Daily chants
Offering to the Saṅgha
SaṅghadānapūjāThe words for offering food and requisites to the Saṅgha as a community, rather than to one particular monk.
Daily chants
Going for refuge in the Triple Gem
Tisaraṇagamanaṃ
The declaration of taking the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha as refuge, repeated three times, in the wording of the Khuddakapāṭha.
When it is chanted
Chanted after the homage to the Buddha, before taking the precepts, at the start of morning or evening chanting, or any time you want to remind yourself which direction you have chosen.
At ceremonies a monk leads phrase by phrase and everyone repeats after him. Chanting alone at home, you can simply go straight through.
The three repetitions are not because once is not enough; they are an old convention for making an important statement deliberate and clearly heard.
Background
Saraṇa means a refuge, something to turn to. Going to the Triple Gem for refuge does not mean someone else will do the protecting for you. It means you accept the Buddha's awakening, the teaching he left behind, and the community that follows it, as what you will steer your life by.
This is the very first text in the Khuddakapāṭha, volume 25 of the Tipiṭaka, a collection of short passages a beginner was expected to memorise. The Pali chanted today is the wording found there, not a later composition.
What changes when you finish is not the outside world but your own footing: a reminder of what you will use to decide things today.
Pali
- Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi I go to the Buddha for refuge.
- Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi I go to the Dhamma for refuge.
- Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
- Dutiyampi buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A second time, I go to the Buddha for refuge.
- Dutiyampi dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A second time, I go to the Dhamma for refuge.
- Dutiyampi saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A second time, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
- Tatiyampi buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A third time, I go to the Buddha for refuge.
- Tatiyampi dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A third time, I go to the Dhamma for refuge.
- Tatiyampi saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi A third time, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Where it comes from in the Tipiṭaka
Click to read the actual page it refers to
Other chants
Daily chants
Inviting the monks to chant the parittas
ParittaparikammaThe words a lay person says to invite the monks to begin chanting the parittas at a house blessing or other me…
Daily chants
Offering a meal dedicated to those who have died
MatakabhattadānaThe words for offering a meal to the Saṅgha at a service dedicated to parents and relatives who have died.
Daily chants
Offering the forest-cloth (phā pā)
PaṃsukūlacīvaradānaThe words for offering rag-cloth robes and the goods that accompany them to the Saṅgha, at a phā pā ceremony.