--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Jim Anderson" <jimanderson.on@...> wrote:

>
> Dear PG and Dave K.
>
> I think memorizing texts is very good training for the mind. Until

the

> canonical texts were first written down in their entirety in the

first

> century B.C.E. in Sri Lanka, they had to be memorized and transmitted
> orally.

Thank you Jim, and Thanks for your suggestion. I agree about the
mental training aspect of it and it's one of the things that motivates
me to do it.

I often wonder if the elders had any particular technique for
memorizing/transmitting the texts for all those years. I suppose
that, in addition to having incredible minds, they were part of a
culture where this was not unusual. But even so, that is a LOT of
text.

I suppose this also accounts for a lot of the repetition in the texts,
which sounds a lot more musical in Pali.

Does anybody know of any standard course of material that monks may be
required to memorize? Texts from the Khuddaka Nikaya maybe?

-DaveK