Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada (Dover Thrift Editions: Religion)

Max-Muller F.

ISBN 10: 0486411206 / ISBN 13: 9780486411200

Published by Dover Publications, Incorporated, 2000

About this Item

pp. vi + 49.

Seller Inventory # 8143182

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada (Dover Thrift Editions: Religion)
• Publisher: Dover Publications, Incorporated
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0486411206
• ISBN 13: 9780486411200
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

These ancient verses offer a compelling introduction to Buddhist thought, revealing the Four Truths ― concerning the nature of the world and our lot in it ― and the Eightfold Path to enlightenment, the means by which to overcome the essential suffering revealed by the Four Truths as the essence of life.

About the Author

Friedrich Max Müller (6 December 1823 – 28 October 1900), generally known as Max Müller, was a German-born philologist and Orientalist, who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion.

In 1844, prior to commencing his academic career at Oxford, Müller studied in Berlin with Friedrich Schelling. He began to translate the Upanishads for Schelling, and continued to research Sanskrit under Franz Bopp, the first systematic scholar of the Indo-European languages.

Swami Vivekananda, who was the foremost disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, met Max Muller over a lunch on 28 May 1896. Regarding Max Müller and his wife, the Swami later wrote:

The visit was really a revelation to me. That little white house, its setting in a beautiful garden, the silver-haired sage, with a face calm and benign, and forehead smooth as a child's in spite of seventy winters, and every line in that face speaking of a deep-seated mine of spirituality somewhere behind; that noble wife, the helpmate of his life through his long and arduous task of exciting interest, overriding opposition and contempt, and at last creating a respect for the thoughts of the sages of ancient India — the trees, the flowers, the calmness, and the clear sky — all these sent me back in imagination to the glorious days of ancient India, the days of our brahmarshis and rajarshis, the days of the great vanaprasthas, the days of Arundhatis and Vasishthas. It was neither the philologist nor the scholar that I saw, but a soul that is every day realizing its oneness with the universe.

Max Müller's translation of Dhammapada from the Pali is one of most important translations in the domain of Buddhism.