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List of Abbreviations

# sarab ca sarato batva asarab ca asarato

# te saram adhigacchanti sammasavkappagocara

# (DhP 12)

Translation:

Having known the essence as the essence, non-essential as non-essential,
they, feeding on right thoughts, discover the essence.

Sentence Structure:
List of Abbreviations

sarab ca sarato batva a+sarab ca a+sarato
| | | | | | | | |
N.n. conj. Adv. V. neg. N.n. conj. neg. Adv.
Acc.Sg. | | Abs. | Acc.Sg. | |____|
|_______|______| | |____| | |
| |________| |_______|______|
|_______| |____|
|____________________|
|_________________________________________

te saram adhigacchanti samma+savkappa+gocara List of Abbreviations
| | | | | |
Pron. N.n. V.act.in. Adv. N.m. N.m.
Nom.Pl. Acc.Sg. 3.Pl.pres. |_______| Nom.Pl.
| |________| |___________|
|_______________|_______________________|
_______| |
|____________|

Vocabulary and Grammar:
List of Abbreviations

sarab: sara-, N.n.: essence, substance. Acc.Sg.: saraj
(the euphonic combination -j+c- = bc).

ca, conj.: and

sarato, Adv.: as the essence. The noun sara- (see above) changed into an adverb by the suffix to-.

batva, V.: having known. An absolutive of the verb ba- (to know).

asarab: asara-, N.n.: non-essence. Negated (by the negative prefix a-) word sara-, N.n.: essence, substance. Acc.Sg. = asaraj (the euphonic combination -j+c- = bc).

List of Abbreviations

asarato, Adv.: as the non-essence. The word sarato (see above) negated by the negative prefix a-.

te, pron.: tad-, Pron.n.: it. Masculine form sa-. Nom.Pl. = te (they).

saram: sara-, N.n.: see above. Acc.Sg. = saraj.

adhigacchanti, V.: discover, obtain. The verb gam- (to go) with the prefix adhi- (above, towards). 3.Pl.act.pres.in. = adhigacchanti.

List of Abbreviations

sammasavkappagocara: sammasavkappagocara-, N.m.: having pasture for right thoughts. A compound of:
sammasavkappa-, N.m.: right thought, right intention. This can be further analyzed as:
samma, Adv,: rightly, properly.
savkappa-, N.m.: thought, intention.
gocara-, N.m.: pasture, sphere. This can be further analyzed as:
go-, N.m.: cow
cara-, N.m.: going, walking. Derived from the verb car- (to walk, to roam).
Nom.Pl. of the whole compound = sammasavkappagocara.
List of Abbreviations

The subject of this sentence is te (they). It is in nominative plural. Its corresponding verb is adhigacchanti (realize, discover), in 3rd person, plural, active, indicative and present tense. The object is saraj (the essence), which is in accusative singular. The subject has three attributes: sarab ca sarato batva (having known the essence as the essence), asarab ca asarato (non-essential as non-essential) and sammasavkappagocara (feeding on right thoughts).
First of them is sarab ca sarato batva (having known the essence as the essence). Here the verb is batva (having known). It is in gerund, which is the way how to express the English "having done", "having gone" etc. The subject is omitted -it is the word te (they) from the second line (the main subject). Object is saraj sarato (the essence as the essence), where saraj is in accusative singular and sarato is and adverb. The conjunction ca (and) connects this attribute to the following one in a common style of Pali language (ca-ca).
Next attribute is asarab ca asarato (non-essential as non-essential). Here both the subject and verb are omitted. Of course, the subject is again te (they) and verb is batva from the previous attribute. The word asarato is again an adverb. Asarab (or asaraj without the euphonic combination) is in accusative singular. The word The conunction ca (and) forms the second part of the "ca-ca" pair mentioned in previous paragraph.
Last of the attributes is sammasavkappagocara (feeding on right thoughts). It is a compound and it is in nominative plural, because it has to agree with the subject.

Commentary:
In contrast to DhP 11, if we really know, what is important and what is empty, if we know, where the essence lies, it is possible for us to discover it. We can take as an example the case if we want to clean the dirty floor. It will not help us to start scrubbing the table. Sure, a clean table is a nice thing, but we wanted the floor to be clean, not the table. In the same way, if we want to purify our mind, we must carefully decide and understand, how to do it, what is the correct procedure. If we know, what is essential in order to reach our goal, then we have a chance of accomplishing it. This is a "pasture for right thoughts". The right thoughts will grow and multiply - this time only for our benefit.

Sentence pronunciation:

Sentence pronunciation

Word pronunciation:

sarab
ca
sarato
batva
asarab
asarato
te
saram
adhigacchanti
sammasavkappagocara
samma
savkappa
gocara