Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa:
The Text for the Worship of Lord Buddha
I am a
Sinhala speaking Sri Lankan. Though all 'Sinhala speaking Sri Lankans' do not
adhere to their traditions, I do adhere to my traditions. These traditions were
my parents heritage to me. I acquired my traditions in Sinhala. In this blog I
shall try to give the meaning of these traditions in English to the best of my
ability.
Our
traditions are based on the teachings of sammāsambudu
rajānan vahanse. I shall use the
English term Lord Buddha to denote sammāsambudu
rajānan vahanse. Lord here means he
was the teacher of all; this is expressed in Sinhala as siyalu deviminisunata guru vū seka; teacher of gods and men. Buddha
is a sammāsambudu or Sammasambuddha.
Lord Buddha should not be confused with the English word Buddha (or the Buddha)
under any circumstances.
The Sinhala
name for the teachings of Lord Buddha is budu-dahama.
The meaning of budu here is: of the
Lord Buddha; and dahama: the
Teaching. Thus budu-dahama is: The
teaching of Lord Buddha. I shall use Bududahama for the Sinhala term budu-dahama. Bududahama is not Theravada Buddhism; it is not
Mahayana Buddhism; it is not any of the myriad of Buddhist traditions. Bududahama
is the Teaching of Lord Buddha; Bududahama is for all beings (siyalu satvayo).
Lord Buddha
lived some 2500 years ago, in India. The life span of Lord Buddha was from the
moment he became a Sammasambuddha until the end of his life. We refer to this
event as mahāparinirvāna (English,
Mahaparinirvana). We never use the term 'death' for this event. The term death
is applicable to human and animals and all forms of life but not to rahatan vahanse; the term applicable to
a rahatan vahanse is parinirvana.
A rahatan vahanse is the purest of beings.
The first rahatan vahanse was Lord
Buddha. In Sinhala Lord Buddha is: palamuwa
rahat utumā. I shall use the word Purest One for Lord Buddha and the word
Pure One for rahatan vahanse. The
achievement of a Pure One is absolute purity—Purity.
Lord Buddha
taught a method to achieve Purity to those who came to him and became his
disciples. After the Mahaparinirvana of the Lord, and sometime before the 1st
schism of the Sangha—the immediate disciples of Lord Buddha, the last Pure One
achieved parinirvana. In short, the
Lord, his Dhamma, and his disciples are no more in this world whatever the definition
one adopts for the world: universe, cosmos, nature. For the Lord, the world is
all beings, including himself.
The person
who became Sammasambuddha is referred to as bodhisatvayan
vahanse. I shall refer to him as Bodhisattva. His life is from the moment
of birth until he became the Sammasambuddha.
Lord Buddha
is our teacher of right and wrong or good and bad or what to do and what not to
do. In short, our life is shaped by the teachings of the Lord. On account of
this we accord him the deepest respect due to a teacher; there is no one higher
than him. He is the highest; the perfect; the one and only; or any other
superlative term one can think of.
We express
our 'deepest respect' to him in two ways: vandanā
and pūjā. There are many gāthā and standard phrases, we use for this purpose.
We shall use Vandana, Puja and Gatha for the three Sinhala words vandanā, pūjā and gāthā
respectively. Gatha and standard phrases are collected in books named Vandana
Gatha (vandanā gāthā).
A book called 'The Mirror of The Dhamma' by the
Venerables Narada MahaThera and Kassapa Thera is available at the Buddhist
Publication Website and can be downloaded free of charge. Another easily
accessible resource is the London Buddhist Vihara website. These books give the
Vandana Gatha and their English equivalents.
Virtually,
all our activities start with buddha vandanā.
London Buddhist Vihara website gives the following information about Vandana in
a webpage entitled veneration.
Buddhist Veneration
In the Theravada tradition, it is
customary to pay homage to the Buddha, recite the Three Refuges and undertake
to observe the Pancca Sila (Pansil) on visiting a place of worship or at the
start of a Buddhist ceremony. One can recite the following stanzas by oneself
or invite a Buddhist monk to administer them.
The monk will recite each stanza in
the ancient language of Pali and the devotee should repeat it after him
The webpage
gives Buddhist veneration in the Theravada tradition in English. We shall
denote this tradition as English Buddhism to distinguish it from other
traditions. It also gives the stanzas in the ancient language of Pali. Pali is
the language of Theravada Buddhism. It is not the language of the Bududahama—the Teaching of Lord Buddha.
The webpage gives
the actions one customarily performs on visiting a place of worship or at the
start of a Buddhist ceremony. The first act one performs is: pay homage to the
Buddha.
Vandana (Homage)
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Honour to the Blessed One, the
Exalted One, the fully Enlightened One
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Honour to the Blessed One, the
Exalted One, the fully Enlightened One
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Honour to the Blessed One, the
Exalted One, the fully Enlightened One
The stanza
for Vandana is: namo tassa bhagavato
arahato samma sambuddhassa, repeated three times. Its interpretation in
English is given after the stanza.
The Mirror
of Dhamma explains its purpose as follows:
Our aim in publishing a 'Mirror of
the Dhamma' is to circulate among all interested, an authentic illustration of
religious devotion as practised in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Siam—lands where pure and practically
unadulterated Buddhism of the Theravada or original Teaching yet reigns.
The
publication is an illustration of religious devotion as practised in Sri Lanka—Theravada tradition. The stanza for
Vandana and its English interpretation is given below.
Vandanā
Homage
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Homage to Him, the Blessed One, the
Exalted One, the Fully-Enlightened One.
Both Mirror
of Dhamma and the London Buddhist Vihara webpage gives the English equivalent
for vandanā as homage. However,
Vandana is a specific action under religious devotion in one case and
veneration in the other case. I shall drop both these terms and use the word
worship.
The standard
text for homage is: namo tassa bhagavato
arahato samma sambuddhassa. The English interpretations of the text are
different; words 'Homage to Him' is not in the London Buddhist Vihara
interpretation.
The Sinhala
name for the text, namo tassa bhagavato
arahato samma sambuddhassa, is vandanāpāṭha. The meaning of vandanāpāṭha is text of
Vandana.
As I
mentioned at the beginning our traditions are based on Bududahama. I quote
below the text defining vandanā given by the Lord to his immediate disciples.
‘‘Tisso imā, bhikkhave, vandanā. Katamā tisso? Kāyena, vācāya, manasā –
imā kho, bhikkhave, tisso vandanā’’ti.
Vandana is these
three (tisso imā vandanā). What are
the three (katamā tisso)? Vandana performed
by the body, by words or by the mind (kāyena,
vācāya, manasā). These three, Vandana.
The above is
a statement of the Lord—Bududahama. It is true for all and for all time. It is a
universal truth.
In the next
post I shall start on our practice of Vandana where the object of Vandana is
Lord Buddha.
As mentioned
earlier, I am trying to express in English my practice of Vandana; my knowledge
of Vandana I have acquired in Sinhala. Therefore, errors and inconsistencies of
necessity might have crept into the blog post. I would be most grateful for
pointing out any errors and inconsistencies.
suvapath veva
