Suttas often chanted
Verses on safe and unsafe refuge
KhemākhemasaraṇadīpikagāthāDhammapada verses: mountains, forests and sacred trees are not a safe refuge — the safe refuge is the Triple G…
Suttas often chanted
The Buddha’s final words
Pacchimabuddhovādapāṭha
The Buddha’s last words before his passing: all conditioned things wear away — complete your work with diligence.
When it is chanted
Chanted on Visākha Pūjā and at occasions connected with death, and often reviewed at the end of the day or before sitting.
It is very short — a few seconds to chant — and is meant to be returned to often rather than chanted at length once.
Background
In the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, close to the end, the Buddha called the monks together and spoke this sentence. He said nothing after it, and the sutta records it as his last words.
There are two halves joined together. The first states a fact: everything put together comes apart, his own body included. The second says that, this being so, the thing to do is not to let the time go to waste.
So the passage is not an invitation to gloom. It is a reminder that time is limited, and that what is left of it can be used well.
Pali
- Athakho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi Then the Blessed One addressed the monks.
- Handadāni bhikkhave āmantayāmi vo Monks, now I say this to you:
- Vayadhammā saṅkhārā all conditioned things wear away.
- Appamādena sampādetha Complete your work with diligence.
- Ayaṃ tathāgatassa pacchimā vācā These were the last words of the Tathāgata.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
Other chants
Suttas often chanted
Ādittapariyāya Sutta — The Fire Sermon
ĀdittapariyāyasuttaṃThe Buddha's third great teaching, given to a thousand former fire-worshippers at Gayāsīsa: eye, ear, nose, to…
Suttas often chanted
The passage that rouses gladness in the Dhamma
DhammapahaṃsanapāṭhaThe Buddha declares that the Dhamma has been made plain, so effort is worth making — the lazy live badly, the …
Suttas often chanted
The first words of the Buddha
PaṭhamabuddhabhāsitagāthāThe verses traditionally held to be the Buddha’s first utterance after awakening, comparing craving to a house…