−⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−
kasya
notpādayed-bāṣpaṁ niścayas-te 'yam-īdśaḥ |
⏑−⏑−¦⏑⏑⏑−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑− navipulā
ayo-maye
'pi hdaye kiṁ punaḥ sneha-viklave || 6.27
6.27
Who
would not be moved to tears
By
a resolve such as this of yours,
Even
with a heart made of iron?
How
much more with a heart befuddled by attachment?
COMMENT:
Ostensibly, as one
whose own heart is sunk in despondency, Chandaka is asking a
rhetorical question to which the answer is “Nobody – nobody could
fail to be moved to tears by such a resolve.” Ostensibly the
anguished Chandaka is playing the role of an apologist for emotion in
general and for tears in particular – like a champion of the
philosophy of “tears for fears.”
As one whose mind sits,
like an elephant on river-mud, however, Chandaka might be asking a
question the answer to which is provided in BC6.24, viz: “On the grounds of the virtue of being without, attachment is abandoned. Because of
abandoning attachment, one does not suffer grief."
The truth alluded to in
the 4th pāda of today's verse, in the latter case, is the truth that such a
person – one who would not be moved to tears – is not a person
whose heart is made of iron but is rather a human being whose heart
is bound to be more or less befuddled by love/attachment. But if he or she sits
like an elephant in a river, on the grounds not only of mud but also
of the virtue of being without, then he or she is in possession of a
means (extremely difficult though the means may be to apply in
practice) for abandoning whatever love/attachment is befuddling his or her
heart.
In conclusion, then,
and on reflection, in answer to Chandaka's question I would like to
put forward the example of my own befuddled self, who in response to the will to the
truth of the prince of the Śākyas am not moved to tears but am
moved instead to turn back – i.e. to inhibit the habitual
end-gaining which keeps me in the grip of miscellaneous attachments –
and just sit.
What appears on the
surface to be a dry bone, as we know by now from experience, is just
the place where Aśvaghoṣa likes to inject the marrow. And so it is
with today's verse.
When the Buddha walked
to Vārāṇasī
to turn the wheel of Dharma for the first time, was his intention to
move to tears men whose hearts were made of iron? Or was his
intention to set out, for the benefit of people whose hearts were
befuddled by attachment, four noble truths, culminating in a means
for releasing oneself from the grip of attachments – a path of
turning back? In thus setting out the four noble truths was the
Buddha's intention to move his iron-hearted audience to tears? Or was his
intention to move us, who weep for our attachments, in the direction of practising the path of
turning back?
Tears, when we reflect upon them dryly, are generally
symptomatic of attachment. And by sitting on the grounds of the
virtue of being without, so we have been told, attachment can be abandoned.
Thus Chandaka's
question, which seems on the surface to be a tearful appeal to human
emotion, might better be understood, below the surface, as an
invitation to the dry, tearless exercise of human reason...
And so the wheel of dharma -- whose hub is uprightness, whose rim is constancy, determination, and balanced stillness, / And whose spokes are the rules of discipline -- there the Seer turned, in that assembly, for the welfare of the world. SN// 3.11 // "This is suffering; this is the tangled mass of causes producing it; / This is cessation; and here is a means." Thus, one by one, this supreme set of four, // 3.12 // The seer set out, with its three divisions of the unequalled, the incontrovertible, the ultimate; / And with its statement of twelvefold determination; after which he instructed, as the first follower, him of the Kauṇḍinya clan. // 3.13 // For the fathomless sea of faults, whose water is falsity, where fish are cares, / And which is disturbed by waves of anger, lust, and fear; he had crossed, and he took the world across too. // SN3.14 //
VOCABULARY
kasya
(gen. sg.): of who?
na:
not
utpādayet
= 3rd pers. sg. causative optative ut- √ pad: to
produce , beget , generate ; to cause to issue forth
bāṣpam
(acc. sg.): m. a tear, tears
niścayaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. inquiry , ascertainment , fixed opinion , conviction ,
certainty , positiveness ; resolution , resolve fixed intention ,
design , purpose , aim
te
(gen. sg.): of yours
ayam
(nom. sg. m.): this
īdṛśaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. such
ayo-maye
(loc. sg. n.): made of iron
api:
even
hṛdaye
(loc. sg.): n. heart
kiṁ
punaḥ: ind. how much more?
sneha-viklave
(loc. sg. n.): befuddled by love/attachment
sneha:
m. blandness , tenderness , love , attachment to , fondness or
affection
viklava:
mfn. overcome with fear or agitation , confused , perplexed ,
bewildered , alarmed , distressed
vi-
√ klav: to become agitated or confused
決定恩愛乖 有心孰不哀
金石尚摧碎 何況溺哀情
金石尚摧碎 何況溺哀情
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