---
name: "dhamma"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "display-dhammapada"
version: "1.0-0.1+b2"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/display-dhammapada"
---

# dhamma(1)

display a verse from the Dhammapada

Part of [display-dhammapada(1)](/display-dhammapada/1.md).

## NAME

display‐dhammapada - display a verse from the Dhammapada

## SYNOPSIS

**display‐dhammapada** *\[OPTIONS\] \[num\]*\
 **dhamma** *\[OPTIONS\]*\

## DESCRIPTION

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** and **dhamma** both print to the standard output.

**xdhamma** prints using **notify‐send**

See **man xdhamma** for details

## OPTIONS

- **‐r**

  Use the Richards translation (default).

- **‐m**

  Use the Muller translation.

- **‐b**

  Display corresponding verses from both translations.

- **‐pl**

  Use the Polish translation (default for Polish locale).

- **\[num\]**

  Print the given number verse.

- **all**

  Print all the verses.

With no arguments a random verse is printed.

## EXAMPLES

To display a verse each time you log in on a console or  open a terminal, put  **display‐dhammapada** in your *~/.profile*, *~/.bash\_profile* or *~/.login*, as appropriate for your shell.

To display a verse each time you log in on a graphical (X Window) session, run **xdhamma** in your DE session start‐up or *~/.xsession*.

To use display‐dhammapada with cowsay

**display‐dhammapada \| cowsay ‐W 120 ‐t**

To use display‐dhammapada with zenity

**display‐dhammapada \| zenity ‐‐text‐info ‐‐title="Dhammapada Verse" ‐‐width=600 ‐‐height=200**

```

```

KDE 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 check "Show random tips".

One can automatically attach Dhammapada verse in e-mail footer. To do this with   **mutt** add  **set signature=display-dhammapada\|** in your *~/.muttrc* file.

## FILES

*/usr/share/display‐dhammapada/dhammapada‐english‐transl.txt*

*/usr/share/display‐dhammapada/dhammapada‐alternate.txt*

*/usr/share/display‐dhammapada/dhammapada‐polish‐transl.txt*

## SEE ALSO

**notify‐send**

## BUGS

Please report bugs on Launchpad : *https://bugs.launchpad.net/display-dhammapada*

## AUTHORS

Authors: Program:  display-dhammapada was originally written by Richard Cepas \<rch@online.lt\> and later updated by  **bodhi.zazen** \<bodhizazen at fedoraproject dot org\> and **paultag** \<paultag at ubuntu.com\>

**Copyright GPL v3**

Home Page: *http://bodhizazen.net/display-dhammapada/*

Richards' English translation of the Dhammapada: Copyright (C) 1993 John Richards, Pembrokeshire (UK), permission granted for use here. See http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/dhammapada.htm

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

Polish translation (by Zbigniew Becker): Public Domain, as explained at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain\
 See also http://mahajana.net/dhammapada/