display-dhammapada - display a verse from the Dhammapada

display-dhammapada [-r | -m | -b] [<num> | all]

dp [-r | -m | -b] [<num> | all]

xdp [<num>]

-r

Use the Richards translation (default).

-m

Use the Muller translation.

-b

Display corresponding verses from both translations.

<num>

Print the given number verse.

all

Print all the verses.

With no arguments a random verse is printed.

The Dhammapada is an anthology of 423 verses from the Kuddaka Nikaya part of the Theravada Pali Canon. It contains Buddhist ethical and spiritual precepts. One of the translations is by John Richards; the other is an older translation by F. Max Muller.

display-dhammapada prints to the standard output.

xdp prints using xmessage on an X Window screen, or in bold using tputs on a text terminal.

To display a verse each time you log in on a terminal, put display-dhammapada or xdp in your ~/.profile, ~/.bash_profile or ~/.login, as appropriate for your shell.

To display a verse each time you log in on X Window, put xdp in your ~/.xsession.

KDE 2.1 has "amor" toy that can display various tips. To use the dhammapada for that enter these commands at shell prompt: mkdir ~/.kde/share/apps/amor display-dhammapada -r all |perl -0777 -pe 's/\n\s*\n\s*\n/\n%\n/g' >~/.kde/share/apps/amor/tips Then start amor K->Toys->Amor, right click on amor animation, select "Options" and select "Allow application tips" and "Show random tips".

/usr/share/display-dhammapada/dhammapada-english-transl.txt

/usr/share/display-dhammapada/dhammapada-alternate.txt

xmessage(1), tput(1).

You may found that xmessage and hence xdp is broken on XFree 4.0x.

Program: Copyright (C) 1997-2001 Richard Cepas, placed in the public domain.

See http://unicode.richard.eu.org/me/rch/dd.html

Richards' English translation of the Dhammapada: Copyright (C) 1993 John Richards, Pembrokeshire (UK), permission granted for use here. See ftp://coombs.anu.edu.au/coombspapers/otherarchives/electronic-buddhist-archives/buddhism-general/e-texts/sutras-translations/dhammapada-english-transl.txt

Muller's translation of the Dhammapada: Public Domain, used here courtesy of Project Gutenberg.