BUDDHACARITA 14.73: Turning It Over & Over

[No Sanskrit text]

Tibetan:

| de nas rgyu yi go rims ni | | mkhyen nas de yi blor gyur te |

| sems ni lugs ’byuṅ bskor ba ste | | gźan du lugs las zlog par min | 

de nas: then, from that, therefore

rgyu: cause

yi: [genitive particle]

go rims: proper order

mkhyen nas: having known

blor: mind

sems: think

lugs: system; mode; way ; doctrine, viewpoint ; line of thought

bskor ba: turn round

gzhan du: otherwise

lugs: system; mode; way ; doctrine, viewpoint ; line of thought

zlog pa: reverse, turn back, avert

min: not

EHJ's translation from the Tibetan:

73. Then after he had understood the order of causality, he thought over it; his mind travelled over the views that he had formed and did not turn aside to other thoughts.

Revised:

73. And so, having understood the order of causality, he thought it over; his mind turned it over this way and that way and did not turn aside to other thoughts.

Chinese:

展轉更無餘

the two are intervolved leaving no remnant; (SB)

Nothing is omitted from such transformation. (CW)

COMMENT:

The mention in the Tibetan of turning over (bskor ba = turn round) without turning away (zlog pa = turn away, avert) seems to suggest devoted consideration of the circular relation between link 3, consciousness, and link 4, psycho-physicality. Perhaps there is a suggestion also of consideration going both with the grain (anulomam) and against the grain (pratilomam).

The sense of wholehearted giving of attention to the matter of causality, or dependent arising, is echoed by the Chinese characters 更無餘 which mean with nothing (無) left over (餘) at all (更).


Meanings of ni-√rudh given in the MW dictionary include to stop, to destroy, to keep away, and to remove. Turning it over and over, however, what effect exactly does the act of knowing have upon ignorance? Does knowing end ignorance, once and for all? Does knowing cause ignorance, for the moment, to cease? Does knowing destroy ignorance? Does knowing nullify ignorance? Is this whole heap of suffering well and truly ended, destroyed, annihilated ? Simply stopped ? 

I think Dogen would say that there should be thousands and tens of thousands of such questions. But there might not be any right answer. Because rightness might never be a destination. Rightness, if there is any such thing, might be a direction of travel... going sometimes with the flow, sometimes against the flow, and sometimes round and round in circles. Or, better, round and round in spirals...

punar-bhavāya saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |

abhisaṁskurute yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||MMK26.1||

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 catur-vidham ||6||

upādāne sati bhava upādātuḥ pravartate |

syād dhi 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 enclosed 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, psycho-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 psycho-physicality, there occurs divided consciousness. 

When the threesome of form, consciousness and eye are combined, that is contact; and from that contact there occurs feeling. With feeling as its causal grounds, there is thirsting – because the object of feeling is thirsted after. While thirsting is going on, taking hold takes hold in the four ways. While there is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking, would be liberated and would not become becoming. The five aggregates, again, are becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of aging and death – sorrows accompanied by complaining; downheartedness, troubles – all this arises out of birth. In this way this whole aggregate 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 realizing. In the clearing away of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The clearing away of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing. By the clearing up of this one and that one, this one and that one no longer advance. This whole aggregate of suffering in this way is well and truly cleared away.