When chanted

Chanted in the Seven Tamnan, and for somebody troubled by omens or bad dreams.

A note on this chant. The book prints this chant in Pali only, with no Thai translation. The English here is a working translation prepared for this edition — it is not the book's own, and has not yet been checked by a teacher.

Historical background

The Seven Tamnan is the shorter of the two great paritta collections. Its texts are the same as those of the Twelve Tamnan; what differs is which are included and how far each is cut, and the book's three running orders shorten them further again.

Twelve lines, which are four lines said three times over, changing only the last word — by the power of the Buddha, then of the Dhamma, then of the Sangha.

Meaning and purpose

The four things named describe one particular kind of distress: whatever ill omen or inauspicious thing there is, whatever unpleasant cry of a bird, an evil planet, an unwelcome bad dream.

None of them is a real danger. They are signs — a bird calling at the wrong moment, a dream that will not leave — and what they do is frighten. The chant is aimed at the fear rather than at anything the fear is about.

Which is why the request is worded as it is: may they come to nothing. Not may they be false, and not may they not happen. The omens are not argued with; they are asked to lose their force, which is a more exact description of what actually helps.

The chant

As the book prints it: page 172 →

page 172