I want to orally memorize the suttas and it would be easier for me if there was a way to read the sutta in full with all the repetition included. Is there a way to do that?
Looking for an English translation please.
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Hey Jared,
I filled out many of the suttas in the Digha so they have full repetitions. However this is using mostly substandard translations, so not very useful.
Apart from that, I know that Ven Anandajoti has done this for certain texts, so you may find something useful on his site:
http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/
But if you do find anything else, let us know.
Oh, I might mention that no edition, even of the Pali, actually spells out repetitions. Even the Chinese translations clearly worked from pre-abbreviated texts, so this has been the case, probably always.
What this suggests is that the written manuscripts were in some sense always felt to be a shorthand for the “real thing”. As long as there is enough information there to allow the full text to be expanded, the actual expansion could be left to the reciter. This is, incidentally, exactly how compression algorithms work!
Anyway, the upshot is, rather than working from an explicitly expanded text, reciters would use the abbreviated text and do the expansion themselves.
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Thanks for the information. I have heard that it is possible for people to get Enlightened by chanting suttas in their native language.
I’ve expanded out some of the pali suttas I chant. But since you’re looking to memorize English, and you probably are going to favor one English translation over another, if not modify it to your liking, then you may have to do the exercise yourself. If you list which suttas you’re interested, maybe people here have done that expansion for some of those suttas. But check Ven. Anandajoti’s site first, as Bhante Sujato linked above.
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I’ll check out Ven. Anandajoti’s site. I like the Six Sets of Six sutta.
I have the pali expanded out for MN 148. I’ll take a look at the English. If I think I can expand the repetitions out in less than an hour I’ll do it.
MN 148 is a sutta I like a lot too, but it’s not part of my regular rotation. I chant 30 min every morning.
If you like MN 148, you should consider memorizing the anatta lakhana sutta and āditta (fire sermon). MN 148 is kind of like a child of those two. And those two suttas are shorter, easier to memorize, and easier to integrate into a daily routine.
MN 148 you’re probably looking at 45 min chanting fast, if you expand out all the reps. Anatta lakhana takes about 10 min chanting fluent speed, fire sermon maybe 7 min.
So you can see how those 2 are easier to chant every day and integrate it into whatever lifestyle and schedule you have.
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