Daily chants
Requesting a Dhamma talk
DhammadesanāyācanāThe formula for asking a monk to give a Dhamma talk, recalling how Brahmā Sahampati asked the Buddha to teach.
Daily chants
Sharing merit with all beings
Puññabhāgadānaṃ
A four-line verse sharing the merit of what you have done with all beings, not only with relatives or people you know.
When it is chanted
Chanted right after the dedication of merit, or to close a daily chanting session: first to relatives, then widened out to every living thing.
It works well on days when what you did feels too small to mention, because the verse does not measure the merit — it trains the mind to be willing to share.
Background
In Buddhist thought, sharing merit does not diminish your own, any more than lighting one candle from another makes the first flame smaller. What actually happens is that the giver's mind grows wider, and whoever rejoices in the good gains something from that gladness.
The idea is rooted in the Tirokuḍḍa Kaṇḍa, on dedicating merit to the departed, and in the Karaṇīya Metta Sutta, which teaches boundless goodwill towards all beings. This short verse is the form Thai temples use to hold both ideas together.
The Pali word satta here means every living being, not animals only.
Pali
- Sabbe sattā sadā hontu May all beings always live
- Averā sukhajīvino free from enmity and at ease.
- Kataṃ puññaphalaṃ mayhaṃ The fruit of the merit I have made —
- Sabbe bhāgī bhavantu te may all of them share in it.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
Other chants
Daily chants
Going for refuge in the Triple Gem
TisaraṇagamanaṃThe declaration of taking the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha as refuge, repeated three times, in the wordin…
Daily chants
Homage to the Triple Gem
RatanattayavandanāA short homage to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha, chanted before other chants or before meditation.
Daily chants
Radiating the four brahmavihāras
BrahmavihārapharaṇaSpreading loving-kindness, compassion, gladness and equanimity to all beings — usually chanted to close a sess…