The Dhammapada

by Eknath Easwaran

Yet the Buddha brings to this spirit a genius all his own. The sages of the Upanishads sought to know, and their testaments sing with the joy of Self-realization. The Buddha sought to save, and the joy in his message is the joy of knowing that he has found a way for everyone, not just great sages, to put an end to sorrow. Meditation, once the sublime art of a very few, he offers to teach to all – not for some otherworldly goal, but as a way to happiness, health, and fulfillment in selfless service. He argues with no one, denies no faith, convinces only with truth and love. He brought not so much a new religion as sanatana dharma, “the eternal dharma,” the name India has always given to religion itself. Like an adventurer who pawns everything to discover some priceless jewel, he sought out India’s spiritual treasure and then gave it away to everyone who would take it, rich or poor, high caste or low, with a free hand; and for that reason he is loved today, twenty-five hundred years later, by perhaps one quarter of the earth’s people.