[3] Mahā-vagga, i, 6-10 seq. The message continues: "I teach you, I preach the Norm. If ye walk according to my teaching, ye shall be partakers, in a short time, of that for which noble youths leave their homes and go into homelessness, the highest end of religious effort: ye shall even in the present life apprehend the Truth itself and see it face to face."
[4] (1) Sammā diṭṭhi, (2) Sammā sankappo, (3) Sammā vāca, (4) Sammā kammanto, (5) Sammā ājīvo, (6) Sammā vāyāmo, (7) Sammā sati, (8) Sammā samādhi.
[5] Shipwrecked off Trincomalee in 1660, he remained an unwilling but favoured guest of King Raja Sinha II for twenty years. Escaping to Europe, he wrote his excellent Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon, published 1681.
[6] It was uphill work for Colonel Olcott, but his magnificent courage and enthusiasm prevailed over every obstacle. I was then a Magistrate in the Kalutara district of the Western Province, and remember that well-known Buddhists, appearing as witnesses, would not acknowledge their Faith and swore on the Bible rather than affirm. The Portuguese and Dutch Governments had persecuted them, and the English Government, though it did not persecute, continued for years many disabilities.
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
I made this translation of the Dhammapada, intending it to be a simple memorial text-book for my pupils, at intervals some seven or eight years ago, when reading the Pāli as a lesson in religion with my senior class in Ceylon. Its publication has been held up for several years owing to various causes, and, having left Ceylon in 1919, I was unable owing to distance to correct the proofs. My thanks are due to Mr. Fritz Kunz, B.A., of Adyar, Madras, for seeing the book through the press. The rather long list of alterations[1] is due to the fact that I saw no proofs till the whole was printed off, and had meanwhile desired to recast certain verses. The use of metre of course often prohibits the exact translation of certain philosophical and technical terms, but I have kept as close to the original as was possible. I have followed the Pāli text of Fausböll (1900), and have been much helped by Dr. Dines Andersen's Glossary of the Words of the Dhammapada. The Pāli Text Society's edition of the text (by Sūriyogoḍa Sumaṅgala Thero) appeared just after I had finished, and I have made several alterations in accordance with the readings of that edition.
F.L. WOODWARD
Chartley, West Tamar,
Tasmania
1921.
[1] transcribers' note—all alterations of the list mentioned have been duely incorporated in the text following, and the list itself has been omitted in this e-book.