Tag Archive for Dhammapada

Finding Freedom: Audio recordings of Part 1. The Dhammapada – translation and commentary by James Low

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James has written an introduction inviting you to these recordings:

‘The Dhammapada is a book of excellent advice on how to manage the many trials and tribulations of life. Taught by the Buddha this is an ethical guide to disciplined and compassionate existence. The consequences of blind self-indulgence are revealed in wars, pandemics and the impending catastrophe of climate change. The word discipline is not very popular in current culture and seems to imply an unwelcome imposition. However for most of us, when we stop and review our life we find that our ego-self is frequently wild and untamed. When this is replicated in the billions of inhabitants of the earth it is not surprising that chaos is pervasive. However here we have a chance to listen to the deep and soothing words of the Buddha offering support and guidance for those who wish to live in harmony with others and with the world we all inhabit. May it bring happiness to all!’

These recordings which cover the first section of the book ‘Finding Freedom’ are now available for you to listen to or download here under ‘audios and videos’.

James translation and elucidation in the commentary invites a deeper engagement with this text…unpacking it so that it’s value may more easily shine and resonate with and for us..

I hope you find this format useful…it was a pleasure to make and to enjoy the beauty of its harmony, spoken through thousands of years by so many thousands wishing to follow a way to truth.


Front cover of the book including revised translation and commentary to the Dhammapada (2019)*

*Link to information on the 2019 publication of Finding Freedom with revised Dhammapada translation and commentary

Front cover of the book with original translations of the Dhammapada into Pali, Sanskrit,
Hindi, Tibetan and English (1982)*

*Link to read or download the 1982 Dhammapada publication

No room for hatred….

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Some years ago i wrote this post…

world holocaust day

and on that day this year i watched this moving little half hour video…(it’s not about William and Kate lighting candles!) so hang on in there, if you will, to the end…it’s very beautiful, i think.

 

 

‘I have no room for hatred in my heart’ …no matter what has happened to me and those close to me…

…brings tears to the eyes just writing the words.

 

A few days after the memorial day   but memorable every day…

as it says in the Dhammapada:

‘In this world hatred is never pacified by hatred. It is by the absence of hatred that hatred is pacified.’

The words that follow are “This is the ancient truth”.

A truth which was ancient even at the time these words of the historical buddha were spoken…how deep is that?

…and how blind the multifarious, shifting sands of justifications for hatred arising from fundamental ignorance and leading to ignorance of that truth’s validity. Deludedly projecting… and so dividing, partitioning… protecting, and rejecting to the point of annihilation, aspects of the heart-mind, of the undivided whole.