Evening chanting
Buddhābhigīti — verses in praise of the Buddha
BuddhābhigītiVerses in praise of the Buddha chanted after the recollection, ending with an admission of any offence given.
Evening chanting
The five subjects for frequent recollection
Abhiṇhapaccavekkhaṇa
Five reflections on ageing, illness, death, parting and one’s own actions, often chanted at the close of evening chanting.
When it is chanted
Many temples chant this at the close of evening chanting, before meditation or before people go their separate ways; some chant it only on observance days.
It works at home too, especially on a night when the mind is still circling around something it cannot control. Saying these plain facts out loud often loosens the grip.
If chanting it leaves you heavy or too frightened to sleep, set it aside and chant loving-kindness instead. If distress becomes severe and you think of harming yourself, call the Thai mental health hotline 1323; outside Thailand, contact a local helpline.
Background
These five come from a sutta in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, where the Buddha says that women and men, householders and monastics alike, should reflect on them often.
He also gives the reason: people become intoxicated with youth, with health and with life itself, and that intoxication leads them to act badly in body, speech and mind. Reflecting on these facts thins that intoxication out or ends it. The aim is not to frighten anyone, but to make the time you have count.
The last one, about your own actions, is about taking responsibility for what you yourself choose to do. It is not a tool for judging other people, as though their illness or hardship showed what they had done. The Buddha did not teach it to be used on anyone else's suffering.
Pali
- Jarādhammomhi jaraṃ anatīto I am subject to ageing; I have not gone beyond ageing.
- Byādhidhammomhi byādhiṃ anatīto I am subject to illness; I have not gone beyond illness.
- Maraṇadhammomhi maraṇaṃ anatīto I am subject to death; I have not gone beyond death.
- Sabbehi me piyehi manāpehi nānābhāvo vinābhāvo I will be parted from everyone and everything dear and pleasing to me.
- Kammassakomhi kammadāyādo kammayoni My actions are my own; I am the heir of my actions, born of my actions,
- Kammabandhu kammapaṭisaraṇo related through my actions, and my actions are what I fall back on.
- Yaṃ kammaṃ karissāmi kalyāṇaṃ vā pāpakaṃ vā Whatever I do, good or bad,
- Tassa dāyādo bhavissāmi of that I will be the heir.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
Other chants
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Evening chanting
Recollection of the Saṅgha
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Evening chanting
Recollection of the Buddha
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