BUDDHACARITA 14.50: Birth - Aging & Death (Nos. 11 - 12)

[No Sanskrit text]

Tibetan:

| kye ma ’jig rten ṅal thob gaṅ | | yaṅ daṅ yaṅ du skye ba daṅ |

| ’khogs pa daṅ ni ’chi ba daṅ | | ’pho ba daṅ ni skye ba ñid | 

kye ma: alas!

ngal: fatigue

thob:obtain

gang: [relative and interrogative pronoun ]

yang dang yang du: again and again

skye ba: birth

pa dang: as soon as [connective]

’pho ba: [EHJ 'pass on' = Skt. cyu, to fall]

[EHJ notes: Weller takes 'die and pass on' as a compound, but there is a distinction, as cyu implies passing on to the next life, particularly from a higher sphere to a lower.]

skye ba: birth

nyid: only

EHJ's translation from the Tibetan:

50. “ Alas ! Living creatures obtain but toil; over and over again they are born, grow old, die, pass on and are reborn.

Chinese:

觀察諸世間 輪轉苦自性

數數生老死 其數無有量

He meditated on the entire world of creatures, whirling in life's tangle, born to sorrow; the crowds who live, grow old, and die, innumerable for multitude, (SB)

and observed that the suffering of the turning of the wheel in the world was its specific nature. “One is frequently reborn, grows old, and dies. The number [of rebirths] is countless. (CW)

COMMENT:

Today is a very good Friday. I have been looking forward to today for the past couple of weeks. Now that we have arrived at the point where it is appropriate to refer, again and again, to MMK Chapter 26, I am going to memorize the living daylights out of Nāgārjuna's Sanskrit.

punar-bhavāya saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |

abhisaṁskurute yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||1||

vijñānaṁ saṁniviśate saṁskāra-pratyayaṁ gatau |

saṁniviṣṭe 'tha vijñāne nāma-rūpaṁ niṣicyate ||2||

niṣikte nāma-rūpe tu ṣaḍāyatana-saṁbhavaḥ |

ṣaḍāyatanam āgamya saṁsparśaḥ saṁpravartate ||3||

cakṣuḥ pratītya rūpaṁ ca samanvāhāram eva ca |

nāma-rūpaṁ pratītyaivaṁ vijñānaṁ saṁpravartate ||4||

saṁnipātas trayāṇāṁ yo rūpa-vijñāna-cakṣuṣām |

sparśaḥ saḥ tasmāt sparśāc ca vedanā saṁpravartate ||5||

vedanā-pratyayā tṛṣṇā vedanārthaṁ hi tṛṣyate |

tṛṣyamāṇa upādānam upādatte caturvidham ||6||

upādāne sati bhava upādātuḥ pravartate |

syādd hi yady anupādāno mucyeta na bhaved bhavaḥ ||7||

pañca skandhāḥ sa ca bhavaḥ bhavāj jātiḥ pravartate |

jarā-maraṇa-duḥkhādi śokāḥ sa-paridevanāḥ ||8||

daurmanasyam upāyāsā jāter etat pravartate |

kevalasyaivam etasya duḥkha-skandhasya saṁbhavaḥ ||9||

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||10||

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||11||

tasya tasya nirodhena tat tan nābhipravartate |

duḥkha-skandhaḥ kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||12||

The doings that lead to yet further becoming, the one veiled in ignorance, in three ways, does do; and by these actions he goes to a sphere of existence. Divided consciousness, with doings as its causal grounds, seeps into the sphere of existence. And so, divided consciousness having seeped in, pycho-physicality is instilled.

Conversely, once psycho-physicality is instilled, there is the coming about of six senses; six senses having arrived, there occurs contact; and – depending upon an eye, upon physical form, and upon the two being brought together – depending thus upon pscyho-physicality, there occurs divided consciousness.

Combination of the threesome of physical form, consciousness and eye, is contact; and from that contact there occurs feeling. With feeling as its causal grounds, there is thirst – because one thirsts for the object of feeling. While the thirsting is going on, grasping hold takes hold in four ways. While there is grasping hold, the becoming originates of the one who grasps – because becoming, if it were free of grasping hold, would be liberated and would not become becoming. The becoming, again, is the five aggregates. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of aging and death; sorrows accompanied by lamentations; dejectedness, troubles: all this arises out of birth. In this way this whole edifice of suffering comes into being.

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. 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. By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one are discontinued. This whole edifice of suffering in this way is well and truly demolished.