⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Kīrti)
iti praṇetuḥ
sa niśamya vākyaṁ saṁcukṣubhe
kiṁ-cid-uvāca cainam |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
kiṁ
kevalo'
syaiva janasya dharmaḥ sarva-prajānām-ayam-īdṛśo 'ntaḥ ||
3.58
3.58
On hearing the words of
a guide
He was somewhat
agitated, and said to him:
“Is this a condition
unique to this person here?
Is such the end for all
creatures?”
COMMENT:
Today's verse can be
read as describing in a nutshell what happens when a person
establishes the bodhi-mind – i.e. the will to gain the end of
Buddhist enlightenment. One hears or reads some words, gets unduly
excited, and starts asking questions about oneself and about the
meaning of life.
In the 1st
pāda the prince is thus described as hearing the words of a guide or
leader, who in this case is the charioteer. Such words are liable to
be words like “Zen master” or “enlightenment,” which cause
the innocent mind and body to be inspired, or excited, or agitated.
An example from ancient China is the woodcutter who heard the Diamond
Sutra being recited in a marketplace and went to work as a labourer
in a temple run by the 5th patriarch in China (Jap: Daiman
Konin).
The agitation or
excitement described in the 2nd pāda, on the face of it,
expresses the kind of undue excitation of the fear reflexes that we
would all be better off not experiencing. But Aśvaghoṣa's real
intention in the present canto, as reflected the canto title
saṁvegotpattiḥ, “Nervous Excitement,” may be to remind us
that arising of the bodhi-mind even for the Buddha was no bed of
roses.
In the 3rd
pāda the prince is ostensibly referring, with the words dharmaḥ
(dharma, condition) to the law of being, or condition, which was the
death manifested by a dead man, a corpse. That being so, asyaiva
janasya, “this person here,” refers to the corpse. Hence EBC:
“Is this an accident peculiar to him alone?”; EHJ: “Is this law
of being peculiar to this man?”; PO: “Is this dharma peculiar to
this man?”
The alternative reading
is to understand the dharma in question to be the somewhat agitated
or excited condition of the prince himself. In that case, asyaiva
janasya, “this person here,” mirrors asyaiva “the one here”
in BC3.43, where the prince asks, “[Is] this fault arisen
specifically in the one here [?]. [Is] fear of breaking down common
to all creatures [?].” Again, the ambiguity of the prince's
questions in today's verse mirrors the ambiguity of the question he
asks the charioteer in BC3.32, “Will I also have this fault in the
future?”
In the 4th
pāda, similarly, antaḥ "the end" seems to mean “death,” but what antaḥ
might really point to is the enlightenment of a sitting-buddha who is
being deliberately left alone, by self and by others.
FM Alexander took pains
to clarify that when he spoke of conscious control, he meant
primarily “a plane to be reached,” i.e. an end to be gained –
as opposed to a method of reaching it. This emphasis, it seems to me,
was reflected in Marjory Barlow's teaching of how to work on the
self, which always began with the stimulus of an end to be gained,
e.g. to move a leg.
The important thing, in
the final analysis, is working on the self. But for such work on the
self to be real work, it is vital that some end has to be gained.
When I heard an Alexander
teacher who used to live near me woffle on about conscious control, I had the sense that he did not know what he was talking about, a suspicion that tended to be confirmed when he ended his life by jumping in
front of a train. I think that a person who had truly reached the plane of
conscious control might have had more consideration for the train
driver. Deciding that he wished to end his own life, a person who had
reached the plane of conscious control might have found a less
violent way of going about it. The examples that Dogen celebrated in his rules of
sitting-zen for everybody were the masters of the past who let go of
everything while sitting or standing up – which is by no means the
end for all creatures. I very much doubt whether this creature here will be one of the few that is able to
die like that. Regardless, having that end in view makes my work on the self
more real, which I think is why Dogen pointed us toward that end in
his instructions for how to sit.
The stimulus of an end
to be gained is the very thing that puts us wrong, exciting our fear
reflexes. But just because the stimulus puts us wrong does not mean that it is our enemy. It is the very
thing that introduces us to our best friend, which is being wrong.
This, as I am gradually coming to understand it, is the teaching of
FM Alexander's niece Marjory Barlow. It is a teaching that seems to me to be mirrored in
today's verse.
VOCABULARY
iti: thus
praṇetuḥ = gen. sg.
pranetṛ: m. a leader , guide; charioteer
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
niśamya = abs. ni- √
śam: to observe , perceive , hear , learn
vākyam: n. speech ,
saying , assertion , statement , command , words
saṁcukṣubhe = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. saṁ- √ kṣubh: (Caus. -kṣobhayati) to shake
about violently , agitate , toss , excite
sam: (used as a
preposition or prefix to verbs and verbal derivatives, expressing "
conjunction " , " union " , " thoroughness "
, " intensity " , " completeness ")
√ kṣubh: to shake ,
tremble , be agitated or disturbed , be unsteady , stumble (literally
and metaphorically)
saṁ-kṣubdha: mfn.
tossed together , violently shaken or agitated
saṁ-kṣobha:m. a
violent shock or jolt , jerk , overturning , upsetting ; commotion ,
disturbance , agitation , excitement
kiṁ-cid: ind.
somewhat
uvāca = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. vac: to speak, say
ca: and
enam (acc. sg. m.): him
kim: (interrogative
particle)
kevalah (nom. sg. m.):
mfn. exclusively one's own (not common to others); alone , only ,
mere , sole , one , excluding others
asya = gen. sg. m.
ayam: this , this here , referring to something near the speaker
eva: (emphatic)
janasya (gen. sg.): m.
man, person
dharmaḥ (nom. sg.):
m. dharma; thing; nature , character , peculiar condition or
essential quality , property , mark , peculiarity
sarva-prajānām (gen.
pl. f.): all creatures, all living beings
ayam (nom. sg.): m.
this
īdṛśaḥ (nom. sg.
m.): mfn. endowed with such qualities , such
antaḥ (nom. sg.): m.
end , limit , boundary , term ; end, conclusion ; end of life , death
, destruction ; pause , settlement , definite ascertainment ,
certainty ; condition , nature
太子聞死聲 悲痛心交結
問唯此人死 天下亦倶然
問唯此人死 天下亦倶然
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