Udāna - Book of Inspired Utterances

By: Bhikkhu Mahinda

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The present book, Udāna, belongs to the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, the authorized recension for the Theravāda Buddhism. It is unique in the Buddhist Teachings in that it contains teachings which are exclusively “inspired” in nature. Usually, when Lord Buddha observed a situation or a fact that was so obvious, he was inspired to utter a teaching specific to that situation, hence the name “Inspired Utterances”. In an overwhelming number of suttā, they are in the verse form but some suttā also have it in prose form.
Udāna is also one of the nine divisions within which Lord Buddha’s teachings are classified – thus the genesis of this term and this collection is indeed ancient. Other than the Udānā collected herein, there are some Udānā interspersed across the rest of the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka.
In this book, both Pāḷi originals and English translations are provided so it’s easier for those who want to learn Pāḷi or just read the translations. Most of the Pāḷi terms now have been standardized across all the books I have authored. A full Pāḷi-English Glossary and detailed Endnotes will help the interested reader to explore further.