⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
śithilākula-mūrdhajā
tathānyā jaghana-srasta-vibhūṣaṇāṁśu-kāntā
|
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
aśayiṣṭa
vikīrṇa-kaṇṭha-sūtrā gaja-bhagnā pratiyātan'-āṅganeva
|| 5.58
5.58
One adorable woman,
similarly, was otherwise,
Her hair being undone
and dishevelled
[or her thoughts being
occupied with undoing],
and decorative threads
having fallen from her hips.
She had dropped off,
sending her necklaces scattering
[or propagating the
Neck Sūtra],
Like a statue-woman,
broken by elephants.
COMMENT:
The ostensible simile
in today's verse describes a formerly lovely woman whose hair has
fallen loose and become dishevelled, whose decorative clothing has
slipped down from her hips, and whose necklaces have scattered all
over the place, so that she looks a statue that some wild,
out-of-control elephant has knocked over and trampled.
A contrary reading
emerges if we take the elephant or elephants not as wild beasts but
as, for example, the eight branches of the noble path to peace, which
the Buddha enumerates in SN16.30-39. This
is in line with the metaphor that Aśvaghoṣa uses to describe how Nanda, in
advancing upon the citadel of nirvāna, drives away the elephants of
fakery (mithyāṅga-nāgān), using the elephants
of the true path (tathāṅga-nāgaiḥ):
Then, unsheathing a sword that the limbs of awakening had honed, standing in the supreme chariot of true motivation, / With an army containing the elephants of the branches of the path (mārgāṅga-mātaṅga-vatā balena), he gradually penetrated the ranks of the afflictions. // SN17.24 // With arrows made from the presence of mindfulness, instantly he shot those enemies whose substance is upside-down-ness: / He split apart four enemies, four causes of suffering, with four arrows, each having its own range. // SN17.25 // With the five incomparable noble powers, he broke five uncultivated areas of mental ground; / And with the eight true elephants which are the branches of the path, he drove away eight elephants of fakery (mithyāṅga-nāgāṃś-ca tathāṅga-nāgair-vinirdudhāvāṣṭabhir-eva so 'ṣṭau). // SN17.26 //
Those
eight elephants are namely: 1. samyag-vāk-karma, using the
voice well, 2. samyak-kāya-karma, using the body well
3. samyag-ājiva, making one's living well,
4. samyag-dṛṣṭi, proper insight (into the four noble
truths), 5. samyag-vitarka, thinking straight,
6. samyag-parākrama, fully taking initiative, 7. samyak-smṛti,
true mindfulness/awareness, 8. samyak-samādhi, being fully
integrated.
If we understand
elephants (gaja) like this, then being broken (bhagna) might suggest
the gradual undermining and dismantling of former views and former
certainties. Or being broken might suggest the sudden crashing to
earth of entire phoney edifices of thought and habit – not least of
counterfeit thoughts and habits (speaking from hard-won experience)
around “right posture.”
If that is how
Aśvaghoṣa, below the surface, is describing the woman in the 4th
pāda, then there ought to be a hidden meaning in 1st pāda such that
śithilākula-mūrdhajā describes not only a woman whose hair has
come undone and is dishevelled, but also a sitting practitioner who
has stopped trying to sit like a stone statue; or who, in other
words, has stopped trying to do an undoing. I think that such hidden
meaning resides 1. in the ambiguity of śithila (“looseness” or
“being undone”) which describes not only a woman's hair on a bad
hair day but also the finding of ease where before there was undue
postural tension ; 2. in the ambiguity of ākula, which not only
means “dishevelled” but also means “eagerly occupied;” and 3.
in the ambiguity of mūrdha-ja (lit. “head-born” or “begotten
from the head”) which ostensibly means the hair that grows on the
head but which might also mean the thinking that is conceived in the
head.
The 2nd pāda,
following this sub-text, describes the ordinary attire of a sitting
practitioner, in which case jaghana-srasta does not mean that
decorative threads have “slipped [a few inches] down” from the
hips; but rather means that decorative threads have “fallen
[totally] away” from the adorable one's backside, and been replaced
by totally practical non-decorative material, like for example grey track-suit
bottoms.
The ambiguity in the
3rd pāda lies 1. with aśayiṣṭa which ostensibly means she
lay or she slept but once again carries a hidden meaning of having
gone beyond trying, or of body and mind having dropped away; and
2. with kaṇṭha-sūtra, which ostensibly means “neck
sūtras” in the sense of necklaces, but can be understood as “the Neck Sūtra” in the sense of the Buddha's fundamental teaching centred on the neck.
EHJ mentions in a footnote that one Indian editor
gives kaṇṭha-sūtra the meaning it has in erotics (MW: “a
particular mode of embracing”). But the hidden meaning as I read it
is that a person whose body and mind has dropped off in sitting is
naturally and spontaneously preaching to the universe in all
directions a sūtra of letting the neck be free, without moving a
muscle in his neck or uttering a word with his voice.
In the end, when a
human being is sitting not like a statue but like a true human being,
how vital is the neck?
Maybe too vital for
words.
If, for our sins, we
take a view that in sitting we are essentially a torso with a spine
running up through it, then the hips and pelvis are important as the
area where the legs connect, and the shoulders and upper back are
important as the area where the arms connect, but the hips and
shoulders are not half as important as the neck is important, as the
area where the head connects.
If, alternatively, for
our sins, we take a view that in sitting we are essentially a brain
encased in a skull poised on top of the vertebral column, that view
also does not diminish the importance of the neck, without which the
head would be able neither to send air, food, and messages to the
body, nor to receive air, blood, and messages from the body.
Abandoning all views about the neck, what can we say?
Lotus, Diamond and even
Golden Light Sūtras have been transmitted via black ink on white
paper, and if we enter a google search for those sūtras, we will
instantly be directed to translations of them in English. If we
google the Neck Sūtra, however, we will be directed to websites run
by people who would like to sell us necklaces.
The true Neck Sūtra of
the Buddha might not be a necklace. And neither, in the final
analysis, might it be a teaching that is amenable to propagation by
words.
Still, in today's
verse, as I read it, Aśvaghoṣa is alluding to preaching of the
Neck Sūtra by a sitting-practitioner who is akin to a broken statue.
Fuck, these comments are getting to be hard work. Might the effort contribute in some small way to us taking better care of our planet? I can't help doubting it.
VOCABULARY
śithilākula-mūrdhajā
(nom. sg. f.): her hair loose and dishevelled ; her 'head-born'
eagerly occupied with coming undone
śithila:
mfn. loose , slack , lax , relaxed , untied , flaccid , not rigid or
compact ; n. a loose fastening , looseness , laxity , slowness
ākula:
mfn. confounded , confused , agitated , flurried ; confused (in
order) , disordered ; filled , full , overburdened with (instr. or
generally in comp.) , eagerly occupied
mūrdha-ja:
m. pl. " head-born " , the hair of the head
tathā:
ind. likewise
anyā
(nom. sg. f.): another
jaghana-srasta-vibhūṣaṇāṁśu-kāntā
(nom. sg. f.): a lovely woman whose ornaments and threads had fallen
from her hips
jaghana:
m. the hinder part , buttock , hip and loins
srasta:
mfn. fallen, dropped, slipped off
vibhūṣaṇa:
mfn. adorning; n. decoration , ornament
aṁśu:
m. a filament (especially of the soma plant); thread ; cloth
kāntā:
f. a beloved or lovely woman , wife , mistress
aśayiṣṭa
= 3rd per. sg. aorist śī: to lie , lie down , recline ,
rest , repose ; to remain unused (as soma) ; to lie down to sleep ,
fall asleep , sleep ;
vikīrṇa-kaṇṭha-sūtrā
(nom. sg. f.): with her necklaces scattered ; with neck/voice sūtras
spreading out
vikīrṇa:
mfn. scattered , thrown about , dispersed &c ; dishevelled (as
hair)
vi-
√ kṝ: to scatter , throw or toss about , disperse ; to dishevel
; to pour out , utter , heave (sighs)
kaṇṭha-sūtra:
n. a necklace ; n. a particular mode of embracing
kaṇṭha:
m. the throat , the neck ; the voice
sūtra:
n. a thread , yarn , string , line , cord , wire; that which like a
thread runs through or holds together everything , rule , direction ;
a short sentence or aphoristic rule , and any work or manual
consisting of strings of such rules hanging together like threads
(these sūtra works form manuals of teaching in ritual , philosophy ,
grammar &c ; with Buddhists the term sūtra is applied to
original text books as opp. to explanatory works
gaja-bhagnā
(nom. sg. f.): broken by an elephant
bhagna:
mfn. (√bhañj) broken
pratiyātan'-āṅganā
(nom. sg. f.): a statue-woman
pratiyātanā:
f. an image , model , counterpart , a picture , statue (of a god
&c); (ifc.) appearing in the shape of.
aṅganā:
f. " a woman with well-rounded limbs " , any woman or
female
iva:
like
[No
corresponding Chinese]
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