The good report of the Buddha and his nine epithets, recited as the first of the three recollections of the evening service.
- When chanted
- Chanted in the evening service, the first of three recollections, each answered immediately by a hymn.
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
พระพุทธคุณ is the name in use for this passage; the book prints no title for it. The evening service is built as three such recollections, of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, each followed by a longer hymn that responds to it.
The passage opens differently from the other printings of these same epithets in this book. It begins ตัง โข ปะนะ — and this good report has gone abroad concerning that Blessed One — so the qualities arrive as something said of him.
Meaning and purpose
The nine follow in one breath: worthy; perfectly enlightened by himself; accomplished in knowledge and conduct; well-farer; knower of the worlds; unsurpassed trainer of those who can be trained; teacher of gods and humans; awakened; blessed.
The frame around them changes what reciting them amounts to. Because they are introduced as a report that has gone abroad, the reciter is not asserting these things on their own authority but repeating what has been said. The passage is an act of recollection rather than a claim, which is exactly what its position in the service asks of it.
That is also why it is so short. The recollection states; the hymn that follows responds. Keeping the two apart stops the statement from being swallowed by the response, and lets an assembly hear the plain list before it hears the praise.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 52 →
ตัง โข ปะนะ ภะคะวันตัง เอวัง กัล๎ยาโณ กิตติสัทโท อัพภุคคะโต,
Taṃ kho pana bhagavantaṃ evaṃ kalyāṇo kittisaddo abbhuggato,
And this good report has gone abroad concerning that Blessed One:
อิติปิ โส ภะคะวา,
Itipi so bhagavā,
So indeed is he, the Blessed One —
อะระหัง สัมมาสัมพุทโธ,
Arahaṃ sammāsambuddho,
worthy, perfectly enlightened by himself,
วิชชาจะระณะสัมปันโน สุคะโต โลกะวิทู อะนุตตะโร ปุริสะทัมมะสาระถิ สัตถา เทวะมะนุสสานัง พุทโธ ภะคะวาติ.
Vijjācaraṇa-sampanno sugato lokavidū anuttaro purisadamma-sārathi satthā deva-manussānaṃ buddho bhagavāti.
accomplished in knowledge and conduct, well-farer, knower of the worlds, unsurpassed trainer of those who can be trained, teacher of gods and humans, the Awakened One, the Blessed One.