There is no Buddhist bible. The closest written work is The Dhammapada, a collection of sayings and teachings from Buddha passed on in the oral tradition of the time and then subsequently written down. I recently began to read the whole Dhammapada and to post a short blog after each chapter on a different blog which I have now closed. Rather than merely repost each article I am offering here a simple verse representing each of the first five chapters, my own interpretation, summarising my understanding of what the Buddha was teaching us. Still a long way to go, I hope you will follow, comment and challenge as we go!

All states of being are determined by mind, it is mind that leads the way.

Speak or act with an unethical or unprincipled mind and internal suffering will surely follow you.

Speak or act with an ethical or principled mind and well-being will surely follow you.

All that we are is the result of what we think, how we see things, how we interpret things.

Personal Interpretation, Dhammapada Chapter 1, States of Being

To be mindful is to be alive, without it we are already dead.

Personal Interpretation, Dhammapada Chapter 2, Mindfulness

Our mind is elusive, unreliable, restless and agitated.

Control it, do not give it power over us.

A disciplined mind leads to happiness.

Personal Interpretation, Dhammapada Chapter 3, The Mind

We must recognise our lives and reality to be as evanescent as foam, insubstantial and impermanent.

Not everything is as it seems, we are deceived by our own mind, but if we follow the true path with virtue and wisdom our lives will be fulfilled.

Personal Interpretation, Dhammapada Chapter 4,

Foolish are those who fail to recognise that all of life’s unsatisfactoriness is self created through greed/craving, aversion/hatred and delusion/ignorance.

Happiness is in your own mind

Personal Interpretation, Dhammapada Chapter 5, Fools.

Categories: Buddha

Tags: Buddha, Buddhism, Dhammapada, Faith, mind, mindfulness, religion, wisdom