The opening of the third book of the Abhidhamma: the terms of inclusion and association in which all its questions are put.
- When chanted
- Chanted at a funeral, in the Suat Jaeng service, where the Vinaya, the Suttas and the seven books of the Abhidhamma are each represented in turn.
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
ธาตุกะถา is the discussion of elements. Its extract is the shortest of the set and the most forbidding, because what the book opens with is not a teaching but the vocabulary it will use to ask its questions.
No Thai translation is printed for it either, so the English here is a working translation made for this edition.
Meaning and purpose
What is recited is a grammar rather than a doctrine. สังคะโห อะสังคะโห, included and not included; then all four combinations of those two, each given its own line; then สัมปะโยโค วิปปะโยโค, association and dissociation, and their combinations in turn.
Read as English it is very nearly content-free, and that is an accurate impression rather than a failure of translation. The book asks of every element whether it is included in, or associated with, every other, and these lines are the frame that question is poured into.
It is here because the service represents each book by its opening, and this book's opening happens to be its apparatus. What the chant puts in the room is not a thought but an instrument for thinking, which is a fair account of what the Abhidhamma is.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 40 →
สังคะโห อะสังคะโห.
saṅgaho asaṅgaho.
Included, not included.
สังคะหิเตนะ อะสังคะหิตัง,
saṅgahitena asaṅgahitaṃ,
Not included by what is included,
อะสังคะหิเตนะ สังคะหิตัง,
asaṅgahitena saṅgahitaṃ,
included by what is not included,
สังคะหิเตนะ สังคะหิตัง,
saṅgahitena saṅgahitaṃ,
included by what is included,
อะสังคะหิเตนะ อะสังคะหิตัง,
asaṅgahitena asaṅgahitaṃ,
not included by what is not included,
สัมปะโยโค วิปปะโยโค,
sampayogo vippayogo,
association, dissociation,
สัมปะยุตเตนะ วิปปะยุตตัง,
sampayuttena vippayuttaṃ,
dissociated from what is associated,
วิปปะยุตเตนะ สัมปะยุตตัง อะสังคะหิตัง.
vippayuttena sampayuttaṃ asaṅgahitaṃ.
associated with what is dissociated, not included.
จบพระธาตุกะถา
jòp prá-tâat-gà-tǎa
Here ends the Dhātukathā.