Thai Buddhist Chanting

[buzziebaby]

Hi there

I was wondering if any could identify this Thai Buddhist Chant and if so can you tell me the name and translate it for me

http://www.buddhanet.net/mp3/thai_chants/8_Thai_chanting.mp3

8_Thai_chanting.mp3

[sabaijai]

I can't identify the exact verses but it's Pali chanting that has been adapted for song/music to create pleasant moods. Orthodox Thai Buddhists wouldn't accept this use of suat mon (Buddhist chanting). The Dhammakaya cult produces works like this (and I would guess this is probably of Dhammakaya origin) to go with mass group 'meditation', sometimes accompanied by films or slide projections of pleasant landscapes, etc.

[buzziebaby]

I can't identify the exact verses but it's Pali chanting that has been adapted for song/music to create pleasant moods. Orthodox Thai Buddhists wouldn't accept this use of suat mon (Buddhist chanting). The Dhammakaya cult produces works like this (and I would guess this is probably of Dhammakaya origin) to go with mass group 'meditation', sometimes accompanied by films or slide projections of pleasant landscapes, etc.

many thanks can you perhaps help with this one

4_Thai_chanting.mp3

Edited November 19, 2007 by buzziebaby

[chutai]

I can't identify the exact verses but it's Pali chanting that has been adapted for song/music to create pleasant moods. Orthodox Thai Buddhists wouldn't accept this use of suat mon (Buddhist chanting)

Could you clarify this please, as it's not been absolutely clear to me.

As you say suat mon means chanting. But does it also mean prayer ?

Thanks

Edited November 19, 2007 by chutai

[khaojao]

first track posted is the Jinapanjara Gatha made into a song...very popular in Thailand...as common as the Heart Sutra is to the Mahayanists.

second track posted is Jayaparitta + Sumangala Gatha with music background

[sabaijai]

I can't identify the exact verses but it's Pali chanting that has been adapted for song/music to create pleasant moods. Orthodox Thai Buddhists wouldn't accept this use of suat mon (Buddhist chanting)

Could you clarify this please, as it's not been absolutely clear to me.

As you say suat mon means chanting. But does it also mean prayer ?

Thanks

That depends on how you define 'prayer'. In my understanding 'prayer' is a sort of petition to a deity. Suat mon (สวดมนต์) means to 'recite mantra' and although some texts might be construed as prayer, in general verses chanted are intended either to educate (or affirm, for one's self) with a message or to calm the mind.

[chutai]

I can't identify the exact verses but it's Pali chanting that has been adapted for song/music to create pleasant moods. Orthodox Thai Buddhists wouldn't accept this use of suat mon (Buddhist chanting)

Could you clarify this please, as it's not been absolutely clear to me.

As you say suat mon means chanting. But does it also mean prayer ?

Thanks

That depends on how you define 'prayer'. In my understanding 'prayer' is a sort of petition to a deity. Suat mon (สวดมนต์) means to 'recite mantra' and although some texts might be construed as prayer, in general verses chanted are intended either to educate (or affirm, for one's self) with a message or to calm the mind.

Thanks for your reply. Although my question was more related to the literal translation of suan mon than as to it's implication and application to be honest.

But as I suppose that we can't really seperate language from culture, then I'll speculate a little on the points that you've raised.

My own take on prayer is much along the same lines as you intimate - that it is a self-affirmation, or determination. For instance if I pray to to change what I'll call my mutable karma, then I need to take action to do that; rather than awaiting some divine intervention that lies outside of my own intent and actions. The same goes with more fixed karma , in the respect that the actions taken now will affect the foreseen, or the unfoeseen future.

However, as far as chanting the sutras - or part of - is concerned (I do this daily myself) I regard this practice, although of benefit, to ultimately be transcient.

Let me elaberate here. I realise that you probably reject Mahayana, but this case in point applies to the development of historical Buddhism generally.

There's a piece of Tibetan artshowing the Judgement Hall of Yama Raja in which there's man staked out in the triangle at the bottom. That represents the Avicihi hel_l, reserved for the worst people Tibetans could conceive - wizards who used sorcery to kill people, for example.

Right beside you find four Tibetan monks being crushed under a giant volume of scripture.

What could they have done to merit such harsh treatment? Where they complicit with Devadatta ? Killed their Abbot? Strangled chickens with their bare hands?

No, much worse. They hurried or skipped lines when reciting sutras.

My point is that his reflects the nature of much early Buddhism - after Shakyamuni's passing everything was based on verbal recollection. Every precious word had to be memorized and recited endlessly to prevent it being lost forever.

And aesthetically pleasing and edifying as chanting sutras undoubtedly is. I very much doubt that the majority of monks actually know much of the translation from Pali to Thai. I personally don't think that recitation is any form of prayer, but the continuation of a vital, early tradition.

If the sutras are to act as a means to self-realisation. Then reading and internalising them, is of couse a valid form of meditation in the more general sense.

Edited November 21, 2007 by chutai