BUDDHACARITA 3.29: Same Old, Same Old

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Vāṇī)

ity-evam-uktaḥ sa ratha-praṇetā nivedayām-āsa nṛpātmajāya |

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saṁrakṣyam-apy-artham-adoṣa-darśī tair-eva devaiḥ kṛta-buddhi-mohaḥ || 3.29

3.29

Addressed thus, the driver of the carriage

Divulged to the son begotten by the ruler of men

The very information he was supposed to protect;

failing to see the fault in this,

Under the influence of those same old gods,

he was confounded via his own resolve.

COMMENT:

The description in today's verse of the charioteer's blindness, under the influence of the gods, brings to mind the following words of Marjory Barlow:

Alexander's favourite way of describing his work was as "a means of controlling human reaction." Under this basic umbrella can be included every form of blind, unconscious reaction, and here we come to the whole question of Self-Knowledge. The muscular bad habits of misuse harm only oneself -- unconscious habits of thought and emotion harm oneself and other people, because they determine our reactions to everyone else. It could be said that we use other people to practise our unconscious bad habits on. The greatest misery and misunderstanding we experience is often in this field of personal relationships. Of course, these inner emotional states are mirrored in the way we use ourselves -- states of rage, anxiety, and fear -- to take only the most obvious examples -- are there for all the world to see by the unmistakeable bodily attitudes. This is also true of more subtle inner conditions such as depression, worry and hopelessness. In some way the constant and deep reaction-patterns are more obvious to other people than to ourselves. I sometimes think that there is a wry sense of humour lurking somewhere in the background of the Universe permitting this tragi-comic state of affairs, where certain characteristics of a person are known and clearly seen by everyone, except the person himself.

“Those same old gods” (tair eva devaih), as discussed in BC3.26, can be seen as the personification or embodiment – or maybe that should be the deification or disembodiment – of this wry sense of humour that Marjory imagines to be lurking somewhere in the background of the Universe.

One of the things that seems to amuse these gods is making a person's faults obvious to everybody except the person himself. This kind of failure to see a fault is expressed by the Sanskrit adoṣa-darśin (which the dictionary gives as “seeing no harm”). Twice in Saundara-nanda Aśvaghoṣa uses the compound doṣa-darśin, once in the words of the striver:

But that joy is certainly known to one who sees the faults in objects of the senses (viṣayeṣu tu doṣa-darśinaḥ), who is contented, pure, and unassuming, / Whose mind is versed in the religious acts that generate peace and whose understanding therein is formed. // SN8.25 //

and once in Aśvaghoṣa's own description of Nanda's practice of sitting-meditation:

And on reaching that stage, in which the mind is silent, he experienced an intense joy that he had never experienced before. / But here too he found a fault, in joy (prītau tu tatrāpi sa doṣa-darśī), just as he had in ideas. // SN17.48 //

The Buddha is also quoted on the subject of not seeing a fault as a fault –

When a man does not see a fault as a fault (na doṣataḥ paśyati yo hi doṣaṃ), who is able to restrain him from it? / But when a man sees the good in what is good, he goes towards it despite being restrained. // SN16.75 //

In the story of the prince's procession, as Aśvaghoṣa is telling it, just such a failure to see a fault as a fault is implicated in the charioteer doing the very opposite of what he was charged with doing and what he therefore intended to do.

So here again is the working of cosmic irony, behind which a person with a sense of humour (but not necessarily with any religious or superstitious leaning) intuits the clandestine doings of gods.

A further point to note in connection with the 4^th pāda is that one of the dictionary definitions of kṛta-buddhi is “one who knows how religious rites ought to be conducted.” So Aśvaghoṣa may have had in mind a tendency that seems to be particularly pronounced in religious circles for people, under the influence of their gods, to do exactly the opposite of what they intend or purport to do. Devout Catholic Jimmy Saville might be a case in point. And for an institutional example of failing to do what one purports to do, we need look no further than Saville's long-term employer, that august institution called the British Broadcasting Corporation. 

But finally I would like to make a point about the role that aberrant primitive reflexes can play in causing an individual person to be confounded, via his or her own resolve.

Having spent a good part of yesterday allowing my legs to release out of my hips (thinking “knees forwards and away”), it struck me after a while that the place from where the legs release out of the body is the same place from where the head releases out of the body, whereupon the two sides of the body are as if stretched apart in a lengthening and widening manner, whereupon a fear reaction like the Moro reflex does not get much of a look in, and neither does an aberrant STNR (symmetrical tonic neck reflex). In this state, even if the state is only momentary, it is impossible for a person to do the opposite of what he intends to do. In states other than this, I am always liable to do the opposite of what I intend to do.

People reading this might be sceptical of my efforts to connect Aśvaghoṣa's teaching with what I know of FM Alexander's teaching and of the role played by primitive vestibular reflexes in what Alexander called “faulty sensory appreciation.” To counter such scepticism I call upon my first witness for the defence, a baby named Ethan who appears in this video to be intending to crawl forwards towards his mum and dad.

Just to allay any suspicion that this kind of contrary behaviour is a specifically American trait, here is a Chinese baby doing much the same thing.

Such ironic acts may be due to the intervention of wryly smiling gods. What is more sure, in my book, is the role of the STNR (symmetrical tonic neck reflex), in which neck and arms tends to extend together, so that when baby Ethan's neck extends in the direction of mum and dad, his extending arms push him in the direction which is exactly opposite to the direction he has resolved to go in.

VOCABULARY

ity-evam-uktaḥ (nom. sg. m.): addressed thus

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

ratha-praṇetā (nom. sg. m.): charioteer

ratha: chariot

pranetṛ: m. a leader , guide

nivedayām-āsa = 3^rd pers. sg. periphrastic causative perfect ni- √ vid: , to tell , communicate , proclaim , report , relate

nṛpātmajāya (dat. sg. m.): to the son begotten of the protector of men

nṛpa: m. ruler/protector of men, king

ātmaja: m. “self-begotten”, son

saṁrakṣyam (acc. sg.): mfn. to be guarded or protected

api: even

artham (acc. sg.): mn. aim, purpose ; point, sense, meaning

adoṣa-darśī (nom. sg. m.): mfn. seeing or thinking no harm

a-doṣa: mfn. faultless, guiltless

darśin: mfn. ifc. seeing

taiḥ eva (inst. pl. m.): by those very

devaiḥ (inst. pl.): m. gods

kṛta-buddhi-mohaḥ (nom. sg. m.): being errant in carrying out what he had resolved to do; being derelict in the duty of which he had been informed; being errant in the duty transmitted to him

kṛta-buddhi: mfn. of formed mind , learned , wise ; one who has made a resolution , resolved ; informed of one's duty ; one who knows how religious rites ought to be conducted

moha: m. loss of consciousness , bewilderment , perplexity, distraction , infatuation , delusion , error , folly

御者心躊躇 不敢以實答
淨居加神力 令其表眞言 

  

BUDDHACARITA 3.28: Looking Afresh at an Old Man

⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Kīrti)

ka eṣa bhoḥ sūta naro 'bhyupetaḥ keśaiḥ sitair-yaṣṭi-viṣakta-hastaḥ |

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bhrū-saṁvṛtākṣaḥ śithilānatāṅgaḥ kiṁ vikriyaiṣā prakṛtir-yad-ṛcchā || 3.28

3.28

Who is this man, O charioteer, that has appeared

With hair all white, hand clasping a stick,

Eyes sunken into his brows, limbs flaccid and body stooped:

Is this disordered state his original condition? 
Is it a chance occurrence?

COMMENT:

Another, more informal, way of translating the 4th pāda of yesterday's verse, tatraiva niṣkampa-niviṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ, would be: “looking that bugger right in the eye.”

Yesterday I heard somebody (Bruce Forsyth on Desert Island Discs to be specific) state his view that “old age is a state of mind.” Similar takes on old age are that “forty is the new thirty,” “seventy is the new fifty,” and so on.

People who espouse such views, as I hear them, are no different from King Śuddhodhana who tried in vain to sweep all symptoms of suffering under the carpet.

White hair, wobbly balance, diminishing vital organs, and loss of postural tone, are totally impervious to stupid people's views and opinions about them.

The prince who will be Buddha is totally free of such views on old age. He is not even burdened by the concept “old age.”

Thus he is able to ask, without any preconceptions, when he sees the old man, “What the hell is that all about?” In so doing, he causes us readers and listeners to ask afresh what the strange terror, which we have heard listed among the triple Buddhist terrors of “aging,” “sickness” and “death,” really is.

About 25 years ago a Zen teacher confessed to me that he didn't fear death, but he feared old age.

As a problem, old age cannot be solved, not even by the brainiest people on our planet. If very wealthy Americans give money to scientists in the hope that they might find the cure for aging, just like scientists found a way to put a man on the moon, those wealthy Americans are deluding themselves.

I think the Buddha's teaching is not that the problem of old age can be solved, but rather that the terror of old age can be solved. How? I don't know. But the first step might be not to be in denial about it – not to see it as another problem to sweep under the carpet.

If I personalize today's comment, I would say that what I fear most, and the problem I have spent much of my life sweeping under the carpet, is fear itself. And by fear I don't mean something primarily psychological.

Using today's verse as a template, then, I should ask, while looking the bugger squarely in the eye:

Who is this frightened baby, O would-be driver of his own chariot, who appears,

With face all red, hands splayed out,

Eyes wide open, limbs hyper-tonic and body hyper-extended:

Is this disordered state the baby's original condition? Is it a chance occurrence?

VOCABULARY

kaḥ (nom. sg. m.): who?

eṣaḥ (nom. sg.): m. this one

bhoḥ: an interjection or voc. particle commonly used in addressing another person or several persons = O! Ho! Hallo! , in soliloquies = alas!

sūta (voc. sg. m.): a charioteer , driver , groom , equerry , master of the horse (esp. an attendant on a king)

naraḥ (nom. sg.): m. man

abhyupetaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. approached , arrived at

keśaiḥ (inst. pl.): ) m. the hair of the head

sitaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. white

yaṣṭi-viṣakta-hastaḥ (nom. sg. m.): with hand clinging to a stick

yaṣṭi: n. " any support " , a staff , stick

viṣakta: mfn. hung to or on or upon , hung or suspended to , hanging or sticking on or in , firmly fixed or fastened or adhering to (loc.)

hasta: hand

bhrū-saṁvṛtākṣaḥ (nom. sg. m.): with eyes sunken behind his eyebrows

bhrū: f. an eyebrow, brow

saṁvṛta: mfn. covered , shut up; concealed ; suppressed

akṣa: n. (ifc) the eye

śithilānatāṅgaḥ (nom. sg. m.): his limbs flaccid and body stooped

śithila: mfn. loose , slack , lax , relaxed , untied , flaccid , not rigid or compact

ānata: mfn. bending , stooping , bowed

aṅga: n. a limb of the body; the body

kim: (interrogative particle)

vikriyā: f. transformation , change , modification , altered or unnatural condition

eṣā (nom. sg. f.): this

prakṛtiḥ (nom. sg.): f. " making or placing before or at first " , the original or natural form or condition of anything

yad-ṛcchā (nom. sg.): f. self-will , spontaneity , accident , chance

此是何等人 頭白而背僂
目冥身戰搖 任杖而羸歩
爲是身卒 變 爲受性自爾 

BUDDHACARITA 3.27: Being Interested In Just That

⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Haṁsī)

tataḥ kumāro jarayābhibhūtaṁ dṛṣṭvā narebhyaḥ pṛthag-ākṛtiṁ tam |

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uvāca saṁgrāhakam-āgatāsthas-tatraiva niṣkampa-niviṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ || 3.27

3.27

And so the prince beheld that man defeated by old age,

Who was different in form to other men;

He quizzed the driver, 
being full of interest in that very state, 

Wherein he rested his eyes immovably. 

COMMENT:

In the 1st pāda jarayābhibhūtam (“defeated by old age”) can be read as a generic expression of that state of decrepitude which is cited a classic example of suffering.

The 2^nd pāda points to the salient external signs of the suffering of advanced old age -- white hair, sunken eyes, flaccid limbs, stooped posture, et cetera, as detailed in tomorrow's verse. 

The 3^rd pāda reports the response of the prince, that is, how he was and what he did.

The 4^th pāda can be read as extending the 3^rd pāda in such a way as to bring the scene more vividly to life, suggesting just how full of interest the prince was – so interested that even while interrogating the driver, he kept his gaze fixed on the target of the old man's wizened form.

Digging deeper, we can read the 3rd and 4th pāda as suggestive of the state of being absorbed in sitting meditation, in which case the emphatic expression tatraiva (= tatra + eva) can be understood as meaning something along the lines of "being right in that zone." 

This post is late because I caught the 5.40 Eurostar from St Pancras this morning, and all was going swimmingly until the train from Paris broke down. After a three-hour delay and a cramped journey in a bus, and 12 miles of weary cycling followed by some fairly ropey sitting (though admittedly amid uplifting autumn scenery), I find myself now that night has fallen slumped before the computer and anything but in the zone. 

Perfunctory though the session was that I sat at dusk, as I intermittently let my drooping eyelids close, it did cause me to reflect that the 4th pāda, tatraiva niṣkampa-niviṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ, ("eyes resting immovably on that very object / in that very state of being here and now") might have been intended to allude to the condition of the eyes in sitting-Zen. 

As a provisional best effort to preserve some ambiguity, for the present I have translated tatraiva as "the other's state," i.e. the old man's state, thinking that if the verse is listened to in English rather than read, it will also sound like "the other state," i.e. that still-still state which I am not in now but which I hope to direct myself towards tomorrow. 

VOCABULARY

tataḥ: ind. from that, on that basis, thus

kumāraḥ (nom. sg.): m. the prince

jarayā (inst. sg.): f. aging, old age

abhibhūtam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. surpassed , defeated , subdued , humbled ; overcome , aggrieved , injured.

dṛṣṭvā = abs. dṛś: to see, behold

narebhyaḥ (abl. pl.): m. men

pṛthag-ākṛtim (acc. sg. m.): different in form, of a different species

pṛthak: ind. widely apart , separately , differently , singly ; (as a prep. with gen. or instr.) apart or separately or differently from

ākṛti: f. a constituent part ; form , figure , shape , appearance , aspect ; kind , species

tam (acc. sg. m.): him

uvāca = 3^rd pers. pref. vac: to speak, say

saṁgrāhakam (acc. sg.): m. the one who holds (the reins) together ; driver, charioteer

saṁ- √ grah: to seize or hold together , take or lay hold of; grab , grasp , gripe , clasp , clench , snatch

grāhaka: mfn. one who seizes or takes captive

saṁgrāha: m. holding together , seizing , grasping , taking , reception , obtainment ; taking (in the sense of eating or drinking food , medicine &c ); collecting , gathering ; drawing together , making narrower

āgatāsthaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. full of interest

tatra: ind. in that place, there; at that time, then; therein, thereon; in that state

eva: (emphatic)

niṣkampa-niviṣṭa-dṛṣṭiḥ (nom. sg. m.): with gaze immovably turned upon

niṣkampa: mfn. not shaking or tremulous , motionless , immovable

niviṣṭa: mfn. settled down , come to rest ; entered , penetrated into (also with antar) , lying or resting or sticking or staying in (loc. or comp.); turned to , intent upon (loc. or comp.)

dṛṣṭi: f. seeing , viewing , beholding; eye , look , glance

太子見老人 驚怪問御者

BUDDHACARITA 3.26: Jealous Gods

⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Kīrti)

puraṁ tu tat-svargam-iva prahṛṣṭaṁ śuddhādhivāsāḥ samavekṣya devāḥ |

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jīrṇaṁ naraṁ nirmamire prayātuṁ saṁcodanārthaṁ kṣitipātmajasya || 3.26

3.26

But when they saw that city all buoyed up,

as if it were heaven,

The gods whose perch is purity

Elicited an old man to wander by,

For the purpose of provoking a prince

who was the fruit of the loins of a protector of the earth.

COMMENT:

I have followed EBC (“the gods... created an old man to walk along”) in understanding prayātum to refer to the wandering by of the old man; EHJ/PO understood prayātum to refer to the prince; hence EHJ: “to incite the king's son to leave his home”; PO: “to induce the son of the king to go forth.”

The gods described in today's verse, as I read it, are gods for whom divine purity is a jealously guarded possession, and so they do not appreciate earthly kings butting in with their mundane imitations of heaven, in which impurities are swept under the carpet.

If these jealous gods spoke in words, the words might be along the lines of “Know your place, you ****ing earthlings! You are not running this firmament!”

These gods, then, for me, are not akin to those gods or angels which are the product of religious belief. They are rather the kind of gods who might walk into a bar with a Scotsman, an Irishman and an Englishman. They are the product of a wry sense of humour.

My old Alexander head of training, Ray Evans, used to caution against the kind of Alexander work that was akin to sweeping problems under the carpet. The kind of problem Ray specifically had in mind were deep faults in the vestibular system.

As with Alexander work, so with other fields of endeavour in which the devotee aspires in an upward (or “spiritual”) direction. When vestibular faults are swept under the carpet, the gods who are the instigators of cosmic irony are ever liable to elicit some stimulus that provokes a reaction that brings the aspirant right back down to earth.

Hence the wisdom inherent in an activity like going on hands and knees and touching one's head to the ground. Such movements tend to be seen as expressions of spiritual humility; but more fundamentally than that they help to re-educate the vestibular sense.

VOCABULARY

puram (acc. sg.): n. the city

tu: but

tat (acc. sg. n.): that

svargam (acc. sg.): m. heaven

iva: like

prahṛṣṭam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. erect, bristling; thrilled with delight , exceedingly pleased , delighted

hṛṣ: to be excited or impatient , rejoice in the prospect of , be anxious or impatient for ; to speak or affirm falsely , lie ; to thrill with rapture , rejoice , exult , be glad or pleased ; to become sexually excited ; to become erect or stiff or rigid , bristle (said of the hairs of the body &c ) , become on edge (like the teeth)

śuddhādhivāsāḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. inhabiting pure abodes

śuddha: mfn. cleansed , cleared , clean , pure , clear

adhi- √ vas: to inhabit; to settle, perch on

samavekṣya = abs. sam-ava-√īkṣ: to look at, behold; to reflect on, ponder

devāḥ (nom. pl.): m. the gods

jīrṇam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. old , worn out , withered , wasted , decayed

naram (acc. sg.): m. man

nirmamire = 3^rd pers. pl. perf. nir- √ mā: to mete out , measure ; to build , form , fabricate , produce , create

prayātum = inf. pra- √ yā: to go forth , set out , progress ; to walk, roam, wander

saṁcodanārtham (acc. sg. n.): in order to incite

saṁcodana: m. urging , exciting , inflaming , arousing

saṁ- √ cud: Caus. -codayati, to impel , push on , drive , shoot off ; to inflame , arouse , animate , instigate , further

artha: mn. aim , purpose (very often artham , arthena , arthāya , and arthe ifc. or with gen. " for the sake of , on account of , in behalf of , for ")

kṣitipātmajasya (gen. sg. m.): the king's son

kṣiti-pa: m. " earth-protector " , a king

ātma-ja: m. " born from or begotten by one's self " , a son

時淨居天王 忽然在道側
變形衰老相 勸生厭離心 

BUDDHACARITA 3.25: Reading the Royal Road

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti (Indravajrā)

kīrṇaṁ tathā rāja-pathaṁ kumāraḥ paurair-vinītaiḥ śuci-dhīra-veṣaiḥ |

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−

tat-pūrvam-ālokya jaharṣa kiṁ-cin-mene punar-bhāvam-ivātmanaś-ca || 3.25

3.25

On his first reading of the royal road

Which was filled like this with obedient citizens

ostensibly displaying purity and steadfastness,

The prince was thrilled

And somewhat conscious of himself being as if reborn.

COMMENT:

The key word in today's verse is the word at the end of the 2^nd pāda whose reading, inconveniently, is most open to doubt. The old Nepalese manuscript has śuci-dhīra-ceṣīḥ, corrected to śuci-dhīra-ceṣaiḥ. Since there is no such word as ceṣa, this was amended to śuci-dhīra-veṣaiḥ, presumably by Amṛtananda. EBC, EHJ and CSL all have śuci-dhīra-veṣaiḥ, which EBC translated as “dressed in white sedate garments,” EHJ as “clad in cleanly sober guise,” and PO as “dressed in clean and dignified clothes.” In addition to meaning “item of clothing,” however, veṣa also means “artificial exterior,” or “assumed appearance” or (as per EHJ) “guise.”

Another possible amendment is to śuci-dhīra-ceṣṭaiḥ, in which case the phrase suggests “gestures which display purity and steadfastness.”

Either way, I think the point is that the citizens, having been purified or cleansed by the removal of the downtrodden and disabled, were lined up in such a way as to put on a convincing outward show of true behaviour, as opposed to truly enlightened behaviour. And the young impressionable prince, not yet having developed the sense of cosmic irony that Aśvaghoṣa would like us all to develop, was almost taken in by this impressive show.

The phrase punar-bhāva, translated in the 4^th pāda as “coming into being,” also means “re-birth” or “becoming,” with which meaning it appears in the following four verses in Saundara-nanda, in each case as something to be avoided or ended. 

Even in the face of a precarious immunity to rebirth (apunar-bhāve) and notwithstanding inconsistencies in their time-honoured texts, / There and then, as if seeing with their own eyes, the great ascetics practised asceticism. // SN1.14 //

Having focused his agitated mind on the end of becoming (apunar-bhave), he fled the king's palace, indifferent to the most beautiful of women sleeping there; / Determined to go to the forest, he fled in the night, like a goose from a lake of ruined lotuses. // SN2.65 //

In this world which likes what is close to home, a fondness for non-doing is rare; /For men shrink from the end of becoming (apunar-bhāvāt) like the puerile from the edge of a cliff. // SN12.22 //

Sprung free from pernicious theories, seeing an end to becoming (paryantam-ālokya punar-bhavasya), / And feeling horror for the consequences of affliction, Nanda trembled not at death or hellish realms. // SN17.35 //

The suggestion is then, that when we aim for what we should aim for, our aim is not to become something. But before that time, when we are immature and gullible (speaking from experience as a still young and impressionable 52-year old), we are liable to think and feel as if our self ought to become something.

To sum up, today's verse on first reading ostensibly describes the prince as on the verge of some kind of self-realization, but digging below the surface it really describes the essence of delusion, which is to think and feel I have become something.

This is how I seem to end up summarizing most of Aśvaghoṣa's verses, is it not? On first reading today's verse ostensibly means such and such, but...

Thus having dug deeper into what might lie below the surface of today's verse, I decided to translate tat-pūrvam-ālokya as “on his first reading,” and veṣaiḥ as “ostensibly displaying.” The “but” (tu) comes at the beginning of tomorrow's verse.

All Aśvaghoṣa's writing is designed to lead the reader or listener onto the royal road. Today's verse reminds us not to trust our first reading of it.

The point is rather to be alert to the irony which is ever present in the words and in the cosmos.

The point, in particular, might be to watch out for teachers who are ostensibly on the royal road but who are liable to turn the Buddha's path of liberation into its opposite. I think my own Zen teacher was somewhat like that. I also have unquestionably been like that in the past, and I could easily be like that at every moment of the present.

One of the big stars in the Alexander firmament, a teacher named Patrick Macdonald, was working with another Alexander teacher who had her hands on a pupil. Macdonald let her know that whereas she thought her hands were conveying an upward direction to the pupil, the direction was in fact a downward direction. "That is down," observed PM. The other Alexander teacher expressed her shock and disbelief that she was taking the pupil down when she thought she was taking the pupil up. "Yes, I know," Macdonald replied, "For the first thirty years I was taking everybody down." 

This same Alexander teacher, many years later, in 1998, just after I had received the Dharma from Gudo Nishijima, was sitting opposite me at a long dining table listening to me express my understanding of the Buddha's teaching and the fundamental meaning of sitting-Zen. "You are lying to yourself," she told me. And she was absolutely right. I was. And doubtless still am. 

VOCABULARY

kīrṇam (acc. sg. m.): scattered , thrown , cast ; filled with , full of (instr.)

tathā: ind. thus, in this manner

rāja-patham (acc. sg. m.): the king's highway , a main road , public road or street ; the royal road

kumāraḥ (nom. sg.): m. the prince

pauraiḥ (inst. pl.): m. townsfolk

vinītaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): mfn. led or taken away , removed &c; tamed , trained , educated , well-behaved , humble , modest

vi- √ nī: to lead or take away , remove , avert ; to train , tame , guide (horses) ; to educate , instruct , direct

śuci-dhīra-veṣaiḥ (inst. pl. m.): with the exterior appearance of brilliant whiteness and good breeding

[EBC: all dressed in white sedate garments EHJ: clad in cleanly sober guise]

śuci: mfn. shining , glowing , gleaming , radiant , bright ; brilliantly white ; clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.) , holy , unsullied , undefiled , innocent , honest , virtuous

dhīra: mfn. intelligent , wise , skilful , clever ; steady , constant , firm , resolute , brave , energetic , courageous , self-possessed , composed , calm , grave ; well-conducted , well-bred

veṣa: m. work, activity, management ; dress , apparel , ornament , artificial exterior , assumed appearance (often also = look , exterior , appearance in general)

ceṣṭa: n. moving the limbs , gesture ; n. behaviour , manner of life

tat-pūrvam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. happening for the first time

ālokya = abs. ā- √ lok: to look at

jaharṣa = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. hṛṣ: to thrill with rapture , rejoice , exult , be glad or pleased

kiṁ-cid: ind. somewhat, a little

mene = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. man: to think , regard as ; to think one's self or be thought to be , appear as , pass for (nom. ; also with iva)

punar-bhāvam (acc. sg.): m. new birth; becoming ; renewal

a-punar-bhāvam (acc. sg. m.): m. not occurring again ; exemption from further transmigration , final beatitude ; the end of becoming

punar: ind. again , once more (also with bhūyas) ib. (with √ bhū , to exist again , be renewed)

bhāva: m. ( √ bhū) becoming , being , existing , occurring , appearance ; purport , meaning , sense

iva: like, as if

ātmanaḥ (gen. sg.): m. the breath ; the soul , principle of life and sensation; the individual soul , self

ca: and

BUDDHACARITA 3.24: Not Playing Hard to Get

⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Kīrti)

ayaṁ kila vyāyata-pīna-bāhū rūpeṇa sākṣād-iva puṣpa-ketuḥ |

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−

tyaktvā śriyaṁ dharmam-upaiṣyatīti tasmin hi-tā gauravam-eva cakruḥ || 3.24

3.24

“He of arms so lengthened and full, so they say,

Who is like a flower-bannered god of love in his manifest form,

Will give up royal sovereignty and pursue dharma.”

Thus the women conferred on him the full weight of their estimation.

COMMENT

A recent paper (by Petersen & Sznycer, published in Pyschological Science, and featured in the science section of this week's Economist), found that the strength of a man's opinion on the subject of redistribution of resources tended to depend on his physical strength. As a proxy for physical strength the researchers took the circumference of the flexed biceps of an individual's dominant arm. Previous work, the Economist assures us, has shown that bicep circumference is an accurate proxy for strength – though I have known one or two martial artists whose power emanating from their centre might falsify this general conception.

In any event, the 1^st pāda of today's verse can be read as expressing the male object of female desire as the stereotype of a strong man – taking Schwarzenegger-like arms as a proxy for all-round strength.

The 2nd pāda can be taken as antithetical to the 1st pāda in suggesting that the women were interested in more than ticking of generic boxes likes “strong-armed man” and “love god”: they appreciated the particular excellence of the form which the prince (vidyotamāno vapuṣā pareṇa; “with his supremely fine form shining forth”; BC2.27) was presenting before their eyes.

A flower-bannered god of love (puṣpa-ketuḥ) means a figure as romantic as Kāma, the disembodied god of love who pops up in several verses in Saundara-nanda Canto 7:

Amid the wealth of flowers of the month of flowers, assailed on every side by the flower-bannered god of love, / And with feelings that are familiar to the young, he stayed in a vihāra but found no peace. // SN7.2 // 

When his favourite female drowned in the waters of the Ganges, King Jahnu, his mind possessed by disembodied Love, / Blocked the flow of the Ganges with his arms, as if he were Mount Maināka, the paragon of non-movement.// SN7.40 // 

Again, when the avatar Saunandakin took away his Urvaśī, "She of the Wide Expanse," the wife whom, like the wide earth, Soma-varman had made his own, / 'Moon-Armoured' Soma-varman whose armour, so they say, had been virtuous conduct, roamed about grieving, his armour pierced by mind-existent Love. // 7.42 //

Flower-bannered Kāma is also known as “Disembodied Love” and “the Mind-Existent,” so the story goes, because when Śiva was doing his damnedest to concentrate, in the Brahmanical tradition, on ascetic practice, his mind kept wandering instead in the direction of the lovely Pārvatī. The frustrated Śiva vented his wrath on Kāma, the god of love, whom he consigned to an existence without a body.

The 3^rd and 4^th pādas, as I read them, have Aśvaghoṣa's characteristic dry humour running through them, suggesting that a generic strong arm and individual good looks are all very well, but in the final analysis what a woman really wants – the object that really earns the full weight of her estimation – is what she can't have.

In Japanese there is a particular phrase for this kind of desire: nai mono nedari, the persistent longing after something impossible to attain.

FM Alexander, like Aśvaghoṣa, had no medical or academic qualifications, but again like Aśvaghoṣa he was way ahead of the likes of Sigmund Freud in his practical grasp of the psychology of desire.

The technique that bears Alexander's name is becoming increasingly professionalised and pseudo-scientific. Because of a back-pain trial that has gained some credence in medical and academic circles, everybody nowadays seems to think Alexander work is all about back pain; whereas truly it is all about a struggle against unconsciousness. It is, as FM himself said, “the most mental thing there is.”

It has to be the most mental thing there is because, as Alexander correctly observed, with a dryness of which Aśvaghoṣa would have approved: The most difficult things to get rid of are the ones that don't exist.

VOCABULARY

ayam (nom. sg. m.): this one, he

kila: ind. (a particle of asseveration or emphasis) indeed , verily , assuredly ; " so said " " so reported "

vyāyata-pīna-bāhur (nom. sg. m.): with lengthened and full arms

vyāyata: mfn. opened , expanded ; long

pīna: mfn. swelling , swollen , full , round , thick , large , fat , fleshy , corpulent, muscular

bāhu: mf. the arm

rūpeṇa (inst. sg.): n. any outward appearance or phenomenon or colour (often pl.) , form , shape , figure ; handsome form , loveliness , grace , beauty , splendour

sākṣāt: ind. (abl. of sākṣa, ) with the eyes , with one's own eyes ; before one's eyes , evidently , clearly , openly , manifestly ; in person , in bodily form , personally , visibly , really , actually

iva: like

puṣpa-ketuḥ (nom. sg. m.): " characterized by flower " , the god of love

ketu: m. bright appearance ; sign , mark , ensign , flag , banner

tyaktvā = abs. tyaj: to leave , abandon , quit ; to give up, surrender

śriyam (acc. sg.): f. royal power, majesty

dharmam (acc. sg.): m. dharma

upaiṣyati = 3^rd pers. sg. future upa- √iṣ: to tend towards , endeavour to attain

iti: “thus,”...

tasmin (loc. sg. m.): towards him

hi: for

tāḥ (nom. pl. f.): those women

gauravam (acc. sg.): n. weight ; importance , high value or estimation ; n. gravity , respectability , venerableness ; n. respect shown to a person

eva (emphatic)

cakrur = 3^rd pers. pl. perf. kṛ: to do, make

BUDDHACARITA 3.23: No Irony Intended

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti (Indravajrā)

dṛṣṭvā ca taṁ rāja-sutaṁ striyas-tā jājvalyamānaṁ vapuṣā śriyā ca |

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−

dhanyāsya bhāryeti śanair-avocañ-śuddhair-manobhiḥ khalu nānya-bhāvāt || 3.23

3.23

Those women, seeing the king's son,

Shining bright with beauty and majesty,

Said “Lucky is his wife!” in a soft whisper,

With pure minds and out of no other sense at all.

COMMENT:

If progressing on the royal road in the middle way between heaven and earth requires transcendence of the paradox inherent in truly being an individual while not ceasing to belong to that great big group called humanity, then today's verse, as I read it, presents us with another paradox, which has to do with simplicity and complexity.

“Naturally to become all of a piece,” to use Dogen's phrase, might be just about the most simple thing there is. But in endeavoring in my 20s to practise the practice that Dogen thus advocates I got completely tangled up, as a result, in essence, of one complicating irony, namely this:

Trying to lengthen the spine causes the spine to shorten.

As a result of such experience (which to be honest is still not entirely a thing of the past), I hope I am not deluding myself if I claim to be more alert than previous translators have been to Aśvaghoṣa's pervasive liking for irony.

Today's verse is a stimulus to consider at least three kinds of irony, namely (1) dramatic irony, (2) verbal irony, and (3) cosmic irony.

(1) Dramatic Irony

There is dramatic irony in the women's description of soon-to-be dharma-widow Yaśodhara as dhanya, lucky, fortunate, happy. We the readers know what the women also know (because, as evidenced by tomorrow's verse, the women already know that the prince will leave his wife and head for the forest); the difference is that we are at least partially awake to the truth of impermanence, whereas the women are simply responding to a situation here and now, like a dog looking at another dog with a desirable bone.

(2) Verbal Irony

The dictionary gives anya-bhāva as “change of state,” but since anya means other or different, and bhāva can mean intention or sense, anya-bhāva “the other sense,” can be read as an expression of that sense towards which Aśvaghoṣa is always pointing the mind of his listener/reader; namely, not the literal or ostensible meaning of his words, but the other intention, the totally different sense -- that sense which is wicked, humorous, ironic, irreligious.

Thus the ostensible meaning of today's verse is that the women's minds were pure and so when they said “Lucky/privileged/happy is his wife,” they said so out of no sense of bitchy envy. Hence nānya-bhāvāt ostensibly means “from no baser feeling/motive” (EBC/EHJ) or “for no other reason” (PO).

Really speaking, however, when Aśvaghoṣa's ostensibly praises the women's minds as “pure,”  and as having "no other sense," his intention might be to mock the women for exhibiting naivety.

Why does Aśvaghoṣa do this? I think because in pursuing the ultimate aim of sitting-zen, which is a condition of utter innocence and simplicity, we are required to guard against the wrong kind of innocence and simplicity, which is naivety. We are required to guard against believing simplistically in idealistic and reductive ideas and closing our eyes to complicated reality. 

What do you think: Was Aśvaghoṣa simply, out of no other sense at all, praising the women for their pure minds? Or did Aśvaghoṣa, with a mind tainted by a wicked sense of irony, have in mind a totally different sense  (anya-bhāva)?

If you agree with me that Aśvaghoṣa is much more wickedly ironic, and much less religious, than has hitherto been written about in English, then how come a bloke who four years ago was a total beginner in Sanskrit, without any formal training in Sanskrit or in Buddhist studies, can see this other sense which eminent Buddhist scholars have not peeped, even in a dream?

(3) Cosmic Irony

The answer to my own question is that 30 years of parking my backside four times every day on a round cushion have given me, if nothing else, then at least a healthy sense of cosmic irony.

As I said before, the central irony of sitting-zen practice, which nothing highlights more clearly than Alexander work highlights it, is simply this:

Trying to lengthen the spine causes the spine to shorten.

Q. E. D.

A few days ago I watched a BBC4 science documentary on “Order & Disorder.” I watched it with my son who is in the final year of a masters degree in Chemistry. When the discussion got as far as Bolzmann's famous formula for entropy (S = k. log W), I was straining every neuron in my diminishing supply of neurons in the effort to keep up, while my son tried to allay his boredom by simultaneously playing a video game on his mobile phone, checking his email, and trying to explain to me something about microstates.

More than any hoped-for insight into the 2^nd law of thermodynamics, the documentary left me pondering the karma by which Ludwig Bolzmann made such a great contribution to the advancement of science and yet died in the unhappiest of circumstances.

Bolzmann's contemporary and nemesis, Ernst Mach, according to Wikipedia, was an Austrian physicist and philosopher, noted for his contributions to physics such as the Mach number and the study of shock waves. As a philosopher of science, he was a major influence on logical positivism and through his criticism of Newton, a forerunner of Einstein's relativity.

Ernst Mach, evidently, was no fool. And yet through the second half of the 19th century when Ludwig Bolzmann strove to win acceptance for the atomic theory of matter, Mach refused to believe that there were any such things as atoms.

According to this review of a book called Boltzmann's Atom, which I might buy and read if I weren't so stingy and lazy, Boltzmann sought to explain the real world, and cast aside any philosophical criteria. Mach, along with many nineteenth-century scientists, wanted to construct an empirical edifice of absolute truths that obeyed strict philosophical rules. Boltzmann did not get on well with authority in any form, and he did his best work at arm's length from it. When at the end of his career he engaged with the philosophical authorities in the Viennese academy, the results were personally disastrous and tragic.

On 5^th September 1906, history records, at the age of 62, the depressive Boltzmann hanged himself while on holiday by the seaside. Since then, all eminent physicists seem to have concurred that Boltzmann was right -- or at least that Boltzmann's atomic theory of matter was a better basis for doing chemisty and physics than was Mach's skepticism about the real existence of atoms. But was there any sense in which all this posthumous recognition did Boltzmann any good? What karma on Boltzmann's part caused the favourable recognition to come after the time when it might have cheered him up?

Conversely, is there any sense in which the current shattering and trashing of the reputation of the formerly revered British TV personality and paedophile Jimmy Saville is doing him any harm? What karma on Saville's part caused the unfavourable recognition to come not before but after his death?

I don't know. But the gap which has been very much in the news in the UK between how Saville appeared to be and how he really was, as also the gap between how valuable Mach perceived Boltzmann's work to be and how valuable Boltzmann's work really was, seems to me to be somehow profoundly connected to Aśvaghoṣa's teaching.

That is to say, below and behind all Aśvaghoṣa's uses of verbal and dramatic irony, there seems to be a highly developed sense of the cosmic irony that resides in the gap between human ideals and reality, or between intentions and actual results, or between how things seem to be and how they really are.

All this talk of irony might interest an effete literary critic, but of what possible interest could “cosmic irony” be to an iron man of Zen?

I would say in conclusion, in answer to that question, that sitting on a round cushion with the intention to go in the direction of simplicity is the ultimate laboratory for independent study of cosmic irony.

VOCABULARY

dṛṣṭvā = abs. dṛś: to see, behold

ca: and

tam (acc. sg. m.): him

rāja-sutam (acc. sg. m.): the king's son, prince

striyaḥ (nom. pl. f.): the women

tāḥ (nom. pl. f.): those

jājvalyamānam = acc. sg. m. pres. part. intensive jval: to flame violently , shine strongly , be brilliant

vapuṣā (inst. sg.): n. form , figure , (esp.) a beautiful form or figure , wonderful appearance , beauty

śriyā (inst. sg.): f. light , lustre , radiance , splendour , glory , beauty , grace , loveliness ; prosperity , welfare , good fortune , success , auspiciousness , wealth , treasure , riches ; high rank , power , might , majesty , royal dignity

ca: and

dhanyā (nom. sg. f.): mfn. bringing or bestowing wealth , opulent , rich (ifc. full of); fortunate , happy , auspicious

asya (gen. sg.): his

bhāryā (nom. sg.): f. wife

iti: “...,” thus

śanaiḥ: ind. quietly, softly

avocan = 3^rd pers. pl. aorist vac: to say

śuddhaiḥ (inst. pl. n.): mfn. cleansed , cleared , clean , pure , clear , free from (with instr.) , bright , white; cleared , acquitted , free from error , faultless , blameless , right , correct , accurate , exact , according to rule ; pure, simple, genuine

manobhiḥ (inst. pl.): n. mind

khalu: ind. (as a particle of asseveration) indeed , verily , certainly , truly

nānya-bhāvāt (abl. sg.): not out of a different intention / other sense

na: not

anya-bhāva: m. change of state

anya: mfn. different, other

bhāva: m. being, state ; state of being anything , esp. ifc. e.g. bālabhāva , the state of being a child ; any state of mind or body , way of thinking or feeling , sentiment , opinion , disposition , intention ; purport , meaning , sense