⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
vigate
divase
tato vimānaṁ vapuṣā sūrya iva pradīpyamānaḥ |
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
timiraṁ
vijighāṁsur-ātma-bhāsā ravir-udyann-iva merum-āruroha || 5.43
5.43
Then, when day was
done,
Blazing like the sun
with his handsome form,
The one who would by
his own brightness dispel darkness
Ascended the palace,
like the rising sun ascending Meru.
COMMENT:
I was busier than usual
yesterday so didn't have time to prepare any commentary for today's
verse, other than a note to myself to connect the final word
āruroha (he ascended, he went up) with Master Tendo Nyojo's poem
about the cuckoo, which, similarly, ends with the Chinese character 上 (which means up above, or going up).
There are calves on Tendo mountain tonight,
And golden-faced Gautama is manifesting real form.
If we wanted to buy it, how could we afford the impossible price?
The cry of a cuckoo above a lonely cloud.
Despite my busy schedule, I did find time to drink half a bottle of wine last night, however, so I woke this morning with a bit of a headache. Nonetheless I woke
thinking about today's verse, and I fancied titling this post Blazing
Golden Sun Light Going Up a Mountain.
Blazing, pradīpyamānaḥ.
Gold, kāñcana.
Sun, sūryaḥ / raviḥ.
Light, bhās.
Going
Up, udyan / āruroha.
A Mountain, parvata / meru.
I
would write a comment, I fancied, linking those elements.
Then, 45 minutes into my morning sitting, a mini-digger rolled up to start
the work of landscaping a neighbour's garden, and so I got up to go for a long cycle ride, swearing because I couldn't find a hat, and
beginning to realize that what I am better qualified to comment on is
not Blazing Golden Sun Light Going Up a Mountain, but rather
another element of today's verse, which is namely
Darkness, timiram.
Darkness, timiram.
Trying
to do an undoing, as I did for 13 years in Japan, is darkness.
Trying to be right is the essence of darkness. Blind unconscious
reaction is darkness. Darkness is wanting to kill (vijighāṁsuḥ) a person because they unduly excited my fear reflexes by presenting an auditory stimulus.
It
didn't happen this morning but this morning I remembered a couple of
occasions when I have been cycling along and some motorist has loudly and
unnecessarily beeped his horn behind me. On one particularly
memorable occasion, in 1997/98 when I was in my last year of
Alexander teacher training, some old git accompanied his beep of the
horn with a dismissive sweep of his hand as he drove past, as if to
say “Get over to the side of the road.” I cycled for all I was
worth yelling at him at the top of my voice. If I had caught him up I
probably wouldn't have killed him, but I felt like I would have. I felt like I would have been happy to give up my life for the privilege of
breaking every rib in his ribcage. Not the psychology of a dove. The
psychology of a hawk. And a moment of true darkness. So much for
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual. At a moment like
that there is no desire in me to dispell darkness; what I am desirous
of killing (vijighāṁsuḥ) is the twat who made the offending noise.
What
means are at a person's disposal to oppose such darkness?
Spiritual
light? The light of Jesus? The light of Asia? I don't think so. I
don't think today's verse has anything to do with such universal spiritual light. I think it is
rather about a person using the real means of his own light, his own
brightness (ātma-bāsā), i.e., the reality of his own energy.
At
the same time, coming back to my original thought about today's
verse, today's verse is about a person's movement, in an upward direction – in
short, going up.
And
the other main element, in today's verse as in yesterday's verse, is
a very massive object, namely a mountain.
Energy,
movement, and mass. Or energy, mass, and movement – anybody for E =
mc2?
Some
day soon somebody brighter and more virtuous than me, a bona fide
scientist like David Attenborough or Brian Cox, will come along and
make the kind of connection I would like to make between energy itself, as studied in physics, chemistry and biology, and Aśvaghoṣa's
irreligious teaching about that dharma which, in the real world, is
truly imperishable (a-kṣaya-dharma); i.e., energy itself.
I would be happy if I could somehow open a way for such scientists, by my unskilfull efforts to break the ground – and not by using a fucking JCB either, at 7.30 in the morning, when people are trying to be right.
I would be happy if I could somehow open a way for such scientists, by my unskilfull efforts to break the ground – and not by using a fucking JCB either, at 7.30 in the morning, when people are trying to be right.
VOCABULARY
vigate (loc. sg.): mfn. gone away , departed , disappeared , ceased , gone
vigate (loc. sg.): mfn. gone away , departed , disappeared , ceased , gone
divase
(loc. sg.): m. heaven; a day
tataḥ:
ind. then
vimānam
(acc. sg.): m. the palace of an emperor or supreme monarch (esp. one
with 7 stories)
vapuṣā
(inst. sg.): n. form, handsome form
sūryaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. the sun
iva:
like
pradīpyamānaḥ
= nom. sg. m. pres. part. pra- √ dīp: to flame forth, blaze
timiram
(acc. sg.): n. darkness
vijighāṁsuḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. (Desid. of √ han) wishing to slay or to kill or
to remove or to destroy
ātma-bhāsā
(inst. sg.): by his own brightness
bhās:
n. light or ray of light , lustre , brightness
raviḥ
(nom. sg.): m. the sun (in general) or the sun-god
udyan
= nom. sg. m. pres. part. ud- √i: to go up to , proceed or move
up , proceed ; to rise (as the sun)
iva:
like
merum
(acc. sg.): m. N. of a fabulous mountain (regarded as the Olympus of
Hindu mythology and said to form the central point of jambu-dvīpa
āruroha
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. ā- √ ruh: to ascend , mount ,
bestride , rise up
漸已至日暮 太子處幽夜
光明甚輝耀 如日照須彌
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