The opening of the sixth book of the Abhidhamma: paired questions, each put forwards and then immediately backwards.
- 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
ยะมะกะ means a pair, and the book's method is announced by its name. Every question is asked twice, once in each direction, so that a proposition and its converse are both put to the test rather than one being assumed from the other.
A reference is printed on the page for it. The file's own check on this page records that the citations here look shifted by one against the texts they sit on, which is a question for the book rather than for this edition.
Meaning and purpose
The four lines are two pairs. Whatever states are wholesome, all of them have wholesome roots — and then the converse: whatever have wholesome roots, all those states are wholesome. Then the same operation on sharing a single root.
The converse is not a restatement, and this is the point a reader is most likely to miss. In this opening pair both directions happen to hold. The book's entire interest lies in the many cases where they do not, and the method exists to catch precisely those.
Like the third book, what the extract puts in the room is machinery rather than a conclusion — a habit of checking a statement in both directions before believing it, recited over the dead as part of the tradition's account of itself.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 41 →
เย เกจิ กุสะลา ธัมมา, สัพเพ เต กุสะละมูลา.
ye keci kusalā dhammā, sabbe te kusalamūlā.
Whatever states are wholesome, all of them have wholesome roots.
เย วา ปะนะ กุสะละมูลา, สัพเพ เต ธัมมา กุสะลา.
ye vā pana kusalamūlā, sabbe te dhammā kusalā.
Or whatever have wholesome roots, all those states are wholesome.
เย เกจิ กุสะลา ธัมมา, สัพเพ เต กุสะละมูเลนะ เอกะมูลา.
ye keci kusalā dhammā, sabbe te kusalamūlena ekamūlā.
Whatever states are wholesome, all of them share one root with the wholesome root.
เย วา ปะนะ กุสะละมูเลนะ เอกะมูลา, สัพเพ เต ธัมมา กุสะลา.
ye vā pana kusalamūlena ekamūlā, sabbe te dhammā kusalā.
Or whatever share one root with the wholesome root, all those states are wholesome.
จบพระยะมะกะ
jòp prá-yá-má-gà
Here ends the Yamaka.