Like the Bhagavad Gita, writing a review of a sacred text seems misplaced. Instead, I will briefly discuss the experience of reading it.

And for that, like any text that has becoming a canonical beacon across the ages, the Dhammapada is best approached with a guide, written or in person, who might offer context, the broader applications of its ideas, or most of all room for reflection. The work is so brief--and our contemporary levels of patience so small--that we might be inclined, as I sometimes was, to push through it quickly. 

This is a work designed to be read very slowly, to be turned about and pondered upon, to be meditated over. There is little dynamic or surprising by its words (though an English translation is bound to have limitations on nuance and meaning), there is no challenging plotline or character to wrestle with. Here are simply ideas, cautions, ambitions for those seeking right behavior and right mindedness.  We can hear its ideas quickly enough: making them our own is quite another matter.

This work returns to my shelf of sacred texts to be visited again and again, one which wastes no words in reminding us who we must be.