The request for the constant precepts, complete in their five factors, taken as a single undertaking.
- When chanted
- Spoken by lay people undertaking the five precepts as a permanent commitment rather than for an occasion.
A note on this chant. The book prints this chant in Pali only, with no Thai translation. The English here is a working translation prepared for this edition — it is not the book's own, and has not yet been checked by a teacher.
Historical background
นิจศีล is the constant virtue — the five precepts held not for a ceremony or a day but continuously. The book names it in the title so nobody mistakes what is being asked.
It is the special counterpart of the ordinary five, and it differs in one phrase.
Meaning and purpose
Where the ordinary request asks to keep each precept separately, this asks for ปัญจังคะสะมันนาคะตัง — complete in their five factors. The five are taken as one thing.
The consequence is the one the other formula avoids: break a factor and what was undertaken is no longer complete. It is a harder undertaking, and the difference is not visible in the precepts themselves but only in these words.
That a tradition prints both, on the same page, in the same shape, and lets the person asking choose, is a fair summary of how it handles lay commitment throughout this book.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 249 →
page 249มะยัง ภันเต, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจังคะสะมันนาคะตัง นิจจะสีลัง ยาจามะ.
Mayaṃ bhante, tisaraṇena saha, pañcaṅgasamannāgataṃ niccasīlaṃ yācāma.
Venerable sir, we ask for the constant precepts, complete in their five factors, together with the three refuges.
ทุติยัมปิ มะยัง ภันเต, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจังคะสะมันนาคะตัง นิจจะสีลัง ยาจามะ.
Dutiyampi mayaṃ bhante, tisaraṇena saha, pañcaṅgasamannāgataṃ niccasīlaṃ yācāma.
For a second time, venerable sir, we ask for the constant precepts, complete in their five factors, together with the three refuges.
ตะติยัมปิ มะยัง ภันเต, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจังคะสะมันนาคะตัง นิจจะสีลัง ยาจามะ.
Tatiyampi mayaṃ bhante, tisaraṇena saha, pañcaṅgasamannāgataṃ niccasīlaṃ yācāma.
For a third time, venerable sir, we ask for the constant precepts, complete in their five factors, together with the three refuges.