"All that we are is the result of what we have thought."
Four hundred twenty-three verses traditionally collected from the Buddha's own sayings, the most read book in the Pali canon and the closest thing Buddhism has to a pocket edition. No metaphysics, no cosmology, almost no doctrine: just short, sharp observations about how mind makes world, delivered by someone who watched his own thoughts long enough to see the machinery.
Its opening claim, that experience is preceded and shaped by mind, is the whole case for Meditation in two lines, and it lands differently when your mind sometimes generates things that are not there. For someone managing schizoaffective disorder, "we become what we think" is not an inspirational poster; it is a clinical observation and a practice instruction. Watch the thought, don't board the train. The Dhammapada said it first and said it shortest.
Related
- Books: The shelf
- Buddhism: The tradition
- Meditation: The practice the verses point to