BUDDHACARITA 11.29: Delighting (in a Dream) in Dreamlike Desires

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tīvraiḥ prayatnair-vividhair-avāptāḥ kṣaṇena ye nāśam-iha prayānti |

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svapnopabhoga-pratimeṣu teṣu kāmeṣu kasyātmavato ratiḥ syāt || 11.29

11.29

Gained by bitter struggles on many fronts,

Here, in an instant, they go to nought.

When desires are like enjoyments in a dream,

Who in possession of himself would delight in those desires?

COMMENT:

The superficial meaning of today's verse can be readily grasped by any intelligent person, whether or not – on a mountain, or in a forest, or in stillness like water, or in the state like the sea – he or she sits as the developing of wisdom.

But as usual the real gold is buried, in more than one layer, below the surface. And our tool of choice for digging is sitting-meditation.

On the surface, the bodhisattva is asking rhetorically what sane person would delight in desires which are as fleeting and insubstantial as enjoyments in a dream? And the obvious answer is that nobody would.

But when we go below the surface, there may be a sense in which a person in sitting-meditation who has gained possession of himself, or a person who is in the process of gaining possession of himself by sitting-meditation, delights in desires precisely because they are as fleeting and insubstantial as enjoyments in a dream.

Thus in his book The Art of Meditation, which I don't have to hand since I lent it to my son, Matthieu Ricard writes of how to handle a blind obsessive desire by the means of bhāvana, by developing. By developing what? For example by developing that so-called 'mindfulness' of a desire which cannot itself be the desire. By developing, in other words, the awareness that is originally separate or secluded from desires (kāmair-viviktam; SN17.42). With this awareness, the assurance is, a desire ceases to seem so solid, heavy and oppressive. So, in Dogen's words NEN OKOREBA SUNAWACHI KAKUSU. KORE O KAKUSEBA SUNAWACHI SHITTSU. “When something arises in the mind, just be aware. When you are aware of it, it vanishes at once.”

This is one way of seeing desires, as something fleeting and ephemeral. But there again, if we keep on digging, there may be other layers still of hidden meaning. There may be a sense in which a person in sitting-meditation who has gained possession of himself, or a person who is in the process of gaining possession of himself by sitting-mediation, delights in desires precisely because they are totally real phenomenon – as real as enjoyments in a dream. This may have been the sense in which Dogen described living in reality as "preaching a dream in a dream." This certainly was the sense in which Dogen quoted the famous line in the Lotus Sutra that all dharmas are real form. 

Going further, then, today's verse causes us to reflect again what it means to be in possession of ourselves (ātmavat).  

A person in possession of himself is fully developed in what departments? 

The Buddha's answer to that question might be contained in the passage from the Mahāparinibbānasuttaṁ quoted in the comment to BC11.27, in connection with the developing of  śīla (moral integrity, virtue), samādhi (balanced stillness, integration, concentration), and prajñā (wisdom, knowing):

Tatra pi sudaṁ Bhagavā Vesāliyaṁ viharanto Ambapālivane,

There also the Gracious One, while living in Vesālī in Ambapālī's Wood,

etad-eva bahulaṁ bhikkhūnaṁ Dhammiṁ kathaṁ karoti:

spoke frequently to the monks about the Teaching, (saying):

“Iti sīlaṁ, iti samādhi, iti paññā,

“Such is virtue, such is concentration, such is wisdom,

sīlaparibhāvito samādhi mahapphalo hoti mahānisaṁso,

when virtue is well-developed it yields great fruit

and brings great advantages in regard to concentration,

samādhiparibhāvitā paññā mahapphalā hoti mahānisaṁsā,

when concentration is well-developed it yields great fruit

and brings great advantages in regard to wisdom,

paññāparibhāvitaṁ cittaṁ sammad-eva āsavehi vimuccati,

when wisdom is well-developed the mind is completely liberated from the pollutants,

seyyathīdaṁ: kāmāsavā bhavāsavā avijjāsavā.” ti

that is to say: the pollutant of sensuality [or desires],

the pollutant of (craving for) continued existence, 

the pollutant of ignorance.”

In a note to BC11.22, which I failed to notice until yesterday, EHJ says that the series of verses from BC11.22 recurs frequently in the Pali Canon. e.g. Majjhima 1.130.364, Aṅguttara 3.97, Therīgāthā 488ff. Having belatedly noticed the note, I asked Ānandajoti Bhikkhu if he could kindly point me to an online resource where I might reference the similes, and he duly obliged, with a Pali source (reproduced verbatim below) and an English translation (in which  I have translated kāmā as “desires” instead of “sensual pleasures”):

Appassādā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā bahudukkhā bahupāyāsā, ādīnavo ettha bhiyyo. 
The Blessed One has stated that desires provide little gratification, much suffering and despair, and that the danger in them is still more.

Aṭṭhi­kaṅ­kalū­pamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
With the simile of the skeleton the Blessed One has stated that desires …

maṃsapesūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the piece of meat the Blessed One has stated that desires…

tiṇukkūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the grass torch the Blessed One has stated that desires …

aṅgārakāsūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the pit of coals the Blessed One has stated that desires …

supinakūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the dream the Blessed One has stated that desires …

yācitakūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the borrowed goods the Blessed One has stated that desires …

rukkha­phalū­pamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of fruits on a tree the Blessed One has stated that desires …

asisūnūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the butcher’s knife and block the Blessed One has stated that desires …

sattisūlūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā … 
with the simile of the sword stake the Blessed One has stated that desires …

sappasirūpamā kāmā vuttā bhagavatā 

with the simile of the snake’s head, the Blessed One has stated that desires

bahudukkhā bahupāyāsā, ādīnavo ettha bhiyyo”ti.
provide little gratification, much suffering and despair, and that the danger in them is still more.”

The correspondence between the content of the Pali text and the poetry of the Zen patriarch Aśvaghoṣa is thus very conspicuous, and buttresses our confidence of various strands all going back to the original source, so that there is no basis for any kind of sectarian animosity born of ignorance.

A final reflection, prompted by my question above (By developing what?), is that there has to be meaning in the Buddha's injunction, repeated many times to his son Rāhula in the Rāhula Sutta: 

bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi!

Develop developing!

Thus the Buddha says

Ānāpānasatiṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi.

Develop, Rāhula, mindfulness-while-breathing developing.

And

Paṭhavīsamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,

Develop, Rāhula, developing like the earth.

And

Mettaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,

Develop, Rāhula, friendliness developing.

So we can think that the Buddha recommended Rāhula to develop his mind in all kinds of ways, in the direction of greater awareness, in the direction of more constant balance, and in various directions opposed to faults like ill-will, violence, discontent, resentment, passion, and "I am" conceit. 

But the real essence of what the Buddha says to Rāhula is simply

bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi!

Develop developing!

And this reminds me of something Marjory Barlow said to me when I expressed to her my anxiety that I had already been back in England for several years with the intention of somehow harnessing together (a) the wisdom of Alexander which was so evident to the two of us, and (b) the traditional practice of sitting-Zen... but basically nothing seemed to have happened. I didn't seem to have got anywhere.

Marjory's reply was along the lines that we were in the business of growth, and growth can never be hurried.

Furthermore, Marjory emphasized to me, one cannot force people to be happy. But if one is happy in oneself, then happiness tends to radiate out as if in ripples. (It was shortly after this conversation that I decided to go to France to look for somewhere quiet to retreat to.) 

Marjory didn't say that we were in the business of growing anything specifically, just that we were in the business of growth – maybe like a gardener whose job is to grow in the garden whatever grows. Growing growth. Developing developing.

Now, since my own sons are both recent graduates from university and are thinking about what kind of job to do, I find myself not caring what field they go into, as long as the paths they choose are somehow conducive to developing developing.

Yesterday afternoon I took my son to a meeting I had with a couple of teachers at a local primary school in which I gave an introductory explanation about the importance of the vestibular system, and about the kind of things to look out for in the classroom which might be symptomatic of underlying immaturity of vestibular reflexes.

On the way to the school we passed a big advertisement for a local gym. It caused me to reflect that there already is a big demand for development, but people are not aware of what is really most fundamental in development. We think in terms of physical development in the gym, or of cognitive development in the classroom, or of spiritual development in churches and monasteries. But the foundation of all development is the vestibular system, and (notwithstanding Sherrington's observation that a simple reflex is “a convenient fiction”) I venture to suggest that the four cornerstones of human development are four vestibular reflexes.

Hence I venture to suggest further that the essence of developing developing, as the Buddha taught it, might all be distilled in the practice of sitting in the full lotus posture,

• (1) Letting the neck be free,
• (2) To let the head go forward and up,
• (3) To let the back lengthen and widen,
• (4) While sending the knees forwards and away.

Being directed by Aśvaghoṣa back to what the Buddha said as recorded in the Pali Suttas, on such topics as bhāvana (developing) and pratītya-samutpāda (Springing Up by going back), has thus sort of brought me back to where I was 20 years ago, when I was first struck by the truth of what FM Alexander had discovered. A feeling, doubtless deeply rooted in ignorance, of having something important to say. An associated feeling, probably more reliable, of so far having got practically nowhere in saying it. 

The first thing my son said to me after the meeting at the primary school was, “Well, there seems to be a niche in the market there.” I was glad he had seen it that way. Maybe he will feel inspired to fill the niche. The gap in the market has to do with development, and with thinking developmentally (and not just educationally), based on recognition of the primacy of the vestibular sense, the sense of balance and movement in space. 

This translation and all these unduly long comments are aimed at that very gap in the market. Hence my objection to the view held by EH Johnston, and followed by other scholars, that Aśvaghoṣa was primarily interested in religious conversion. I think it is much truer to say that Aśvaghoṣa was primarily interested in individuals developing developing. 

VOCABULARY

tīvraiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. strong , severe , violent , intense , hot , pervading , excessive , ardent , sharp , acute , pungent , horrible

prayatnaiḥ (inst. pl.): m. persevering effort , continued exertion or endeavour

vividhaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. of various sorts , manifold , divers

avāptāḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. obtained, gained

kṣaṇena (inst. sg.): instantly, in a moment

ye (nom. pl. m.): which

nāśam (acc. sg.): m. the being lost , loss , disappearance , destruction , annihilation , ruin , death

iha: ind. in this world, here ; now

prayānti = 3^rd pers. sg. pl. pra- √ yā: to go to ; to get into a partic. state or condition

svapnopabhoga-pratimeṣu (loc. pl. m.): like enjoyment in a dream

svapna: m. sleep, a dream

upabhoga: m. enjoyment , eating , consuming

pratimā: ifc. like , similar , resembling , equal to

teṣu (loc. pl. m.): those

kāmeṣu (loc. pl.): m. pleasures, desires

kasya (gen. sg.): who?

ātmavataḥ (gen. sg. m.): being self-possessed

ratiḥ (nom. sg.): f. pleasure , enjoyment , delight in , fondness

syāt = 3^rd pers. sg. optative as: to be

苦方便求財 難集而易散猶如夢所得 智者豈保持