Jewels within the Heart: Verses of the Buddha's Teachings

Translated by Laurence-Khantipalo Mills

This translation of the Dhammapada verses is the third revision of work which appeared originally in 1966 under the title Growing the Bodhi Tree. Unlike most English translations of the Dhammapada, this work is a poetic rendition of verse into verse while preserving the original meaning. This revision uses the Sanskrit rather than Pali forms of Buddhist terms. An introduction to the Buddha's teachings preceeds the verse translation.

Laurence-Khantipalo Mills was ordained as a novice in 1959, in England. A year later, he was ordained as a monk (bhikkhu) in India. After three years in India, he travelled to Thailand, where he was reordained in 1966. For the next eleven years he lived and studied in Bangkok, Thailand, practicing meditation with various teachers in the forests of northeast Thailand and writing several books published by Mahamakut Press in Bangkok and the Buddhist Publication Society in Sri Lanka.

In 1973, he was invited by his preceptor to help establish a Thai Buddhist temple in Sydney, Australia, now known as Wat Buddharangsee in Stanmore. He taught meditation at several locations, and in 1978 became the guide and meditation teacher at Wat Buddha-Dhamma at Wisemans Ferry, where he stayed for fourteen years. In 1990, he became interested in the practice of Dzogchen, later becoming a pupil of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. In 1991, he disrobed and left Wat Buddha-Dhamma. Two years later he married a Buddhist practitioner from Sri Lanka. They now live in North Queensland, where they have founded a non-sectarian Buddhist centre, Bodhi Citra, in Cairns. They continue to practise Dzogchen.