fun pali lesson: SN 8.4 ananda sutta on lust, prose and verse, audtip.org pali sutta release SN 8.4

I'm going to feed two birds with one scone here:

1) Announcing a new pali sutta audio recording to add to our collection:

http://lucid24.org/sn/sn08/sn08-004/index.html (sutta text eng + pali)

🔗🔊  (audio, pali)

2) Fun pali lesson for the day, using the same sutta recording SN 8.4

2a) observe the difference in chanting style between the prose section at beginning, and the verse section (starts at around 1min mark).

I didn't read up on how it's officially done, I just listened to some of Ven. Jiv's pali recordings and reverse engineered what I think he's doing. And then my version is a simplified version of what I believe he's doing. My style tries to really minimize musicality, but without losing the tonal patterns that aid with memorization, and error detection. 

So for the prose section, it's just the way we normally chant suttas. I'll call it the baseline, and each phrase (arbitrary length of where we pause to catch our breath), the tone pitch tends to rise a little bit towards the middle, and then gradually drift back down towards the baseline.

For the verse section, I chant at a higher key/pitch than the prose verse baseline, and it stays relatively flat at that higher key. 

Each verse comes in couplets.

 For each odd numbered line (first line is odd), the verse baseline stays flat/constant all the way through.

For each even numbered line (second line is even), the verse baseline stays flat the first half of the phrase, but then the pitch drifts down. 

So that is done deliberately, so you can always tell if you're on an even or odd line, it differentiates lines within couplets, and that helps differentiates paragraphs.

If you haven't recited a sutta for a really long time, and then try to reconstruct parts you are forgetting or messing up, the verse meter, and the tonal patterns of chanting, are all really helpful to remembering the correct chanting.

Exercise for the pali student: 

Listen to the audio while reading the sutta text.

Notice the difference in style between prose and verse.

2b) observation about the prose/verse differentiation  in oral tradition.

If you read the prose section, you notice it doesn't really add anything of doctrinal substance, it just gives a setting and context showing Ven. Vangisa as the student of Ven. Ananda. 

* But in other suttas, the prose may really expand on the verse section and give some extensive commentary.

*  Or sometimes the verse just serves as a short summary of a long sutta. 

But if you think about how we learn, memorize, and transmit teachings via the oral tradition, most likely the verse is the only thing you memorize, and the prose is most likely the reciter's sponteanous, extemporaneous and customized for the audience commentary and explanation of what the verse means.

2c) should I memorize this sutta?

Remember, the pali gorilla fun primer series, I'm not going to suggest you memorize any new vocabulary or sutta passages unless they're critical. 

Now in my personal repertoire, I've memorized the verse and recite it regularly (only takes about 40 seconds), and didn't memorize the prose for SN 8.4 since it contains no doctrinal importance. Almost all of the words in the verse are worth learning and remembering, they come up often and are important. 

verse

♦ “kāma-rāgena ḍayhāmi,	(with) sensuality-(and)-lust (I) burn,
cittaṃ me pari-ḍayhati.	Mind (of) mine completely-burns.
♦ sādhu nibbāpanaṃ brūhi,	[the] thorough Nirvana-[fire extinguishing]-process, [please] explain,
anu-kampāya gotamā”ti.	Out-of-compassion, Gotama.

(ānanda replies)

♦ “saññāya vipariyesā,	(your) perceptions (are) inverted,
cittaṃ te pari-ḍayhati.	[so the] mind (of) yours completely-burns,
♦ nimittaṃ pari-vajjehi,	(the) sign (to) completely-avoid:
subhaṃ rāg-ūpasaṃhitaṃ.	beauty connected-with-lust
♦ “saṅkhāre parato passa,	Co-doings; alien (they should be) seen (as),
dukkhato mā ca attato.	pain-&-suffering, not the self.
♦ nibbāpehi mahā-rāgaṃ,	Nirvanify [extinguish] (the) massive-lust,
mā ḍayhittho punap-punaṃ.	don’t burn again-(and)-again.
♦ “a-subhāya cittaṃ bhāvehi,	Non-beautiful [perceptions] (the) mind develops,
ek’-aggaṃ su-samāhitaṃ.	Singular-preoccupation, well-(developed)-undistractible-lucidity.
♦ sati kāya-gatā ty-atthu,	remembrance (of) body-condition,
nibbidā-bahulo bha.	disenchantment-(in)-abundance ***.
♦ “a-nimittañca bhāvehi,	Sign-less [meditation] (you) develop,
mān-ānusaya-mujjaha.	conceit’s-tendency,-discard.
♦ tato mān-ābhisamayā,	thereupon (with) conceit-penetrated,
upasanto carissasī”ti.	(in) peace (you) abide.