⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Upendravajrā)
ktābhyanujñāv-abhitas-tatas-tau
niṣīdatuḥ śākya-kula-dhvajasya |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
virejatus-tasya
ca saṁnikarṣe punar-vasū yoga-gatāv-ivendoḥ || 9.11
9.11
Having thus on these
grounds been allowed,
The two, in the
presence of the flag of the Śākya family, sat;
And in his vicinity
they shone –
Like the twin stars of
Punar-vasu in conjunction with the moon.
COMMENT:
If my aim on this blog
is to connect every verse that Aśvaghoṣa wrote with kāñcanam
āsanam, “golden sitting,” then today's verse, for one, does not
present too much of a challenge.
In the first pāda
kṛtābhyanujñau describes the two as having gained assent or as
having been allowed. The compound inevitably puts me in mind of the
word “allow” as used in the teaching of FM Alexander, where
allowing is opposed to conceptions like doing, or end-gaining.
In the 2nd
pāda, niṣīdatuḥ
means “the two sat.” The root is √sad, to sit. And sitting, I
should like to argue here, in accordance with what my Zen teacher
taught me in Japan, is basically what saves us.
Yesterday,
following from the conclusion of my comment, I asked a true paṇḍit
(to whom I am very grateful) about the etymology of the word mantra,
and it turns out that much more has been written on that subject than
I ever dreamed.
When
Monier Williams wrote that mantra means “instrument of thought,”
the idea in the background (which apparently prevailed in
the 19th and earlier 20th century but which has been questioned
since)
was that the -tra
in mantra is a suffix with which words expressing the notion of an
instrument are built (from verbal bases). Other examples would be
śastra 'weapon' from √śas 'to cut'; netra 'eye' from √nī 'to lead'.
However
when Pāṇini teaches such a primary suffix -tra (a
kṛt suffix) in
the sense of an instrument (karaṇa), he does not mention √man as
one of the roots to which it can be added (see Aṣṭādhyāyī
3.2.181-183). So it is not certain that Pāṇini regarded mantra as
being formed with this suffix.
A
sixteenth century grammarian and poet Nārāyaṇa (in his
Prakriyāsarvasva) held that mantra was formed with another kind of
suffix (an uṇādi suffix). According to him the suffix can convey
different meanings; in the case of the word mantra he attributes to
it the meaning not of the instrument but of the object: a mantra is
something that is thought about or meditated upon (dhyāyate).
Yet
another explanation, apparently favoured by religious commentators,
especially in tantric traditions, is that the element -tra is related
to another verbal root, trā (sometimes given as trai), which has the
meaning 'rescue, save'.
So
surveying these three options, from where I sit, there is a more
religious option (1. a mantra saves us); a more objective option (2.
a mantra is an object); and a more practical option (3. a mantra is
an instrument).
Of
these three, I naturally prefer no. 3. And, at least in regard to Aśvaghoṣa's usage, I particularly reject no.
1, on the grounds that what saves us in the Buddha's teaching is not a mantra, but what saves
us is primarily the act of sitting.
In
saying this I am not departing by a hair's breadth from what my Zen
teacher taught me. Where I have disagreed with my teacher, however –
as I have documented, in perhaps too much gory detail already, on
this blog – is in the instrumentality of thinking, as oppposed to blind unconscious doing.
Still
in the 2nd
pāda, śākya-kula-dhvaja, “the banner of the house of Śākya”
or “the flag of the Śākya family” (EBC/EHJ: the banner of the
Śākya race) ostensibly means the Prince himself, Śākyamuni, the
Sage of the Śākyas. But I think Aśvaghoṣa might have intended it
to mean, below the surface, a traditionally-sewn kaṣāya.
The
3rd
pāda of today's verse causes us to reflect again, as also
yesterday's verse caused us to reflect, on what it means to shine.
When we are young and
full to overflowing with doing energy, it is maybe easier to conceive
of the backward step of turning our light and letting it shine as a
step that we take or do. I certainly liked to conceive it like that
during my twenties and early thirties. And in
Fukan-zazengi-shinpitsu-bon, the first edition of Fukan-zazengi
written when he was in his mid-twenties, Dogen uses the more direct
imperative EKO-HENSHO NO TAIHO O MOCHI-IYO, “Take the backward step
of turning the light and letting it shine,” whereas his later,
revised edition, Fukan-zazengi-rufu-bon has the somewhat less direct
SUBEKARAKU EKO-HENSHO NO TAIHO O GAKUSUBESHI, “Learn the backward
step of turning the light and letting it shine.”
Having reflected on it for
an hour just now, I don't know what it means to shine and I certainly
do not know how to shine. A person with a grey, ashen face has lost
his or her shine. A person with a glowing red face – like somebody in the first flush of love – has a certain shine; a person with a glowing
golden face – like a Zen master in his element – also has a
particular kind of shine. That much is obvious. But I don't know how
to shine. I don't even know how to sit, or how – even with a good
mantra – to think. But I have picked up some understanding along
the way about how NOT to sit and about how NOT to think. So, though I
may be deluding myself, I don't regard my efforts thus far, to learn
the backward step, as having been totally in vain.
With
regard to the simile in the 4th
pāda, according to a footnote by EHJ,
the simile of the two stars of the asterism Punarvasu and the moon
occurs in Rāmāyaṇa 6.51,22.
PO adds in his own footnote:
Here the Buddha is compared to the moon. The twin asterism (nakṣatra)
Punar-Vasu is the seventh in the Indian list. They are the [alpha]
and [beta] Geminorum.
The different wordings
of the three professors' translations of the nominative dual compound punarvasū may be
instructive.
EBC has “the two
stars of the asterism Punarvasū in conjunction with the moon.”
EHJ: “they resembled
the twin stars of Punarvasu in conjunction with the moon.”
PO: “like Punar and
Vasu in conjunction with the moon.”
These translations (not to mention the grammar of PO's footnote) seems to show a certain uncertainty about whether Punar-vasu is one
asterism or two stars.
How to treat 身心
in
Chinese and Japanese Zen writing poses a parallel conundrum:
- body and mind?
- body-and-mind?
- the body-mind?
- the bodymind?
A parallel conundrum,
again, might be contained in the Alexander mantra “head FORWARD and
UP.”
- Is it one direction?
- Is it two directions?
The answer, I am prepared to venture without too much hesitation, might be NO!
VOCABULARY
kṛtābhyanujñau
(nom. dual): having gained assent; having been allowed
kṛta:
mfn. done, accomplished, gained
abhyanujñā:
f. assent , approval ; authorization , permission ; granting leave
of absence , dismissing
abhy-anu-
√ jñā: to assent to , approve , allow , permit , concede ; to
authorize , direct ; to allow one to depart , dismiss
abhitaḥ:
ind. near to , towards ; near , in the proximity or presence of
(gen.)
tataḥ:
ind. then, thence, from that
niṣīdatuḥ
= 3rd pers. dual perf. ni-√sad: to sit or lie down or
rest upon (loc.)
śākya-kula-dhvajasya
(gen. sg. m.): the banner of the house of Śākya
śākya:
mfn. derived or descended from the śakas ; m. N. of a tribe of
landowners and kṣatriyas in kapila-vastu (from whom gautama , the
founder of Buddhism , was descended) ; m. N. of gautama buddha
himself ; m. of his father śuddhodana (son of saṁjaya)
kula:
n. a race , family , community , tribe , caste , set , company ; a
house , abode ; a noble or eminent family or race
dhvaja:
m. banner, flag, standard
virejatuḥ
= 3rd pers. dual perf.
tasya
(gen. sg.): his
ca:
and
saṁnikarṣe
(loc. sg.): m. drawing near or together , approximation , close
contact , nearness , neighbourhood , proximity , vicinity (saṁnikarṣe
, " in the vicinity of , near ")
punar-vasū
(nom. dual): m. " restoring goods " , N. of the 5th or 7th
lunar mansion RV. , &c (mostly du.)
punar:
ind. back , home ; with √ dā , to give back , restore
vasu:
n. wealth , goods , riches , property; n. gold
yoga-gatau
= nom. dual m. yoga-gata: being in union, contained in the harness
yoga:
m. the act of yoking , joining , attaching , harnessing , putting to
(of horses) ; any junction , union ; application or concentration of
the thoughts , abstract contemplation , meditation , (esp.)
self-concentration , abstract meditation and mental abstraction
practised as a system (as taught by patañjali and called the yoga
philosophy ; it is the second of the two sāṁkhya systems , its
chief aim being to teach the means by which the human spirit may
attain complete union with īśvara or the Supreme Spirit ; in the
practice of self-concentration it is closely connected with Buddhism)
gata:
mfn. gone ; come to , approached , arrived at , being in , situated
in , contained in (acc. or loc. or in comp; gone to any state or
condition ; m. (in astron.) conjunction , lucky conjuncture ; a
constellation , asterism (these , with the moon , are called
cāndra-yogāḥ and are 13 in number ; without the moon they are
called kha-yogāḥ , or nābhasa-yogāḥ) ; the leading or
principal star of a lunar asterism
yoga-gati:
f. state of union , the being united together
iva:
like
indoḥ
= gen. sg. indu: m. ( probably fr. ind = √ und , " to drop "
and cf. índra ), Ved. a drop (especially of soma) , soma ; a bright
drop , a spark ; the moon
ind:
perhaps = √und , " to drop? " (the meaning " to be
powerful " seems to be given by native lexicographers merely for
the etymology of the word indra q.v.)
王子亦隨敬 王師及大臣
如帝釋安慰 儵迦央耆羅
即命彼二人 坐於王子前
如富那婆藪 兩星侍月傍
