What sort of benefit is there when one writes out the suttas, copying them down by hand?
Well, it's a good way to remember them.
I suppose maybe you're asking
Because you're searching for a way to get closer to the suttas and remember them and so on.
The best way to remember the suttas is, or the best way to approach the suttas is to read them, no, to practice meditation, then read them, then go back and practice meditation.
you should practice meditation first because it will help you to understand the suttas so you should at least start to practice before you go into in-depth study of them and once you've undergone in-depth or taken some study of them then you should go back to meditate because meditation improves your memory and improves your interest in the suttas which also improves your memory of the suttas because it's interest
That leads us to be able to keep things in the mind.
We aren't easily able to remember just facts and stories, but if something is interesting to us, we're much more able to remember it.
So simply writing the suttas down is not a very good way to get closer to the suttas or to gain benefit from the suttas.
There's a story of a monk who went through the 152 suttas of the Majjhima Nikaya and he was trying to memorize them and it was very, very difficult.
And so eventually he gave up and went and practiced meditation for 20 years and became an arahat.
And then someone came to ask him about the Majjhima Nikaya and he was able to explain it without fail.
Even though he said, he said to him, well, you know, in 20 years I haven't looked at the Majjhima Nikaya.
And he said, but try, you know, go ahead and start reciting and I'll see if I can pick it up.
And he was able to pick it up without failing a single word or so on.
This is what it says in the Visuddhimagga.
So
this is how we should approach this is a good example of how we should approach the suttas that it's much more important and beneficial to meditate based on them than it is to really do any kind of in-depth study of them if your impetus for asking is in regards to the sort of
general merit that one gains from it.
Well, one feels happy in the mind and at peace in mind for doing a good deed.
The commentaries say writing one letter of Dhamma is equivalent to, you know, if it's one letter, each letter that makes up a Dhamma Sutta,
That you write out or print up is the equivalent of building one Buddha statue.
It's a monument of the Dhamma, a Buddhist monument that you're creating.
is helping to spread Buddhism.
It's helping to spread the meditation practice, to keep Buddhism alive, and to
And to give guidance to other people.
So printing up Dhamma books, sharing Dhamma books is always a good thing.
It's something which benefits your own mind, makes you feel peaceful and happy inside.
and so there is great benefit if you make the determination at the time to become you know you can do it as a practice to in to encourage your mind to get closer to the suit doesn't to gain wisdom and understanding and to be able to meet with the Buddha or to be able to become a
well-versed in the Buddha's teaching in the future, maybe in a future life, then it can be a great symbol or object for you to cultivate this determination for.
And as a result, it can support your determination, your adhitana, when you make a determination that in a future existence, may I become this or become that, it can have that benefit as well.
If you use it just as a
To make a determination, may this support my meditation practice, then you can use that as well.
Like all good deeds, it has the benefits of fortifying one's mind state.