JNAANA-DRUMA: A TREE OF KNOWING [RE-ENERGIZED?]

KSHAMAA-SHIPHO DHAIRYA-VIGADHA-MUULASH
CAARITRA-PUSHPAH SMRTI-BUDDHI-SHAAKHAH
JNAANA-DRUMO DHARMA-PHALA-PRADAATAA
N'OTPAATANAM HY ARHATI VARHADAMAANAH

BUDDHACARITA 13.65

-- Ashvaghosha, circa 50 AD





For the tree of knowledge, when flourishing, should not be cut down, the tree whose fibres are forbearance, which is rooted deep in resolution, whose flowers are good conduct and whose boughs awareness and wisdom, and which yields the fruit of dharma.

-- trans. E. H. Johnston, 1936





For it's not proper to cut down this flourishing tree of knowledge,
That provides the fruits of dharma,
whose fibers are patience,
whose deep roots are resolve,
whose flowers are good conduct,
And whose boughs are mindfulness and wisdom.

-- trans. Patrick Olivelle, Clay Sanskrit Library version, 2008






The fact that Buddha-carita is written in four-line stanzas tempts me to look for a four-phased structure in each verse, as I became accustomed to doing while translating 4-line verses in Shobogenzo. For the present, not all, not even most, of the four-line stanzas of Buddha-carita seem to cry out to be translated in this way, but I think that the verse quoted above definitely does. So here goes:




With soft root fibres of forbearance and roots dug deep in doggedness;

With flowers, each a course of action; with remembering, intelligent limbs,

A tree of knowing, which will bear its dharma-fruit,

But now is growing, up and out, ought not to be torn down.


This is a verse in praise of Sitting-buddha. According to legend, with this and other verses in Buddha-carita Canto 13, Victory Over Mara, an invisible being in the sky scolded Mara, who was bent on bringing the Sitting Sakyamuni down. But the legend is only a legend. The truth is that Ashvaghosha, in the guise of a gifted yarn-spinner, is drawing our attention back to the living reality of Sitting-buddha, whose essence, I venture to suggest, is not know-ledge, but know-ing -- knowing up and out, and growing up and out. In the original Sanskrit, the final word of the fourth line of the verse (the word that, in 4-line Chinese poetry, often points the reader away from words) is VARHADAMAANAH, growing.



With soft root fibres of forbearance and roots dug deep in doggedness;

With flowers, each a course of action; with remembering, intelligent limbs,

A tree of knowing, which is going to bear its dharma-fruit,

Should not be torn down, for it is growing.