As a monastic what suttas and chantings are you expected to be able to chant by heart?

The Watercooler
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Just interested in learning about the suttas and chants that monks in the Theravada tradition are commonly required to know by heart. I want to try to learn and understand them and see if it is beneficial to my own practice.

Because more often than not I just repeat whatever the monks chant with no idea of what the chantings mean.

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Depends on the temple. A good place to start would be the morning and evening chants in the Dhammayut Order Chanting Book:

or in the Western Ajahn Chah book:

Both these books contain English translations that can also be chanted. You’ll start to absorb the meaning in a few months doing it every day

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Try the collections put together by Ven Anandajoti . There are multiple formats available, which make them very portable.

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Safeguard/index.htm

https://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/Texts-and-Translations/Daily-Chanting/index.htm

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Thank you Kindly, Bhante

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