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Chanting guide choices

Each chant on this site is placed in a "chanting guide" which gives visitors access to one or more Pali chants, Pali text, English text, line-by-line and word-by-word Pali-to-English translations, and related source materials. These chanting guides come in two sizes: "compact" and "expanded." The indices for these guides can be found at:

compact-view and expanded-view features

The "compact view" chanting guides include:

  • a Pali chant, both once-through and looped recordings for the entire chant
  • a Pali text
  • an English glossary, accessed by moving your cursor over a Pali word
  • an English translation, interspersed with the Pali, accessed via a tab
  • links to this site's home page, to a chanting guide's "expanded view" (through the E icon, see below), to this index page, as well to the "prior" and "next" chants' chanting guides (linked together in the order identified in this index).

The "expanded view" chanting guides include:

  • one or two Pali chants, both once-through and looped recordings for the entire chant as well as line-by-line recordings
  • a Pali text separated into stressed and unstressed syllables (to facilitate pronunciation)
  • a Pali-to-English-glossary in a sidebar, in which each Pali glossary word includes a link to a full dictionary definition
  • an English translation, interspersed line for line with the Pali
  • links to this site's home page, a chanting guide's "condensed view" (through the compact view button, see above), a drop-down index, help, acknowledgments, related sites and contact information.
  • notes on the text's sources, divergent redactions and alternate translations.

In addition, due to its length, the Metta Sutta is only available as an expanded-view chanting guide.

when to choose a compact or expanded view

The condensed-view guides might be the better option in the following situations:

  • when using a mobile device (such as an iPhone)
  • when wanting to play a chant in the background or on the side of your screen while primarily engaged with another application or web page
  • once a user of an expanded-view guide becomes proficient in reading the syllable-oriented Pali of the expanded view, they might find it useful to learn to recite the chant while looking at the word-oriented Pali of the condensed view.

The expanded-view guides are likely better suited for those using large screen devices (such as laptop and desktop computers) when still in the process of trying to memorize a chant.