Explore

The sculptors of Gandhara made images of me in the Hellenistic style — because Alexander's armies had passed through and left Greek craftsmen and Greek conventions. The result is a Buddha who looks somewhat Greek: wavy hair, classical drapery, a face that might be Apollo's. I find this interesting. The Dharma moved through every culture it entered and took...

The pillars were erected across the empire — from present-day Afghanistan to Bangladesh. Each one was polished sandstone, fifteen to forty feet high, carved with edicts in multiple scripts. This one, at Vaishali, is particularly ancient and stands alone in a field. The edicts on the pillars do not proclaim military conquest. They proclaim dharma — duty,...

The Blessed One spoke as a physician: suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path. A king who has seen Kalinga must hear that diagnosis politically as well as inwardly. Conquest by dhamma begins when rule stops multiplying suffering and starts restraining it.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else — you are the one who gets burned. You have no quarrel with the coal. The coal does not know you are holding it. Your hand is burning while you plan your throw. The teaching is not that your anger is wrong. It is that your hand is already burned, and you have not...

If you are struck by an arrow, you do not ask: who shot it? What is his caste? What wood is the shaft? You pull it out. I teach only this: suffering, and the end of suffering. Those who want metaphysical certainty about the universe before beginning to practise are like a man who refuses to let the arrow be removed until all questions are answered. The...

Just as a mother would protect her only child with her own life, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings, radiating kindness over the entire world — above, below, and across — unhindered, without ill will, without enmity. This is not a counsel of weakness. It is a description of what strength looks like when it has no enemies left to...

All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering. This is not a lesson about loss. It is a lesson about clinging. It is clinging to permanent things in an impermanent world that creates suffering — not the impermanence itself. The flower that falls is not a tragedy. The conviction that it should not fall...

The path to the cessation of suffering has eight factors: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. Eight does not mean difficult. It means complete. You cannot practise one while ignoring the others and call it practice. The path is not a menu.

The Beloved of the Gods believes that one who does wrong should be forgiven as far as that is possible. Even I, who have ordered this edict inscribed, had to overcome what I was. Conquest gave me an empire. Kalinga gave me a conscience. The difference between the king before Kalinga and the king after was not power. It was the capacity to be changed by...

I have had these pillars erected in cities and villages throughout the realm so that my edicts may be read by all. The Beloved of the Gods desires that officials travelling the roads read them aloud to those who cannot. Law set in stone is permanent, but it is only useful if known. An edict that reaches no one governs no one. Power that cannot communicate...

I sent my own son Mahinda and my daughter Sanghamitta to Lanka with the Dhamma. They carried the Bodhi Tree itself — a cutting from the tree under which the Buddha sat. That island received the teaching and has held it for more than two thousand years. The greatest gift I gave was not land, not treasure, not military protection. It was a son, a daughter,...

Along the roads I have had banyan trees planted for shade. I have had mango groves planted. I have had wells dug at half-mile intervals. I have set up rest-houses. I have had ponds dug. And I have appointed officers for the welfare of animals, not only domestic animals but forest animals, birds, and fish. This is not softness. Compassion is the foundation...