Introduction by Klaus Nothnagel
Introduction
Serving at Dhammagiri in the late 1980s and early 90s has imprinted itself as the most rewarding experience in my memory. It was then, after the huge flock of winter meditators—especially from the West—had departed, that about a dozen of us, mostly Pāli students, remained for longer periods.1
In those days a lot of Dhamma service was done by Westerners. Aside from regular ongoing duties like early morning gong, hall duty, food service and gardening, there were always sudden emergent odd jobs. Meanwhile, the regular paid Indian staff took care of management, registration, cleaning and kitchen work.
The most pleasant of all was the post-monsoon period, when nature bloomed forth with all its might, vibrant with the sound of frogs, crickets and birdsong. Then, at times, during the morning hours after Group Sittings, melodious chanting emanated from the Teacher’s residence. Those of us who were working on the Shanti Pathar would pause quietly, thrilled and eager to listen, trying to discern what was going on. We wondered what we were hearing, Hindi dohas or Pāli gāthās? Despite the background noise of the train horns from the Igatpuri railway station, the construction of another ring and row of pagoda cells, and the usual annoying squawking of the crows, Goenkaji remained untouched, undisturbed, and concentrated as he continued to compose and chant. We observed him pause, repeat, and alter verses—adjusting the wording and meter until he seemed satisfied and proceeded to the next stanza.
We finally came to know through Dr. Panth2 that Goenkaji was composing verses to express his gratitude and devotion towards the Buddha—a collection later called Buddhaguṇāgathāvalī.3 Goenkaji selected 210 verses from this much larger collection of verses which he then titled Buddhasahassanāmāvalī.4
A few years later, when I met Tandonji5 at Dhamma Salila for the first 45-day Pāli Workshop, he firmly suggested6 that under his guidance I translate the text, compile a vocabulary, and transfer it to a digital format. Parallel to this, he was also keen to be taught how to prepare, save and edit documents in Microsoft Word as well as send e-mails from an account he already had.7 So we met regularly after 9:30 p.m. in front of an old Indian computer,8 that he had managed to get from somewhere, and that saved files only on floppy disks. In this way we tried to prepare a document improving on my handwritten notes taken during the day. Challenged by frequent power outages, at times we just sat there silently or talked by candlelight or torch/flashlight until it was clear that, at least for that night, the power would not return.
Naturally, by the end of that period, we hadn’t gotten to even half of the work we had hoped to complete. We decided that I would continue the work by myself and send him the floppy disk after I finished. As Edith and I were also traveling, it took about another eight months until I was ready to send him the results. Two years later, Tandonji—with the help of Chaudariji— finally finished going through the translation and returned to me a completed first draft noting the need to improve the vocabulary—since the Buddhasahassanāmāvalī was intended to be both an inspirational reading and a resource for learning Pāli.
Over the two decades working on this project, various unexpected challenges arose. First were the technical issues. When I tried to use the floppy disks where the first drafts were saved, there were problems opening and converting the files since the era of floppy disks had passed! By the time I finally managed to open the files with an archaic PC, the VRI Pāli fonts appeared as unidentifiable hieroglyphic symbols! The keys for the Pāli diacriticals had expired and been replaced with new internet compatible fonts. The original verses were no longer fully readable, and some words were not even recognizable.
In the recovery process, I tried to use my original handwritten notes pencilled in an old Igatpuri notebook, but these had withered over the years, not to mention I had noted the Pāli terms in Devanagari, a script I had stopped using after the release of the digital Tipiṭika.
The challenge to respectfully express in English terms the sincere, profound devotion and immense gratitude towards the Buddha resonating through all these verses was enormous. Such deeply devotional stanzas expect a similar devout mindset, reflected in one’s personal mood, feeling and disposition, requiring a silent and meditative atmosphere. Translating subtle verses as presented in the Buddhasahassanāmāvalī demanded moments of peace, solitude, gratitude, and veneration. How could the sincere worship, gratitude, admiration, and surrender echoing through Goenkaji’s composition be properly conveyed?
A reader who recites these stimulating verses of S.N. Goenka with an attitude of surrender, right understanding and with proper pronunciation9 will certainly benefit and gain great inspiration.10
As Goenkaji himself has pointed out in the Foreword to the first edition:
“Thinking thus, the auspicious resolution arose in my mind to compose Buddhasahassanāmā, so that while reciting it, along with the knowledge of the innumerable Pāli synonyms of the Buddha, meditators will remember the qualities of the Buddha and develop gratitude towards him, resulting in rapture in the mind and thrill in the body, which will strengthen their practice of Vipassana meditation.”
With all my gratitude to my teachers, S.N. Goenka and S.N. Tandon.
May all merits be shared with all!
—Klaus Nothnagel
View Buddhasahassanāmāvali Verses
___________________________________
1 - It was in the cooler winter months that the early long courses were held before or after Goenkaji’s self-course, adjoined with the early international meetings when serious Old Students and the first ATs from all over the world travelled to Dhammagiri.
2 - Dr. Ravindra Panth was the director of VRI (Vipassana Research Institute) during those years.
3 - Buddhaguṇāgathāvalī: Buddha + guṇā + gathā + āvalī—The Buddha + qualities, excellences + row, string, series, collection—‘A collection of verses on the qualities of the Buddha’.
4 - Buddhasahassanāmāvalī: Buddha + sahassa + nāmā + āvalī—The Buddha + thousand + names + row, string, series, collection—‘A collection of a thousand names of the Buddha’. To convey the devotional and deeply inspirational character of this collection, the English title ‘A Garland of a Thousand Praises to the Buddha’ has been chosen.
The 210 verses of the Buddhasahassanāmāvalī are a selection by S.N. Goenka from a broader collection of the 1,250 verses he had composed for the Buddhaguṇagathāvalī and originally published by VRI in November 1998 during the Buddhamahostav.
5 - S.N. Tandon was the first meditation teacher appointed by S.N. Goenka to teach Pāli.
6 - With his typical waggish smile, he concluded, “We should share the merits of doing this, isn’t it?”
7 - Previously all his e-mails were dictated by him and sent by a helper; but now he (Tandonji must have been in his seventies then) was eager to do everything by himself: “Either you can learn or sit and rust, isn’t it?”
8 - The first meeting he opened, pointing to his special liking of certain numbers: “We will have one strong determination! What adhiṭṭhāna we will have? We will not go to bed later than 11.11 p.m.”
9 - When pronouncing Pāli, proper care has to be given to the use of throat, mouth, and the movement and touch of the tongue and lips, in order to produce the melodious, sonorous euphony that Pāli requires. Special emphasis should be given to proper pronunciation and differentiation especially between retroflex and dentals, rather identical but different in sound. These are the main principles that were maintained through the ages.
10 - Someone who has visited the sacred places of the Buddha may have encountered pilgrims from various nations expressing in Pāli refuge to the triple gem: ‘Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi; Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi; Sanghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi’ observing the different ways of articulation. Referring to English as a global language, there is no definitive standard for which regional pronunciation—whether American, British, Australian, or any other—should be considered most correct. In the same way, with the wider spread and usage of Pāli through the world of today the same recitations may sound different according to the national background and mother tongue of the person who recites the texts. Therefore maintaining the above mentioned principles as emphasized in the previous footnote will be all the more crucial. An upright follower of the path, who undertakes to read and recite any texts, should meticulously perform such a task by not only using proper and careful pronunciation but also aspiring to perfect understanding and remaining deeply respectful and full of awareness within, being careful to ensure that the paying of such respect does not become a mere ritual!