BUDDHACARITA 14.31: Being Present Here Among Hunan Beings, On the Impure Inside

⏑−−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−

ime 'nye naraka-prakhye garbha-saṁjñe 'śuci-hrade |

⏑⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−

upapannā manuṣyeṣu duḥkham archanti jantavaḥ || 14.31

14.31

These different ones find themselves in a place that seems like hell,

A pool of impurity called “the insides”;

Fittingly, among human beings, they find themselves

As lowly creatures experiencing suffering.

COMMENT:

In the 1^st pāda of today's verse naraka-prakhye describes the pool of impurity in question as “like hell” or “seeming like hell” – so not hell, but a place that seems like hell. That could mean a place of training, I would suggest, like a karate dojo, or a Zazen hall, or an Alexander teacher training course, which, though it seemed like hell on the inside, now, looking back after the event – strangely – is recalled with happy memories.

In the 2^nd pāda, garbha-saṁjñe ostensibly means “called the womb”; hence:

Others, having found a hell in an impure lake called the womb, are born amongst men and there suffer anguish. (EBC)

These other creatures take form again in the filthy hell-like pool called the womb and experience suffering amongst men. (EHJ)

But garbha also means the inside of anything, or the middle, and herein I think might lie the ironic hidden meaning.

Thus, for example, when buddhas are worshipped in the abstract, Buddhist devotees hope to be born somewhere out there over the rainbow, in the Pure Land of Akṣobhya Buddha. 

Again, when buddhas are studied from the outside, the whole point for students and teachers in the Buddhist studies departments of universities is to study buddhas from the outside -- maintaining as far as possible the pure objectivity of natural sciences. "Mindfulness" studied like this has lent itself easily enough to conflation with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) as championed by doctors of pyschology whose knees have barely ever touched the ground. 

But when the Buddha's teaching is pursued from the inside, practice is tragically full of impurities and imperfections, and neither the Pure Land of Akṣobhya Buddha nor the pure objectivity of physics, are anywhere to be found.

As Dogen memorably observed with regard to purity and impurity, if a pool of water is too pure, fish cannot live in it.

VOCABULARY

ime (nom. pl. m.): these

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

naraka-prakhye (loc. sg. m.): hell-like

naraka: hell

prakhya: f. look , appearance (only ifc. = resembling , like)

garbha-saṁjñe (loc. sg. m.): called 'a womb'

garbha: m. the womb ; the inside , middle , interior of anything , calyx (as of a lotus) ;

saṁjñā: f. a name , appellation , title , technical term (ifc. = " called , named ")

aśuci-hrade (loc. sg. m.): an impure pool

aśuci: mfn. impure , foul

hrada: m. a large or deep piece of water , lake , pool

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

upa- √ pad : to reach , obtain , partake of ; to enter into any state ; to take place , come forth , be produced , appear , occur , happen

manuṣyeṣu (loc. pl. m.): among men, human beings

duḥkham (acc. sg. ): n. suffering

archanti = 3^rd pers. pl. ṛ: to go towards , meet with , fall upon or into , reach , obtain

(see also BC11.24)

jantavaḥ (nom. pl. m.): m. a child , offspring; a kinsman , servant ; a creature , living being , man , person ; any animal of the lowest organisation , worms , insects

或生人道中 身處於行厠