The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

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Cittasanto
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Cittasanto »

I came accross these on Access to insight, awhile ago, and can not remember exactly where they are from or what page (maybe befriending the suttas??)

"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will lend ear when discourses which are the words of the Authentic One;
profound in their meaning, transcendent, and connected with emptiness are being recited. We will lend ear, will set
our mind on understanding them, and
shall regard these words as those things worthwhile grasping & mastering
.'
That's how you should train yourselves."

Endowed with six qualities, a person is capable of aligning with lawfulness, upright of skilful mental qualities even
while listening to the true Dhamma. Which six?
"When the Truth & Deportment declared by the Authentic One is being taught, they listen well,
gives ear, apply their mind to understanding, reject the worthless, grasps the worthwhile, and is capable of being
patience to conform with the teaching.

not exactly on memorization, apart from the grasping aspect, but hopefully useful!

I am almost finished rememorizing the Dhammachakkapavatana sutta (only the devas to go through :) ) and did look at the Karaniya metta sutta in english, and I still remember it well!
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
dhammapal
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by dhammapal »

Hello Bhante,
BKh wrote:There is a good article here on memorizing verbatim text:
http://www.productivity501.com/how-to-m ... -text/294/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I find the method suggested there very helpful. Basically, you convert your text into a string of just the first letters and use it as a recall crutch. So the text I am working on now...
§27. "Bhikkhus, for a faithful disciple who is intent on fathoming the Teacher’s Dispensation, it is natural that he conduct himself thus: ‘The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple; the Blessed One knows, I do not know.’ For a faithful disciple who is intent on fathoming the Teacher’s Dispensation, the Teacher’s Dispensation is nourishing and refreshing."
Would become...
"B, f a f d w i i o f t T’s D, i i n t h c h t: ‘T B O i t T, I a a d; t B O k, I d n k.’ F a f d w i i o f t T’s D, t T’s D i n a r."
The idea is then that you are able to stretch your memory by filling in the rest of the words when you are at the middle stage of the process: sort of know it but not really completely.

There is a tool on that page that will create this version. On this page: http://www.downes.ca/memorization.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is just the tool. If you want you can do a "save as" for that page and keep it on your computer.
I'm using An Approach to Extended Memorization of The Tipitaka Adopted from Dr Andrew M. Davis,
to memorize Snp4.14 Tuvataka Sutta (10 lines so far (out of 41) with one new line each day):
Snp 4.14 transl. Thanissaro wrote:"I ask the kinsman of the Sun, the great seer, about seclusion & the state of peace.
Seeing in what way is a monk unbound, clinging to nothing in the world?"
"He should put an entire stop to the root of objectification-classifications: 'I am the thinker.'[1]
He should train, always mindful, to subdue any craving inside him.
Whatever truth he may know, within or without, he shouldn't get entrenched in connection with it,
for that isn't called Unbinding by the good.
He shouldn't, because of it, think himself better, lower, or equal.
Touched by contact in various ways, he shouldn't keep conjuring self.
Stilled right within, a monk shouldn't seek peace from another from anything else.
For one stilled right within, there's nothing embraced, so how rejected?"
Tuvataka Sutta (Sutta Nipata 4.14)
With metta / dhammapal.
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Sekha
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Sekha »

There has been some work done in order to help people memorizing in Pali (or English with Pali words) the instructions that the Buddha repeated the most in the suttas. Each Pali word has a bubble with its definition in it. The list is far from being exhaustive, but it is getting completed slowly:

http://www.buddha-vacana.org/formulae.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There is also this page for the Dhammacak':
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samy ... 6-011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This sutta is interesting to memorize because it has a definition of each factor of the 8-fold path:
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samy ... 5-008.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This one has an exposition of paticca samuppada with a definition of each term:
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samy ... 2-002.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This one is very easy and very useful to memorize for anyone wishing to have a successful meditation practice:
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/angu ... 6-118.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

:anjali:
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli

http://www.buddha-vacana.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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James the Giant
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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by James the Giant »

Best wishes in your endeavour!
I seem to remember that sutta is a nice one to chant, there are some good repeated passages that form a nice rhythm.
During the rains retreat at Bodhinyanarama we chanted it most evenings for a few months, and by the end I could do it without reading from the book. Interestingly I could chant it with others, but not by myself. By myself I always got lost.
May your memory be well exercised :anjali:
Then,
saturated with joy,
you will put an end to suffering and stress.
SN 9.11
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Ben
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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by Ben »

Well done KB on your aspiration. I have also thought about memorizing the Dhamma Cakka Pavatana, but because of work and family responsibilities, I was convinced I didn;t have the time. You might want to check out the sutta memorization challenge thread, and please feel free to either merge this thread with it or begin diarising in that thread. I will be very interested to know how you progress.
with metta and best wishes.

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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gavesako
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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by gavesako »

It is much easier to memorize a discourse like this while chanting together (sam+gayana) in a group. There is a rhythm to the chant and when you need to stop to take a breath, others continue chanting. Group recitation has been the way the Sangha has preserved the Suttas for centuries.
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Ben wrote:Well done KB on your aspiration. I have also thought about memorizing the Dhamma Cakka Pavatana, but because of work and family responsibilities, I was convinced I didn;t have the time. You might want to check out the sutta memorization challenge thread, and please feel free to either merge this thread with it or begin diarising in that thread. I will be very interested to know how you progress.
with metta and best wishes.

Ben
I'll merge it Ben, thanks for the heads up. I'll keep you posted! Mettaya!
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

gavesako wrote:It is much easier to memorize a discourse like this while chanting together (sam+gayana) in a group. There is a rhythm to the chant and when you need to stop to take a breath, others continue chanting. Group recitation has been the way the Sangha has preserved the Suttas for centuries.
Bhante,

Yes, I understand this completely. This is why I'm using the recording of Dhamma Ruwan. I wish I had a group with whom to recite but their is only my lay group here. Thank you!
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
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Cittasanto
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Re: Aditthana – Memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta

Post by Cittasanto »

Khalil Bodhi wrote:
gavesako wrote:It is much easier to memorize a discourse like this while chanting together (sam+gayana) in a group. There is a rhythm to the chant and when you need to stop to take a breath, others continue chanting. Group recitation has been the way the Sangha has preserved the Suttas for centuries.
Bhante,

Yes, I understand this completely. This is why I'm using the recording of Dhamma Ruwan. I wish I had a group with whom to recite but their is only my lay group here. Thank you!
Hi Khalil,
where is your OP?
I was going to have a look at the link in it.
Blog, Suttas, Aj Chah, Facebook.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.
John Stuart Mill
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Hi Everyone,

Just in case anyone was wondering, my aditthana is still going strong. To help myself I have put together a lst of resources in Pali and English to help me not only memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta but, dare I say, to understand it. I have actually decided to pay to host the files in case whoever is serving them up now goes under later. Please let me know if you have more to add and I will update the page accordingly: http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com/daily- ... ana-sutta/
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
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Sekha
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Sekha »

Khalil Bodhi wrote:Hi Everyone,

Just in case anyone was wondering, my aditthana is still going strong. To help myself I have put together a lst of resources in Pali and English to help me not only memorize the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta but, dare I say, to understand it. I have actually decided to pay to host the files in case whoever is serving them up now goes under later. Please let me know if you have more to add and I will update the page accordingly: http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com/daily- ... ana-sutta/
If you want to understand every word of the Pali text, which will ease greatly the memorization process, I would recommend this resource, with an infobubble on every Pali word:
http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samy ... 6-011.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Where knowledge ends, religion begins. - B. Disraeli

http://www.buddha-vacana.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Thank you Sekha! I am working to memorize the Pali first and translating chunks of important sections for now. I definitely intend to do a line by line translation as I progress.
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by theY »

Hi dears,

I use to memorize pāli and translate it word to word. I try to memorize by the fixed time. I don't care how much I had remember, but I care "Have I tried to memorize at all my fixed time?".

Memorization in everything-- pali, meaning, face, leg, satta, sabhāva, good, even though in bad thing, is the nearest cause of sati.

We should change the behavior of saññā. Don't stop it, because that acting is useless. We can't stop saññā.
Above message maybe out of date. Latest update will be in massage's link.
--------------------------------------------------
Tipitaka memorization is a rule of monks. It isn't just a choice. They must done it.
bahussuto nāma tividho hoti – nissayamuccanako, parisupaṭṭhāpako, bhikkhunovādakoti.
http://UnmixedTheravada.blogspot.com/20 ... monks.html
Javi
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Javi »

For memorizing things, I'm a huge fan of using the 'method of loci', also known as the memory palace technique. It's an ancient technique that was used by the Greeks and Romans to memorize speeches. They are still used to today, especially by people who participate in modern "memory championships". The feats of memory these mental athletes can achieve by using simple techniques is amazing, and this is one of the main ways they do it. I highly recommend checking this out, it really works wonders.
Vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā — All things decay and disappoint, it is through vigilance that you succeed — Mahāparinibbāna Sutta

Self-taught poverty is a help toward philosophy, for the things which philosophy attempts to teach by reasoning, poverty forces us to practice. — Diogenes of Sinope

I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind — Ecclesiastes 1.14
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Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by Coyote »

I didn't actually get as far as I hoped in memorizing the karaniya metta sutta. But I am now looking at beginning again, maybe with something different this time.
So aside from the basic homages and refuges, what are some of the first chants that someone brought up as a buddhist might know or learn? Any ideas?
"If beings knew, as I know, the results of giving & sharing, they would not eat without having given, nor would the stain of miserliness overcome their minds. Even if it were their last bite, their last mouthful, they would not eat without having shared."
Iti 26
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