"[9]: 10 Each US edition's Introduction opens with a claim, mentioned by several reviewers,[10][11][12][13] about the value of the Dhammapada within the corpus of Buddhist literature: If all of the New Testament had been lost, it has been said, and only the Sermon on the Mount had managed to survive these two thousand years of history, we would still have all that is necessary for following the teachings of Jesus the Christ..... Buddhist scripture is much more voluminous than the Bible, but... if everything else were lost, we would need nothing more than the Dhammapada to follow the way of the Buddha.

[9]: 13 Each US edition's introduction has the same four major sections: Dhammapada Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads Gandhi the Man Nonviolent Soldier of Islam Essence of the Upanishads Essence of the Dhammapada Essence of the Bhagavad Gita Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living Original Goodness Love Never Faileth Seeing with the Eyes of Love Passage Meditation Mantram Handbook Conquest of Mind Strength in the Storm, others God Makes the Rivers to Flow Timeless Wisdom Words to Live By In each edition, short sections by Stephen Ruppenthal introduce individual chapters by providing background and clarifying Indian philosophical concepts.

Reviews have appeared in Smith and Novak's Buddhism: A Concise Introduction (2003),[23] as well as in the Mountain Path,[24] East West,[10] Life Positive (India),[11] the American Theosophist,[12] Parabola,[25] Voice of Youth Advocates,[26] and websites.

[27] In Buddhism: A Concise Introduction,[28] influential scholar of religion Huston Smith and his coauthor Philip Novak wrote that "Our favorite translation is Eknath Easwaran's The Dhammapada.

"[23]: 222  Elsewhere, the publishers quote Smith as stating that no one else in "modern times" is as qualified as Easwaran to translate the Dhammapada and other Indian spiritual classics.

"[26]: 15 In other reviews, the translation was described as "exceptionally readable"[12]: 400  (American Theosophist), or the introduction was described as "clear and lively"[25] (Parabola), or as "inspiring and comprehensive"[10]: 76 [31] (East West).

The review in East West also quoted the introduction's claim that: [The Dhammapada's] verses can be read and appreciated simply as wise philosophy; as such, they are part of the great literature of the world.