therefore, the *deep end* of the dharma has always been easy for me,
due to his having earned Eternal-resonation within the deep-end's meanings.

The BasicBasics, however,
I need to polish my meaning in, or
the next level of Realizing/Evolving remains blocked, for me.

Since /not/-reaching the next level before
life-circumstance takes circumstantial Opportunity from me,
would result in *yet another hellish Human-imprisonment life* for my Soul,
therefore I NEED this kind of polishing/boosting!

: )

Please read also Huston Smith & Elisabeth Haich,
ALL their stuff, no matter how the title of it may put one's culture off
( Please read at-least the samples,
& make up your mind *on...

Canada on Mar 11, 2020

hexedd: The Dhammapada is a breathtaking book, and this version is made even more lucid and engaging by the excellent introduction by Eknath Easwaran, one of the best scholars on religion and spirituality in the 20th century. The chapters also have introductions by S. Ruppenthal.

This is one of the most revered Buddhist texts, and even as someone who has only come to Buddhism in the past several years I can say it is easy to see why. The Dhammapada is considered by many to have the most core elements of the Buddha's teaching in it. There are hundreds of thousands of pages of Buddhist texts from numerous traditions all over the world, but this book sums up the Buddha and his teachings perhaps better than any other. The introduction by Easwaran and the chapter introductions by Ruppenthal make this easy to grasp, even for western readers, and there is also a handy glossary for all the Pali/Sanskrit vocabulary. I've read thousands of books in my lifetime, and this is one of the few that I would say without a doubt changed my life. You cannot read the Dhammapada's simplicity, common sense approach to life and human relationships, and utterly humane message and see the world the same...

Canada on Mar 24, 2017

Craig Shoemake: Mr. Easwaran's translation credentials are impeccable (he's done acclaimed versions of the Upanishads and the Gita), so I ventured into his book with high expectations. It starts off with an 85 page introduction and is padded throughout with commentary. (Except for the introduction, all commentary is from the pen of Stephen Ruppenthal, who according to selfgrowth.com is an expert in the fields of Chinese and Sanskrit Buddhism.) I certainly have no problem with commentary, provided of course it's substantive and offers some insight into the text I might not otherwise have gotten.

Easwaran starts with some background history of India before the Buddha's arrival on the scene. What he broaches here is pretty rudimentary, but his many references to Jesus and then Einstein started to make me uncomfortable. Why? Well, it is a popular, New-Agey sort of thing to try to wrap up every great person in the same bag-never mind their disparate fields and backgrounds-as if they're all in cahoots with each other, teaching the same thing. Whether or not one believes this is actually the case is beside the point. Dragging a twentieth century physicist and Biblical figures into a discussion of...

United States on May 15, 2011