Over the past couple of months I have been revising and preparing a new edition of my large chanting book, Safeguard Recitals, which is basically a Roman text and translation following the Mahā Pirit Pot and Piruvāna Pot Wahanse in Sri Lanka, which are texts used at the all-night chanting sessions.
The book was first published in 2004 by the Buddhist Publication Society (BPS) in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Their stocks were later bought by supporters in Malaysia so the book could go for free distribution, which is what I had wanted in the first place.
In 2007, I published online a 2nd edition, with the corrections that had been brought to my notice in the meantime. I now have the chance to publish through the Buddha Educational Foundation in Taiwan, who previously published my Buddhist Wisdom Verses, and this has given me the opportunity to revise the book considerably.
As we are now 10 years on from the 1st edition things have changed considerably and I was able to check many different published recitals of the Mahā Parittaṁ to prepare a new sequence for the chants, and some of the material that was previously included in this section has been moved to the new Upagantha, or Supplementary Texts, section.
Introducing the latter, which is in line with the practice of the Sinhala letter books, has also allowed me to drop the Avasānaṁ or Concluding section by also putting the texts previously found there in the Supplementary Section. I have also included many other texts and translations of safeguard texts that are commonly in use in that section now.
I have published the new edition online already, and have prepared and sent a pre-press pdf to the publishers, who will print the text on large A4 size paper, which is more suitable for a chanting book than A5. When the book is published (it may take a few months), I will update further so people can get hard copies of the book.
Work on this book has also entailed updating a couple of my other books, most notably Daily Chanting, and Blessing Chants.
What a wonderful resource to have in English!
The Sangha community where I teach are all from Sri Lanka. Having an English translation of these chants will be so helpful. Thank you, Bhante.