A compact collection tucked into the Khuddaka Nikāya, Udāna unfolds across eight chapters, each brimming with ten “inspired utterances.” That makes eighty distinct suttas, and at the end of each, a verse that distills the teaching into a memorable nugget—so eighty verses in all.

These bite-sized gems often slip under the radar beside larger works like the Dhammapada, yet they pack a punch. Picture them as wisdom tweets from 2,500 years ago, surfacing at just the right moment in a monk’s life: “When earth, water, fire and wind are stilled…” Those short stanzas still get shared among meditation groups and Buddhist podcasts today, proving that timeless truth can travel as fast as any trending hashtag.

Each “utterance” begins with a brief narrative—sometimes humorous, sometimes startling—and ends with that crisp verse. Together, they form a kaleidoscope of insight, ready to spark fresh understanding whenever someone needs it most.