Theragatha: Poems of Early Buddhist Monks

The Theragatha is one of the most striking texts in the Pali Canon. It is a collection of 264 poems or verses - some short, some long - by monks who, traditionally, lived at the time of the Buddha, and which expressed their experience of insight, the culmination of their spiritual path.

In fact, it is generally recognised now that this collection was added to over the years, so that some of the verses date from a later time. But this does not diminish this collection, as the verses reflect t...