The prefatory verse to the discourse on loving-kindness, on what its practice keeps away and what it gives.
- When chanted
- Chanted immediately before the Karaṇīya-metta Sutta, introducing it.
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
Like the other prefatory verses this one says why the text matters rather than what it contains, and it does so by listing results.
What it promises is unusually domestic. Not victory, not liberation, but an untroubled night.
Meaning and purpose
The first claim is protective in the ordinary sense: by the power of this text the yakkhas show nothing frightful. The verse is introducing a chant used where people are afraid, and it says so at once.
The second is the one worth pausing on. One who applies himself to it, night and day untiring, sleeps happily, and sleeping sees no evil thing at all. The benefit named is sleep — and the condition attached to it is continuous practice, not recitation.
That pairing sets up the sutta exactly. What follows is not a spell against spirits but a description of how to hold every living thing in mind, and the introduction quietly says that the protection and the practice are the same thing.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 86 →
page 86ยัสสานุภาวะโต ยักขา เนวะ ทัสเสนติ ภิงสะนัง
Yassānubhāvato yakkhā neva dassenti bhiṃsanaṃ
By the power of which the yakkhas show nothing frightful;
ยัมหิ เจวานุยุญชันโต รัตตินทิวะมะตันทิโต,
Yamhi cevānuyuñjanto rattindivamatandito,
and one who applies himself to it, night and day untiring,
สุขัง สุปะติ สุตโต จะ ปาปัง กิญจิ นะ ปัสสะติ,
Sukhaṃ supati sutto ca pāpaṃ kiñci na passati,
sleeps happily, and sleeping sees no evil thing at all;
เอวะมาทิคุณูเปตัง ปะริตตันตัมภะณามะ เห.
Evamādiguṇūpetaṃ parittantambhaṇāma he.
endowed with such qualities as these: that paritta let us now recite.