The six qualities of the Dhamma, recited as the second of the three recollections of the evening service.
- When chanted
- Chanted in the evening service after the hymn to the Buddha, as the second recollection.
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
พระธรรมคุณ is the name in use; the book prints no title here either. It is the shortest passage in the evening service — three lines, six qualities, and no frame around them at all.
The same six qualities appear twice more in this book, in the morning praise and in the blessing given at a meal offering. This is their barest printing, and the bareness is deliberate.
Meaning and purpose
The six describe the teaching by what can be done with it rather than by what it asserts: well proclaimed; visible here and now; timeless; inviting all to come and see; leading onwards; and to be known each for himself by the wise.
The last of them carries the others, and it is the reason the recollection can be recited by a whole hall at once. ปัจจัตตัง เวทิตัพโพ — the knowing is each person's own and cannot be held on anyone else's behalf, so nobody chanting it is speaking for the person beside them.
Set between two long hymns, its shortness does real work. The recollection states the thing plainly; the hymn then answers it. Keeping the statement this bare is what stops it from disappearing into the praise on either side.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 53 →
ส๎วากขาโต ภะคะวะตา ธัมโม,
Svākkhāto bhagavatā dhammo,
The Dhamma is well proclaimed by the Blessed One,
สันทิฏฐิโก อะกาลิโก เอหิปัสสิโก,
Sandiṭṭhiko akāliko ehipassiko,
visible here and now, timeless, inviting all to come and see,
โอปะนะยิโก ปัจจัตตัง เวทิตัพโพ วิญญูหีติ.
Opanayiko paccattaṃ veditabbo viññūhīti.
leading onwards, to be known each for himself by the wise.