⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Kīrti)
śarīra-citta-vyasanātapais
tair evaṁ-vidhais taiś ca nipātyamānaḥ
|
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
naivāsanāc
chākya-muniś cacāla sva-niścayaṁ bandhum ivopaguhya || 13.43
13.43
And yet, while being assailed by these
various causes
Of trouble and pain for body and mind,
The Śākya sage never budged from
sitting –
For he had embraced his own resolve
like a comrade.
COMMENT:
Today's verse makes sense more easily
to me if the final word in the 2nd pāda is the nom. sg.
nipātyamānaḥ, describing the bodhisattva as being assailed. The
Nepalese manuscripts have the inst. pl. nipātyamānaiḥ, leading
EHJ to translate “in spite of these various afflictions
and distresses of body and mind,
which were cast at him.”
Taking nipātyamānaiḥ like this
caused EHJ to add the following footnote:
Sukumar Sen (Outline Syntax of Buddhistic Sanskrit, 25) construes the instrumentals of the first line as absolute; more probably Aśvaghoṣa feels the intransitive cacala to be equivalent to a causative passive, 'was not caused to waver by.'
Unless I am missing something, I don't
know why EHJ – rather than embroiling us in finer points of
Sanskrit grammar – did not just make the relatively minor amendment
of nipātyamānaiḥ to nipātyamānaḥ.
Either way, today's verse as I read
sits at the centre of a section of five verses whose main theme is
the transformative power of sitting-meditation, such that fearful
stimuli like falling embers and stones are turned into beautiful
phenomena like showers of flower petals.
What is being emphasized, still, is the
centrality of just sitting still. Hence in today's verse the
bodhisatttva is described as not budging at all. This kind of
attitude is familiar to those of us who were brought up in the
Japanese “sitting-zen” (Zazen) tradition.
At the same time, the development of
the four brahma-vihāras (maitrī, friendliness; karunā, kindness; muditā, gladness; upekṣā, forbearance), as
discussed yesterday, belongs to the kind of meditation called in
Sanskrit bhavanā. which means something like developing or
cultivating or training [the mind]. See for example SN16.5:
sarvāsravān bhāvanayābhibhūya na
jāyate śāntimavāpya bhūyaḥ
He prevails over all pollutants, by the
means of mental development (bhavanayā),
and, on finding peace, is no
longer subject to becoming.
So the present series of verses seem to
confirm, at least to my satisfaction, that there ultimately need be
no distinction between sitting-dhyāna and bhavanā.
Or, in other
words, originally, when the bodhisattva was sitting under the bodhi
tree, there was no distinction between sitting-dhyāna and bhavanā –
they were one non-doing act of sitting.
This sense of bhavanā and sitting-dhyāna coming back to one and the same integral non-doing act, is enhanced in the 4th pāda of today's verse, as I read it, by the description of the bodhisattva embracing his own resolve (sva-niścayam) like a kinsman or like a friend (bandhum iva).
His own resolve, as described at the
end of BC Canto 12, is the determination of the Zen man of iron not
to be distracted from just sitting:
Then the supreme, unshakeable cross-legged posture – in which sleeping serpents' coils are rolled into a ball – he took up, / As if to say, "I shall not break this sitting posture on the earth until I have done completely what is to be done." //12.120// Then the denizens of heaven felt unequalled joy; no sound did any beast make, nor any bird; / No forest tree creaked, though buffeted by the wind – when the Glorious One took his sitting posture, resolute to the core. //12.121//
And yet the bodhisattva embraces this,
his own resolve, not in a rigid, hard-headed manner, but rather as
one steeped in the exercise of friendliness.
Bandhu generally means “kinsman”;
hence “clasping firmly his resolution as a kinsman”
(EBC), “embracing his resolution like a kinsman”
(EHJ). But sometimes, the MW dictionary informs us, especially
when opposed to ripu, bandhu means a friend, an ally, a team-mate, a
mate in the Australian/British sense of the world – a fellow human
being embraced not out of a sexual motive, but out of friendliness.
So sitting with iron resolve not to
budge, and embracing one's own mind like a close friend, sound like two different approaches. But it might not
always be so.
It might be a similar thing, then, to the
dichotomy I discussed in connection with BC13.40 between American
kick-ass sincerity and British self-deprecating irony. Ultimately, that dichotomy might be a false dichotomy.
All this somehow makes sense to me in
light of how Marjory Barlow taught me to practise non-doing, playing
off against each other the desire to move a leg and the desire to be
free from habitual doings... until such time as the leg is able to be
moved without any loss of freedom.
Somehow or other I would like to
connect more explicitly FM Alexander's teaching of non-doing and the
Buddha's teaching of pratītya-samutpāda.
VOCABULARY
śarīra-citta-vyasanātapaiḥ
(inst. pl.): “afflictions and distresses of body and mind” [EHJ]
vyasana:
n. moving to and fro , wagging (of a tail) ; evil predicament or
plight , disaster , accident , evil result , calamity , misfortune
(vyasanāni pl. misfortunes) , ill-luck , distress , destruction ,
defeat , fall , ruin
ātapa:
mfn. causing pain or affliction
EHJ
notes that ātapa as a substantive seems to be only known in the
sense of “heat,” but as it cannot be an adjective here, EHJ takes
it as a substantive in the sense of the adjective.
taiḥ
(inst. pl.): those
evaṁ-vidhaiḥ
(inst. pl.): such
taiḥ
(inst. pl.): those
ca:
and
nipātyamānaiḥ
= inst. pl. passive pres. part. ni- √ pat: to fly down ; to rush
upon , attack , assail (acc. or loc.) ; to befall , happen
nipātyamānaḥ
= nom. sg. m. passive pres. part. ni- √ pat: to fly down ; to rush
upon , attack , assail (acc. or loc.) ; to befall , happen
na:
not
eva:
(emphatic)
āsanāt
(abl. sg.): sitting, sitting-posture
śākya-muniḥ
(nom. sg.): m. Śākyamuni ; the sage of the Śākyas
cacāla
=
3rd
pers. sg. cal: to be moved , stir , tremble , shake , quiver , be
agitated , palpitate
sva-niścayam
(acc. sg. m.): his own resolve
niścaya: m.
resolution , resolve, fixed intention , design , purpose , aim
bandhum
(acc.
sg.): m.
connection , relation , association ; a
kinsman ; a
friend (opp. to ripu)
iva:
like
upaguhya
=
abs. upa- √ guh : to clasp , embrace , press to the bosom
[No
corresponding Chinese translation]
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