doShaaNaaM kuhan'-aadiinaaM
paNcaanaam a-niShevaNaat
tyaagaac ca jyotiSh'-aadiinaaM
caturNaaM vRtti-ghaatinaam
= = = - - = = =
= = = - - = - =
= = = = - = = =
- = = = - = - =
13.14
On the grounds of not indulging
The five faults, beginning with hypocrisy;
On the grounds of fleeing
The four predators of practice, such as astrology;
COMMENT:
I understand this verse and 13.15 to be illustration of what is meant in the last line of 13.13 by shaucaat, "on the grounds of integrity," the connecting factor being the use of the ablative suffix -aat which I have translated in every case as "on the grounds of."
What I notice in this verse, again, is that in indicating the grounds of integrity, the Buddha begins with a negative. The Buddha gave primacy to the negative from his very last teaching, NOT being wordy, to his very first teaching:
NOT doing any evil,
Allowing what is good,
Cleansing one's own mind,
This is the teaching of the buddhas.
Before even a faintest thought of doing is sanctioned, the first thought is for not doing. Ultimate value lies in the backward step, in digging back and down into the bottom of oneself before purporting to go out into the world and spread "Buddhism," through "the philosophy of action." Without sufficient attention to the inhibitory side, a person's actions are bound to lack integrity.
How else am I to make sense of what happened in the end to the Nishijima-Cross Shobogenzo translation process? For almost a year now I have been living, breathing and sleeping this process of translating Ashvaghosha. But for the Shobogenzo translation that process carried on for more than ten years, and at the end of the process proponents and followers of the philosophy of action intervened to change my translation without consulting me. I experienced it as an act of total betrayal, a manifestation of a fundamental lack of integrity. How could it have happened? What was the original cause?
The original cause, as I see it, was Gudo Nishijima's wrong teaching in regard to Zazen posture. He taught me, Michael & Yoko Luetchford, and Jeremy Pearson (the team responsible for editing and publishing the translation), to keep doing something -- to pull in our chins in order to keep the neck-bones straight and to make an effort to keep the spine straight vertically. And he, perhaps to a lesser extent than his students, adhered to this doing approach himself. This wrong doing, as I see it, was the fundamental cause of a lack of integrity that I experienced as a terrible betrayal.
Every morning when I sit, if I allow myself to think about this blog, my whole system goes into first gear and starts revving up. The challenge, when I notice this happening, is to totally give up the idea of doing or achieving anything. When I succeed in that, my system integrates itself.
So this is how I understand Dogen's words in Fukan-zazengi-shinpitsu-bon, on waking up to an idea and naturally/spontaneously becoming one piece. This understanding owes very little to what I was taught as the "Buddhist" "philosophy of action." It owes a lot to the teaching of FM Alexander.
We can pontificate on the meaning of shikan-taza, "just sitting," and mushotoku, "being without expectation of gain," until the cows come home, but if there is even the slightest trace of an idea of maintaining a correct posture by my own doing, "by keeping the spine straight vertically," for example, then all talk of body and mind dropping off is only an exercise in self-delusion and hypocrisy.
Anybody who has followed my daily outpourings on this blog might ask whether in quoting the Buddha on "not being wordy," I in my wordiness am not going down the route of out-and-out hypocrisy. Well, if so, there is no time for stopping like the present.
EH Johnston:
By not giving way to the five faults, hypocrisy etc., and by abandoning the four destroyers of good conduct, astrology and the rest,
Linda Covill:
By refraining from the five faults such as hypocrisy, by relinquishing the four destroyers of good conduct such as astrology,
VOCABULARY:
doShaaNaam = genitive, plural of doSha: fault
kuhana: mfn. envious , hypocritical
aadiinaam = genitive, plural of aadi: ifc. beginning with , et cetera , and so on
paNcaanaam = genitive of paNca: five
a: not
niShevaNaat = ablative of niShevaNa: n. visiting , frequenting , living in , practice , performance , use , employment , adherence or devotion to , honour , worship
tyaagaat = ablative of tyaaga: leaving , abandoning , forsaking
ca: and
jyotiSha: n. the science of the movements of the heavenly bodies and divisions of time dependant thereon , short tract for fixing the days and hours of the Vedic sacrifices
aadiinaam = genitive, plural of aadi: ifc. beginning with , et cetera , and so on
caturNaam = genitive of catur: four
vRtti: mode of life or conduct , course of action , behaviour , (esp.) moral conduct ; practice
ghaatinaam = genitive, plural of ghaatin: ifc. killing , murderous , murderer
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