Reading list

Six Weeks with the Dhammapada

A guided path through the Dhammapada, the best-loved collection of the Buddha’s sayings, one theme a week: the mind, earnestness, taming thought, the self as its own refuge, love that ends hatred, and the way.

Beginning. 7 steps

Week 1: The mind comes first

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapter I, The Twin-Verses
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the …
The Dhammapada, Verse 1. Read it in the Library
The Dhammapada opens with a pair of verses that set out the whole teaching in small: what we are is shaped by what we think, and suffering or happiness follows our thoughts as a cart follows the ox, or a shadow its owner. A question for the week: notice one thought that returns often, and what tends to follow it.

Week 2: Earnestness

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapter II, On Earnestness
Earnestness is the path of immortality (Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.
The Dhammapada, Verse 21. Read it in the Library
Earnestness, appamāda, is heedfulness: the steady, wakeful care that does not let the moment slip by. The chapter calls it the path to the deathless and heedlessness the path of death. A question for the week: at what times of day are you most heedless, and what might wake you then?

Week 3: Taming the mind

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapter III, Thought
As a fletcher makes straight his arrow, a wise man makes straight his trembling and unsteady thought, which is difficult to guard, difficult to hold back.
The Dhammapada, Verse 33. Read it in the Library
The wise straighten the trembling mind as a fletcher straightens an arrow; a tamed mind brings happiness. The chapter is practical, not severe: the mind is restless by nature, and the work is patient. A question for the week: sit quietly for ten minutes each day and watch where the mind runs, without scolding it.

Week 4: The self as its own refuge

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapter XII, Self
Self is the lord of self, who else could be the lord? With self well subdued, a man finds a lord such as few can find.
The Dhammapada, Verse 160. Read it in the Library
The self is the lord of the self: no one else can do our work for us. The Buddha elsewhere teaches that no permanent self can be found, and the two teachings belong together; here “self” means the person who must take up the path. A question for the week: what are you waiting for someone else to do that only you can do?

Week 5: Love that ends hatred

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapters I, XV and XVII
For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
The Dhammapada, Verse 5. Read it in the Library
Hatred is never ended by hatred, only by love: the Dhammapada calls this an ancient rule. Chapter XV, on happiness, asks us to live free of hatred among those who hate, and Chapter XVII to overcome anger by love and evil by good. A question for the week: is there a grievance you keep alive by rehearsing it?

Week 6: The way

Text
The Dhammapada
The Buddha, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881. Chapters XIV and XX
`All created things perish,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.
The Dhammapada, Verse 277. Read it in the Library
Chapter XX gives three short verses that hold the whole insight of the Buddhist path: all conditioned things are impermanent, all are unsatisfying, all are without self, and the one who sees this is freed from suffering. Chapter XIV sums up the teaching of all the awakened: to avoid evil, to do good, and to purify the mind. A question for the week: what would it mean to hold the things you love without needing them to last?
Essay in Metanoia
The Seven Factors of Awakening
The Editors. 30 minutes
To close the path, our essay on the seven qualities of a mind ready to wake.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Six Weeks with the Dhammapada.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 8, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/six-weeks-with-the-dhammapada.
Chicago (note): “Six Weeks with the Dhammapada,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 8, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/six-weeks-with-the-dhammapada.
MLA: “Six Weeks with the Dhammapada.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 8 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/six-weeks-with-the-dhammapada.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-six-weeks-with-the-dhammapada, title = {{Six Weeks with the Dhammapada}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 8, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/six-weeks-with-the-dhammapada} }

Continue the inquiry

Essays

The Seven Factors of AwakeningMindfulness, investigation, energy, joy, tranquillity, concentration and equanimity: the Buddha named seven qualities of a mind ready to wake, and taught them more often than almost any other list. They are less a staircase than a balance, and the tradition has chanted them over the sick for two thousand years. The fifth of seven essays on the maps of the inner path.

Sources

The DhammapadaMüller’s translation of the Dhammapada, a collection of 423 verses attributed to the Buddha and among the best-loved texts of the Pali canon, on the mind, the path and the awakened life. The volume also contains V. Fausbøll’s translation of the Sutta-nipāta.