SAUNDARANANDA 8.14: A Striver Becomes a Bit Softer

atha tasya nishamya tad-vacaH
priya-bhaary"-aabhimukhasya shocataH
shramaNaH sa shiraH prakampayan
nijagaad' aatma-gataM shanair idaM

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8.14
When he heard those words of Nanda

Who, mind turned towards his beloved wife,
was burning with pain,

The striver as he shook his head,

Softly, said to himself:

COMMENT:
As EH Johnston observes, Ashvaghosha does not waste words. So what of real importance might he be intending to say in this verse?

I think the key phrase might be shiraH prakampayan in line 3 which, on the face of it, just means shaking the head. But it might be relevant that pra- √kamp means not only to shake but also to relax or become loosened.

Is Ashvaghosha's intention that hearing Nanda's honest words, and seeing Nanda's real human suffering, somehow caused the striver to allow himself to be a little less tight and right, to allow his neck to release its grip on his head a bit?

Did Nanda's openness and truthfulness, in some sense, set the striver free?

If this was Ashvaghosha's secret intention, I can't see a way of bringing it out in translation -- other than hinting at it by bringing forward the word "softly."

The suggestion is, in other words, that shanais (quietly, softly, gently, delicately) might be intended to describe not only the striver's speech but also the movement of his head on top of his spinal column.

Whether or not this was Ashvaghosha's intention, one thing I can report from my own experience -- on the rugby pitch and weights room, in the karate dojo, and on a round black cushion -- as a striver, is this: the kind of movement I want -- whether running or lifting, or sliding and blocking or kicking and punching, or just sitting -- begins with a movement of the head being released out of the body. And this movement of the head is ineffably soft. When we try to do it, what results is some variation on the old theme of "tucking in the chin a little to keep the neck bones straight." It is in the not doing of it that the softness -- or what Marjorie Barstow
called "the delicacy of the movement" -- exists.


EH Johnston:
Then the disciple, hearing these words of his, as he lamented in his devotion to his beloved wife, shook his head and said softly to himself :--

Linda Covill:
When he heard these words from the grieving Nanda, who was focused on his beloved wife, the ascetic shook his head and softly said to himself:

VOCABULARY:
atha: ind. then, and so
tasya (gen. sg.): of him
nishamya = abs. ni- √ sham: to hear
tad-vacaH (acc. sg. n.): those words

priya-bhaary"-aabhimukhasya (gen. sg. m.): turned towards his beloved wife
priya: mfn. beloved
bhaaryaa: f. wife
abhimukha: mfn. with the face directed towards , turned towards , facing

shocataH = gen. sg. m. pres. part. shuc: to shine , flame , gleam , glow , burn; to suffer violent heat or pain , be sorrowful or afflicted , grieve

shramaNaH (nom. sg.): m. the striver
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
shiraH (acc. sg.): n. head
prakampayan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. causative pra- √ kamp: to tremble , shake , quiver ; to become lax , be loosened ; to vibrate (said of sound) ; Causative: to cause to tremble ; to swing , wave , brandish , shake

nijagaada = 3rd pers. sg. perfect ni- √ gad: to recite , proclaim , announce , declare , tell , speak
aatma-gatam (acc. sg. n.): to himself
shanaiH: ind. quietly , softly , gently , gradually
idam (acc. sg. n.): this

SAUNDARANANDA 8.13: Like a King Without Sovereignty

vana-vaasa-sukhaat paraaN-mukhaH
prayiyaasaa gRham eva yena me
na hi sharma labhe tayaa vinaa
nR-patir hiina iv' ottama-shriyaa

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8.13
Averse to the happiness of the forest life,

I just want to go home;

For without her I obtain no comfort,

Like a king without sovereignty."

COMMENT:
"I am like a king without sovereignty" sounds like it could be the cri de coeur of a rock star with a Maserati that does 185 but no license with which it to drive -- a favourite lyric of mine, which so succinctly expresses the essence of tragedy.

But let us not forget -- in particular, let me not forget -- that Saundara-nanda is ultimately anything but a tragedy: it is rather a tale of redemption, so that if Nanda in his present state of deprivation feels like a king without his kingdom, he will in due course, by dint of his own effort, be like the regal conqueror of hitherto unconquered lands.

Hence in Canto 16 the Buddha tells Nanda:

So, in order to make the noble truths your own, / First clear a path according to this plan of action, // Like a king going on campaign to subdue his foes, /Wishing to conquer unconquered riches.// [16.85]

After ploughing and protecting the soil with great pains, a farmer gains a bounteous crop of corn; /After striving to plumb the ocean's waters, a diver revels in a bounty of coral and pearls; // After seeing off with arrows the endeavour of rival kings, a king enjoys royal dominion. / So direct your energy in pursuit of peace, for in directed energy, undoubtedly, lies all growth. // [16.98]

And in Canto 17 Ashvaghosha describes Nanda's progress in this direction:

For just as, by laying out fortifications and laying down the rod of the law, / By banding with friends and disbanding foes, // A king gains hitherto ungained land, / That is the very policy towards practice of one who desires release.// [17.11]

Consequently, relying on the fourth stage of meditation, / He made up his mind to win the worthy state, // Like a king joining forces with a strong and noble ally / And then aspiring to conquer unconquered lands.// [17.56]

Speaking of kingship, Dogen wrote a chapter of Shobogenzo in which sitting in full lotus is praised as the samadhi that is king of samadhis.

The only thing that surpasses the supremacy of the Buddha-Ancestor's supremacy, Dogen writes, is this samadhi, which is the king of samadhis.

So the kind of sovereignty Dogen is pointing to in that chapter, as also in his rules of sitting-zen for everybody, is nothing exclusive. It is to become king of the Universe solely through sovereignty over oneself.

The practice of just sitting then, to answer Lee Child's call to young and old Edwardians, and at the same time to answer my own self-doubt, is a field in which everybody who wishes to be a giant can, through his or her direction of his or her own energy, truly be a giant in his own field... even if only for a few fleeting moments a day.

One of the reasons Lee Child's character Jack Reacher evidently meets some deep unfulfilled need people feel we have is that Jack Reacher stands for justice, whereas we are liable to feel and say that there is no justice in this world.

The Buddha's teaching, as championed by the likes of Ashvaghosha and Dogen, is that there is indeed justice in this world, inherently. There is nothing that is not fair. In thrall to faulty sensory appreciation, however, we feel unfairly treated, because we fail to notice cause and effect working not only in the short and medium term but also over the very long term.

That being so, a primary function of Dogen's rules of sitting-zen for everybody, and of Ashvaghosha's Saundara-nanda, seems to be to inspire, in the mind of every reader, the confidence that he or she can be the one who gains sovereignty over the treasure of him or her self.

The emergence of such confidence will be the main theme of Canto 12. Hence:

So long as the real truth is not seen or heard, / Confidence does not become strong or firm; // But when, through restraint, the power of the senses is circumvented and the real truth is realised,/ The tree of confidence bears fruit and weight. // [12.43]



EH Johnston:
I am averse from the joys of the forest life and therefore wish to go home ; for I can no more find contentment without her than a king could, when deprived of his sovereign power.'

Linda Covill:
I am averse to the pleasures of living in the forest, since I just want to go home; for without her I can find no joy, like a king without his sovereignty."

VOCABULARY:
vana-vaasa-sukhaat (abl. sg.): from the joys of living in the forest
vana-vaasa: m. dwelling or residence in a forest , wandering habits ; mfn. residing in a forest , wood-dweller
sukha: n. ease , easiness , comfort , prosperity , pleasure , happiness
paraaN-mukhaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. having the face turned away or averted , turning the back upon ; averse from

prayiyaasaa (nom. sg.): f. (fr. desid. pra- √ yaa) desire of going
pra- √ yaa: to go forth , set out , progress , advance towards or against , go or repair to (acc. )
gRham (acc. sg.): mn. home, house
eva: (emphatic)
yena (inst. sg.): whereby, because of which
me (gen. sg.): of me, in me

na: not
hi: for
sharma (acc. sg.): n. shelter , protection , refuge , safety; Joy , bliss , comfort , delight , happiness
labhe = 1st pers. sg. labh: to take, meet with, find, obtain
tayaa (inst. sg.): f. her
vinaa: ind. without

nR-patiH (nom. sg. m.): m. " lord of men " , king
hiinaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. bereft or deprived of , free from , devoid or destitute of , without (instr.)
iva: like
uttama-shriyaa (inst. sg. f.): supreme majesty; sovereign power, sovereignty
uttama: uppermost , highest , chief
shrii: f. prosperity , welfare , high rank , power , might , majesty , royal dignity

SAUNDARANANDA 8.12: Nanda Tells the Truth, No Gap

tad idaM shRNu me samaasato
na rame dharma-vidhaav Rte priyaaM
giri-saanuShu kaaminiim Rte
kRta-retaa iva kiMnarash caran

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8.12
Hear me then when I say, in short,

That without my beloved I do not enjoy
the practice of dharma;

I am like a kimnara without his lover

Roaming about, his semen ready, over mountain peaks.

COMMENT:
After the blather of the last two verses, Nanda gets directly to the point.

The word for mountain here is giri, whereas in 3.7 Ashvaghosha uses the word adri. Ashvaghosha describes the Buddha as adri-raaja-vat, "like the king of mountains":

Sitting there, mind made up, / As unmovingly stable as the king of mountains, // He overcame the grim army of Mara / And awoke to the step which is happy, irremovable, and irreducible.// [3.7]

So while an impassioned kimnara is roving restlessly over mountain peaks, with seminal fluid on the edge of bursting forth, the mountain itself is always as still as sitting-Buddha.

If it were not for Buddha sitting in stillness, how could a mountain ever be as still as sitting-Buddha?

In a hundred years from now, and possibly much sooner, I along with my nearest and dearest will all be dead. Maybe it will take a bit longer before my translation work has become totally erased from people's memories. But the mountains will be as still as sitting-Buddha for as long as there are mountains -- a fact that has got nothing to do with me or you. And as to whether we, as celibate strivers or as impassioned kimnaras, realize it or not, the mountains will ever be ... as indifferent as sitting Buddhas.

About 25 years ago, in a state quite similar to the state Nanda is in now, I visited my teacher Gudo Nishijima in his office wherein he told me "If you can transcend family life, you will become the most excellent Buddhist master in the world. This is my expectation." Because of the wish I had, as a product of the kind of thinking touched on yesterday, to be a giant in my field, those words meant a lot -- too much -- to me. But when I look back on it now, I think it was just the kind of vanity and conceit that is identified throughout Saundara-nanda as the enemy.

I wouldn't claim, even with 25 years behind me of scars and wrinkles and broken teeth and dreams, to have got beyond such vanity and conceit. To discuss one's own vanity might be vanity itself. But regardless of me, mountains are mountains. And if they were interested in who among them was the highest, how could mountains forever be -- even when impassioned kimnaras are trampling over them -- as still, and as indifferent, as sitting-Buddha?


EH Johnston:
Then listen to me. To put it briefly, like a passionate Kinnara wandering on the mountain peaks without his love, I take no pleasure in the practice of the Law without my mistress.

Linda Covill:
So listen to this. To be brief, I do not enjoy the prescriptions of dharma without my dear girl, but am like a kinnara, his semen ready, wandering the mountain plateaux without his lover.

VOCABULARY:
tad: ind. so, then, therefore
idam (acc. sg. n.): this
shRNu = 2nd pers. sg. imperative shru: to hear, listen
me (gen. sg.): of me
samaasataH: ind. in a summary manner , succinctly , concisely

na: not
rame = 1st pers. sg. ram: to be glad or pleased , rejoice at , delight in , be fond of (loc.)
dharma-vidhau (loc. sg.): dharma-practice, the practice of dharma
vidhau: m. rule ; method , manner or way of acting , mode of life , conduct , behaviour ; any act or action , performance , accomplishment , contrivance , work , business (ifc. often pleonastically)
Rte: ind. without
priyaam (acc. sg.): f. wife, beloved

giri-saanuShu (loc. pl.): over mountain tops
giri: mountain
saanu: a summit , ridge , surface , top of a mountain , (in later language generally) mountain-ridge , table-land
kaaminiim (acc. sg.): f. a loving or affectionate woman
Rte: ind. without

kRta-retaaH (nom. sg. m.): with his semen ready
kRta: mfn. done, made; prepared , made ready
retas: n. a flow ; flow of semen , seminal fluid , sperm , seed
iva: like
kiMnaraH (nom. sg.): m. " what sort of man? " a mythical being with a human figure and the head of a horse (or with a horse's body and the head of a man ; in later times reckoned among the gandharvas or celestial choristers , and celebrated as musicians|)
caran = nom. sg. m. pres. part. car: to move one's self , go , walk , move , stir , roam about , wander ; to move or travel through , pervade , go along , follow

SAUNDARANANDA 8.11: A Good Talker, But...

ata eva ca me visheShataH
pravivakShaa kShama-vaadini tvayi
na hi bhaavam imaM cal'-aatmane
kathayeyaM bruvate' py asaadhave

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8.11
And so I am particularly keen to speak to you

Who preach propriety;

For what I am feeling now I would not tell
to a man out of balance in himself

Who, though a good talker, was not a true person.

COMMENT:
In Canto 3 Ashvaghosha describes Arada, whom the young Gautama served as a teacher, as mokSha-vaadin, one who spoke of freedom, or a proponent of freedom, or a preacher of the doctrine of freedom.

Then Arada, who spoke of freedom, / And likewise Udraka, who inclined towards quietness, // He served, his heart set on truth, and he left. / He who intuited the path intuited: "This also is not it." // [3.3]

In today's verse Nanda uses the same construction to describe the striver as kShama-vaadin, one who speaks of propriety, or a champion of propriety, or a preacher of propriety. And in the background to both uses of the affix vaadin there is, as I see it, the same sense of "It is not that." In the verse describing Arada, the sense is explicit. In today's verse, as I read it, Nanda does not intend any irony, but Nanda's innocence is part of Ashvaghosha's irony.

A further pointer to Ashvaghosha's ironic intention might be bruvate in line 4, from the root √bruu, which can carry a connotation of professing oneself to be what one actually is not. This is precisely what the striver has done in professing himself to be a healer of mental problems -- which is a contradiction in terms.

So what seems to be emerging from Cantos 8 and 9 is Ashvaghosha's use the character of the striver as a device (1) to introduce some aspects of the Buddha's teaching which, as a Buddhist monk adept in hearing and talking, the striver is well qualified to parrot; and (2) further to highlight the little gap that is ever prone to emerge between talking a good talk and walking the good walk. This is the little gap that once opened, as Dogen cautions in his rules of sitting-zen for everybody, is as wide as the separation between heaven and earth.

The character of the striver, then, bears some similarities to the character of the senior lady-in-waiting in Canto 6 who tried unsucessfully to console Sundari. That woman, like this Buddhist monk, was also good at talking the talk, but... for her too, a miss was as good as a mile.

The non-Buddhist king in Canto 2, in marked contrast, is praised primarily for non-verbal virtues -- for being pure in his actions, his lack of conceit, his freedom from stiffness, his effective governance, his keeping of his promises, his quiet devotion to dharma for the sake of dharma and not for the sake of praise, and so on. The king, although as Gautama's father he was in no sense a "Buddhist," is portrayed as a man of true integrity in whom there is no gap between preaching and practice.

The last but by no means least irony to discuss in this verse relates to Nanda's use of the terms cal-aatman and a-saadhu in lines 3 and 4. While innocently using these terms to sing the praises of the conceited striver who denounces conceit, Nanda is somehow at the same time unwittingly manifesting understanding of the ultimate criterion of the Buddha's truth, which is namely, as discussed in yesterday's comment, the balanced state of accepting and using the self. That is to say, a person who is a-saadhu, not a true person, is not a true person because he is cal-aatman, of unsteady essence; i.e. out of balance. Whereas the antithesis of having an unsteady essence is regular enjoyment of the samadhi of accepting and using the self.


My comments, I know, are too long and self-indulgent... but while I was sleeping last night the content of today's verse struck me as totally relevant to something I read yesterday in the old boys magazine of my old school -- the Old Edwardians Gazette. The magazine ran in full a talk given on Speech Day last year by the writer Lee Child, who was five years ahead of me at school. Predictably it was an excellently written speech, full of humour, and was evidently well received. But the main thrust of the speech, one could argue, was very much bound up with the kind of conceit that hinders a bloke from accepting himself fully as he is and from realizing himself as a true person.

Hence, "Your biggest problem in life will be your minority status... -- that of intelligent people required to live in a profoundly stupid world...."

The speech concluded as follows:
"Let me clear about two things. A small handful of us, about three or four, did things of moderate interest, and again, let me be clear, I'm deeply honoured to be invited to give this speech but when your Chief Master considered which of my generation to invite, I should have been 64th or 65th on his list, not 4th or 5th or whatever I was. There should have been prime ministers and Nobel Prize winners and cancer curers and all kinds of world beaters ahead of me.

But there weren't, and that's my plea. Don't settle. Don't chicken out. If you wan't to study law, go for it, but don't then become a solicitor in Erdington, doing divorces and conveyancing. Go to Texas or Mississipi and abolish the death penalty, or go to Africa and write a constitution.

If you want to study medicine, knock yourself out. But don't then become a middle manager in the Health Service. Go defeat malaria or AIDS instead. If you study science, go to Antarctica and find a new mineral and patent a process and win the Nobel Prize and make yourself a fortune.

Of course, I'm talking to the parents here, partly. I know how you feel. I had parents just like you. I was a parent just like you. When your son steps out on adult life, you hold your breath. And I'm asking you to hold your breath for maybe twenty years. I know that's tough. But the upside is that the man who comes home twenty years from now will be the best in the world at something. A giant in his field. Not a solicitor from Erdington who has spent twenty years doing divorces and conveyancing.

So when your son falters, it's your job to spur him on.

And conversely, from you boy's point of view, if your parents falter, it's your job to stand fast. Because it's payback time for you. We were smarter than you, no question. But you haven't blown it yet. You can still do the big things. Make sure you do, OK?"

When I read this yesterday, I couldn't help be lifted by it. The idea that Lee Childs advocates so temptingly -- the idea of striving to be a giant in one's field -- is part of who I am. It is an idea that, if I haven't been attentive enough in inhibiting it, I could easily have passed onto my own two sons. But when I reflect on it in the cold light of morning, isn't the kind of vaulting ambition Lee Child is advocating the very opposite of the Buddha's ultimate teaching of having small desire and being content? And as for Lee Child's intoxicating exhortation to do the big things, the best antidote to that might be to come back to the original teaching of Gautama Buddha and the Seven Buddhas:

SHO-AKU MAKU-SA
"The not doing of any evil."

Or, as FM Alexander put it:

"Like a good fellow, stop the things that are wrong first."


EH Johnston:
That is the reason why I wish especially to speak to you who say what is fitting; for I would not explain this feeling of mine to an unsaintly man of wavering mind, however eloquent he were.

Linda Covill:
That is why I want to talk to you in particular, since you speak with forbearance, for I would not mention my feelings to a bad person with a volatile nature, however eloquent.

VOCABULARY:
ataH: ind. from this, hence
eva (emphatic)
ca: and
me (gen. sg.): of me
visheSha-taH: ind. especially , particularly , above all

pravivakShaa (nom. sg.): f. (fr. Desid. of pra √ vac) the wish or desire to proclaim , announce , praise , commend , mention , teach , impart , explain, speak, say, tell
kShama-vaadini (loc. sg. m.): a preacher of propriety; one who asserts what is fitting, who wiseacres about what is right
kShama: mfn. patient ; n. propriety, fitness
vaadin: mfn. saying , discoursing , speaking , talking , speaking or talking about (often ifc.); m. a speaker , asserter , (ifc.) the teacher or propounder , or adherent of any doctrine or theory
tvayi (loc. sg.): to you

na: not
hi: for
bhaavam (acc. sg.): m. true condition or state ; any state of mind or body , way of thinking or feeling , sentiment , opinion , disposition , intention
imam (acc. sg. m.): this , this here , referring to something near the speaker
cal'-aatmane (dat. sg.): to a man of unsteady essence
cala: mfn. moving , trembling , shaking , loose ; unsteady
aatman: m. essence , nature , character , peculiarity (often ifc. e.g. karmaatman, one whose character is action , endowed with principles of action , active , acting)

kathayeyam = 1st pers. sg. optative kath: to tell , relate , narrate , report , inform , speak about , declare , explain , describe (with acc. of the thing or person spoken about)
bruvate = dat. sg. m. pres. part. bruu: to speak , say , tell ; to speak about any person or thing; to proclaim , predict ; to call or profess one's self to be
bruva: mfn. calling one's self by a name without any real title to it ; being merely nominally (ifc.)
api: though
asaadhave (dat. sg. m.): mfn. not good , wicked , bad ; not an honest man , a wicked man
a: negative prefix
saadhu: mfn. straight, right; leading straight to a goal , hitting the mark , unerring ; m. a good or virtuous or honest man

SAUNDARANANDA 8.10: Flattering a Fake Elephant

sadRsham yadi dharma-caariNaH
satataM praaNiShu maitra-cetasaH
adhRtau tad iyaM hit'-aiShi-taa
mayi te syaat karuN'-aatmanaH sataH

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8.10
"It is surely fitting for a dharma practitioner

Who is forever friendly-minded towards living beings,

That this benevolence
inherent in your compassionate good self

Might be shown to me in my inconstancy!

COMMENT:
EHJ notes that he doubts whether his reading of this verse is correct. His original text has yad (not tad) in line 3. LC emended yad to tad, and I have followed this reading.

Seeking the irony in this verse, one does not have to look far, in light of the gist and title of Canto 8, strii-vighaataH, a tirade against those living beings known as women.

The irony, as I see it, is deliberately intended by Ashvaghosha, but not remotely suspected by the gormlessly grovelling Nanda.

In his rules of sitting-zen recommended to everybody (including monks and non-monks, Buddhists and non-Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews and the irreligious, beggars and investment bankers, strivers and scrounging layabouts) Zen Master Dogen cautions against getting familiar with the fake elephant and doubting the true dragon. The fake elephant is a metaphor for what is false, something other than the lifeblood. The true dragon is a metaphor for what is really real, the lifeblood itself.

In this verse, as I read it, Nanda is flattering a fake elephant, worshipping a false icon. His attitude is false, not real. At this stage of his journey, even though Nanda has met the Tathagata already, he has not met the true dragon yet.

So Ashvaghosha's Saundara-nanda contains, among many other treasures, the evidence that meeting the true dragon is by no means assured by meeting others, even if the other is the very Best of Teachers. Rather, the true dragon is met just in the samadhi of accepting and using the self.

EH Johnston:
' It does indeed befit one who practises the Law in his heart and has an ever benevolent mind towards living beings that you should display in your compassionate nature this kindness to me who am so lacking in steadfastness.

Linda Covill:
"If it is fitting in a dharma practitioner who is always well-disposed to living beings, then may this benevolence of yours, who are compassionate and good, be directed towards me in my wavering!

VOCABULARY:
sadRsham (acc. sg. n.): conformable , suitable , fit , proper , right , worthy
yadi: ind. if , in case that [Observe that yadi may sometimes = " as sure as " (esp. in asseverations followed by Pot. with tad)]
dharma-caariNaH (gen. sg. m.): a dharma practitioner
caarin: mfn. moving ; acting , proceeding , doing , practising

satatam: ind. constantly , always , ever
praaNiShu (loc. pl.): m. a living or sentient being , living creature , animal or man
maitra-cetasaH (gen. sg. m): friendly-minded
maitra: mfn. (fr. mitra, friend, of which it is also the vRiddhi form in comp.) coming from or given by or belonging to a friend , friendly , amicable , benevolent , affectionate , kind
cetas: n. consciousness , intelligence , thinking soul , heart , mind

adhRtau (loc. sg.): f. want of firmness or fortitude ; laxity , absence of control or restraint
dhRti: f. holding ; firmness , constancy , resolution , will , command
tad: ind. then , at that time , in that case (correlative of yadi)
iyam (nom. sg. f.): this , this here , referring to something near the speaker
hit'-aiShi-taa (nom. sg.): f. well-wishing , desiring another's welfare
hita: n. (sg. or pl.) anything useful or salutary or suitable or proper , benefit , advantage , profit , service , good , welfare , good advice
eShin: mfn. (generally ifc.) going after , seeking , striving for , desiring
taa: f. abstract noun suffix

mayi (loc. sg.): to me
te (gen. sg.): of you
syaat = 3rd pers. sg. optative as: to be
karuN'-aatmanaH (gen. sg. m.): compassionate in nature
karuNa: mfn. compassionate
m. aatman: essence , nature , character , peculiarity (often ifc. e.g. karmaatman , &c )
sataH = gen. sg. m. pres. part. as: to be
sat: mfn. (pr. p. of as) real , actual , as any one or anything ought to be , true , good , right

SAUNDARANANDA 8.9: An Ineffable Wish to Do

sa jagaada tatash cikiirShitaM
ghana-nishvaasa-gRhiitam antaraa
shruta-vaag-vishadaaya bhikShave
viduShaa pravrajitena dur-vacaM

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8.9
Then,
in between the deep sighs
that intermittently gripped him,

He told the beggar who was adept at hearing and talking

What he intended to do --

An intention that,
for an intelligent man who has gone forth,
is difficult to express.

COMMENT:
In this verse Ashvaghosha describes the striver as shruta-vaag-vishada, "adept at hearing/listening and talking/speaking." On the face of it, this looks like words of affirmation. But might Ashvaghosha be wryly suggesting that the striver was adept at hearing what the Buddha said, and then simply parrotting the Buddha's words?

In 15.54, for example, the Buddha tells Nanda: That "I am young," or "I am strong," / Should not occur to you: // Death kills in all situations / Without regard for sprightliness. //

In Canto 9 the striver, in denouncing Nanda's conceit (while evidently remaining blind to his own conceit of being a curer of mental ills) strives at great length to preach to Nanda this admonition against thinking oneself to be strong. But was the striver's admonition the same as the Buddha's admonition, or not? Is "8 x 8 = 64" the same whether parrotted by a striver or thought out by the tathagata?

Reading Saundarananda slowly and attentively, as we are doing, turns out to be an exercise in seeing irony and enduring ambiguity.

As a further illustration of this point, in line 1 of today's verse cikiirShitam, "intention," is from the desiderative of the root √kR, to do. So cikiirShitam means what a person desires of wishes or intends to do.

In what sense, then, was what Nanda intended to do dur-vacam? In what sense was Nanda's intention hard for him to speak, or difficult for a wise monk to assert/affirm/avow, or difficult for anybody to explain?

At the least subtle and most superficial level, it cannot have been easy for Nanda, it must have been shameful for him, as an educated royal who had in a manner of speaking gone forth into the wandering life, to confess that all he really wanted to do was to go home and shag his wife. This is one level of understanding of today's verse -- we could call it the level of understanding of the ordinary bloke.

But if we understand vidvas in line 4 not as "intelligent" or "educated" (which Nanda evidently was), but as "wise" (which Nanda at this stage was not), then the meaning of line 4 seems to change to a more general proposition -- Nanda's intention was an intention that a wise monk would find it difficult to assert or difficult to avow. This level might be a Buddhist monk's understanding of today's verse.

Digging deeper though, I think Ashvaghosha's secret intention might also have been to point to the ineffable mystery of the wish that arises to do. This might be called a non-Buddhist non-monk's understanding of today's verse.

The starting point of the Buddha's teaching is not to do wrong. And sitting in lotus can be seen as the embodiment of conscious practice of not doing wrong. But out of this practice emerges a wish to do something -- to join hands and bow, or join up with one's wife, or give an Alexander lesson, or sew a robe or build a stupa or dig the garden.

And Ashvaghosha himself was clearly familiar with this wish to do.

In some sense, we know very little about who Ashvaghosha was. But in some sense, from the historical fact that Ashvaghosha was a buddha-ancestor, 12th in line from the Buddha, whose Dharma-descendants included Nagarjuna, Bodhidharma, and Dogen, and from the fact that he authored this poem, we know a lot. We know from his place in the lineage that he was a master of the Buddha's fundamental teaching of not to do. At the same time, did this poem titled Saundara-nanda, Handsome Nanda, write itself? Maybe it did -- but not without some intention on Ashvaghosha's part to do it.

What was Ashvaghosha's intention in writing Saundara-nanda?

One might as well ask: What was Bodhidharma's intention in coming from India?

Writing Saundara-nanda arose from an intention to do, as Bodhidharma's journey from India to China also arose from an intention to do. An intention to do what?

Even for the wisest of men who went forth, this intention to do might have been very difficult to express, even through such means as a brandished fist. And to express it through direct verbal expression might have been totally impossible.

One way of exploring the ineffable intention to do, on a small scale, is to lie on one's back with knees bent and investigate the decision to move a leg, as described here.

FM Alexander wasn't against the will-to-do per se. But he cautioned against acting on this 'will' without consciously attending beforehand to preventive directions. Hence Alexander was overheard telling a pupil:

"The will-to-do without direction -- if you are wrong and you 'will' do, God help you!"

Echoing the Buddha who told his first followers to do all kinds of good, but only after telling them not to do any evil, FM Alexander told his pupil:

"Like a good fellow, stop the things that are wrong first."

Thus, there might be a lot more to today's verse than initially meets the eye. But the point of this unduly long comment, truly, is not that I wish to get a Ph. D. in Buddhist Studies. Why I produce so much verbage, I sometimes wonder. It could be just a symptom of being an incurable windbag who has spent a lifetime trying to use intelligence to circumvent faulty vestibular functioning. But I would like to think it might be the expression of a genuine wish to clear away, for self and others, that which hinders the lifeblood from flowing.

EH Johnston:
Then choking all the while with deep sobs he told his intention to the disciple who was skilled in sacred learning and in speech, though his intention was such as a wise mendicant would have found it hard to avow :--

Linda Covill:
Then, intermittently overcome by deep sighs, he told the monk, who was pure in learning and speech, what he meant to do -- hard words for a wise man who has adopted homelessness:

VOCABULARY:
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
jagaada = 3rd pers. sg. perfect gad: to speak articulately , speak , say , relate , tell anything
tataH: ind. thence, then, from that
cikiirShitam (acc. sg.): n. " intended to be done , designed " , purpose , design , intention

ghana-nishvaasa-gRhiitam (acc. sg. n.): being grasped by deep breaths
ghana: mfn. thick, dark, deep
nishvaasa: m. breath , expiration or inspiration; a sigh
gRhiita: mfn. grasped , taken , seized , caught
antaraa: ind. in the middle , inside , within , among , between; in the meantime, now and then ; (with acc. and loc.) between , during

shruta-vaag-vishadaaya (dat. sg. m.): skilled in hearing and talking ; (good at parroting?)
shruta: n. anything heard , that which has been heard (esp. from the beginning) , knowledge as heard by holy men and transmitted from generation to generation , oral tradition or revelation , sacred knowledge ; n. the act of hearing ; n. learning or teaching , instruction
vaac: f. speech , voice , talk ; a word , saying
vishada: " conspicuous " , bright , brilliant , shining , splendid , beautiful , white , spotless , pure (lit. and fig.); (ifc.) skilled or dexterous in , fit for ; endowed with
bhikShave (dat. sg.): m. beggar, mendicant, monk

viduShaa = inst. sg. m. vidvas: mfn. one who knows , knowing , understanding , learned , intelligent , wise ; m. a wise man , sage , seer
pravrajitena (inst. sg.): mfn. one who has left home to become a religious mendicant or (with jainas) to become a monk ; m. a religious mendicant or a monk
pra- √ vraj: to go forth ; to leave home and wander forth as an ascetic mendicant
dur-vacam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. difficult to be spoken or explained or asserted or answered ; speaking ill or in pain ; n. abuse , censure

SAUNDARANANDA 8.8: A Secluded Spot

atha tatra shucau lataa-gRhe
kusum'-odgaariNi tau niShedatuH
mRdhubhir mRdu-maarut'-eritair
upaguuDhaav iva baala-pallavaiH

- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =

8.8
And so there the two of them sat

In a bright bower of flower-spewing creepers

Whose soft young shoots, stirring in a soft breeze,

Seemed to be hiding them away.

COMMENT:
The emphasis of this verse depends on whether upaguuDha is translated as "embraced" or as "hidden."

Is Ashvaghosha wishing to convey a sense that Nanda and the striver were embraced by nature, or a sense of the privacy that the surroundings afforded them, or both?

For me, the latter sense is stronger, in keeping with the Buddha's advice to Nanda, most memorably given at the end of Canto 14, that seclusion is favourable for practice.

Therefore walking like this: "Walking, I am"; / And standing like this: "Standing, I am" -- // At opportune moments such as these -- / You should cover yourself in mindfulness. // To a place suited for practice, free of people and free of noise, / To a place for lying down and sitting, my friend, repair in this manner; // For by first achieving solitude of the body / It is easy to obtain solitude of the mind. //....// Just as, when not fanned by the wind, / A bright fire dies down, // In solitary places, similarly, with little effort / An unstirred mind comes to quiet. // One who eats anything at any place, and wears any clothes, / Who dwells in enjoyment of his own being and loves to be anywhere without people: // He is to be known as a success, a knower of the taste of peace and ease, whose mind is made up -- / He avoids involvement with others like a thorn.// [14.45 - 14.50]

And again at the end of Canto 16, the Buddha reminds Nanda that a place suited to practice (yoga), though not necessarily a special or magical place where nature seems to hold the practitioner in a welcoming embrace, is a place not thronged with people:

These salubrious wilds that surround us / Are suited to practice and not thronged with people...// Furnishing the body with ample solitude, / Cut a path for abandoning the afflictions.// [16.86]


EH Johnston:
So they sat down there in a clean bower of creepers, bursting with flowers, which embraced them, as it were, with soft young shoots waving in the gentle breeze.

Linda Covill:
Here they sat down in a cleared bower of creepers bursting with flowers, so that they seemed embraced by the tender young shoots swaying in the soft breeze.

VOCABULARY:
atha: ind. and so, then
tatra: ind. there
shucau (loc sg. n.): mfn. shining , glowing , gleaming , radiant , bright ; clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.) , holy , unsullied , undefiled
lataa-gRhe (loc. sg. n.): a creeper-bower , arbour of creepers

kusum'-odgaariNi (loc. sg. n.): bursting out flowers
kusuma: n. (fr. √kus, to enfold) , a flower , blossom
udgaarin: mfn. (ifc.) ejecting , spitting , vomiting ; discharging , thrusting out
ud- √ gRR: to eject (from the mouth) , spit out , vomit out or up , belch out ; to pour out , discharge , spout
√ gRR: to swallow , devour , eat ; to emit or eject from the mouth
tau (nom. dual m.): the two of them
niShedatuH = 3rd pers. dual perfect ni-√sad : to sit or lie down or rest upon (loc.)

mRdhubhiH (inst. pl.): mfn. soft , delicate , tender , pliant , mild , gentle
mRdu-maarut'-eritaiH (inst. pl.): stirred by a gentle wind
mRdu: mfn. soft , delicate , tender , pliant , mild , gentle
maaruta: m. (= marut) wind , air , the god of wind
iirita: mfn. sent , despatched
iir: to move, to excite ; to cause to rise ; to bring to life

upaguuDhau (nom. dual m.): mfn. hidden , concealed , covered ; clasped round , embraced
upa- √ guh ; to hide , cover , conceal ; to clasp , embrace , press to the bosom
iva: like, as if, almost
baala-pallavaiH (inst. pl.): by the young shoots
baala: mfn. young , childish , infantine , not full-grown or developed (of persons and things)
pallava: mn. a sprout , shoot , twig , spray , bud , blossom