Pāli nugget and a journey

I’m off in just a few minutes to Los Angeles – so this’ll be quick. I’m off to LA thanks to the very kind invitation from Venerable Yifa, to teach students of Whittier College at Hsi Lai Temple. (Google around and you’ll find links to any of these). I’m also going to spend some time with my wonderful sister, who just turned 3… thirty something two days ago – happy belated birthday, Eve. And, hey, it’s my brother’s bday today, so happy birthday Brandon!

Family birthdays aside, I’m thrilled to have this opportunity and will write more about it in the coming days. And I’ll get to see the right Rev. Danny Fisher – which is always a pleasure.

In the meantime, here’s some quick, fun Pāli for you:

Cakkhunā rūpaṃ passami,
sotena saddaṃ suṇāmi,
ghānena gandhaṃ ghāyami,
jivhāya rasaṃ sāyami.

Which means, simply,

With the eyes, form I see,
With the ears, sound I hear
With the nose, odor I smell,
With the tongue, flavor I taste.

Nothing too profound (I’ll add body and mind later, the last two of the Buddhist six senses), but the words are used a lot, so they’re worth memorizing. Create your own mnemonics to remember them. Share your ideas for mnemonics in the comments section. Here are mine for the eyes, body, and seeing:

Cakkhunā = think of a chalk outline of an eye on the sidewalk that kids would draw
rūpaṃ = we use Rupees to buy physical stuff, form
passami = vision of the past is always 20/20