⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
pratisaṁhara
tāta buddhim-etāṁ na hi kālas-tava dharma-saṁśrayasya |
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
vayasi
prathame matau calāyāṁ bahu-doṣāṁ hi vadanti dharma-caryām
|| 5.30
5.30
“Put off this idea, my son;
It is not time for you to be united
with your dharma.
For early in life when the mind is
changeable
There are, they say, many pitfalls in
the practice of dharma.
COMMENT:
Today's verse is the first of four
verses (BC5.30-5.33) which constitute the king's opening gambit in
his attempt to prevent the prince from leaving. In BC5.36 the king
eschews gentle persuasion in favour of a more direct and less
softly-spoken command. And in BC5.39 the king gives up altogether on
verbal argument, opting instead to keep the prince where he wants him
by direct physical means, placing the prince under supervision and
arranging for the most exquisite objects of desire to be at his
disposal.
Read in this light, the term of
affection tāta (“my son”) reflects the king's intention to begin
by using softly softly tactics, and the imperative pratisaṁhara is
an injunction to postpone rather than to give up an idea or decision.
On the surface then what the king says
in today's verse, and the way he says it, hardly seems worthy of the
man Aśvaghoṣa has hitherto described. The king seems more like a
manipulating spin doctor than the staunch devotee of dharma we had
previously thought the king to be.
But past experience suggests that those
of Aśvaghoṣa's verses in which the surface meaning is the only
meaning, are those verses that we have failed to dig into with
sufficient diligence.
An alternative way of reading today's
verse, then, is that the king is not so much discussing dharma as
dharma has hitherto been understood, i.e. as the ascetic dharma of
Brahmanism; the king is rather presaging the dharma that the prince
will preach in future as the Buddha-dharma.
In the latter reading, in the 1st pāda, might
pratisaṁhara buddhim-etām, “put off this idea” in general be very
good advice? In general, I think yes.
In Alexander work it is recognized that
no freedom is possible so long as unconscious reaction (doing)
continues to be triggered by the idea – albeit just a homeopathic
dose of an idea – of doing something. So in order “to carry out
an activity against the habit of life” and thereby bring about
change in the right direction, it is necessary as a first step to put
off the idea of doing something, or “to withhold consent” as FM
Alexander sometimes put it.
“Withholding consent” like this in
Alexander work, as Marjory Barlow taught me to practice it in the
context of moving a leg, is the practice behind the comment I made
yesterday to the effect that when fear reflexes are unduly excited,
an idea is the original cause.
On further reflection, however, the
appearance in the 1st pāda of today's verse of the word
buddhim, which means mind, decision, notion, idea, causes me to think
twice. Did I overstate the case?
Sometimes, in my own experience, before
an idea has come into the picture at all, a sudden loud noise is the
cause of unduly excited fear reflexes. As if to remind me of that
fact, after one or two cockerel-free years, my French neighour's
boyfriend arrived on Friday night with a fresh cargo of several hens
and a cockerel. I can hear the sodding thing crowing right now as I
write.
When the prince is described in BC5.21
and BC5.25 as -vidhau matiṁ cakara, setting his mind upon a matter,
was Aśvaghoṣa saying that the prince had arrived at a buddhim in
the sense of a notion, an idea, an intention, or a decision? In
BC5.25 the matter of complete extinction (pari-nirvāṇa-vidhau) was
only an idea to the prince. But in BC5.21 the matter of
marching forth (abhiniryāṇa-vidhau) might have been an action of
which he had previous experience, from past sallies into the forest.
When the prince said, parivivrajiṣāmi
mokṣa-hetor-niyato hy-asya janasya viprayogaḥ “I desire to go
wandering, for the sake of liberation, since, for a man such as I am,
the invariable rule is separation,” what was the prince expressing – something as intangible and fleeting as an idea, or something as real and imperishable as the energy in a desire?
Was the prince expressing a worthy
notion, a good idea, a true decision that he had made?
Or was it rather that something
imperishable, which is beyond human notions, ideas, and decisions,
was expressing itself?
These questions arise from the
double-meaning that I see, as discussed in the comment to BC5.27, in
the compound akṣaya-dharma-jāta-rāgaḥ.
My question is, in other words, whether
akṣaya-dharma was the idea of something imperishable which the
prince had conceived and ardently desired to realize? Or was
akṣaya-dharma the reality described by the 1st law of
thermodynamics, so that this energy made up the prince's mind for him
and fuelled him with ardent desire?
In the former case, it might be
rational, wise and compassionate for the king to advice the prince
temporarily to withhold consent to following an idea. In the latter
case, the king is wasting his breath, like a child with a bucket and
spade hoping to hold back an incoming tide.
As always with doubts posed by Aśvaghoṣa's ambiguous style of writing, the doubt cannot be resolved only by thinking about it. But what is not in doubt is that one person
who does have a buddhim in the sense of a notion, an idea or an
intention, is the king himself. His idea is that the prince should
stay in the palace and succeed to his kingdom.
Moving onto the 2nd pāda,
was there any truth in the king telling the prince “It is not the
time for you to be united with dharma”? Considering that the
prince, according to the Zen tradition, spent six years out in the
scrub practising an ascetic dharma, before he eventually gave up that
idea and found his own true Buddha-dharma under the bodhi tree, then
Yes, there might be truth, below the surface, in that statement of
the king.
And in the 3rd and 4th
pādas, similarly, the king can be heard as pre-saging what the
Buddha will later tell Nanda about the pitfalls of not being mindful:
Therefore walking with the awareness that "I am walking" and standing with the awareness that "I am standing" -- / Upon such moments as these, you should bring mindfulness to bear. // SN14.45 // In this manner, my friend, repair to a place suited for practice, free of people and free of noise, a place for lying down and sitting; /For by first achieving separateness of the body it is easy to obtain separateness of the mind. // 14.46 // The man of redness, the tranquillity of his mind unrealized, who does not take to a playground of solitude, / Is injured as though, unable to regain a track, he is walking on very thorny ground. // SN14.47 //
In writing comments
like the above comment I sometimes remind myself of a sports
commentator who is struggling ineptly to keep up with the action, apopros of
which last night I remembered something that made me laugh so much I
had to stretch out an arm to stop myself falling over.
Many years ago there
was middle distance runner named Dave Wottle who showed a legendary
burst of pace at the end of his races – Wottle's throttle – and
at the same time there was a BBC TV commentator named David Coleman
who, as his Wikepedia entry states, is affectionately remembered for
his on-air gaffes...
"Dave Wottle has completely
misjudged this race... And here comes Wottle!"
VOCABULARY
pratisaṁhara
= 2nd pers. sg. imperative prati-saṁ- √ hṛ: , to
draw together , contract (with ātmānam , " one's self "
i.e. to shrink , return to its usual bed , said of the sea); to draw
or keep back , withdraw (as a weapon , the eye &c ) ; to take
away , put off ; to absorb , annihilate , destroy ; to check , stop
, repress ; Caus. -hārayati , to retract
tāta
(voc.): a term of affection addressed to a junior
buddhim
(acc. sg.): f. mind ; an opinion , view , notion , idea ,
conjecture; intention , purpose , design ; buddhiṁ- √kṛ or
pra- √kṛ , to make up one's mind , resolve , decide; impression ,
belief , notion (often ifc. = considering as , taking for)
etām
(acc. sg. f.): this
na: not
hi: for
kālaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. time
tava
(gen. sg.): for your
dharma-saṁśrayasya
(gen. sg.): taking refuge in dharma
saṁśraya:
m. conjunction , combination , connection , association (ifc. "
joined or connected with ") , relationship or reference to ;
going or resorting or betaking one's self to any person or place
(loc. or comp.) , going for refuge or protection , having recourse to
saṁ-
√ śrī: to join or unite or connect with , cause to partake of
(instr.)
vayasi
(loc. sg.): n. energy, vigour ; vigorous age , youth , prime of life
, any period of life , age
prathame
(loc. sg. n.): mfn. foremost , first ; prime
matau
(loc. sg.): f. thought , design , intention , resolution ,
determination , inclination , wish , desire ; the mind , perception ,
understanding , intelligence , sense , judgement
calāyām
(loc. sg. f.): moving , trembling , shaking , loose ; unsteady,
fluctuating, fickle
bahu-doṣām
(acc. sg. f): mfn. having many faults or drawbacks , very wicked or
bad
bahu:
mfn. much, many
doṣa:
m. fault , vice , deficiency , want , inconvenience , disadvantage;
damage , harm , bad consequence , detrimental effect
hi: for
vadanti
= 3rd pers. pl. vad: to speak , say , utter , tell ,
report
dharma-caryām
(acc. sg.): f. observance of the law , performance of duty
caryā:
f. going about , wandering , walking or roaming about , visiting ;
n. (often ifc.) proceeding , behaviour , conduct ; n. due observance
of all rites and customs ; n. a religious mendicant's life ; n.
practising , performing , occupation with , engaging in
且止此所説 未是依法時
少壯心動搖 行法多生過
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