The single formula by which a woman asks to go forth as a มีชี, declaring refuge and asking for the precepts.
- When chanted
- Spoken by a woman requesting the going forth, before the precepts are given.
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
บวชชี is the going forth as a มีชี — a white-robed renunciant woman. Thailand has no bhikkhunī ordination in this lineage, and this is the form the tradition uses instead.
The sentence is the same one printed elsewhere in this book for a lay person declaring themselves a follower. What changes is not the words but the occasion and what follows them.
Meaning and purpose
The wording is a declaration of refuge, made in the presence of the Sangha, with the same concession the book makes everywhere: to that Blessed One, though he attained final Nibbāna long ago.
Refuge is taken in all three — the Blessed One, the Dhamma, and the community of monks. The last of those is worth noticing here, given the position the speaker is entering.
That this and the lay declaration share a form says something plain about where this way of life sits. It is entered by the same sentence a lay follower uses, and what makes it different is the precepts taken afterwards and the life led on the strength of them.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 299 →
page 299เอสาหัง ภันเต, สุจิระปะรินิพพุตัมปิ, ตัง ภะคะวันตัง สะระณัง คัจฉามิ, ธัมมัญจะ ภิกขุสังฆัญจะ, ปัพพัชชัง มัง ภันเต, สังโฆ ธาเรตุ อัชชะตัคเค ปาณุเปตัง, สะระณัง คะตัง.
Esāhaṃ bhante, suciraparinibbutampi, taṃ bhagavantaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, dhammañca bhikkhusaṅghañca, pabbajjaṃ maṃ bhante, saṅgho dhāretu ajjatagge pāṇupetaṃ, saraṇaṃ gataṃ.
Venerable sir, I go for refuge to that Blessed One, though he attained final Nibbāna long ago, and to the Dhamma and to the community of monks. May the Saṅgha remember me, venerable sir, as one gone forth, who from this day has gone for refuge for as long as life lasts.