Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Buddhism Hymns gathers three of the atlas's chanted Buddhist texts, two Theravada discourses classed together as protective chanting and one Vajrayana praise text.

The Mangala Sutta, the discourse on blessings, is chanted at ceremonies, house blessings and new undertakings across Theravada Asia; a deity asks what the highest blessing is and the answer is a list of thirty eight, beginning with not associating with fools and ending with a mind unshaken by the world, its force resting on how ordinary and social the list mostly is rather than mystical. The Metta Sutta, the discourse on loving kindness, is chanted daily in Theravada monasteries and among the first texts a lay Buddhist learns, ending with the image of a mother protecting her only child as the measure of the attitude to extend to all beings; commentarial tradition has it given to monks frightened by tree spirits, for protection. Both belong to the paritta, the group of texts chanted for safety, a use closer to formula than to praise.

Praises to the Twenty One Taras is chanted daily by Tibetan lay people and monastics, often three or seven times in succession, each of its twenty one verses addressing a different form of Tara; it is a hymn of praise rather than a mantra, though it carries the Tara mantra within it, and different commentarial traditions enumerate the twenty one forms differently, with no single list canonical for all schools.