Ven. Payutto's (very awesome) Dictionary of Nummerical Dhammas

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Hi everyone,

I would like to flag Ven. Payutto’s very interesting and useful Pali-Thai-English Dictionary of Nummerical Dhammas.

Part I (seen in the two files below) contain a selection of the Buddha’s teachings classified according to the number of Dhamma items involved under each entry (or group) - from the ‘one-fold’ to the ‘ten plus-fold’ teaching.

All entries are further arranged in Thai alphabetical order within each section (more or less aligned with other south asian abugidas’ alphabetical order - e.g. Ka Kha, Ga, Gha… Sa, Ha).

The definitions are all given in Thai, but systematically interspersed with Romanized Pali terms followed by brief meanings in English.

Apart from a regular table of contents enumerating all the Dhamma groups dealt with, there is a special table of categorizations of closely related Dhamma groups. To facilitate word searches, an index of Thai terms and a separate index of Romanized Pali terms are also included.

Dhamma0.pdf (483.0 KB)

Dhamma1.pdf (1.6 MB)

Part II (link below) is a short dictionary of key Buddhist terms in Thai, supplied with Romanized Pali equivalents and succinct definitions or explanations in English.

Where a term is exclusively of Thai origin, a new Pali coinage by the author is provided, and clearly marked as such.

A warning is also given where a term has acquired a new meaning or its popular use in Thai has so deviated from the original technical meaning in Pali that it might easily cause misunderstanding.

Dhamma2.pdf (512.9 KB)

Finally, the English-Thai Buddhist Dictionary in Part III is essentially a glossary of Buddhist terms in English, encompassing those terms whose use has more or less become established, along with those deemed useful for serious students of Buddhism. Only Thai equivalents are available, with no further explanations.

Dhamma3.pdf (415.1 KB)

The source for the files and the descriptions above is the Tipitaka.org website: http://www.tipitaka.org/thai-dict

It would be great to get this precious material fully translated into English (the english translations are sometimes too brief). This should not be a very hard translation work and could even be somehow featured in SuttaCentral!

Hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I do. :blush:

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Hi, i think similar material based on the Sangiti sutta (DN33) which covers 230 dhammas already exists in English and was actually some time ago uploaded here

i only found a link and don’t know whether it was attached to any topic

Expounding on the Dhamma-sets from the Sangiti Sutta

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Hi LXNDR,

Thanks for this one!

Were you able to download the files I uploaded?

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yes of course i was, but since i unfortunately don’t read Thai, they’re of not much use for me

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Thanks for this, but could you please move it to a different category, it doesn’t belong under AV, but under Essays or perhaps Reading Guides.

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Hi LXNDR, It is also in English, but in a much abbreviated form unfortunately.

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Sure Bhante. Done! :blush:

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I would like to share an interesting curiosity I learned with Ven. Payutto’s Dictionary of Nummerical Dhammas: the doctrinal background of the term sappāya (entry # 287, pg. 209), which is the Pali source/root for a very important word and concept in contemporary spoken Thai language:

The term sappāya - defined in brief as beneficial or advantageous conditions; suitable or agreeable things; things favourable to development of the mind (bhavana) - corresponds to the word สบาย (sabāi), used in the expression สบายดีไหม? (how are you?)

As per the what is found in the Vinaya and summarised in the Visudhimagga, the sappāyas can be divided in seven:

1 - āvāsa-sappāya - suitability of abode or dwelling

(One must have a suitable building or place to live or inhabit when practising! The Buddha suggested often the foot of a tree or an abandoned building, but a special purpose building like a kuti does the trick pretty well too! )

2 - gocara-sappāya - suitability of locality

(… such building or place should be located in somewhere at least not inhospitable! There is no point for a yogi to move for example to a country where there will be no sympathy for the Buddha-Dhamma!)

3 - bhassa-sappāya - suitability of speech or conversation

(… It is also very important that those sharing the dwelling or found around the one practising the Dhamma are usually found engaging in topics of conversation or modes of speech that point towards the Dhamma and not away from it!)

4 - Puggala-sappāya - suitability of person or personality

(… Moreover, not only should the speech and topics of conversation be conducive to the Path, but there should be an alignment of personality - i.e. angry, desireful, greedy states or types of individuals should be abandoned/avoided!)

5 - bhojana-sappāya - suitability of food, nutriment or nutrition

(… The one in the Path should know what food is suitable to the maintenance of his body for the purpose of attaining what is yet to be attained, should be content with what is offered and easy to be supported in terms of nutrients!)

6 - utu-sappāya - suitability of weather or climate

(… Why do you think the Buddha Himself preferred to inhabit the peaks and forests whenever possible? The extremes of heat and cold should be avoided as they affect the body and might represent an obstacle in one’s practice!)

7 - iriyāpatha-sappāya - suitability of posture or movement of the body

(… One should know what posture is the most suitable at different stages or moments of his/her practice. For some, it is better to start by doing some walking meditation, then sitting. Others might start the other way around, or maybe by just standing. The Buddha Himself is portrayed in the Suttas as sometimes doing walking meditation, other times sitting and even standing, as He did for a whole week in front of the Bodhi tree after the very experience of Enlightenment!)

How often we see ourselves stuck in our practice due to a serious failure to address one or some of the above sappāyas?! :wink:

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Yes, it’s a very practical teaching: these things don’t really change, do they?

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Yes Bhante… that is what I love about Buddha-Dhamma… 2,500 years later and still precisely practical… akaliko…