Piṅgiya's Praises (Graham Patterson)
Music files
| ICON | SOURCE |
|---|---|
 |
|
 |
File details |
 |
Help |
- (Posted 2024-12-05) CPDL #82999:
- Editor: Graham Patterson (submitted 2024-12-05). Score information: A4, 33 pages, 314 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: Piṅgiya's Praises
Composer: Graham Patterson
Lyricist: Traditional Buddhistcreate page
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Cantata
Language: English
Instruments:
First published: unpublished
Description: A devotional setting of the "Verses extolling the Way to the Beyond", from the Buddhist scripture, the Sutta Nipāta. Composed in 1995 for SATB, viola, cello and percussion. Written for Triratna Buddhist choirs, including non-readers.
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
(The opening line, Pārāyana thuti gāthā, means "Verses that praise the way to the beyond".)
This is what the Master said when the sixteen brahmins came to the Rock Temple in Magadha to ask him to answer their questions:
"If you know what each question means, see what each question implies and live in accordance with the Way Things Are, then you will go beyond.
You will cross the ocean of death and ageing and reach the other shore.
These things lead to that other shore.
That is why this teaching is called Pārāyana, 'The Way to the Beyond'."
There were sixteen of them who came to see the Buddha that time.
There was Ajita, Tissametteyya, Puṇṇaka, Mettagū, Dhotaka, Upasīva, Nanda and Hemaka; Todeyya, Kappa and Jatukaṇṇī the scholar;
Bhadrāvudha, Udaya, Posāla, Mogharāja the learned, and the great Piṅgiya the wise.
These were the men who came to see the Buddha, the man of perfect action.
They came to the Buddha to put their complex questions to this paragon of understanding.
The Buddha answered the questions with the exactness of truth, just as things are;
the brahmins were pleased to hear the words of this wise man.
And so, filled with pleasure by the clear goodness, spent in the shelter of the precious wisdom of the Buddha.
Any one whose life accords with what the Buddha taught in these answers goes across the ocean.
From here to the beyond, from this shore to the other:
this is crossing the ocean, this is travelling on the highest path.
It is a path that leads to that other shore; that is why it is called Pārāyana, 'The Way to the Beyond'.
Piṅgiya's Praises of the Way to the Beyond.
"I will sing you the praises of the Way to the Beyond." said Piṅgiya (when he returned to where the brahmin Bāvarī lives on the banks of the River Godhāvarī.)
"It was described to us by this man exactly as he saw it. But then, there isn't any reason why a man like him should lie,
a mammoth of knowledge and completely pure, a man without desire.
When a voice has none of the glibness of pride and none of the in grained stains of ignorance,
then its words are full of sweetness and beauty. It is such words that I praise now.
They call him Buddha, Enlightened, Awake, dissolving darkness, with total vision,
and knowing the world to its ends, he has gone beyond all the states of being and of becoming.
He has no inner poison drives; he is the total elimination of suffering.
This man, brahmin Bāvarī, is the man I follow.
It is like a bird that leaves the bushes of the scrubland and flies to the fruit trees of the forest.
I too have left the bleary halflight of opinions;
like a swan I have reached a great lake.
Up till now, before I heard Gotama's teaching, people had always told me this:
'This is how it has always been, and this is how it will always be;'
only the constant refrain of tradition, a breeding ground for speculation.
This prince, this beam of light, Gotama, was the only one who dissolved the dark ness.
This man, Gotama, is a universe of wisdom and a world of under standing,
a teacher whose Dhamma is the Way Things Are, instant, immediate and visible all round,
eroding desire without harmful side effects, with nothing else quite like it any where in the world."
Bāvarī said:
"But Piṅgi ya, why then don't you spend all your time, your ev' ry mo ment,
with this man, Gotama, this universe of wisdom, this world of understanding,
this teacher whose Dhamma is the Way Things Are, instant, immediate and visible all round,
eroding desire without harmful side effects, and with nothing else quite like it anywhere in the world?"
Piṅgiya said:
"Brahmin, Sir, there is no moment for me, however small, that is spent away from Gotama,
from this universe of wisdom, this world of understanding,
this teacher whose Dhamma is the Way Things Are, instant, immediate and visible all round,
eroding desire without harmful side effects, and with nothing else quite like it any where in the world?" "You see, Sir, with
Piṅgiya said:
"You see, Sir, with constant and careful vigilance it is possible for me to see him
with my mind as clearly as with my eyes in night as well as day.
And since I spend my nights revering him, there is not, to my mind, a single moment spent away from him.
I can not now move away from the teach ing of Gotama:
the powers of confidence and joy, of intellect and awareness hold me there.
Which ever way this universe of wisdom goes, it draws me with it.
Physically I cannot move like that, my body is decaying, I am old and weak,
but the driving power of purposeful thought propels me with it without break.
There was a time when, writhing in the mud of the swamps, I could only drift from one stone to the next.
But then I saw the Sambuddha, fully awake and free from defilement."
Then the Buddha spoke:
"Piṅgiya. other people have freed themselves by the power of confidence.
Vakkali, Bhadrāvudha and Āḷavigotama have all done this.
You too should let that strength release you; you too will go to that further shore, beyond the draw of death." mm
Piṅgiya said:
"These words are the words of a man of wisdom. As I hear them I become more confident.
This man is Sambuddha: he has opened the curtains and woken up. There is nothing barren there;
his mind is clear and luminous. Every thing accessible to knowledge is known to him,
even the ultimate subtle ties of godhood. There are no more questions for the doubtful who come to him:
the teacher has answered them all.
Yes, I shall go there. I shall go beyond change, I shall go beyond formations;
I shall go beyond comparison. There are no more doubts.
You may consider this as mind released.