JAYAMAṄGALA GĀTHĀ AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COPING IN APPLIED BUDDHISM

Soontaree Sookhanaphibarn — 2026-04-29

Background and Objectives: Contemporary life is characterized by rapid social change, economic uncertainty, and persistent psychological stress, making coping an essential life skill for sustaining psychological well-being. Modern psychological research emphasizes emotion regulation, resilience, cognitive appraisal, and meaning making as key mechanisms for managing adversity. Religious and cultural traditions also provide moral and contemplative resources that cultivate inner stability and ethical clarity. Within the Theravāda Buddhist tradition, the Jayamaṅgala Gāthā, commonly known in Thai as the Phahung Chant, is widely recited as a sacred chant recounting the Buddha's victories over various adversaries. The term Jayamaṅgala Gāthā means "Verses of Auspicious Victory." Although often interpreted as a ritual text for blessings and protection, its narrative structure presents a sequence of encounters in which challenges are resolved through virtues such as wisdom, patience, loving-kindness, and moral clarity. This documentary research aimed to analyze the narrative structure of the Jayamaṅgala Gāthā in terms of life challenges and their modes of resolution grounded in Buddhadhamma, and to construct a Buddhist coping framework for developing life coping skills in relation to contemporary psychological well-being.

Methodology: The study employed documentary research with qualitative thematic content analysis. The primary data consisted of the canonical text of Jayamaṅgala Gāthā preserved in Theravāda chanting traditions and supported by relevant academic literature. Each narrative episode within the chant served as the unit of analysis. The analytical process involved close textual reading, coding of symbolic life challenges and corresponding modes of resolution, and iterative grouping of codes into broader coping themes. Thematic synthesis was used to interpret how Buddhist virtues embedded in the narrative episodes function as coping processes. Analytical transparency was maintained through explicit connections between textual evidence, coding categories, and thematic interpretation.

Main Results: The findings indicate that the chant functions as a structured set of coping exemplars rather than merely a ritual recitation. Across the narrative episodes, diverse forms of adversity were identified, including fear, aggression, anger, rigid beliefs, false accusation, attachment to power, and distorted understanding. These adversities are consistently resolved through inner cultivation. Five integrative coping processes emerged: Emotional regulation, patience and endurance, compassion-based conflict de-escalation, wisdom-based clarification, and context-sensitive skillful means. These processes reflect core Buddhadhamma principles such as paññā, mettā, khanti, and samādhi, demonstrating their roles as moral-psychological mechanisms that support both wisdom development and ethical cultivation.

Involvement to Buddhadhamma: From the perspective of Applied Buddhism, the chant can be interpreted as a culturally embedded narrative model that illustrates how Buddhist ethical principles guide responses to adversity. The narrative episodes portray "Victory" as internal transformation through wisdom, compassion, patience, and ethical discipline. This interpretation highlights the role of Buddhism in the development of wisdom and morality through narrative-based learning processes.

Conclusions: The Jayamaṅgala Gāthā can be understood as a narrative-based coping framework rooted in Buddhadhamma. Conceptually, the study demonstrates how Buddhist ethical principles can be translated into a structured coping model relevant to contemporary psychological contexts. Practically, the findings suggest that the chant may function as a reflective resource for developing coping skills in educational, contemplative, and well-being settings. The study contributes to Applied Buddhism by presenting a model that integrates wisdom development and moral cultivation within a contemporary well-being framework.

Journal of Buddhist Anthropology

JAYAMAṄGALA GĀTHĀ AND PSYCHOLOGICAL COPING IN APPLIED BUDDHISM