⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
iha
ced-aham-īdśaḥ svayaṁ san vijugupseya paraṁ
tathā-svabhāvam |
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
na
bhavet-sadśaṁ hi tat-kṣamaṁ vā paramaṁ dharmam-imaṁ
vijānato me || 5.13
5.13
For if I here, being like
that myself,
Should disavow another in
the same condition,
That would not be worthy
of me,
Or conduce to my knowing
this most excellent dharma.”
COMMENT:
“This most excellent dharma”
(paramaṁ
dharmam-imam) to which the prince is referring is sitting-meditation
– the meditation whose essence
is freedom from polluting influences (dhyānam-anāsrava-prakāram;
BC5.10).
The gist of today's verse, then, is the
prince's recognition that seeing oneself as separate from a
despicable “other” – in other words, the viewpoint of
snobbery, or arrogance, or conceit; and at the same time the viewpoint of blind
unconsciousness and denial – is not conducive to investigating this
practice which we can come to know, in the way that we can come to
know a person or a place, but which not even the buddhas can
understand.
In the middle of the cold snap which we
are currently enduring today's verse brings me sunshine on all sort
of levels.
Above all, it seems to me to vindicate
all that Dogen says in Shobogenzo about the centrality of
sitting-meditation in the lives of the buddha-ancestors. In the
Buddha's life history, as Aśvaghoṣa is relating it,
sitting-meditation is not, as it has sometimes been understood in
places like Japan, a practice that begins after one has established
the will to the truth and been “ordained” as a monk. Rather,
sitting-meditation is all tangled up in a complicated way with
awakening of the bodhi-mind; and awakening of the bodhi-mind,
conversely, is all tangled up in a complicated way with awakening of
the bodhi-mind.
The point is, then, that, for the
prince, the Zazen-entangled awakening of the bodhi-mind (which, as we
know, would eventually hit its target) was tangled up with
separateness, but it was a separateness in which the prince saw himself as
in the same boat as everybody else. It was not a separateness which
caused him to disavow “the other.” The prince's awakening of the
bodhi-mind was tangled up with devotion to the highest, most
excellent practice there is. But this devotion to the highest did not
involve any sense of aloofness – at least not aloofness in the
sense of disdain for people considered inferior.
According to the Mirriam-Webster
dictionary, aloof means: removed or distant either physically or
emotionally
. In that sense, the prince's experience of the first dhyāna sprang
from a certain aloofness. In a discussion of synonyms for
indifferent, however, the dictionary adds that aloof “suggests a
cool reserve arising from a sense of superiority or disdain for
inferiors...”
The difficulty of the present series of
verses may be that Aśvaghoṣa is at pains to clarify in what sense
the prince was aloof, and in what sense he was not aloof at all.
And the recognition in the background –
what it behoves us who sit to recognize – is that aloofness in the
sense of superiority or disdain for inferiors is not conducive to
knowing this most excellent dharma which is sitting-meditation.
Conversely, does sitting in a group and all saying
together, in whatever language, “May all beings be well,” conduce
to knowing the most excellent dharma? Maybe in some sense it does, as
an antidote to the wrong kind of aloofness. Still, I can't help
strongly doubting it!
VOCABULARY
iha: ind. here
iha: ind. here
ced:
when, if
aham
(nom. sg. m.): I
īdṛśaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. endowed with such qualities , such, being in this
boat
svayam:
ind. myself ; of or by one's self spontaneously , voluntarily , of
one's own accord
san =
nom. sg. m. pres. part. as: to be
vijugupseya
= 1st pers. sg. optative desiderative: vi-√gup: to
shrink away from , wish to conceal from
√gup:
to guard, conceal; to beware of , shun , avoid , detest , spurn ,
despise (with acc.)
param
(acc. sg.): m. another, the other
tathā-svabhāvam
(acc. sg. m.): being orginally of the same condition
svabhāva:
m. native place ; own condition or state of being , natural state or
constitution , innate or inherent disposition , nature , impulse ,
spontaneity
na: not
bhavet
= 3rd pers. sg. opt. bhū: to be
sadṛśam
(nom. sg. n.): mfn. conformable , suitable , fit , proper , right ,
worthy
hi: for
tat
(nom. sg. n.): that
kṣamam
(nom. sg. n.): mfn. adequate ; favourable to (gen.); bearable,
tolerable ; fit , appropriate , becoming , suitable ,
vā: or
paramam
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. supreme, highest
dharmam
(nom. sg.): m. dharma, law, that which is established or firm ,
steadfast decree, duty
imam
(nom. sg. m.): this
vijānataḥ
= gen. sg. m. pres. part. vi- √ jñā : to distinguish , discern ,
observe , investigate , recognize , ascertain , know , understand
me
(gen. sg.): of/in me
我今求勝法 不應同世間
自嬰老病死 而反惡他人
自嬰老病死 而反惡他人
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