The Importance of Chanting in Buddhism : หน้า 59/105

your mind will clear and be open to receive merit. Your thoughts, speech, and action will not be led astray by temptation. Performing Vatta serves constantly to remind us of the virtues of the Triple Gem, frees our mind for the merits that we will receive, and strengthens our faith. Once you strengthen your faith over and over again, you will be instilled with a strong desire to do good and make merit. Chanting also serves the purpose of chanting the teachings of the Buddha and aloud-a way of memorizing the records of the Buddha’s sermons found in the Pali Canon. For example, the *Dhamacakkavattana Sutta* was the sermon that the Buddha gave to his first five disciples. The *Aditaya Sutta* comes from the sermon that Lord Buddha gave to three holy men from another religion, and because of that sermon, the three became Buddhist Arahants. Chanting should be done both morning and evening in order to constantly strengthen one’s faith in a concrete way. For this reason, people in the ancient times, both lay people and monks alike, viewed chanting as an essential part of daily life. After the second Sacking of Ayuddhaya, the city was completely burnt by the Burmese resulting in the destruction of religious documents and the Pali Canon. Nevertheless, our forefathers were able to reproduce the Pali Canon exactly as it was before, because the entire text had been ingrained in the minds of the monks through daily chanting. It is because of this that we have these religious texts to study for our present and future benefits.