⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(ddhi)
tataḥ
sma tasyopari śṅga-bhūtaṁ śāntendriyaṁ paśyati
bodhisattvam |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
paryaṅkam-āsthāya
virocamānaṁ śaśāṅkam-udyantam-ivābhra-kūñjāt
|| 10.18
10.18
Then he saw, up above that hill, being in the nature of a
peak,
The bodhisattva, the power of his
senses quieted,
Coming back to sitting with legs fully
crossed, and shining forth,
Like the moon rising out of a thicket
of clouds.
COMMENT:
In the 4th pāda of today's
verse udyantam (rising, going up) is the present participle of
ud-√i. The ud- (up) is the ut- of
samutpāda in pratītya-samutpāda. The √i (going) may be assumed
to be as in the -itya of pratītya (prati + itya) in
pratītya-samutpāda.
Since I
began few weeks ago to study the beginning of Nāgārjuna's
mūla-madhyamaka-kākarikā, Nāgārjuna's assertion has been much
on my mind that what the Buddha taught, in brief, was just
pratītya-samutpāda.
I was
taught by my Zen teacher to think things out in four phases, and to
know that what the Buddha taught, ultimately, resides in the fourth
phase. What the Buddha taught, at the fourth phase, every Zen patriarch has realized by one and only one
method, which is sitting in the full lotus posture.
So I
know with as much certainty as I can know anything that
pratītya-samutpāda means more than the teaching on causality
generally known as “dependent origination” or “conditional
origination.” That teaching belongs to the second phase. But when
Nāgārjuna states that what the Buddha taught was just
pratītya-samutpāda he must ultimately be talking not at the second
phase but at the all-inclusive fourth phase.
So I am
working towards a translation of pratītya-samutpāda that fits the
fourth phase – but preferably also the second phase too.
The MW
dictionary defines pratītya-samutpāda as:
m.
(Buddhist) the chain of causation (twelvefold).
That
definition belongs to the second phase, taking pratītya to mean
something like dependent/conditional and samutpāda to mean
origination/arising.
To read
samutpāda as “arising” or “springing up” is not
controversial, since this is what samutpāda originally means.
Pratītya
is more difficult, or more ambiguous.
Maybe it is like golf. In golf it is not difficult to know what the aim is: the aim is to get the ball in the hole. But it is extremely difficult to know what the means is.
The
MW dictionary gives pratītya as:
n.
confirmation , experiment RV. vii , 68 , 6 ; comfort , consolation
ib. iv , 5 ,14 (others mfn. to be acknowledged or recognized).
The same dictionary gives prati-√i as:
to
go towards or against , go to meet (as friend or foe) ; to come back
, return ; to resort to ; (also Passive) to admit , recognize , be
certain of , be convinced that ; to trust , believe (with gen.) ;
Passive pratīyate , to be admitted or recognized , follow , result
;
Causative
praty-āyayati (Pass. praty-āyyate) , to lead towards i.e. cause to
recognize or acknowledge , convince (any one of the truth of
anything) ; to make clear , prove.
And
pratīti as:
f.
going towards , approaching ; the following from anything (as a
necessary result) , being clear or intelligible by itself ; clear
apprehension or insight into anything , complete understanding or
ascertainment , conviction ; confidence , faith , belief.
Pratītya
may be assumed to be the absolutive form of prati-√i. And the
prefix prati- can mean either “towards” or “back again.”
So
the pratītya of pratītya-samutpāda seems to describe the arising
(samutpāda) as following from either (1) a going towards, or (2) a
coming back to.
Having
asserted that the Buddha taught pratītya-samutpāda, Nāgārjuna
proceeds to consider four pratyaya.
The
MW dictionary defines pratyaya as:
m.
belief, firm conviction , trust , faith , assurance or certainty ;
proof , ascertainment ; conception , assumption , notion , idea ;
(with Buddhists and jainas) fundamental notion or idea ;
consciousness , understanding , intelligence , intellect ; analysis ,
solution , explanation , definition ; ground , basis , motive or
cause of anything ; (with Buddhists) a co-operating cause.
These
definitions of pratyaya seem rather to indicate a pratyaya as
something we come back
to, rather than go towards.
A belief, a fundamental notion, a ground and a basis, are all things
to come back
to.
At
the same time, intuitively, I somehow know that Nāgārjuna's four
pratyaya are four cornerstones of direction, of going towards. That intuitive knowing
comes from more than 30 years of sitting in lotus four times every
day, including 20 years in Alexander work, and 15 years of working as
a developmental therapist helping children with immature vestibular
reflexes.
What sitting in lotus has taught me, eventually, if it has taught me anything, is the truth of Alexander's observation that there is no such thing as a right position, but there is such a thing as a right direction.
What sitting in lotus has taught me, eventually, if it has taught me anything, is the truth of Alexander's observation that there is no such thing as a right position, but there is such a thing as a right direction.
To come back to today' s verse, on
the face of it, today's verse does not have much to do with the
teaching of pratītya-samutpāda, at least not if we limit that
teaching to the second phase.
But
if we accept Nāgārjuna's assertion that what the Buddha taught was
just pratītya-samutpāda – and equally if we accept the assertion
in the Pali suttas that he who sees pratītya-samutpāda
sees the dharma, and he who sees the dharma sees pratītya-samutpāda
(yo paṭiccasamuppādaṁ passati so dhammaṁ passati, yo dhammaṁ
passati so paṭiccasamuppādaṁ passati.MN 28) – then our task is
just exactly to see how today's verse relates to the teaching of
pratītya-samutpāda.
That being so, again, a connection with
samutpāda is not difficult to make. When the bodhisattva is
described as shining forth like the rising moon, the rising is
synonymous with samutpāda.
But what light, if any, does today's
verse shed on the meaning of pratītya?
For example is sitting in full lotus a
practice that involves a going back (so that prati- = back again)?
Or is sitting in full lotus a practice
better understood as a practice that involves going towards (so that
prati- = towards, in the direction of)?
To repeat, Nāgāruna wrote of four
pratyaya and I think these four correspond to the four primary
directions which in Alexander work are the basis of springing up. And
these four directions, in turn, correspond to four primitive
vestibular reflexes. So I understand the four pratyaya to be four
foundations, or four grounds, or four elements or – since there are four of
them – four cornerstones of direction.
So my preferred translation, at this
time, of pratyaya is “cornerstone of direction.” And “cornerstone
of direction” covers both meanings of prati, in the sense that a
cornerstone is a
foundation that everything goes back again to, and direction
is a going towards.
Coming back to pratītya in this light,
as a description of samutpāda, my first intuition was to emphasize
the “direction” side of the foundations/grounds/cornerstones of
direction, which being so I have thought to translate pratītya-samutpāda
as “directed arising” or “springing up together, with
direction.”
But if we take the prati- of pratyaya
and pratītya as meaning not to so much “towards” as “back
again,” then it may be better to emphasize the “foundation/grounds”
side of the foundations/grounds/cornerstones of direction. In that case
pratītya-samutpāda might better be translated as something like
“grounded arising.”
And “grounded arising” might work
better as a translation of pratītya-samutpāda as conventionally understood, as a teaching at the second phase.
Thus:
Ignorance is the grounds of volitional
processes;
volitional processes are the grounds of
consciousness, et cetera.
But today's verse, as I read it, is a
suggestion of pratītya-samutpāda at the fourth phase. No, stronger
than that. Today's verse as I read it is a direct description of
pratītya-samutpāda at the fourth phase, in which the rising of the
moon on the outside is a metaphor for the springing up which is
happening on the bodhisattva's inside, as the bodhisattva stays back in his back, sitting in full lotus.
Was the springing up directed by
sitting in full lotus? Or was the springing up grounded
in sitting in lotus?
Directed arising? Or grounded arising?
Nāgārjuna's answer might very well
have been “No.”
Having prepared this comment yesterday
and slept on it, it occurs to me this morning that I am looking for a translation
of pratītya-samutpāda that endeavours to convey the kind of peak
experience, at the fourth phase, which today's verse endeavours to
convey, without leaning to one side or the other of prati-.
Though it won't win any prizes for elegance, then, the best I can do so far as a complete translation of pratītya-samutpāda might be something along the lines of: springing up together, having come back to being directed.
Though it won't win any prizes for elegance, then, the best I can do so far as a complete translation of pratītya-samutpāda might be something along the lines of: springing up together, having come back to being directed.
yaḥ pratītya-samutpādaṁ prapañcopaśamaṁ śivam |
deśayām-āsa saṁbuddhas taṁ vande vadatāṁ varam ||2||
MMK1.2
There is a Springing Up Together,
grounded in direction,
Which, as the wholesome cessation of
spin,
He the Fully Awakened One taught.
I praise him, the best of speakers.
VOCABULARY
tataḥ:
ind. then
sma:
(joined with a pres. tense or pres. participle to give them a past
sense)
tasya
(gen. sg.): of that
upari:
ind. (As a separable preposition , with acc. loc. , or gen.) over ,
above , upon , on , at the head of , on the upper side of , beyond
śṛṅga-bhūtam
(acc. sg.): like a mountain peak
śṛṅga:
n. horn; the top or summit of a mountain , a peak , crag
bhūta:
(ifc.) being or being like anything
śāntendriyam
(acc. sg. m.): with decomissioned senses
śānta:
mfn. appeased , pacified , tranquil , calm , free from passions ,
undisturbed ; abated , subsided , ceased ; rendered ineffective ,
innoxious , harmless (said of weapons) ; m. an ascetic whose passions
are subdued
paśyati
= 3rd pers. sg. paś: to behold, see
bodhisattvam
(acc. sg.): m. the bodhisattva; he whose essence was awakening
paryaṅkam
(acc. sg.): m. a partic. mode of sitting on the ground (a squatting
position assumed by ascetics and Buddhists in meditation)
pari-:
ind. around, fully
aṅka:
m. hook, curve, lap ; any mark
āsthāya
= abs. ā- √ sthā : to stand or remain on or by ; to ascend ,
mount ; to stay near , go towards , resort to ; to undertake ,
perform , do , carry out , practise , use ; to maintain , affirm ;
to take care for , have regard for
virocamānam
= acc. sg. m. pres. part vi- √ ruc : to shine forth , be bright or
radiant or conspicuous or visible ; to appear as or like (nom.) ; to
outshine , excel (acc.)
śaśāṅkam
(acc. sg.): m. " hare-marked " , the moon
udyantam
= acc. sg. m. pres. part. ud- √i : to rise (as the sun or a star
&c ) ; to come up (as a cloud)
iva:
like
abhra-kūñjāt
(abl. sg.): out of a thicket of clouds
abhra:
n. cloud
kuñja:
m. a place overrun with plants or overgrown with creepers , bower ,
arbour (see BC10.15)
見菩薩嚴儀 寂靜諸情根
端坐山巖室 如月麗青天
端坐山巖室 如月麗青天
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