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Upajāti (Vāṇī)
kiṁ-cin-manaḥ-kṣobha-karaṁ
pratīpaṁ kathaṁ-na paśyed-iti so
'nucintya
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vāsaṁ
nṛpo vyādiśati sma tasmai
harmyodareṣv-eva na bhū-pracāram || 2.28
2.28
“How might he not see
the slightest unpleasantness
That could cause
disturbance in his mind?”
Reflecting thus, the
king assigned him a residence
Up in the very bowels
of the palace,
away from the bustle on
the ground.
COMMENT:
The story of how
Śuddhodhana, King of the Śākyas, tried to insulate his son from
all unpleasantness, and thereby accidentally caused the Śākya
prince to focus his mind on suffering, has been told and retold
through the ages in many languages.
For me, just this way
is how I wish to hear it. Not in Pali, not in the broken English of a
Japanese master, not in the fluent English of an eloquent native
speaker of English, but just in the Sanskrit poetry of the
buddha-ancestor named Aśvaghoṣa.
I wish to sift through
every single word that Aśvaghoṣa wrote, rigorously, and extract
whatever gold I am able to extract.
I read somewhere that
in an article for Tricycle magazine, Norman Fischer described the
Nishijima/Cross translation as “rigorous,” as distinct from the
other complete translations of Shobogenzo that are “pious” and
“poetic.” I take that as a complement, because pious I sure as
hell am not and neither is being poetic my primary aim. But rigorous
I do aspire to be – in the style of Frederique the builder, who
faced with the choice between taking a short-cut and doing a job
properly would invariably conclude “Pas de choix.” Frederique
is, in the words of my French neighbour, exigeant -- exacting, rigorous. A couple of years
ago, when Frederique knocked a big hole in a stone wall for us in
order to put in some patio doors, I was totally impressed and
inspired by his degree of exigeance, or rigour. So thank you for that
Norman. I haven't read the Tricycle artice, but I hope credit was given where credit was due to the translation that was first -- the Editio Princeps, as EH Johnston referred to EB Cowell's translation of Buddha-carita.
In a spirit of
unrelenting rigour, then, the first thing to notice is that the
phrase manaḥ-kṣobha-kara in the 1st pāda of today's
verse is repeated in Canto 17 of Saundara-nanda, in connection with
the stages of sitting-meditation:
Distanced from desires and tainted things, containing ideas and containing thoughts, /Born of solitude and possessed of joy and ease, is the first stage of meditation, which he then entered. // SN17.42 // Released from the burning of the bonfire of desires, he derived great gladness from ease in the act of meditating -- / Ease like a heat-exhausted man diving into water. Or like a pauper coming into great wealth. // 17.43 // Even in that, he realised, ideas about aforesaid things, and thoughts about what is or is not good, / Are something not quieted, causing disturbance in the mind (manaḥ-kṣobha-karān), and so he decided to cut them out. // 17.44 //
There is a certain irony at play, then, in the king's question. There is more meaning than the king himself realizes in his question -- How not to cause disturbance in the mind? In trying to answer it, the king resorts to the end-gaining strategy of stimulus avoidance, whereas Nanda in his sitting-meditation cuts out the disturbance at its cause, by directing himself back to his original state of unitary awareness and, in so doing, gradually giving up the ideas and thoughts that have been creating the disturbance:
For, just as waves produce disturbance in a river bearing a steady flow of tranquil water, / So ideas, like waves of thought, disturb the water of the one-pointed mind (cittāmbhasaḥ kṣobha-karā vitarkāḥ) // 17.45 // And just as noises are a source of bother to one who is weary, and fallen fast asleep, / So do ideas become bothersome to one who is indulging in his original state of unitary awareness. // 17.46 // And so gradually bereft of idea and thought, his mind tranquil from one-pointedness, / He realised the joy and ease born of balanced stillness -- that inner wellbeing which is the second stage of meditation. // 17.47 //EH Johnston (whose work, for all his failings as a non-practitioner, I nonetheless appreciate very much, like Freddo the builder, as an excellent mirror of rigour) notes that the harmya is properly the upper part of the palace. So I have translated harmyodareṣv eva as “up in the very bowels of the palace.”
This phrase brings to mind the canto title anta-puraḥ-vihāraḥ, which EHJ translates as “Life in the Palace” but which I provisionally intend to translate as “Exploring Within the Battlements” (see also comment to BC2.9). On the surface, anta-puraḥ-vihāraḥ suggests the prince's sexual explorations, not only with Yaśodhara but also with other courtiers skilled in the erotic arts. But I think the exploring Aśvaghoṣa really had in mind was exploration of cause and effect, by poet and by reader/listener.
What this canto, as I
read it, is really all about, is exploration of the workings
of cause and effect.
On the surface, the
explorer means the young Śākya prince, but I think Aśvaghoṣa's
intention is that the explorer should be the listener or reader who,
following Aśvaghoṣa's own example, hears the Buddha's story
neither as religious revelation or transmission of a sacred word, nor
primarily as an act of a poet's creative imagination, but primarily
as a story that was crafted on the unshakeable foundation of cause
and effect, and a story that every practitioner is required to work
out for himself or herself, on the unshakeable foundation of cause
and effect.
In today's verse, as in
Canto 17 of Saundara-nanda, manaḥ-kṣobha-kara, means “causing
disturbance in the mind.” And the practical question, accepting
the truth that the right thing everywhere tends to do itself, might
mainly be how not to do that.
The not doing of that
is the essence of the 3rd noble truth.
And a way of not doing
that is the 4th noble truth, whose essence might be
expressed in the Alexander maxim “Direction is the truest form of
inhibition.”
The 1st
noble truth might be expressed as recognition, or acceptance, of the
fact that human minds everywhere are subject to being disturbed.
And the 2nd
noble truth might be expressed as recognition, or acceptance, of the
fact that such disturbance has a cause.
When push comes to
shove, it seems to me, neither piety nor poetry are the slightest bit
of use in understanding the four noble truths – though Aśvaghoṣa evidently saw poetry as a useful sweetener to help people swallow the bitter pill.
There again, in the canto title, anta-puraḥ-vihāraḥ, or “Exploring Within the Battlements,” among various meanings of vihāra are wandering around for fun, or roaming about. So, in the final analysis, being unrelentingly rigorous about the exploration might also not be it. Being overly rigorous might indeed be a cause of disturbance in the mind.
There again, in the canto title, anta-puraḥ-vihāraḥ, or “Exploring Within the Battlements,” among various meanings of vihāra are wandering around for fun, or roaming about. So, in the final analysis, being unrelentingly rigorous about the exploration might also not be it. Being overly rigorous might indeed be a cause of disturbance in the mind.
VOCABULARY
kiṁ-cit: somewhat, a
little
manaḥ-kṣobha-karam
(acc. sg. n.): a cause of disturbance in the mind
manas: mind
kṣobha: m. shaking ,
agitation , disturbance , tossing , trembling , emotion
kara: mfn. a doer ,
maker , causer ; m. the act of doing , making &c (ifc. ; cf.
su-kara, “doing good” &c );
pratīpam (acc. sg. n.)
: mfn. " against the stream " , " against the grain "
, going in an opposite direction , meeting , encountering , adverse ,
contrary , opposite , reverse ; displeasing , disagreeable
katham: how?
na: not
paśyet = 3rd
pers. sg. optative paś: to see (with na " to be blind ")
, behold , look at , observe , perceive , notice ; to live to see ,
experience , partake of, undergo , incur
iti: “....,” thus
saḥ (nom. sg.): m. he
anucintya = abs. anu-
√ cint: to meditate, consider
vāsam (acc. sg.): m.
staying , remaining (esp. " overnight ") , abiding ,
dwelling , residence , abode
nṛpaḥ (nom. sg.):
m. 'ruler of men,' the king
vyādiśati = 3rd
pers. sg. present vy-ā- √ diś: to point out separately ; to
point out , show , explain , teach ; to prescribe, enjoin ; to
appoint , assign , despatch to any place or duty , direct , order ,
command (with dat. loc. , or prati)
sma: ind. a particle
perhaps originally equivalent to " ever " , " always "
and later to " indeed " , " certainly " , "
verily " , " surely " (it is often used pleonastically
; it is also joined with a pres. tense or pres. participle to give
them a past sense [e.g. praviśanti sma , " they entered "]
)
tasmai (dat. sg. m.):
for him
harmyodareṣu (loc.
pl.): in the bowels of the palace
harmya: n. a large
house , palace , mansion , any house or large building or residence
of a wealthy person
udara: n. the belly ,
abdomen , stomach , bowels ; the interior or inside of anything
eva: (emphatic)
na: not
bhū-pracāram (acc.
sg. m.): a place for going around on the ground,
bhū: f. the act of
becoming or arising; f. the place of being , space , world or
universe (also pl.) ; f. earth (as a substance) , ground , soil ,
land ;
pracāra: m. roaming ,
wandering ; coming forth , showing one's self; a playground , place
of exercise ; pasture-ground , pasturage (= Vishn2. xviii , 44 ,
where Sch. " a way or road leading from or to a house ")
Cf. bhikṣa-cāra: mfn. going about begging , a mendicant
瑰艷若天后
同處日夜歡
爲立清淨宮
宏麗極莊嚴
高峙在虚空
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