Dhammapuja is a tool for learning Theravadin Buddhist chants. The website is located at https://dhammapuja.com/
Buddhists chant to deepen their understanding of and sense of connection to dharma concepts. Chanting is also an act of togetherness and selflessness: you’re not chanting to be heard as an individual, but to contribute to a collective voice.
From Lion's Roar - Why do people chant at Buddhist centers?
The practice of chanting in Buddhism serves three main purposes. Firstly, it is a way of honouring the Buddha. Secondly, chanting is a way of reminding oneself of the Buddha's teachings. Thirdly, chanting is a way of affirming to oneself a commitment to the precepts and principles of peacefulness when practised with whole hearted attention on the words and meaning of the chanting.
From the BSWA - Chanting the Dhamma
Ajahn Brahm - Regarding Chanting The Practice of Chanting in Buddhism - Bhikkhu Dhammasami
Dhamma : The Teaching of the Buddha as contained in the scriptures;
not dogmatic in character, but more like a raft or vehicle to convey the disciple to deliverance.
Also, the Truth towards which that Teaching points;
that which is beyond words, concepts or intellectual understanding.
Pūjā : (1) honour, respect, homage, (2) worship,
devotional observances, devotional offerings; also
offerings to monks.
(1) The Mahā-mangala Sutta (Sn. 259) says that
“Honour and respect towards those worthy of it, is
conducive to great blessing” ( pūjā ca pūjaniyesu etaṃ mangalam uttamaṃ ). See Dhp. 195f.
(2) The Buddha did not think much of mere outer
worship. “Not thus, Ananda, is the Tathāgata respected,
venerated, esteemed, worshipped and honoured in the
highest degree. But, Ananda, whatsoever bhikkhu or
bhikkhuni, lay man or lay woman, abides by the
Teaching, lives uprightly in the Teaching, walks in the
way of the Teaching, it is by him that the Tathāgata is
respected, venerated, esteemed, worshipped and
honoured in the highest degree” (D. 16). – “There are
two kinds of worship: in a material way ( āmisa-pūjā )
and through ( practice of ) the Dhamma ( dhamma-pūjā ).
The worship through ( practice of ) the Dhamma is the
better of the two” ( A. II ).
- http://urbandharma.org/pdf/palidict.pdf (pg. 273/402)
Needs Node 24 (nvm use reads .nvmrc).
npm install
npm run dev # local site with live reload
npm test # unit tests
npm run typecheck
npm run build # static site into build/client
Chant text lives in app/chants/<slug>.txt, one file per chant, listed in app/chants/catalog.ts. Line format is described at the top of app/chant/parse.ts. Audio goes in public/assets/audio/.
The old Jekyll site is kept under legacy/ for reference. Nothing builds from it.
By hand. GitHub Pages serves the gh-pages branch, so publishing means replacing its contents with a fresh build.
npm test && npm run build
git worktree add ../dhammapuja-pages gh-pages # first time only
rsync -a --delete --exclude .git build/client/ ../dhammapuja-pages/
cd ../dhammapuja-pages
git add -A && git commit -m "deploy" && git push
build/client already holds what Pages needs: CNAME, 404.html, sitemap.xml, and .nojekyll. Keep .nojekyll: without it Pages drops every file whose name starts with an underscore, and chant pages stop loading when reached by a link.
Dhammapuja is a continuation of John Nishinaga's (now Jāgaro Bhikkhu at the Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery) project 'Dhamma Schtuff'.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank John for providing this excellent resource to make Dhamma study/practice easier and more enjoyable.
Index photos:
- 'Ta Prohm' by Clay Gilliland: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26781577@N07/12664281874/
- 'Buddha 2' by Rob Hurson: https://www.flickr.com/photos/robhurson/14109920284/