−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Indravajrā)
adbhir-hutāśaḥ
śamam-abhyupaiti tejāṁsi cāpo
gamayanti śoṣam |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
bhinnāni
bhūtāni śarīra-saṁsthāny-aikyaṁ
ca dattvā
jagad-udvahanti || 9.60
9.60
The oblation-eating
fire is stilled by water,
And fiery flames cause
water to dry up;
The disparate elements,
when contained in a body,
Confer unity and so
bear up the world.
COMMENT:
The gist of today's
verse, as I read it, is a materialistic view, according to which the
world is an aggregate of disparate elements. But the general thrust
of the argument that the counsellor is setting out – albeit without
conviction, on the basis of a view he refers to but does not own –
remains the same. That general thrust is: since everything is just
the unfolding of nature (prakṛti), or innate being (svabhāva), why
bother to make an effort?
Today's
verse, then, can be read as a reminder of the intimate connection
that tends to exist between lack of practical effort and a
materialistic worldview.
The other side of the
coin, of course, is the intimate connection that tends to exist
between unduly rigorous ascetic effort and an idealistic or spiritual
worldview. And it is negation of the latter view which causes Dogen
at the beginning of his instructions for sitting-dhyāna to ask: 何費功夫
(Jap: NANZO KUFU O TSUIYA SAN?)
So I think the way to
read today's verse, again, is not as the expression of a wrong view
which is designed to stimulate us to embrace an opposing right view.
In other words, just
because the materialistic thesis which the counsellor is proposing is
not true, that does not make its idealistic anti-thesis true; and
vice versa.
So when Nanda at the
end of SN Canto 17 describes himself as released into true reality
(saddharme vimuktaḥ), he might not be expressing realization of one
view or the other.
tasmāc-ca
vyasana-parād-anartha-paṅkād-utkṛṣya krama-śithilaḥ karīva
paṅkāt /
From that
extreme predicament, from that worthless mire,
up he
dragged me, like a feeble-footed elephant from the mud,
śānte
'smin virajasi vijvare viśoke saddharme vitamasi naiṣṭhike
vimuktaḥ // SN17.72 //
To be
released into this quieted, dustless, feverless, sorrowless,
ultimate
true reality, which is free from darkness.
In connection
specifically with today's verse, the point might be that what Nanda
calls “true reality” (saddharma) is NOT the same as what the
counsellor calls “the world” (jagat) whose unity is conferred by
disparate elements.
On
further reflection, and in conclusion, the counsellor in today's
verse is espousing a second-hand view of the world and in so doing he
is showing, on more than one level, a lazy attitude.
First
of all he is lazy to borrow a worldview that belongs to others –
the ke cit he refers to – instead of looking for himself (and
listening) how the world is.
Secondly
the view he is borrowing from others is a materialistic view, and a
materialistic view tends inherently to be bound up with laziness, or
lack of effort.
But
more fundamentally, to hold any view, even a view one has formed oneself, is
a kind of laziness. A contrast might be drawn between holding a view
(or a visual picture) and paying attention (or listening). Once one
has formed a view, there it is, the work is already done. One can
hold one's view aloft, unthinkingly, like a flag made of sturdy
material. "I am a Buddhist. I am a scientist. I believe absolutely in karma. I see the world as being governed absolutely by cause and effect. I subscribe to Darwin's view of evolution (even though I haven't necessarily understood it yet)." And so on, and so forth. But attention is different. Attention has to be paid moment
by moment.
Some
children with immature primitive reflexes are given a diagnosis of
Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive
Disorder (ADHD), because they evidently find it difficult to pay
attention, or to concentrate, on tasks in the classroom or on their
homework. In many cases these diagnoses are a misnomer. The child
does not lack attention per se. Rather, because of immature reflexes,
he is having to give so much attention to physical tasks like moving
a pencil (or like tracking and changing focus with the eyes, while
occluding extraneous stimuli) that relatively little attention is
left over for listening to a new instruction from the teacher (or for
forming a sentence that he wants to write and remembering how words
in that sentence are spelled).
Understood
like this, attention is fundamentally a physical problem, and the way
forward for a child thought to be suffering from so-called ADD or
ADHD, in many cases, might be physical movements – movements like
for example going on hands and knees and bowing, and then standing up
again, and repeating that developmental movement a few times.
A
view of the material world as an aggregate of disparate elements,
once formed, is like a picture that has already been painted. We can
hang it on the wall and look at it whenever we want. But to listen to
the Universe is a more momentary thing, requiring attention. And
attention, I have been taught over the years, mainly by dyslexic and
dyspraxic children, has its basis in physical balance and
coordination.
“Mindfulness,”
everybody knows, has become trendy. If you want to know how to
practise it, read some journalistic wit describing her daily round in
the Daily Mail. But as a rule, in my country at least, educated people, while grounded in the rudiments of pscyhology, are much less aware of the value of developmental
movements like going on hands and knees and bowing, or developmental
non-movements like crossing the legs and sitting still.
Ironically,
seen like this, the resort to Buddhist “mindfulness” among trendy
cognoscenti might be symptomatic of a lazy world view that is not so
different from the one being espoused in today's verse.
VOCABULARY
adbhiḥ
(inst. pl.): f. water
hutāśaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. oblation-eater , fire
śamam
(acc. sg.): m. tranquillity, peace
abhyupaiti
= 3rd pers. sg. abhyupe-√i: to go near , approach ,
arrive at , enter ; to enter a state or condition
tejāṁsi
(nom. pl.):. n. (often pl.) the sharp edge (of a knife &c ) ,
point or top of a flame or ray , glow , glare , splendour ,
brilliance , light , fire
ca:
and
apaḥ
(acc. pl.): f. water
gamayanti
= 3rd pers. pl. causative gam: to go
śoṣam
(acc. sg.): m. the act of drying up , desiccation , dryness
√śuṣ:
to make dry , dry up
bhinnāni
(nom. pl. n.): mfn. split , broken , shattered , pierced , destroyed
; divided into parts , anything less than a whole ; disjoined
bhūtāni
(nom. pl.): n. that which is or exists , any living being (divine ,
human , animal , and even vegetable); n. an element , one of the 5
elements (esp. a gross element = mahā-bh° q.v. ; but also a subtle
element = tan-mātra q.v. ; with Buddhists there are only 4 element)
śarīra-saṁsthāni
(nom. pl. n.): contained in a body
saṁstha:
standing together , standing or staying or resting or being in or on
, contained in (loc. or comp.)
aikyam
(acc. sg.): n. (fr. eka) , oneness , unity , harmony , sameness ,
identity ; aggregate
ca:
and
dattvā
= abs. dā: to give , bestow , grant , yield , impart , present
gatvā
[Gawronski/EHJ] = abs. gam: to go to, to become
jagad
(acc. sg.): n. the world
udvahanti
= 3rd pers. pl. ud- √ vah: to lead or carry out or up ,
draw out , save ; to bear up ; to bear (a weight or burden) , wear
(clothes &c ) ; to support (the earth) , rule , govern
謂水能滅火 火令水煎消
自性増相壞 性和成衆生
自性増相壞 性和成衆生
No comments:
Post a Comment