⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
iti
buddhir-iyaṁ ca nī-rajaskā vavdhe tasya mahātmano viśuddhā
|
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
puruṣair-aparair-adśyamānaḥ
puruṣaś-copasasarpa bhikṣu-veṣaḥ
|| 5.16
5.16
Thus did this dustless
mind, this mind which is cleansed,
Develop in him whose
nature was great;
Whereupon, unseen by the
other men,
Up crept a man who was
dressed in beggar's garb.
COMMENT:
This pure dustless mind
(buddhi iyaṁ nī-rajaskā viśuddhā) means what Dogen called in
Shobogenzo 菩提心
(Jap: BODAI-SHIN), “the bodhi-mind”
or 道
心 (DO-SHIN),
“the will to the truth,” or 無上
心 (MUJO-SHIN),
“the will to the supreme.” I know all about it, having
established this mind, in the form of a will to solve everybody's
problem, when I was ten years old; and then having translated chapters
of Shobogenzo devoted to it in my twenties and thirties.
Or do I in fact know all
about it?
When I was studying
Shobogenzo, I was clear in my knowledge that 菩提心
(BODAI-SHIN) represented the Sanskrit
term bodhi-citta, but now that I come to study Aśvaghoṣa's
writing, I cannot be so certain, since so far I haven't found any
mention of the bodhi-citta.
An analogous situation
might be the use of the term "semi-supine" in Alexander Technique
circles. If you google “semi-supine” you will get a long list of
results related to the FM Alexander Technique. But if you went along
to a lesson with FM Alexander himself – or so his niece Marjory
Barlow told me – and talked to him of practising semi-supine, he
would not know what the hell you were talking about. “Semi-supine”
is a bit of scientific-sounding jargon, probably originating with
Raymond Dart, that has crept into Alexander work since the death of
the man himself. Everybody talks of "semi-supine;" but how many really understand what Alexander meant by lying down work? How many really understand what it is, in other words, not just to lie down with one's knees bent, but to carry out an activity against the habit of life?
Alexander did teach his
student teachers to do what he called “lying down work,” which
involves getting a pupil to lie on his or her back with knees bent.
But he never said anything about “semi-supine.”
Similarly, Aśvaghoṣa
has been describing something real – albeit mental – developing
in the prince. I am not denying that. I just find it interesting,
and contrary to what I would have expected five years ago, that the
mind being described is nowhere called bodhi-citta.
According to the
Monier-Williams dictionary ca-ca may
express immediate connection between two acts or their simultaneous
occurrence. In today's verse as I read it ca-ca expresses immediate
connection. EHJ read ca-ca as expressing a simultaneous occurrence,
hence: “While this pure passionless state of mind grew within his
lofty soul, there came up to him a man in mendicant's clothes, unseen
of other men.” I think EHJ got this one wrong – it was not that
the mind grew in the prince in however many seconds or minutes it
took the man in mendicant's clothes to approach him. It was rather
that the prince, by such means as moving slowly over the ground, and
feeling compassion for the suffering of small creatures, and
reflecting on impermanence, and accidentally entering the first
dhyāna, and seeing through various faults (and, long before that,
warding away the pernicious conceptions of Hurry-Up Udāyin, and so
on) had been gradually creating the conditions for the mind to
develop or grow.
Reflecting
on all of the above, I thought twice about the meaning of viśuddhā –
which is given extra prominence by its position at the end of the
first yuga-pāda. My first stab at translating this line was “Thus
did this pure, dustless mind grow up in him whose nature was great.”
But viśuddha is originally a past participle meaning cleansed or
purified or cleaned/cleared/emptied out. And the past participle
suggests to me not necessarily something inherent (as I tend to
assume the will to the truth is inherent in me) but rather the result
of a process or an effort.
My
tentative conclusion about today's verse, then, remains that, in whatever way the
readiness is arrived at – suddenly or by a gradual process – in the background is the principle that the readiness is
all. When our mind is ready to receive, what we ought to know will be
revealed to us. A teacher will immediately appear, as if by magic.
Not by magic, but as if by magic, when the mind has developed which
is dustless and thorougly cleansed, in which case “dustless”
might mean free not only of passions and personal agendae but also free of concepts like
“bodhicitta;” and “cleansed” might mean not necessarily
inherently totally pure, but cleaner than it was before, as the
result of a constant effort.
Speaking
of a constant effort, it occurred to me this morning while I was
sitting that if I get to the end of the translation of Buddha-carita,
I might like to write a non-sectarian non-Buddhist manifesto, to
encourage independent individuals to carry on their own practice
regardless of what political nonsense goes on in the name of Mahāyāna
or Theravada or Soto Sect or this organization or that institution.
As a working title of this manifesto, I thought of To Meet the True
Tortoise.
VOCABULARY
iti:
thus
buddhiḥ
(nom. sg.): f. the power of forming and retaining conceptions and
general notions , intelligence , reason , intellect , mind ,
discernment , judgement ; comprehension , apprehension ,
understanding ; thought about or meditation on (loc. or comp.) ,
intention , purpose , design
iyam
(nom. sg. f.): this
ca:
and
nī-rajaskā
(nom. sg. f.): mfn. free from dust
vavṛdhe
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. vṛdh: to grow , grow up , increase
, be filled or extended , become longer or stronger , thrive ,
prosper , succeed
tasya
(gen. sg. m.): in/of him
mahātmanaḥ
(gen. sg. m.): mfn. " high-souled " , magnanimous , having
a great or noble nature , high-minded , noble
viśuddhā
(nom. sg. f.): mfn. completely cleansed or purified (also in a ritual
sense) , clean , clear , pure (lit.and fig.); brilliantly white (as
teeth); thoroughly settled or established or fixed or determined or
ascertained ; cleared i .e. exhausted , empty (as a treasury)
puruṣaiḥ
(inst. pl.): m. men
aparaiḥ
(inst. pl. m.): mfn. other
adṛśyamānaḥ
(nom. sg. m. pres. part. passive): not being seen
puruṣaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. a man
ca:
and (ca-ca may express immediate connection between two acts or their
simultaneous occurrence)
upasasarpa
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. upa- √ sṛp : to creep towards ,
approach stealthily or softly or gently ; to draw near
bhikṣu-veṣaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): in beggar's garb
bhikṣu:
m. a beggar , mendicant , religious mendicant (esp. a Brahman in the
fourth āśrama or period of his life , when he subsists entirely on
alms)
veṣa:
dress , apparel , ornament , artificial exterior , assumed appearance
(often also = look , exterior , appearance in general)
寂靜離諸蓋 慧光轉増明
爾時淨居天 化爲比丘形
來詣太子所 太子敬起迎
來詣太子所 太子敬起迎
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