Session 1: Purposes and Practices
Session 2: Pronunciation and Rythym
Session 3: History and Meaning
1. [2:30] Recollection: Ajahn Mun chants for an hour before meditating. [Ajahn Mun] [Meditation] [Devotional practice]
2. [6:55] Story: The Buddha asks a monk to recite the Aṭṭhakavagga (Snp Chapter 4) (Ud 5.6). [Buddha/Biography] [Monastic life] [Sutta]
3. [11:16] Story of an Indian Brahman novice at Tisarana Monastery who is adept at chanting. [Culture/India] [Tisarana]
4. [13:12] Story: Learning the Paṭimokkha. [Pāṭimokkha] [Ajahn Pasanno] // [Ajahn Chah] [Culture/India]
Responses by Ajahn Ñāṇiko, Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Kaccāna.
5. [19:38] Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s mother notices that he chants in tune. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Family] // [Almsfood] [Mindfulness]
6. [22:54] Story: An elderly Sri Lankan monk chants to calm a wild elephant. [History/Sri Lankan Buddhism] [Animal] [Three Refuges]
Story: Chanting ‘Itipi so’ 108 times. [Abhayagiri] [Anandagiri]
7. [40:01] Story: Chanting sustains a long-time disciple of Ajahn Chah living as a businessman in Bangkok. [Ajahn Chah] [Lay life] [Culture/Thailand] // [Suffering]
8. [42:37] “Can we approach chanting as praying for someone in a difficult situation?” [Christianity] [Devotional practice] [Family] [Health] // [Skillful qualities] [Compassion] [Right Intention] [Merit] [Abhayagiri] [Nature of the cosmos]
9. [48:20] “How can you use chanting to work with long-term physical pain and other people’s healing?” [Pain] [Health] // [Tranquility] [Concentration] [Fear] [Release]
10. [49:47] “Are there any chants that are inappropriate for laypeople to chant?” [Lay life]
11. [50:15] “How can you chant to generate energy?” [Energy] // [Postures] [Mindfulness of breathing]
12. [52:10] “Is there any danger to chanting?”
13. [52:42] “The fourth precept used to be translated as false and harmful speech. In the new chanting book, it’s just lying. Is there a reason for this?” [False speech] [Pāli] // [Right Speech]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 130
Sutta: MN 41: Saleyyaka Sutta
1. [26:13] “Sometimes there’s no pause between the words we’re chanting. Why?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [History/Early Buddhism]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 129: Five Precepts.
2. [29:14] “Are the dots under m and n [ṃ, ṇ] that inscrutable non-English sound that was mentioned earlier?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo.
Follow-up: “And that has nothing to do with the pitch going down? That’s the carat mark?” [History/Western Buddhist monasticism]
3. [31:32] Comment: It seems like we stretch out ‘saha’ in the request for the Five Precepts (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 126).
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
4. [32:05] “Can you explain the rythym and scanning of the seventh of the Eight Precepts (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 135)?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Eight Precepts] [Entertainment and adornment]
5. [34:14] Comment: I also get tripped up chanting the fifth precept (Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 130). [Five Precepts] [Intoxicants]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Thai]
6. [43:09] Story: Ajahn Pasanno spends Vassa on the Burmese border, but can’t chant smoothly with two monks of different nationalities. Told by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo and Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Rains retreat]
7. [49:37] Comment: We usually chant like that [a simple style] in primary school. It changes when we get to high school. [Culture/Thailand]
Response by Ajahn Pasanno.
8. [51:33] “Do you have any suggestions for audio support for chanting?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Dhamma online]
Reference: Abhayagiri Chanting Karaoke
Note: The recordings on this website come from the older 2010 Abhayagiri Chanting Book.
9. [53:59] “Are there any standards for the high and low tone marks?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno, Ajahn Ñāṇiko and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. // [Thai]
1. [27:36] “Are the paritta chants not as effective in English?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Translation] [Language] [Pāli] // [Devotional practice]
2. [28:42] “Do you find these chants as resonant here as in Thailand?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Culture/Thailand] [Culture/West] // [Faith]
3. [29:38] “I notice that most of the paritta chants don’t have English translations. Is there a place we can find these?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Translation] // [Sutta]
Suttas: DN 32: Āṭānāṭiya Sutta; SN 46.14-16: Sick [Sickness] [Factors of Awakening]
4. [31:29] “Are there books or online resources for the study of Pāli?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Pāli] [Dhamma books] [Dhamma online]
Reference: A New Course in Reading Pāli by James W. Gair and W. S. Karunatillake (pdf) [Learning]
Note: Bhikkhu Bodhi’s Reading the Buddha’s Discourses in Pāli was published in 2020.
5. [33:14] Comment: There are a couple books that have some parittas in English. [Translation] [Dhamma books]
Reference: The Book of Protection by Piyadasi Thera
Response by Ajahn Ñāṇiko: Suggestion to read the Suttanipāta commentaries available in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation of this text. [Sutta] [Commentaries] [Bhikkhu Bodhi]
6. [36:34] Story: A monk at Poo Jum Gom dislodges a viper by chanting the Khandhaparitta despite believing that it won’t work. Told by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Animal] [Poo Jum Gom] [Ajahn Ñāṇiko] [Faith]
7. [38:17] “Is there a rule of thumb for the pitches for the paritta chanting?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. // [Thai]
8. [39:53] “The Verses of Sharing and Aspiration translates paccekabuddha as ‘The Solitary Buddha is my noble guide.’ What’s going on here?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko and Ajahn Pasanno. [Translation] [Buddha] // [Merit] [Teaching Dhamma]
Reference: Amaravati Chanting Book, p. 33