⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
vilokya bhūyaś-ca ruroda
sa-svaraṁ hayaṁ bhujābhyām-upaguhya
kanthakam |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
tato nir-āśo
vilapan-muhur-muhur-yayau śarīreṇa puraṁ na cetasā || 6.67
6.67
Looking
again, he bellowed in full voice
And
embraced the horse Kanthaka with both arms;
Thus,
devoid of hope or expectation,
and
lamenting over and over,
He
journeyed back to the city with his body,
not
with his mind.
COMMENT:
The
realization of “the right thing doing itself” or “It
doing it,” if I know anything about those near-to-enlightenment
experiences, is something (or a bit of nothing) very close to
uselessness, hopelessness, despair.
The
seeds of enlightenment, the best of states, it might be said, are
sown in mud of despair, the worst of states.
Learning
the backward step of turning one's light around, therefore, has a lot
to do with consciously recognizing and giving up one's hopes,
expectations, and end-gaining ideas.
But
when one thus gets out of the way and allows the light to shine, is
that light necessarily a function of the mind? Or can that light be
realized as nothing other than light – in the way that the light of
the sun or the light of the moon is nothing but light?
The
ostensible point of today's verse is to emphasize Chandaka's sense of
emotional hopelessness and feeling sorry for himself, the worst of
states, something along these lines:
Looking [at the prince] again, he wept out loud, and hugged the horse Kanthaka with both arms. / Then, hopelessly lamenting over and over again, he withdrew to the city with his body, though his heart was not in it.//
A
totally different reading of today's verse, pointing to freedom from
expectation, and human compassion, as the best of states, is like
this:
Seeing [everything] with fresh eyes, he loudly roared [the lion's roar], having fully embraced the horse-power of Kanthaka. / On that basis, being without expectation and repeatedly sorrowing [for the clinging world], he journeyed to the city riding a wave of pure physical energy – nothing mental. //
To get
a foothold on such possible hidden meaning, the best place to start
might be nir-āśah, which on the face of it expresses a bad state, a
state of despair or hopelessness, but which is the very word that
Aśvaghoṣa uses to describe Nanda as an arhat, one who has
realized the worthy state, in SN Canto 17:
Having attained to the seat of arhathood, he was worthy of being served. Without ambition, without partiality, without expectation (nir-āśah); / Without fear, sorrow, pride, or passion; while being nothing but himself, he seemed in his constancy to be different. // 17.61 //
Thus
having established this foothold, let us
return to the beginning of the verse, and re-examine, or look afresh,
at the words vilokya bhūyaḥ. When we look again, or re-read, or
look afresh at the words vilokya bhūyaḥ, they might include the
meaning of “looking again,” or in other words, “re-reading”
or “looking with fresh eyes, and beginner's mind.”
Also in the 1st pāda, ruroda sa-svaram, when we thus re-read it afresh, could be a description of the Buddha's preaching of dharma, aka, the lion's roar.
Also in the 1st pāda, ruroda sa-svaram, when we thus re-read it afresh, could be a description of the Buddha's preaching of dharma, aka, the lion's roar.
In the 2nd pāda, in that case, fully
embracing one's Kanthaka horse-power might suggest the physical basis
of a buddha's life – that physical basis being countable in such units
as horse-power, or kilos of rice, or sacks of potatoes.
In the 3rd pāda, apart from
the nirāśaḥ discussed already, vilapan-muhur-muhur could express
not only an unconscious moaning born of feeling sorry for oneself but
also a consciously practised lamenting – i.e. the kind of lamenting
or sorrowing that the Buddha, in SN Canto 14, describes a
compassionate man of action practising:
If, in a world that delights in duality
and is at heart distracted by objects,
He roves in solitude, free of duality,
a man of action, his heart at peace, /
Then he drinks the essence of wisdom as
if it were the deathless nectar and his heart is filled.
Separately he sorrows (śocati) for the
clinging, object-needy world. // 14.51 //
And finally going from A to B śarīreṇa
na cetasā “with body not with mind” might be related – as
alluded to above -- with that most difficult of Dogen's teachings
which is that:
(1) there is sitting with the body as
opposed to sitting with the mind;
(2) there is sitting with the mind as
opposed to sitting with the body; and
(3) there is sitting as body and mind
spontaneously dropping off,
as opposed to sitting as body and mind
spontaneously dropping off.
For many years in Japan what I
practised as “just sitting” was basically me doing it – in
which practice I was perfectly happy, up to a point – wallowing in
my own ignorance.
Except that I sensed there was more to
what Dogen was writing about than I was able to understand or was
ever going to understand if I carried on as I was doing.
So I came back to England where awaited
me the kind of Alexander experience I shall briefly endeavour to
describe below:
After I have completed my three years
of Alexander teacher-training, and after my wife has completed her
three years, we are working together at the house of an Alexander
teacher of forty-odd years experience named Nelly Ben-Or. I am
bringing all my years of Zen practice and all my accumulated
Alexander experience to bear on the matter of putting hands on my
wife and directing her up, while she stands in front of a chair. My
aim is to allow my wife to keep lengthening and widening even as she
bends her knees, so that when she arrives in the chair she will, even
more than before, be releasing up and out.
“No. Not that,” says Nelly, in so
many words.
Vilokya bhūyaḥ, re-assessing the
situation, I think to myself “Don't end-gain. Stick to principle.
Say no to trying to be right. Let the neck be free, to let the head
go forward and up....”
“No. Not that,” says Nelly again, in so
many words. (In practice, Nelly would be more likely to convey this
negation non-verbally with a fluttering movement of her concert
pianist's fingers on my hands.)
And so it would go on.... until I would
get to a point where I would think something along the lines of “Oh,
fuck this for a game of cards. I wished I'd stayed in Japan.”
“Yes!” Nelly would say. “That's
it. Now she's free to bend her knees.”
Devotees of Zen Master Dogen, as I was
and am, all sit under the banner of “just sitting.” But
the banner of “just sitting” covers a multitude of sins. The main
distinction to be made, I have argued, is between me physically doing
it (“doing”), and it physically doing itself (“non-doing”).
Proceeding
sharireṇa na cetasā, “physically not mentally,” can be
understood as pointing to a situation in which – since activation
energy barriers have been broken down already and the right thing has
begun to do itself, like a burning fire or a flowing stream – the distinction-making / light-allowing mind has already become obsolete.
Maybe
in the constant search for such hidden meaning below the surface, my
comments are getting too far-fetched. But I think Aśvaghoṣa –
like Hegel and Marx many centuries later – was writing on the basis
of seeing how easily things turn into their opposite, not only in
philosophy but also in reality.
Thus,
in Chinese Zen it was said that the blue lotus opens in fire.
And
thus, those who study the financial markets observe that bull markets
begin at just the moment when bear market pessimism could not get any
stronger. Trying to identify that moment, however, in the real world,
can be as humbling and painful as all direct encounters with reality
are apt to be.
Apologies
for another late posting.
As a PS,while
sitting outside after a lunchtime nap, investigating the meaning of
just sitting with nothing to live for and nothing to gain – but
really all the time waiting expectantly for the three bars to show up
at the bottom of the screen – I reflected that Alexander work is
all about learning what it means to allow, to let. But what
Aśvaghoṣa is suggesting at the end of today's verse, as I read it,
is it shining. And whereas my letting it shine is limited to the odd fleeting moment (if it exists at all outside of my own wishful thinking or delusory feelings), it shining might be for keeps.
VOCABULARY
vilokya
= abs. vi- √ lok: to look at or upon
bhūyaḥ:
ind. once more , again , anew
ca: and
ruroda
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. rud: to weep , cry , howl , roar ,
lament , wail
sa-svaram:
ind. loudly
hayam
(acc. sg.): m (fr. √1. hi, to impel) a horse
bhujābhyām
(inst. dual): with his two arms
upaguhya
= abs. upa- √ guh: to clasp , embrace , press to the bosom
kanthakam
(acc. sg.): m. Kanthaka
tataḥ:
ind. then ; from that place , thence
nir-āśaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. without any hope or wish or desire , indifferent
; despairing, despondent
vilapan
= nom. sg. m. pres. part. vi- √ lap: to utter moaning sounds ,
wail , lament , bewail
muhur-muhur:
ind. now and again , at one moment and at another , again and again
yayau
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. yā: to go , proceed , move , walk ,
set out , march , advance , travel , journey ; to go away , withdraw
, retire
śarīreṇa
(inst. sg.): n. the body ; bodily strength
puram
(acc. sg.): n. a fortress , castle , city , town ; a house , abode ,
residence , receptacle
na: not
cetasā
(inst. sg.): n. consciousness , intelligence , thinking soul , heart
, mind
擧首仰呼天 迷悶而躃地
起抱白馬頸 望絶隨路歸
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