BUDDHACARITA 14.78: Links 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 - With the Grain

[No Sanskrit text]

Tibetan:

| reg pa las skyes tshor ba mkhyen | | tshor ba las skyes sred pa’o |

| sred pa las skyes len pa’o | | len pa las ni de bźin srid |

reg pa: contact (觸)

las: from

skyes: is born (生)

tshor ba: feeling (受)

mkhyen: know

tshor ba las: from feeling

skyes: is born

sred pa: thirsting (愛欲)

sred pa las: from thirsting

skyes: is born

len pa: taking hold (取)

de bzhin: like that, similarly

EHJ's translation from the Tibetan:

78. But of contact he knew sensation to be born, out of sensation thirst, out of thirst appropriation, and out of appropriation similarly existence.

Revised:

78. But out of contact, he knew feeling to be born; out of feeling, thirsting; out of thirsting, taking hold; and out of taking hold, again, becoming.

Chinese:

觸復生於受 受生於愛欲

愛欲生於取 取生於業有

contact again brings forth sensation; sensation brings forth longing desire; longing desire produces upādāna; Upādāna is the cause of deeds ; (SB)

and contact further produces experiencing. Experiencing produces craving, and craving produces grasping. Grasping produces the existence of actions, (CW)

COMMENT:

The doings that lead to yet further becoming, a person enclosed in ignorance, in the three ways, does do – and by these actions, to a new sphere in the cycle of going, does go. Divided knowing, into the new sphere of going, does set, having doings as its causal grounds. And so with the setting in of this divided consciousness, psycho-physicality is instilled. 

There again: With the instilling of psycho-physicality, there is the coming about of six senses. Six senses having arrived, there occurs contact. Depending on eye, on form, and on the bringing of the two together – depending in other words on psycho-physicality – divided consciousness occurs.

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 taking hold is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking hold, would be liberated and would not become becoming. Five aggregates, again, are becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of ageing and death – sorrows, accompanied by bewailing and complaining; downheartedness, troubles – all this arises out of birth. In this way there is the coming into being of this whole aggregate of suffering. 

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 being realized. In the dispelling of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The dispelling of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing. By the dispelling 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 dispelled. 

Thinking about nirodha-satya, which he interpreted as "the philosophy of action," my Zen teacher sometimes used the word evaporate -- as in, when we are sincerely devoted to our action, thoughts and feelings evaporate. 

Does sincere devotion to action mean doing something? Or does sincere devotion to action mean not doing anything? 

There again, how about insincere devotion to action? 

Answer that one, mother-"£$%&*! 

Dogen taught that there should be thousands and tens of thousands of questions like these. 

But setting such questions aside, for the moment, evaporate is a useful word in suggesting the disappearance of what never had any solid substance to it in the first place. 

As observed already, Nāgārjuna in general seems to eschew metaphorical expressions, but he does say that with the setting in, or seeping in, of divided consciousness, psycho-physicality is sprinkled down, poured in, infused, instilled, irrigated -- these are all translations of niṣicyate in MMK26.2, in accordance with the dictionary definition of  ni-√sic: to sprinkle down, pour upon or into, infuse, instil, irrigate. 

As a a general rule, evaporation would probably not hit the target as a translation of ni-rodha, which has more of a connotation of confinement or suppression, the prefix ni- indicating down, back, in. But another word that does convey the same sense of causing to disappear what in any case lacked substance is dispel. 

So in the above rendering of MMK Chapter 26, I have gone with dispel. If I dared to use evaporate, the translation would be something like this: 

The doings that lead to yet further becoming, a person engulfed in ignorance, in the three ways, does do – and by these actions, to a new sphere in the cycle of going, does go. Divided knowing, into the new sphere of going, does seep, having doings as its causal grounds. And so with the seeping in of this divided consciousness, psycho-physicality is instilled. 

There again: With the instilling of psycho-physicality, there is the coming about of six senses. Six senses having arrived, there occurs contact. Depending on eye, on form, and on the bringing of the two together – depending in other words on psycho-physicality – divided consciousness occurs. 

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 taking hold is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking hold, would be liberated and would not become becoming. Five aggregates, again, are becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of ageing and death – sorrows, accompanied by bewailing and complaining; downheartedness, troubles – all this arises out of birth. In this way there is the coming into being of this whole aggregate of suffering. 

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 being realized. In allowing ignorance to evaporate, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The evaporation of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing. By the evaporation of this one and that one, this one and that one no longer advance. This whole aggregate of suffering in this way is caused completely to evaporate.

As a PS, having published this post and recited to myself MMK Chap. 26 in Sanskrit and English, I wondered about translating nābhipravartate in verse 12 with a liquid connotation -- e.g. "this and and that one no longer flow forth." Given Nāgārjuna's usual avoidance of figurative expressions, I supposed that the grounds for such a translation would be weak. I knew, having checked before, that the Monier Williams dictionary gave abhi-pra-√vṛt as "to advance." But anyway I decided to check again, and saw that the second definition, referenced to the Rāmāyana, is "to disembogue." I had overlooked this definition since I did not know what disembogue meant. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, disembogue means to flow or come forth as if from a channel. 

BINGO! 

Here we go again, then. 

- Liquid Nāgārjuna -

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, a person engulfed in ignorance, in the three ways, does do – and by these actions, to a new sphere in the cycle of going, does go. Divided knowing, into the new sphere of going, does seep, having doings as its causal grounds. And so with the seeping in of this divided consciousness, psycho-physicality is instilled. 

There again: With the instilling of psycho-physicality, there is the coming about of six senses. Six senses having arrived, there occurs contact. Depending on eye, on form, and on the bringing of the two together – depending in other words on psycho-physicality – divided consciousness occurs. 

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 taking hold is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking hold, would be liberated and would not become becoming. Five aggregates, again, are becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of ageing and death – sorrows, accompanied by bewailing and complaining; downheartedness, troubles – all this arises out of birth. In this way there is the coming into being of this whole aggregate of suffering. 

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 being realized. In allowing ignorance to evaporate, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The evaporation of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing. By the evaporation of this one and that one, this one and that one no longer flow forth. This whole aggregate of suffering in this way is caused completely to evaporate.