best suttas to memorize? techniques?

[Cittasanto]

Hi Khalil,
Be careful with the texts and chanting files there maybe differences.

but it is my favourite to chant

I suppose you could call it a form of New Year’s resolution but I quite spontaneously (perhaps impulsively) decide last night to take up the memorization of the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta again. I believe the English title is the Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Dhamma Wheel and it contains, as such, the core teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. If there were one sutta that I ever wanted to memorize in its entirety for fear of being left without a physical or digital copy of the Dhamma this would be it. I have memorized the Metta sutta in English in the past as well as gathas but this will be the first sutta of significant length I will attempt.

In essence, I plan to use the Dhammaruwan recording (here: http://www.pirith.org/download/Dhammachakka.mp3) in conjunction with Ven. Anandajoti’s rendering of the sutta as found in the Vinaya-pitaka and I’ll come back here later to add in the links. I intend to dedicate the half hour required to recite the sutta every evening which would put my evening session at around 45 minutes in total with a fifteen minute metta session. I’ve decided to give myself until the end of the year to memorize it at which point I may choose either the Mahamangala or Karaniya Metta Sutta.

I would like to invite anyone who feels so inclined to join me on this quasi-New Year's resolution.

[Sambojjhanga]

I think in practical terms these two are hard to beat no matter the length. but the Dhammacakkhapavatena sutta is supremely useful.

yeah see i love this sutta and it's on my list but it's not got a lot of advice directly explaining practice. it's certainly a sutta that includes information i would want memorized though after i memorize satipatthana.

does a map directly explain or point in the direction?
the Dhammacakkha Sutta is telling us far more that you may think as it is what some would call a wisdom text.

What do you mean by a "wisdom text"? Would this be the same thing as an "illuminated text" in some traditions?

[alan...]

I suppose you could call it a form of New Year’s resolution but I quite spontaneously (perhaps impulsively) decide last night to take up the memorization of the Dhammacakkappavattana sutta again. I believe the English title is the Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Dhamma Wheel and it contains, as such, the core teachings such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eight-fold Path. If there were one sutta that I ever wanted to memorize in its entirety for fear of being left without a physical or digital copy of the Dhamma this would be it. I have memorized the Metta sutta in English in the past as well as gathas but this will be the first sutta of significant length I will attempt.

In essence, I plan to use the Dhammaruwan recording (here: http://www.pirith.org/download/Dhammachakka.mp3) in conjunction with Ven. Anandajoti’s rendering of the sutta as found in the Vinaya-pitaka and I’ll come back here later to add in the links. I intend to dedicate the half hour required to recite the sutta every evening which would put my evening session at around 45 minutes in total with a fifteen minute metta session. I’ve decided to give myself until the end of the year to memorize it at which point I may choose either the Mahamangala or Karaniya Metta Sutta.

I would like to invite anyone who feels so inclined to join me on this quasi-New Year's resolution.

cool! eightfold path and truths are in maha satipatthana sutta as well, if they weren't i would probably have decided to memorize another one first. my resolution was to strive even harder to walk the eightfold path. particularly verbal stuff as that's hard for me working with a huge variety of different kinds of people, it can be hard not to talk mindlessly.

[Cittasanto]

What do you mean by a "wisdom text"? Would this be the same thing as an "illuminated text" in some traditions?

No, it is a text which aims at/or can be used to cultivate wisdom.

[Sambojjhanga]

What do you mean by a "wisdom text"? Would this be the same thing as an "illuminated text" in some traditions?

No, it is a text which aims at/or can be used to cultivate wisdom.

Thank you for clarifying.

[alan...]

What do you mean by a "wisdom text"? Would this be the same thing as an "illuminated text" in some traditions?

No, it is a text which aims at/or can be used to cultivate wisdom.

So satipatthana and anapanasati are both wisdom texts as well then right?

[Cittasanto]

What do you mean by a "wisdom text"? Would this be the same thing as an "illuminated text" in some traditions?

No, it is a text which aims at/or can be used to cultivate wisdom.

So satipatthana and anapanasati are both wisdom texts as well then right?

sure, there is no hard and fast rule on the use.