BUDDHACARITA 14.14: Crosses to Bear

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ke cit tīkṣṇair ayo-daṁṣṭrair bhakṣyante dāruṇaiḥ śvabhiḥ |

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ke cid dhṣṭair ayas-tuṇḍair vāyasair āyasair iva || 14.14

14.14

Some are chewed up, harshly,

By keen hounds with teeth made of the metal,

Some are scavenged by the crowing ayas-tuṇḍas, 'Metal-Beaks' –

As if by carrion crows, made of the metal.

COMMENT:

Some are devoured by fierce dreadful dogs with iron teeth, others by gloating crows with iron beaks and all made as it were of iron; (EBC)

Some are devoured by fierce horrid dogs with iron teeth., others by the gloating Iron-beaks as if by crows of iron. (EHJ)

EHJ noted:

For the ayas-tuṇḍas, Abhidharma-kośa, II, 151; it is wrong to take vāyasaiḥ with ayas-tuṇḍaiḥ.

There is no denial, ostensibly or below the surface, of the existence in saṁsāra of hell. What Aśvaghoṣa as I hear him is negating, below the surface, is fear of passing through hell.

The doings that lead to rebirth one veiled in ignorance, in the three ways, / Does do; and by these actions he enters a sphere of existence. //MMK26.1 // Consciousness seeps, with doings as causal grounds, into the sphere of existence./ And so, consciousness having seeped in, pychophysicality is infused. //26.2// There again, once psychophysicality is infused, there is the coming into existence of the six senses; / The six senses having arrived, contact arises; //26.3// And when the faculty of sight, going back, has met a physical form, and met indeed a meeting together, / – When sight has gone back, in this way, to psychophysicality – then consciousness arises. //26.4// The combination of the three – physical form, consciousness and faculty of seeing – / Is contact; and from that contact arises feeling. //26.5// On the grounds of feeling, there is thirst – because one thirsts for the object of feeling. / While the thirsting is going on, grasping hold takes hold in four ways.//26.6// While there is grasping hold, the becoming originates of the one who grasps – / Because becoming, in the absence of grasping hold, would be set free and would not become becoming. //26.7// The five aggregates, again, are the becoming. Out of the becoming rebirth is born. / The suffering of ageing and death, and all the rest of it – sorrows, along with lamentations; //26.8// Dejectedness, troubles – all this arises out of rebirth. / In this way there is the coming about of this whole mass of suffering. //26.9// The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. / The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of reality making itself known. //26.10// In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings./ The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.//26.11// By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one are discontinued. / This whole edifice of suffering is thus well and truly demolished.//MMK26.12//

We are working towards a situation in which the doings which are the root of saṁsāra are not done. Doings are not done, Nāgārjuna says, because of cultivation of just that act of knowing. And the act of knowing in question seems to mean knowing that the right thing does itself, or the truth emerges by itself, or reality makes itself known.

If the cultivation of just this act of knowing requires us to go to hell and be fed upon by fierce dogs and metal-beaked demons, then so be it.

In fact what Aśvaghoṣa as I hear him is suggesting is stronger than “so be it.” What he seems to be suggesting is that the teeth and beaks of these beings in hell are made of the fire-coloured metal described in BC14.12, that is, gold.

The suggestion might be, then, that a bodhisattva's sufferings in the harsh reality of saṁsāra, acutely painful though they are, insofar as they are the sufferings of a bodhisattva, are the most valuable thing there is.

From where my teacher sat, I must sometimes have seemed like a very keen hound, and at the same time like a very needy scavenger, occasionally given in his ignorance to crowing. 

We all, so they say, have our crosses to bear.

VOCABULARY

ke cit (nom. pl. m.): some

tīkṣṇaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): sharp , hot , pungent , fiery , acid ; harsh , rough , rude ; sharp, keen ; zealous

ayo-daṁṣṭraiḥ (inst. pl. m.): with iron teeth

bhakṣyante = 3^rd pers. pl. passive bhakṣ: to eat or drink , devour ; to consume , use up , waste , destroy ; to drain the resources of , impoverish

dāruṇaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. hard, harsh ; rough , sharp , severe , cruel , pitiless; dreadful , frightful

śvabhiḥ (inst. pl.): m. dog

ke cit (nom. pl. m.): some

dhṣṭaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. bold , daring , confident , audacious , impudent

ayas-tuṇḍaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. having an iron point ; EHJ: “Iron-beaks”

tuṇḍa: n. a beak , snout (of a hog &c ) , trunk (of an elephant)

vāyasaiḥ (inst. pl.): m. (fr. vayas, bird) a bird , (esp.) a large bird ; crow ; mfn. relating or peculiar to crows ; consisting of birds ; n. a multitude of crows

āyasaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. made of iron

iva: like, as if

長牙群犬食 利嘴鳥啄腦 

BUDDHACARITA 14.13: Eyes Down, Legs On Fire (Aśvaghoṣa vs Nāgārjuna)

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pacyante piṣṭavat ke cid ayas-kumbhīṣv avāṅ-mukhāḥ |

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dahyante karuṇaṁ ke cid dīpteṣv aṅgāra-rāśiṣu || 14.13

14.13

Some are cooked like paste

In cauldrons of the metal, their faces looking down;

Some are consumed, piteously,

On heaps of flaming coals.

COMMENT:

Others are baked like flour, thrown with their heads downwards into iron jars; others are miserably burned in heaps of heated charcoal; (EBC)

Some, head downwards, are boiled like meal in iron cauldrons; others are miserably broiled on heaps of burning redhot coals. (EHJ)

Thus the first line ostensibly describes sinners in hell thrown head first into pots, boilers or cauldrons made of iron.

But below the surface a Zen meditation hut on a frosty February morning might be just the oven where a bodhisattva sits, with his face looking down, and legs on fire. 

Below the surface "the metal" (ayas) of the oven or the cauldron is not iron but gold, and gold is just what we are here mining.

This, at least, is how kāñcanam āsanam, golden sitting, is expressed metaphorically by Aśvaghoṣa.

For Marjory Barlow, also, the metaphorical metal was gold, when she said, "In this work being prepared to be wrong is the golden key." 

Why is being open to being wrong the golden key? Because trying to be right is ignorance itself. And so how can we hope to destroy ignorance by relying on ignorance? 

Without recourse to metaphor, Marjory summed it up in five words: 

"You cannot do an undoing." 

Nāgārjuna, coming two generations after Aśvaghoṣa, does not seem to bother much with metaphors. He does not compare the Buddha's most valuable teaching to gold. He rather states in the driest possible terms, eschewing any kind of embellishment, or spin, that what the Buddha taught is pratītya-samutpāda, Complete Springing Up, by Going Back.

Hence, MMK begins:

a-nirodham an-utpādam an-ucchedam a-śāśvatam

an-ekārtham a-nānārtham an-āgamam a-nirgamam ||MMK1.1

Beyond closing down, beyond springing up,

Beyond discontinuity, beyond continuity,

Beyond identity, beyond distinctions,

Beyond coming near, beyond going away,

yaḥ pratītya-samutpādaṁ prapañcopaśamaṁ śivam |

deśayām āsa saṁbuddhas taṁ vande vadatāṁ varam ||MMK1.2

There is Complete Springing Up, by going back,

Which, as the wholesome cessation of spin,

He the Fully Awakened Sambuddha taught.

I praise him, the best of speakers.

There follow 25 chapters of MMK in which it seems to me, though I have not studied those chapters in detail yet, that Nāgārjuna scrutinizes all kinds of views and finds every one of them to be bogus. Then in chapter 26 he expresses very succinctly that most valuable teaching of the Buddha which is not a view. Thus:

The doings that lead to rebirth one veiled in ignorance, in the three ways, / Does do; and by these actions he enters a sphere of existence. //MMK26.1 // Consciousness seeps, with doings as causal grounds, into the sphere of existence./ And so, consciousness having seeped in, pychophysicality is infused. //26.2// There again, once psychophysicality is infused, there is the coming into existence of the six senses; / The six senses having arrived, contact arises; //26.3// And when the faculty of sight, going back, has met a physical form, and met indeed a meeting together, / – When sight has gone back, in this way, to psychophysicality – then consciousness arises. //26.4// The combination of the three – physical form, consciousness and faculty of seeing – / Is contact; and from that contact arises feeling. //26.5// On the grounds of feeling, there is thirst – because one thirsts for the object of feeling. / While the thirsting is going on, grasping hold takes hold in four ways.//26.6// While there is grasping hold, the becoming originates of the one who grasps – / Because becoming, in the absence of grasping hold, would be set free and would not become becoming. //26.7// The five aggregates, again, are the becoming. Out of the becoming rebirth is born. / The suffering of ageing and death, and all the rest of it – sorrows, along with lamentations; //26.8// Dejectedness, troubles – all this arises out of rebirth. / In this way there is the coming about of this whole mass of suffering. //26.9// The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. / The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of reality making itself known. //26.10// In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings./ The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.//26.11// By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one are discontinued. / This whole edifice of suffering is thus well and truly demolished.//MMK26.12//

Then in the final verse of the final chapter of MMK, Nāgārjuna states his ultimate conclusion:

sarva-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇāya yaḥ saddharmam adeśayat |

anukampām upādāya taṁ namasyāmi gautamam || MMK27.30

In the direction of abandoning all views,

He taught the true dharma,

Taking pity.

I bow to him, Gautama.

The styles of expression of Aśvaghoṣa and Nāgārjuna are thus very different. And at the same time, below surface appearances, Nāgārjuna's anukampām upādāya (taking pity) of MMK27.30 sounds to me like a not-so-distant echo of the karuṇam (piteously) of today's verse. 

VOCABULARY

pacyante = 3^rd pers. pl. passive pac: to cook , bake , roast , boil

piṣṭavat: ind. like flour, like cakes

piṣṭa: mfn. crushed, ground ; m. a cake , pastry ; n. flour , meal , anything ground

ke cid (nom. pl. m.): some

ayas-kumbhīṣu (loc. pl.): f. an iron pot or boiler

avāṅ-mukhāḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. having the face turned downwards , looking down ; turned downwards

dahyante = 3^rd pers. pl. passive dah: to be consumed by fire or destroyed ; to be consumed by internal heat or grief , suffer pain , be distressed or vexed

karuṇam: ind. mournfully , woefully , pitifully , in distress

ke cid (nom. pl. m.): some

dīpteṣu (loc. pl. m.): mfn. blazing , flaming , hot , shining

aṅgāra-rāśiṣu (loc. pl. m.): heaps of charcoal

aṅgāra: m. charcoal , either heated or not heated

rāśi: m. a heap , mass , pile , group , multitude , quantity , number

投之沸湯 驅入盛火聚

BUDDHACARITA 14.12: Drinking Molten Metal and Roaring

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pāyyante kvathitaṁ ke cid agni-varṇam ayo-rasam |

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āropyante ruvanto 'nye niṣṭapta-stambham āyasam || 14.12

14.12

Some are caused to imbibe a potion, brought to the boil, 

Of smelted fire-coloured metal;

Ones who are different are planted, roaring,

Up a molten column of the metal.

COMMENT:

Looking ahead, there is much mention in the coming verses of ayas, which generally means iron or metal in general, but which sometimes means, in particular, gold.

In today's verse as I read it, Aśvaghoṣa is signalling his intention to play with that ambiguity. 

The ostensible gory meaning is conveyed by the translations of EBC and EHJ:

Some are made to drink molten iron of the colour of fire, others are lifted aloft screaming on a red-hot iron pillar. (EBC)

Some are made to drink molten iron of the colour of fire ; others are impaled howling on a redhot iron pillar. (EHJ)

Thus both professors translated kvathitam ayo-rasam as “molten iron.” But as well as meaning “liquid,” rasa can mean the best of anything. So ayo-rasam can also be understood to mean “the best of metals,” in which case agni-varṇam ayo-rasam, “the best of metals which has the colour of fire,” would obviously indicate gold.

The difficulty for the translator, as is often the case, is that to bring out this hidden meaning in which ayo-rasam  means gold, the best of metals, and āyasam means made of gold, golden, would hinder the ostensible depiction of a scene of horror. 

So my job in these comments is generally to clarify the irony which resides in the gap between what is being said on the surface (where the bodhisattva is painting an awful picture of a hell to be feared), and what is being suggested below the surface (where being wrong is the best friend that a bodhisattva has got). 

Being caused to imbibe liquid gold might be just what we are doing now, as we take in, from Aśvaghoṣa's cup, the original teaching of the Buddha – which, metaphorically speaking, has been brought to the boil, again and again, by each successive generation.

And those among these imbibers who are outstanding – dragons and elephants, as the Chinese would say – are compelled, whether they like it or not, to roar the lion's roar.

If we fail to get the irony of a verse like today's verse then, like EH Johnston eighty years ago and like Patrick Olivelle more recently, we are bound to think that the Buddha taught a religion like Catholicism, with all its fearful depictions of hell. On that basis, we are liable to describe the Buddha's teaching, as PO has described it, as the consummation of Brahmanism. And we are liable to describe Aśvaghoṣa, as numerous Oxford scholars have described him, as one who was primarily concerned with converting non-believers to the Buddhist faith.

But when we get the irony of a verse like today's verse, such thoughts and descriptions – ironically enough – are manifestations of the very ignorance which Aśvaghoṣa was really interested in. Above all,  Aśvaghoṣa was interested in prodding us in the direction of destroying the ignorance whose antidote is neither religious belief nor the kind of knowledge accumulated by pseudo-scientific “Buddhist studies.”

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. / The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of reality making itself known. //MMK26.10// In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings./ The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.//MMK26.11//

Such was Nāgārjuna's roar of the fundamental, from bang in the middle of the middle way.

Below the surface, the connection between

• (a) Aśvaghoṣa's teaching in today's verse and
• (b) Nāgārjuna's teaching in MMK26.10,

might be the connection between

• (a) energy being directed up the spinal column and
• (b) “reality making itself known” – i.e. the right thing being allowed to do itself.

What I have written above about ignorance and religion is a conclusion I have come to for myself. It is not a teaching I received from my teacher, who called himself "Rev. Gudo Nishijima" while demonstrating the height of ignorance by blindly teaching his students to do the very doings which are the root of saṁsāra. 

But having come to this conclusion for myself I also realize that I am not saying anything original about the futility of religious effort in the destruction of ignorance. Because it has already been said very eloquently by a Tibetan monk who has been going in the right direction for much longer than I have. 

And what do people call this monk, who affirms irreligious pursuit of the truth, and calls himself everybody's human brother? 

They call him "His Holiness."  

VOCABULARY

pāyyante = 3^rd pers. pl. causative passive pā: to drink

kvathitam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. boiled , decocted , stewed

kvath: to boil , prepare by heat ; to digest ; to be hot (as the heart) ; (caus.) to cause to boil , decoct

ke cid (nom. pl. m.): some

agni-varṇam (acc. sg. n.): the colour of fire

ayo-rasam (acc. sg. n.) = ayo-rajas / ayo-mala: n. rust

ayas: n. iron ; an iron weapon (as an axe , &c ); gold

rasa: m. the sap or juice of plants , Juice of fruit , any liquid or fluid , the best or finest or prime part of anything , essence , marrow ; water , liquor , drink ; any mixture , draught , elixir , potion

āropyante = 3^rd pers. pl. causative passive ā- √ ruh: to ascend , mount ; [causative] to cause to mount or ascend ; to raise ; to string (a bow) ; to cause to grow ; to plant ; to place , deposit , fasten

ruvantaḥ = nom. pl. pres. part. ru: to roar , bellow , howl , yelp , cry aloud

anye (nom. pl. m.): others, ones who were different

niṣṭapta-stambham (acc. sg. m.): a scorching hot post , a molten metal column

niṣṭapta: mfn. burnt , scorched , heated thoroughly , melted (as gold) , well cooked or dressed

stambha: m. a post , pillar , column , stem

āyasam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. ayas) , of iron , made of iron or metal

呑飮於洋銅 鐵槍貫其體 

BUDDHACARITA 14.11: Being Present Here in Hell

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upapannāḥ pratibhaye narake bhśa-dāruṇe |

⏑−−−¦⏑⏑⏑−¦¦−−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−    navipulā

amī duḥkhair bahu-vidhaiḥ pīḍyante kpaṇaṁ bata || 14.11

14.11

Deservedly finding themselves in a horrible

And terribly harsh hell,

The former individuals are with many kinds of sufferings

Miserably oppressed – alas!

COMMENT:

The next ten verses are given over to a description of hell. From 14.21 the description passes to the realm of animals. The bodhisattva is thus in the process of describing five realms of saṁsāra, viz. hell, animals, hungry ghosts, human beings, and heaven.

On the surface, we are being invited to be afraid of hell.

I think of the Cathedral in Plaza Grande in Quito where I taught English for a month or two when I was 18. On opposing walls are depicted heaven and hell, the latter adorned with demons mutilating the bodies of sinners. What a load of old rubbish.

The opening word of today's verse, upapannāḥ, ostensibly means “born” or “reborn”; hence:

The one, being born in a dreadful hell full of terrors, are miserably tortured, alas! by many kinds of suffering; (EBC)

The former are reborn in the very dreadful fearsome hell and, alas, are woefully tormented with sufferings of many kinds. (EHJ)

Upapanna, however, is the past participle of upa-√pad, whose meanings include “to be present” and “to be fit for (with loc.).”

Below the surface, then, I think there is a suggestion that while the sanctimonious are up there abiding in their triple heaven, any of us who have the wherewithal to be present in hell, duly find ourselves in hell, and are challenged to deal with it.

For a conspicuous example of a person of such wherewithal, I admire George Soros, and his appetite for dealing with what he calls “harsh reality.”

Today's verse as I read it thus brings out the point that a bodhisattva should not be afraid of going to hell. But when I find myself in hell, I should truly find myself in hell, being absolutely clear that I got here by my own actions, by karma, by cause and effect.

That is the serious point. But I think the point is made in such a way as to stimulate a wry smile -- Aśvaghoṣa may have intended the final word of the verse bata, “alas!”, to convey an undertone of irony.

After all, who would choose to be one of the ones who finds himself or herself in hell, as opposed to being one of the ones who are different -- the self-styled "good guys," who abide in triple heaven? 

VOCABULARY

upapannāḥ (nom. pl. m.): happened , fallen to one's share , produced , effected , existing , being near at hand

upa- √ pad: to go towards; to approach , come to , arrive at , enter ; to enter into any state ; to take place , come forth , be produced , appear , occur , happen ; to be present , exist ; to be possible , be fit for or adequate to (with loc.)

pratibhaye (loc. sg.): mfn. exciting fear , formidable , terrible , dangerous ; n. fear, danger

narake (loc. sg.): mn. hell , place of torment

bhṛśa-dāruṇe (loc. sg.): mfn. very terrible or cruel

bhṛśa: ibc. and ( am ind. ) strongly , violently , vehemently , excessively , greatly , very much; harshly, severely

dāruṇa: mfn. hard , harsh ; rough , sharp , severe , cruel , pitiless ; dreadful

amī = nom. pl. m. amu: (a pronom. base , used in the declension of the pronom. adas) that

duḥkhaiḥ (inst. pl.): n. sufferings

bahu-vidhaiḥ (inst. pl.): mfn. of many kinds

pīḍyante = 3^rd pers. pl. passive pīḍ: to be pressed or pained or afflicted

kṛpaṇam: ind. miserably , pitiably

bata: ind. an interjection expressing astonishment or regret , generally = ah! oh! alas!

若生地獄者 受無量種苦

BUDDHACARITA 14.10: There Is No Good Doing (But Much Do-Gooding)

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ime duṣkta-karmāṇaḥ prāṇino yānti durgatim |

⏑−−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−−¦⏑−⏑−

ime 'nye śubha-karmāṇaḥ pratiṣṭhante tri-piṣṭape || 14.10

14.10

“These creatures of deeds badly done

Go to a bad place;

These others, good-doers,

Abide in the triple heaven.

COMMENT:

The greatest blessing in life, it occurs to me this rainy morning, is also the greatest curse.

Dur-gatim “a bad place” or “sphere of misery” means mainly hell, but it could also describe any of the other lower saṁsāric realms, including the realms of animals, hungry ghosts, and struggling human beings.

Do-gooders – or “doers of beautiful karma,” “doers of gorgeous karma” – are different from us who are struggling in these lower realms.

Today's verse, then, turns Aśvaghoṣa's usual use of anye on its head. Anye usually means those who are different (from what people expect). But in today's verse anye means those who are different in the sense of being special, or morally superior -- at least in their own minds. In short then, anye, "those who are different," which Aśvaghoṣa generally uses to indicate non-buddhas, in today's verse suggests moral snobs, the sanctimonious.

Reading the word śubha, which means good and at the same time gorgeous, I can't help thinking of a meeting of the venerable that was held in Tokyo some years ago. I was cc'd on an email in which the chairman of the meeting thanked all concerned for their “gorgeous” discussions. From where I sat, the discussions were not so gorgeous, since they were discussions about the publication of the Nishijima-Cross translation of Shobogenzo, discussions that had no right to take place without my agreement. It struck me at the time as bitterly ironic that these religious group-thinkers were getting together in the common delusion that they were doing the right thing, calling each other “Venerable,” when from where I sat their doings were nefarious indeed.

Such irony in today's verse, as I read it, translates itself very easily into English, since we already have in English the ironic term “do-gooder,” by which we mean a person who, with the best of idealistic intentions, intervenes to make things worse.

So in today's verse on the surface ime 'nye śubha-karmāṇaḥ means “these others, under the influence of good actions” (EBC) or “those others whose deeds are good” (EHJ). But the real meaning, below the surface, is “these others who are do-gooders.”

The do-gooders are the ones who think that they are right and are out to prove it. Islaamic fundamentalists are the easy target. But remember the “moral majority” in America of the 1980s – whatever happened to that bunch of hypocrites? The saddest hypocrites of all, as I see them (or see us, I should probably say, in light of the mirror principle), are Zen Buddhists who are proud of themselves for knowing what the right posture is and for sitting in it.

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the one veiled in ignorance do.

The one veiled in ignorance is the the doer of deeds badly done, who goes to a bad place. Of course he or she is. Of course I am. Of course that applies to us all.

But the one veiled in ignorance is also the do-gooder, the Venerable So and So, who abides from time to time in the Triple Heaven of his or her own gorgeous self-righteousness.

My fifty-five year old self could have helped the sixty-five Gudo Nishijima to see more clearly what Nāgārjuna's words mean. I could have helped my teacher to see more clearly that the whole Japanese religious conception of Zen Buddhism, centred on sitting in the right posture, has been totally and utterly fallacious, founded on a misconception. My teacher sort of knew intuitively that the whole of Japanese Buddhism had strayed off the mark, but he couldn't see why exactly, and it was hard for him to recognize to what extent his own teaching was part of the problem.

Neither, in fact, could my forty-year old self clarify this for the benefit of Gudo's eighty-year old self.

That's why it occurs to me this morning that getting old is the greatest blessing, and also the greatest curse.

VOCABULARY

ime (nom. pl. m.): these

duṣkṛta-karmāṇaḥ (nom. pl. m.): of deeds badly done

prāṇinaḥ (nom. pl. m.): m. a living or sentient being , living creature , animal or man; mfn. breathing , living , alive

yānti = 3^rd pers. pl. yā: to go

durgatim (acc. sg.): f. misfortune , distress , poverty , want of (gen.) ; hell

ime (nom. pl. m.): these

anye (nom. pl. m.): others, ones who are different

śubha-karmāṇaḥ (nom. pl. m.): of good or virtuous deeds ; acting nobly

pratiṣṭhante = 3^rd pers. pl. prati-√sthā: to stand , stay , abide , dwell ; to establish in , appoint to (loc.)

tri-piṣṭape n. = tri-diva , indra's heaven

tri-diva: the 3rd or most sacred heaven , heaven (in general)

piṣṭapa = viṣṭapa: n. forking or bifurcation (of an udumbara branch) ; a world = viṣṭap

viṣṭap: f. top , summit , surface , highest part , height (esp. of heaven)

觀察惡業者 當生惡趣中
修習善業者 生於人天中 

BUDDHACARITA 14.9: All Karma In Saṁsāra Is a Drag

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sattvānāṁ paśyatas tasya nikṣṭotkṣṭa-karmaṇām |

−⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑⏑−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

pracyutiṁ copapattiṁ ca vavdhe karuṇātmatā || 14.9

14.9

As he observed the relegation and promotion

Of living beings possessed of the karma

Of pulling down or pulling up,

His inherent compassion waxed greater.

COMMENT:

Today's verse is a particularly difficult one to translate in such a way that the pāda by pāda progression is preserved.

One way would be to repeat the translation of paśyatas tasya; for example:

As he saw living beings by their actions,

Pulling down or pulling up,/

As he observed them dropping out, and presenting in the world,

His inherent compassion waxed greater.//

Alternatively: 

As he observed living beings possessed of the karma of pulling down and pulling up / Being relegated and promoted, his inherent compassion waxed greater. //

Here for reference is how EBC and EHJ handled today's verse:

As he saw the various transmigrations and rebirths of the various beings with their several lower or higher merits from their actions, compassion grew up more within him. (EBC)

His compassionateness waxed greater, as he saw the passing away and rebirth of all creatures according as their acts were lower or higher. (EHJ)

EBC and EHJ thus both translated nikṛṣṭotkṛṣṭa (= ni-kṛṣṭa + ut-kṛṣṭa ) simply as “lower or higher.” The root √kṛṣ, however, means to drag or draw or pull, so that ni-√kṛṣ means “to drag or pull down” and ut-√kṛṣ means “to draw or drag or pull up.”

The irony not to be missed in the background is that “higher merit from their actions” and “higher acts” refer in the present context to acts that lead to heaven. Heaven is the fifth of the five saṁsāric realms that the bodhisattva is about to describe. So heaven is also a place we go to as a result of doing the doings that one veiled in ignorance does do.

The point is not that we should fear hell and aspire to heaven. The point to recognize is that we drag ourselves down into hell by our ignorant doing, and equally we haul oursleves up in the direction of heaven, also by our ignorant doing. 

These doings are the doings that Nāgārjuna called the root of saṁsāra (saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān): 

The doings that lead to rebirth one veiled in ignorance, in the three ways, / Does do; and by these actions he enters a sphere of existence. //MMK26.1 // Consciousness seeps, with doings as causal grounds, into the sphere of existence./ And so, consciousness having seeped in, pychophysicality is infused. //26.2// There again, once psychophysicality is infused, there is the coming into existence of the six senses; / The six senses having arrived, contact arises; //26.3// And when the faculty of sight, going back, has met a physical form, and met indeed a meeting together, / – When sight has gone back, in this way, to psychophysicality – then consciousness arises. //26.4// The combination of the three – physical form, consciousness and faculty of seeing – / Is contact; and from that contact arises feeling. //26.5// On the grounds of feeling, there is thirst – because one thirsts for the object of feeling. / While the thirsting is going on, grasping hold takes hold in four ways.//26.6// While there is grasping hold, the becoming originates of the one who grasps – / Because becoming, in the absence of grasping hold, would be set free and would not become becoming. //26.7// The five aggregates, again, are the becoming. Out of the becoming rebirth is born. / The suffering of ageing and death, and all the rest of it – sorrows, along with lamentations; //26.8// Dejectedness, troubles – all this arises out of rebirth. / In this way there is the coming about of this whole mass of suffering. //26.9// The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. / The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of reality making itself known. //26.10// In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings./ The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.//26.11// By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one are discontinued. / This whole edifice of suffering is thus well and truly demolished.//MMK26.12//

What I would like to write about, then, again, is the one thing I think I have learned from the past 30-odd years of folly, which is that

(a) religious trying to be right is just ignorance; 

(b) in the destruction of this ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings.

In terms of Zazen sitting posture, which Japanese Zen masters of recent years, including my own teacher, have emphasized so strongly, to try to be right is to pull oneself up.

According to the teaching of the Alexander teacher Marjory Barlow, a wiser act than trying to pull oneself up is deliberately to pull oneself down. Having consciously pulled oneself down, and observed what the wrong thing is, one can learn to let the wrong thing be wrong, so that the right thing might have a chance of doing itself.

Thus, the Marjory Barlow I knew truly was a wise one, not a doer – because of the right thing doing itself.

The fit between Nāgārjuna's words and what Marjory Barlow taught, is incredibly exact. 

Nāgārjuna's words doubtless deal with other kinds  of ignorance as well, but for the particular igorance that Marjory addresssed -- the ignorance of trying to be right -- I am amazed at how well Nāgārjuna's words fit. 

VOCABULARY

sattvānām (gen. pl.): n. beings

paśyataḥ = gen. abs. pres. part. paś: to see

tasya (gen. abs.): him

nikṛṣṭotkṛṣṭa-karmaṇām (gen. pl. n.): debasing and elevating actions

ni-kṛṣṭa: mfn. debased , vile , low , despised , outcast

ut-kṛṣṭa: mfn. (opposed to apa-kṛṣṭa and ava-kṛṣṭa) , drawn up or out ; taking a high position ; excellent , eminent ; superior, best

kṛṣ: to draw , draw to one's self , drag , pull , drag away , tear

karman: n. act, action ; former act as leading to inevitable results , fate (as the certain consequence of acts in a previous life)

pra-cyutim (acc. sg.): f. going away , withdrawing , departing ; decay , fall , ruin

pra- √ cyu: to move , proceed , depart ; to swerve or deviate from (abl.) ; to be deprived of , lose (abl.) ; to fall down , drop , stumble ; to fall (scil. from heaven i.e. be born again)

ca: and

upa-pattim (acc. sg.): f. happening , occurring , becoming visible , appearing , taking place , production , effecting , accomplishing ; proving right , resulting ; ascertained or demonstrated conclusion , proof , evidence

upa- √ pad: to go towards or against , attack ; to approach , come to , arrive at , enter ; to reach , obtain , partake of ; to take place , come forth , be produced , appear , occur , happen ; to be present , exist ; to become , be suitable

ca: and

vavṛdhe = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. vṛdh: to grow, increase ; to rise, ascend ; to be exalted or elevated , feel animated or inspired or excited by (instr. loc. gen.)

karuṇātmatā (nom. sg. f.): compassion-nature, compassionateness, compassion

ātmatā: f. essence , nature

衆生生生死 貴賤與貧富

清淨不淨業 隨受苦樂報 

BUDDHACARITA 14.8: Investigation of Spotlessness

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tatas tena sa divyena pariśuddhena cakṣuṣā |

⏑−⏑⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−

dadarśa nikhilaṁ lokam ādarśa iva nirmale || 14.8

14.8

On that basis, by the means of that divine seeing,

That fully cleansed organ of sight,

He saw the whole Universe

As if in a spotless mirror.

COMMENT:

Belief in spotlessness, in general, equates to idealism or perfectionism, or religious fundamentalism. Belief in spotlessness, in general, is a kind of ignorance, in which case its inevitable result is the doings which are the root of saṁsāra.

So in general, for those of us who are ever prone, being veiled in ignorance, to do the doings which are the root of saṁsāra, the principle to study might be this: there is no such thing as spotlessness.

Except when it comes to cause and effect. 

In other words, there are no absolutes. Except when it comes to the reality of cause and effect. 

Read in that light, “a spotless mirror” means in other words, an absolute standard, such as the law of cause and effect is.

So I think that today's verse means that the bodhisattva saw that the whole world, or the whole Universe, as being absolutely governed by cause and effect. “As if in a spotless mirror” means that he did not have even in a teeny bit of a doubt about it.

Read like this, today's verse, since it is mainly concerned with causality, belongs within the wider scheme to the second of four phases.

At the same, within today's verse itself, the four pādas as I read them also have an underlying four-phased logic. So...

1. divinity belongs to the first phase;
2. the physical eye – or a whole human body-mind – as an organ of sight, belongs to the second phase ; 
3. seeing the Universe belongs to the third phase, where subject and object meet; and
4. a spotless mirror, suggesting reality itself (the reality of cause and effect) as the absolute standard, belongs to the fourth phase.

In my twenties, when my contemporaries were building careers and having fun, I was in Tokyo feeling sorry for myself, most of the time, in four phases. I grew so accustomed to thinking in four phases that Gudo Nishijima himself, king of the four philosophies, criticised me for it. Which I felt was rich coming from him.

When I first visited Gudo in his office in the summer of 1982, I entered his office like I was accustomed to entering a karate dojo. I wanted to be shown how to train, what to do -- doing being the operative word.

Instead of that he sat me down opposite him and gave me a lecture about idealism, materialism, action, and reality.

Regular readers of this blog will know that from time to time I analyze a verse, or a series of verses, into four phases. Then I go for a while without mentioning the four phases.

But in the present Canto, I think the four phases are useful for putting the twelve links into perspective.

Today's verse is leading to a description of how the bodhisattva sees cause and effect operating. So it belongs to the second phase.

The twelve links as part of the teaching of pratītya-samutpāda are also regarded as having to do with causality. This is how Gudo Nishijima discussed the twelve links in the book which led me to him, titled “How to Practise Zazen.”

But I want to emphasize that the real, practical purpose of the twelve links in the teaching of pratītya-samutpāda, is to point us back in the direction of seeing the doings which the one veiled in ignorance does do. The point is to destroy ignorance. And destroying ignorance depends on the bringing-into-being of an act of knowing. But this act of knowing is more challenging than the kind of knowledge that a scientist gleans. The challenge is to be the wise one, who is not the doer, because of reality making itself known.

Today's verse, then, belongs broadly to the second phase. But the teaching of pratītya-samutpāda comes after the second phase, in this Canto, and in the overall scheme of the Buddha's teaching. 

The second phase is studied by scientists in the laboratory and in the field. But pratītya-samutpāda is to be realized with one's sitting bones digging holes in a round cushion, and one's knees on a mat.

The doings that lead to rebirth one veiled in ignorance, in the three ways, / Does do; and by these actions he enters a sphere of existence. //MMK26.1 // Consciousness seeps, with doings as causal grounds, into the sphere of existence./ And so, consciousness having seeped in, pychophysicality is infused. //26.2// There again, once psychophysicality is infused, there is the coming into existence of the six senses; / The six senses having arrived, contact arises; //26.3// And when the faculty of sight, going back, has met a physical form, and met indeed a meeting together, / – When sight has gone back, in this way, to psychophysicality – then consciousness arises. //26.4// The combination of the three – physical form, consciousness and faculty of seeing – / Is contact; and from that contact arises feeling. //26.5// On the grounds of feeling, there is thirst – because one thirsts for the object of feeling. / While the thirsting is going on, grasping hold takes hold in four ways.//26.6// While there is grasping hold, the becoming originates of the one who grasps – / Because becoming, in the absence of grasping hold, would be set free and would not become becoming. //26.7// The five aggregates, again, are the becoming. Out of the becoming rebirth is born. / The suffering of ageing and death, and all the rest of it – sorrows, along with lamentations; //26.8// Dejectedness, troubles – all this arises out of rebirth. / In this way there is the coming about of this whole mass of suffering. //26.9// The doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one do. / The ignorant one therefore is the doer; the wise one is not, because of reality making itself known. //26.10// In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings./ The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.//26.11// By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one are discontinued. / This whole edifice of suffering is thus well and truly demolished.//MMK26.12//

VOCABULARY

tatah: then

tena (inst. sg. n.): that

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

divyena (inst. sg. n.): mfn. divine

pariśuddhena (inst. sg. n.): mfn. cleaned , purified , pure

cakṣuṣā (inst. sg.): n. sight, eye

dadarśa = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. dṛś: to see

nikhilam (acc. sg. m.) mfn. complete , all , whole , entire

lokam (acc. sg.): m. the world

ādarśe (loc. sg.): m. a looking-glass , mirror

iva: like, as if

nir-male (loc. sg. m.): mfn. spotless , unsullied , clean , pure , shining , resplendent , bright

mala: n. dirt , filth , dust , impurity (physical and moral)

見一切衆生 如觀鏡中像