Gathas

A gatha is a verse, a short stanza meant to be remembered and said aloud. The word is Pali and Sanskrit, and it is usually explained as coming from a root meaning to sing. In the Buddhist scriptures the Buddha's teaching is carried in two forms: long discourses in prose, and verses that gather a whole lesson into a few lines a person can learn by heart. The verses on this page are of two kinds, and they are used in different ways. Some are chanted, for refuge, protection and blessing. Others are read and reflected on, one chapter at a time. This page is laid out to match: the chants first, then the Dhammapada.

Five short texts are said by monks and lay people in the Theravada tradition. They are short enough to learn, and each has a place in life.

The first is the Three Refuges, the Tisarana: "I go to the Buddha for refuge, I go to the Dhamma for refuge, I go to the Sangha for refuge." It is the first text of the Khuddakapatha, a short collection in the Pali Canon, and in the Vinaya, the monastic code, the Buddha allows a candidate to be ordained by saying it three times. That is why it is said once, a second time and a third time.

The second is the dedication of merit to departed relatives, the Pattidana Gatha. Its core line comes from the Tirokudda Kanda of the Khuddakapatha, which is also preserved in the Petavatthu. Theravada tradition holds that the Buddha taught it to King Bimbisara at Rajagaha, as the way to share the good of a gift with relatives who have died. It is said after offerings and in memorial rites.

The third is the Eight Verses of Auspicious Victory, the Jayamangala Atthagatha, which gives one verse each to eight trials the Buddha overcame, among them Mara's army, the bandit Aṅgulimāla and the maddened elephant Nālāgiri. It is not in the Pali Canon. It is a later devotional composition from Sri Lanka, its author unknown, chanted as a protective paritta at blessings, weddings and the opening of new homes.

The fourth is the Aṅgulimāla Paritta, from the Aṅgulimāla Sutta, Majjhima Nikaya 86. In the sutta the Buddha sends the former bandit Aṅgulimāla to a woman in hard labour, and the words he speaks, a statement of his own truth, are followed by a safe birth. The verse is recited as a blessing for mothers and for safe childbirth.

The fifth is the Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, verse 183 of the Dhammapada: to avoid all evil, to do good, to purify one's own mind. It is the first of three verses, Dhammapada 183 to 185, that the tradition says the Buddha spoke to 1,250 arahants at the Veluvana grove on the full moon of Magha, which Buddhists now keep as Magha Puja.

The Dhammapada, "the path of the Dhamma", is a collection of 423 verses in 26 chapters, called vaggas, in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pali Canon. Tradition attributes the sayings to the Buddha. Each chapter takes one theme and gathers its verses around it, and the chapters run from the Twin Verses, which open with the line that mind comes before all things, to the last chapter, on the true Brahmin, which describes the person who has gone beyond craving.

The chapters can be read in any order, but the book rewards a reading from the start. The site arranges its 26 chapters under four headings, as a reading aid: Mind and Wisdom, in chapters 1 to 6; Conduct and Karma, in chapters 7 to 13; The Path and Awakening, in chapters 14 to 20; and Renunciation and Freedom, in chapters 21 to 26. The headings are the site's, not part of the text, and the chapters themselves are in the order of the canon. Each chapter has its own page with the Pali, a transliteration and a meaning, and the Dhammapada guide lets you search them by theme or verse number.

A gatha is a verse. A paritta is a protective chant, a text recited for blessing and safety. A vagga is a chapter of a collection, literally a group. The Pali Canon is the collection of scriptures kept by the Theravada tradition, in the Pali language. The Khuddaka Nikaya is its collection of short texts, which includes the Khuddakapatha and the Dhammapada. Dhamma is the Pali form of Dharma, the teaching, and Sangha is the community of monks, nuns and followers.