The Dhammapada — Exposed and Answered
The Dhammapada is the most famous book of Buddhist scripture: 423 verses of the Buddha's teaching, in F. Max Müller's translation (1881, public domain). Its path is self-salvation: conquer yourself, extinguish desire, escape rebirth by your own earnestness — for Buddhism has no creator God, no soul to save, and no saviour. The highlighted verses show both its genuine moral insight and its hopeless core, and each is answered from the Bible, where salvation is not man's climb to nothingness but God's gift of life.
“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” — John 5:39
Download the The Dhammapada Refutation Edition — Printable PDF
Text: Translated by F. Max Müller (Sacred Books of the East, 1881) — Project Gutenberg eBook #2017 (public domain). Passages marked ★ REFUTED carry a refutation note beneath them.