tips on memorizing sutta passages

Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by frank k » Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:03 am
In 2022 I started memorizng parayana vagga of Snp (sutta nipāta) in pāli.
16 short suttas from 16 brahman jhāna meditators on the way to nirvana.

https://lucid24.org/kn/kn-snp/single/index.html#s5.2


The most important ones of the 16, I memorized in their entirety already.
The other ones, I start with just memorizing the most important part, just a few lines, from that sutta.
That is, all 16 suttas I have at least a few lines memorized, and I recite what I've memorized daily and add a little bit each day.

So roughly, I've probably memorized in raw word count more than 50% of the total.

Roughly half of each sutta, the Buddha is giving an answer and the other half the guy is asking questions.
So I prioritize the memorizing with the Buddha's answers first (contains the valuable and profound parts).
The last things I memorize will be the questioner's verses.

But I expect to have the project completed in a few months.

Takes about 15min daily to chant everything I've memroized so far, expect total when complete, to be about 20-25min chanting full speed fluent pali.

Once it's firmly ingrained in my memory, I'll chant it once or twice a week.



Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by frank k » Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:16 am
Just want to encourage those of you, I found the most helpful motivation is the memorize the Dhamma that is most important, rather than arbitrarily picking a sutta and just having an obsessive compulsion to memorize the 'complete' sutta in its entirety.
if you're not skilled in memorizing yet, then it's quite tedious and difficult and hard to generate motivation to memorize the parts of the sutta that are just trivial narrative elements with no dharmic content.

But I find it highly motivating to memorize the sections that are important, because each time you recite it, you're getting the benefit of positive reinforcement right there, getting the value of hearing that Dhamma right there.

As another example, I never could memorize the ratana sutta or mangala sutta, because they don't contain any actual nitty gritty instructions on how to get to nirvana. They play like those armed military commericials on t.v. ("Be, all that you can be, in the U.S. Army") touting how great Buddhism is, without telling you the actual practice in detail.
So I put my efforts first in memorizing the important practice details, such as here:
https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2 ... ragon.html

Of course if you enjoy the ratana or mangala sutta becuase it has some inspirational value, then it's worthwhile for you to memorize it.
It helps with pīti awakening factor, the mental joy to feeds first jhāna.

My point is for most people, memorizing skill is difficult so you really want to make each word count. Where you get the most bang for the buck and can reap the benefits of the repetitive daily recitation right away.





Re: The Dhamma Wheel Memorization Challenge

Post by frank k » Tue Feb 14, 2023 5:23 am
Prioritize!
For example, in this sutta:
https://lucid24.org/kn/kn-snp/single/index.html#5.16

I first memorized the 2 most important lines.

“Suññato lokaṁ avekkhassu,
“Look upon the world as empty,
Mogharāja sadā sato;
Mogharājā, ever rememberful.


Then a few weeks later, I added the next two important lines:
Attānudiṭṭhiṁ ūhacca,
Having uprooted the view of self,
Evaṁ maccutaro siyā;
you may thus cross over death.


Then over the next month, I finished memorize the rest of the Buddha's talking portion,
THEN I worked on memorizing the inquisitor portion.

But since you're reciting what you've memorized so far everyday, this way the most important part of the sutta gets the most play time, the most repetition.

If you just decide to memorize the sutta in its entirety and you went in order, then you'd spend most of your time reciting the first two lines:

“Dvāhaṁ sakkaṁ apucchissaṁ,
“Twice I have asked the Sakyan,”
(iccāyasmā mogharājā)
said Venerable Mogharājā,
Na me byākāsi cakkhumā;
“but you haven’t answered me, O Seer.
Yāvatatiyañca devīsi,
I have heard that the divine hermit

which is just a narrative detail, and not the juicy important dhamma that I memorized first:

“Suññato lokaṁ avekkhassu,
“Look upon the world as empty,
Mogharāja sadā sato;
Mogharājā, ever rememberful.