Daily chants
Radiating loving-kindness
MettāpharaṇaWishing well to oneself and to all beings — usually chanted to close a chanting session or after meditation.
Daily chants
Dedicating merit to those who have died
Pattidānaṃ
A short dedication said after making merit, offering the merit to relatives who have died, in the wording of the Tirokuḍḍa Kaṇḍa.
When it is chanted
Said after giving, making merit, or finishing a chanting session. In Thai custom water is poured slowly into a vessel while the words are spoken, and afterwards poured out at the foot of a tree.
The water is an aid to attention, not the thing that carries the merit. With no water at hand, or at work, you can simply bring the person to mind and say the words.
It suits funerals, anniversaries of a death, and any ordinary day when someone who is gone comes to mind.
Background
The Tirokuḍḍa Kaṇḍa in volume 25 describes departed relatives coming to the houses they once lived in, and says that when those left behind give a gift and dedicate it, the departed can rejoice in it. The sutta also says plainly that weeping and grieving do not help the dead, while giving and dedicating does.
The Pali used for the water-pouring in Thailand comes straight from this text. In the canon the line is spoken of another's relatives — idaṃ vo ñātīnaṃ hotu — while the chanted version says idaṃ me ñātīnaṃ hotu: may this be for my relatives.
The last two lines are a simile from the same passage: as full streams fill up the sea, so what is given here reaches those who have gone. That image is where the custom of pouring water while dedicating merit comes from.
Pali
- Idaṃ me ñātīnaṃ hotu May this merit be for my relatives.
- Sukhitā hontu ñātayo May my relatives be happy.
- Yathā vārivahā pūrā Just as full streams
- Paripūrenti sāgaraṃ flow on and fill the sea,
- Evameva ito dinnaṃ so too what is given from here
- Petānaṃ upakappati reaches those who have passed away.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
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