The request for the ordinary five precepts, each to be kept separately, said three times.
- When chanted
- Spoken by lay people asking a monk for the five precepts.
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
The commonest formula in Thai lay Buddhist life, said at the start of almost every ceremony. The book gives it first of the four requests on these pages.
Its distinguishing phrase is วิสุง วิสุง รักขะณัตถายะ — to keep each one separately — and that is what makes it the ordinary form.
Meaning and purpose
What is asked for is the five precepts together with the three refuges, in one request. Refuge and precepts are never separated in this book.
Keeping them separately means each stands on its own. A person who breaks one has broken one, and the other four remain intact and still binding.
That is a more forgiving arrangement than it first appears, and it is the arrangement most lay people live under. The alternative is printed on the same page, and choosing between them is the point of the two formulas.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 249 →
page 249มะยัง ภันเต, วิสุง วิสุง รักขะณัตถายะ, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจะ สีลานิ ยาจามะ.
Mayaṃ bhante, visuṃ visuṃ rakkhaṇatthāya, tisaraṇena saha, pañca sīlāni yācāma.
Venerable sir, we ask for the five precepts, together with the three refuges, to keep each one separately.
ทุติยัมปิ มะยัง ภันเต, วิสุง วิสุง รักขะณัตถายะ, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจะ สีลานิ ยาจามะ,
Dutiyampi mayaṃ bhante, visuṃ visuṃ rakkhaṇatthāya, tisaraṇena saha, pañca sīlāni yācāma,
For a second time, venerable sir, we ask for the five precepts, together with the three refuges, to keep each one separately.
ตะติยัมปิ มะยัง ภันเต, วิสุง วิสุง รักขะณัตถายะ, ติสะระเณนะ สะหะ, ปัญจะ สีลานิ ยาจามะ.
Tatiyampi mayaṃ bhante, visuṃ visuṃ rakkhaṇatthāya, tisaraṇena saha, pañca sīlāni yācāma.
For a third time, venerable sir, we ask for the five precepts, together with the three refuges, to keep each one separately.