Karaniya Metta Sutta (Loving-kindness)

1.

Karaṇīyamatthakusalena , yantasantaṃ padaṃ abhisamecca;

Sakko ujū ca suhujū [sūjū (sī.)] ca, suvaco cassa mudu anatimānī.

2.

Santussako ca subharo ca, appakicco ca sallahukavutti;

Santindriyo ca nipako ca, appagabbho kulesvananugiddho.

3.

Na ca khuddamācare kiñci, yena viññū pare upavadeyyuṃ;

Sukhinova khemino hontu, sabbasattā [sabbe sattā (sī. syā.)] bhavantu sukhitattā.

4.

Ye keci pāṇabhūtatthi, tasā vā thāvarā vanavasesā;

Dīghā vā yeva mahantā [mahanta (?)], majjhimā rassakā aṇukathūlā.

5.

Diṭṭhā vā yeva adiṭṭhā [adiṭṭha (?)], ye va [ye ca (sī. syā. kaṃ. pī.)] dūre vasanti avidūre;

Bhūtā va [vā (syā. kaṃ. pī. ka.)] sambhavesī va [vā (sī. syā. kaṃ. pī.)], sabbasattā bhavantu sukhitattā.

6.

Na paro paraṃ nikubbetha, nātimaññetha katthaci na kañci [naṃ kañci (sī. pī.), naṃ kiñci (syā.), na kiñci (ka.)];

Byārosanā paṭighasaññā, nāññamaññassa dukkhamiccheyya.

7.

Mātā yathā niyaṃ puttamāyusā ekaputtamanurakkhe;

Evampi sabbabhūtesu, mānasaṃ bhāvaye aparimāṇaṃ.

8.

Mettañca sabbalokasmi, mānasaṃ bhāvaye aparimāṇaṃ;

Uddhaṃ adho ca tiriyañca, asambādhaṃ averamasapattaṃ.

9.

Tiṭṭhaṃ caraṃ nisinno va [vā (sī. syā. kaṃ. pī.)], sayāno yāvatāssa vitamiddho [vigatamiddho (bahūsu)];

Etaṃ satiṃ adhiṭṭheyya, brahmametaṃ vihāramidhamāhu.

10.

Diṭṭhiñca anupaggamma, sīlavā dassanena sampanno;

Kāmesu vinaya [vineyya (sī.)] gedhaṃ, na hi jātuggabbhaseyya puna retīti.

Translation

Finally, a translation (from Access To Insight)

Karaniya Metta Sutta

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

If you want to listen to more Pali, you can find a bunch of recordings at suttareadings.net.

Related posts:

1. Grinding Out The Pali
2. Pali Day 1
3. Two Months of Non-Stop Pali

All of the exercises in Warder are pulled straight from the Pali Canon (Tipitaka in Pali). Since reading the Tipitaka is the end goal of studying Pali, it’s a great feeling to already be breaking some ground there. I’ve already read a short passage about a King named Disampati (from the Mahagovinda Sutta). His friend (and prime minister) Govinda dies. The king is very sad. Disampati’s son, Renu, tells his father not to grieve because Govinda left behind a son, the young priest Jotipala. The king then sends a messenger to fetch Jotipala. It’s not the full story, and not the most exciting story either, but I’m reading it in the original Pali!

Studying Pali reminds me a little bit of studying Latin when I was in High School: lots of conjugations and declensions. I don’t like studying charts and tables very much, so as an experiment I’m just skipping them. My idea is that if I have enough example sentences in Mnemosyne, I will eventually pick up all the different endings through osmosis. By seeing all of the endings in context, my brain should be able to see the patterns and internalize them. So far it’s been working according to plan! Irregular verbs like “to be” and “to say” still trip me up a bit. But these words are so common that I’m not too worried about it. As my Pali study continues I’m sure I’ll see these words many times and they’ll stick eventually.

Every now and then I run into a word that makes me laugh. So far this is my favorite:

• pabbajati – he goes forth, giving up the ordinary life to become a wandering ascetic or philosopher.

Yes, Pali has its own word for that! It makes perfect sense if you consider the religious climate of ancient India, but it still makes me giggle.

Related posts:

1. Two Months of Non-Stop Pali
2. Pali Day 1
3. Pali Chanting Of The Karaniya Metta Sutta

More than a thousand monks and members of the public to recite Pali text 24-hours a day for 57 days

A marathon public reading of the Tripitaka, the earliest collection of Buddhist teachings, began yesterday at Sanam Luang, right in front of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, to commemorate His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday this year.

More than 1,000 monks and members of the public from around the country will participate in the public reading of the Pali text of the Tripitaka. The public reading will run 24 hours a day for 57 days until all the 45 volumes and 84,000 doctrinal items are completed on December 10.

The rest of the article talks briefly about the Tripitaka and then has quotes from Thai citizens who will participate.

You can read more here: Tripitaka marathon to honour the King.

They really love their King over there in Thailand. I’ve only ever had the Birthday Song chanted for me on my birthday :)

Related posts:

1. Grinding Out The Pali
2. Pali Day 1
3. Pali Chanting Of The Karaniya Metta Sutta

I have two Pali textbooks that I am working from. One is the famous Introduction to Pali by A.K. Warder. For years this has been the textbook for learning Pali. Admittedly it doesn’t have much competition, so it remains to be seen if it’s really all that brilliant. It’s quite thick, pulls all of its exercises straight from the Pali Canon and has detailed linguistic explanations for everything. The other book I’m using is called Pali Primer by Lily de Silva. It’s a skinny book, very concise and full of exercises.

There are some interesting things that come up when learning an ancient dead religious language. In most foreign language classes I’ve taken, the textbook opens up with greetings and introductions. “Hello,” “My name is Cornelius,” “Nice to meet you.” Pretty standard. Check out the vocabulary list for lesson one of the Pali book:

• lay disciple
• body, substance
• warrior, noble
• village
• thus-gone (one of the titles for the Buddha)
• god, king (honorific)
• son
• man
• priest, brahman
• road, way
• human being
• non-human being
• minister
• world, people, universe
• ascetic, wanderer, philosopher
• a time, occasion

It really shows you what you’re getting into, doesn’t it? Some interesting lesson one example sentences:

• A god is a non-human being.
• The son who is a lay disciple sees.
• The priest goes away.
• The god dies.

The god dies? That’s pretty intense! All example sentences were entered into Mnemosyne, the spaced repetition software I will be using for Pali.

One interesting side note: the words for “human being” and “non-human being” are “manussa” and “amanussa” respectively. The A.K. Warder book says that “a-” is a negative prefix. I wonder if this is the same prefix that we find in English with word pairs such as typical/atypical and sexual/asexual. Both English and Pali are Indo-European languages, so it’s not impossible. Does anybody know the story on this?

For those who would like to follow along:

Related posts:

1. Grinding Out The Pali
2. Two Months of Non-Stop Pali
3. Pali Chanting Of The Karaniya Metta Sutta