Title Page In America, the Rote Method of learning is belittled as “learning like a parrot” and rarely or never taught in the Western school systems. However, it is a useful brute force method for memorizing Pali texts and the only way to memorize longer word for word Pāḷi texts such as the Pātimokkha. This system is used extensively in Myanmar schools and Myanmar study monasteries. If you hear lots of noise in the classrooms, rote learning is what they are doing.

I Finally Did It! This Rainy Season (Vassa) I was able to learn the Pātimokkha (227 Rules) by heart. It is the first round and it takes me a long time to do it, and there are mistakes. Never the less, it is considered “learned” and “memorized” at this stage. I will hopefully recite the Pātimokkha for the full moon November 3rd if all goes well. I need to get my 2+ hours of recitation down to at least 1:15 minutes.