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
Offering the forest-cloth (phā pā)
Paṃsukūlacīvaradāna
The words for offering rag-cloth robes and the goods that accompany them to the Saṅgha, at a phā pā ceremony.
When it is chanted
Used at a phā pā ceremony. Unlike the kathina it has no season and no limit on how often a monastery may receive one, and it is usually held to raise support for building or repairs — often as merit dedicated to someone who has died.
The cloth and the accompanying goods are set out on a tray or a decorated stand. Those taking part raise their hands and say the words together, after which the monks take up the cloth and give a blessing.
When the offering is dedicated to someone who has died, the water of dedication is poured after the blessing.
Background
Paṃsukūla literally means "dust-stained": cloth that its owner has thrown away, which a monk collects, washes, dyes and sews into a robe. In volume 5 the physician Jīvaka says that the Blessed One and the Saṅgha habitually use rag-cloth, and on that basis asks them to accept a fine pair of cloths he has been given — so the practice goes back to the Buddha's own community.
The phā pā ceremony keeps that shape symbolically. The cloth is not handed to a monk; it is left for a monk to come and take, as if it had no owner. The donor lets go of it rather than presenting it.
In practice what is offered today is usually funds and requisites rather than cloth, though the wording still says paṃsukūla robes. If something else is the main offering, the word for it can be substituted as the presiding monk advises.
Pali
- Imāni mayaṃ bhante paṃsukūlacīvarāni saparivārāni Venerable sirs, we offer these rag-cloth robes and the goods that go with them
- Bhikkhusaṅghassa oṇojayāma to the community of monks.
- Sādhu no bhante bhikkhusaṅgho May it be well, venerable sirs: may the community of monks
- Imāni paṃsukūlacīvarāni saparivārāni paṭiggaṇhātu accept these rag-cloth robes and the goods that go with them,
- Amhākaṃ dīgharattaṃ hitāya sukhāya for our welfare and happiness for a long time to come.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
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