puja
a dhammapada puja
in the autumn of 2003, i was on a ‘reunion’ retreat at guhyaloka. while on that retreat, aparajita and i put together a puja using verses from the dhammapada. we each read through the dhammapada, making a note of the verses which we thought might fit into a puja. in choosing verses, we had a structure for the puja in mind, which was roughly speaking the first few positive nidanas (this structure is still discernible, i hope). only verses which appeared in both our lists made it into the puja. the final selection and arrangement of verses was down to me. a theme of the retreat was reflection and this puja is constructed in such a way as to allow a substantial period of reflection towards the end.
there’s an english version here and a dutch version here.
another dhammapada puja
this one was designed for the evening session of dharma day a few years back. in addition to verses for recitation in call and response, there are verses to be read by a single voice (the text in italics), periods of the mindfulness of breathing, metta bhavana and just sitting and the chanting of the dhammavandana, the refuges and precepts and the ‘sabbe satta’ mantra.
currently, there is only a dutch version (here), though it would not be a big job to make an english version, if anyone’s interested.
