⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
atho
kumāraś-ca viniścayātmikāṁ cakāra kāmāśraya-ghātinīṁ
kathām |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
janasya
cakṣur-gamanīya-maṇḍalo mahī-dharaṁ cāstam-iyāya
bhās-karaḥ || 4.100
4.100
And
so, as the prince made a speech
that
was tantamount to a decision
Murdering
any recourse to Love,
The
disc that is plain for all to see
went
to meet the western mountain –
Light-producer
meeting Earth-container.
COMMENT:
In the 1st pāda of
today's verse Aśvaghoṣa describes the prince's speech as
viniścayātmikāṁ, “tantamount to the making of a decision.”
This seems to raise the question of the relationship between
expressing oneself in words and deciding something in one's heart.
In the 2nd pāda
Aśvaghoṣa describes the prince's speech as kāmāśraya-ghātinīṁ,
which EBC translated as “abolishing the objects of desire.” EHJ
and PO might have been closer to Aśvaghoṣa's original intention
(unless Aśvaghoṣa was intending to be ambiguous) with “which
controverted recourse to the passions” and “that wiped out any
resort to pleasure.” I think EBC's translation reflects a
misunderstanding of why the present Canto is titled strī-vighātanaḥ,
Warding Women Away. As we approach the end of the Canto, in order to
counter that misunderstanding, I am inclining towards putting 'Women'
in quotation marks – Warding 'Women' Away.
Have I made this
decision already, and now I am putting it in words? Or is my putting
this in words part of me coming to a decision which I have not yet
conclusively made?
In any event, the
meaning of the 2nd pāda, as I read it, is related with
the ancient Indian idea that kāma, love, desire, or pleasure, is one
of the four aims of human life. So the point is that the prince
utterly rejected Love as the proper aim of human life. He rejected
Love in favour of what? At this stage of the proceedings, no aim is
specified. In the next Canto, the prince's mind alights almost
incidentally on the word nirvāṇa. But his first thought is nothing
too positive or specific. His first thought is a resounding “Not
that.”
The 3rd and 4th pādas
are difficult to translate. On one level they are simply a poetic
expression of the setting of the sun, which was supposed to happen
behind the western mountain. But there might be more than that to
Aśvaghoṣa's words.
Why instead of writing,
janasya
cakṣur-gamanīya-maṇḍalo bhās-karaḥ “the
light-producing disk accessible to people's eyes,” didn't Aśvaghoṣa
simply write, for example, sūryaḥ, “the sun,” for a saving of
several words? Aśvaghoṣa was no inelegant waster of words, and so
I think he must have had a reason.
One thing Aśvaghoṣa
may have had in mind was the famous saying, recorded in the Pali
Suttas, that three things shine forth for all to see – the disc of
the sun, the disc of the moon, and [the disc/wheel of] the
dharma-discipline (or the virtuous circle of dharma and discipline?):
Monks, there are these three things which shine forth for all to see, which are not hidden. Which three? The disc of the moon shines for all to see; it is not hidden. The disc of the sun does likewise. The Dhamma-Discipline [dhamma-vinaya] of a Tathagata [Buddha] shines for all to see; it is not hidden.
Read in this light,
“the light-producing disk accessible to people's eyes,” may be
understood as carrying a double (or triple) meaning – ostensibly
the light-producer is the sun, but it could also be intended to
suggest the practice of learning the backward step, for example, as a
light-producer.
If we understand
bhās-karaḥ in that light, it may only be natural also to
understand mahī-dharam on those grounds.
What a terrible
translation I have done, and what a rubbish comment I have written.
Still, I hope that they might serve at least to lend support to the
suspicions of anybody out there who, like me, suspects that the truth
of sitting-meditation was never far from Aśvaghoṣa's thoughts –
even in verses like today's which on the surface seem not to have
anything to do with mountain-like sitting.
Below the surface, I
venture to suggest, Aśvaghoṣa never makes any reference to
mountains without having in mind the mountain-still sitting of the
Buddha, as described in Saundara-nanda Canto 3:
Sitting there, mind made up, as unmovingly stable as the king of mountains (upaviśya tatra kṛta-buddhir-acala-dhṛtir-adri-rājavat), / He overcame the grim army of Māra and awoke to the step which is happy, irremovable, and irreducible. // SN3.7 //
In the end, what is
sitting in full lotus? Is it doing? Is it the negation of doing? Is
it thinking? Is it the negation of thinking? Is is production of
light? Is it containment of earth? Is it the negation of production
and containment?
Gudo Nishijima taught
me that the answer to every such question was No. For some reason,
however, when it came to one of these questions – namely “Is it
the negation of thinking,” Gudo saw fit to answer with a resounding
Yes.
But I say, No, sitting
in full lotus is not the negation of thinking. Sitting is not the
negation of the cognitive aspect of thinking, any more than it is the
negation of containment of the earth; and sitting is not the negation
of the manipulative function of thinking, any more than it is the
negation of production of light.
VOCABULARY
atho: ind. then, and
so, now
kumāraḥ (nom. sg.):
m. the prince
ca: and
viniścayātmikām
(acc. sg. f): having the nature of a firm decision
viniścaya: m. deciding
, settling , ascertainment , settled opinion , decision , firm
resolve regarding (gen. or comp.)
ātmaka: mf(ikā)n.
belonging to or forming the nature of (gen.) ; having or consisting
of the nature or character of (in comp.)
cakāra = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. kṛ: to do, make
kāmāśraya-ghātinīm
(acc. sg. f.): destroying resort to desire
kāma: m. desire;
pleasure , enjoyment ; love , especially sexual love or sensuality ;
Love or Desire personified ; name of the god of love
āśraya: m. that to
which anything is annexed or with which anything is closely connected
or on which anything depends or rests ; a recipient , the person or
thing in which any quality or article is inherent or retained or
received; dwelling , asylum , place of refuge ; depending on , having
recourse to ; authority , sanction , warrant ; a plea , excuse ; the
being inclined or addicted to , following , practising ; attaching to
, choosing , taking ; joining , union , attachment ; dependance ,
contiguity , vicinity ; mfn. ifc. depending on , resting on , endowed
or furnished with
ghātin: mfn. ifc.
killing , murderous , murderer; destroying , ruining , destructive
kathām (acc. sg.): f.
conversation , speech , talking together ; talk
janasya (gen. sg.): m.
people , subjects (the sg. used collectively)
cakṣur-gamanīya-maṇḍalaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): the disk which is accessible to sight
cakṣus: n. the act of
seeing ; sight ; the eye
gamanīya: mfn.
accessible , approachable , that may be gone to or reached (by gen.)
maṇḍala: n. a disk
(esp. of the sun or moon); anything round ; a circle
mahī-dharam (acc. sg.
m.): mfn. " earth bearing," supporting the earth ; m. a
mountain
mahī: f. " the
great world " , the earth ; earth (as a substance) ; the base of
a triangle or other plane figure
dhara: mfn. ( √ dhṛ)
bearing , supporting ; ifc. holding , bearing , carrying , wearing ,
possessing , having , keeping (also in memory) , sustaining ,
preserving , observing
ca: and [EHJ: ca.... ca
denoting simultaneity]
astam (acc. sg.): mfn.
(perf. Pass. p. √2. as) , thrown , cast ; m. setting (as of the sun
or of luminaries) ; m. " end , death " ; m. the western
mountain (behind which the sun is supposed to set)
√2. as: to throw ,
cast , shoot at (loc. dat. , or gen) ; to drive or frighten away
iyāya = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. √i: to go ; to go to or towards (with acc.)
bhās-karaḥ: m. "
making light;” the sun
太子爲優陀 種種巧方便
説欲爲深患 不覺至日暮
説欲爲深患 不覺至日暮
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