pali chanting: is it memorized, or are there rules/patterns?

[jango]

Hi,

I've just came back from a trip to a Buddhist monastery, which I enjoyed very much.

For the morning and evening chanting prior to the meditation session, the advice of the monk to people unfamiliar with chanting in Pali was simple: "fake it until you make it". This worked quite well, and after a few days I sort of memorized the stress patterns for some of the simpler chants.

However, I would like to know whether chanting in Pali follows any sets of principles, in regards to stresses and pronouncing some of the syllabus longer/shorter, or is it all memorized by people in the course of practising?

Thank you.

[mikenz66]

Hi Jango,

There is a discussion of how to scan Pali at the start of this document:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... nting.html


Mike

[jango]

This explains a lot! Thank you, Mike.

[mikenz66]

You will find that there are variations, often due to the first language of the particular group [Thai, Sinhalese, Burmese, etc...]. That document is, obviously, based on Thai conventions. I'm most familiar with Thai-derived chanting, and even then there are some variations. It's quite noticeable to me that the Western Ajahn Chah groups chant with a slightly different rhythmic sense from the Thai monks I am more familiar with [the AC groups sound more measured and less "bouncy"]. The key think with chanting is that it's a collaborative effort, so one needs to adapt to the local situation.


Mike

[Sylvester]

While I like the solemn chants, on occassion, I do find the more "bouncy" chants done at huge Thai ceremonies very nice too.

[Samatha]

There are some notes at the back of the chanting book available at http://www.samatha.org/texts/samatha-bu ... tion-texts which you may find helpful - feel free to get back to me (charles99@onetel.com) if you have any further queries.