BUDDHACARITA 6.12: Speaking, Preventing, Unloosening, Giving

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ity-uktvā sa mahā-bāhur-ānṛśaṁsa-cikīrṣayā |

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bhūṣaṇāny-avamucyāsmai saṁtapta-manase dadau || 6.12

6.12

Thus having spoken, he of heroic arm,

Desiring by his action to prevent what injures a man,

Unloosened ornaments

And gave [them] to him whose mind was inflamed with grief.

COMMENT:

Today's verse can be read as mirroring the four phases identified in the closing verse of the prince's speech, so that the 1^st pāda has to do with speaking, the 2^nd with the doing of a preventive act, the 3^rd with a process of coming undone or letting go, and the 4^th with compassionate non-doing, or spontaneous giving, realized in the state of buddha.

In the 1^st pāda, then, mahā-bāhur ("of great/long arm") ostensibly describes the prince's genetic inheritance as a mighty-armed royal, but it might also suggest the lengthening and widening that takes place throughout a person's musculature (including that of the arm) when, in the state of buddha, his or her mind is free. 

The 2^nd pāda might be more simply and elegantly translated "Desiring to do an act of kindness," but ānṛśaṁsa (kindness) is originally negative, from a-nṛ-śaṁsa (not man-injuring), and so the compound ānṛśaṁsa-cikīrṣayā is interesting, bringing to mind in juxtaposition with each other (1) the preventive principle and (2) the desire to do. 

Yesterday I asked the question what the Buddha meant by that step or stage (padam) that we sometimes call (regardless of not knowing what we really mean by the word) “enlightenment.” And in looking for clues in Aśvaghoṣa's epic story of Beautiful Happiness, I was struck afresh (having been initially struck five years ago by exactly the same thing) by the strong emphasis on eradication of faults.

For that reason, I take the 3^rd pāda of today's verse as a metaphor for letting go of what originally does not belong to us. In Zen parlance, the metaphor corresponds to letting body and mind fall away so that one's original features may shine through. In terms of the most ancient record of what the Buddha actually said, as recorded in Pali, the metaphor corresponds to sacitta paryodapanam, “cleansing one's own mind.”

sabba papassa akaranam

kusalassa upasampada

sacitta paryodapanam

etam buddhanusasanam

Not to do any evil.

To practise good.

To cleanse one's own mind.

This is the teaching of the buddhas.

Finally with regard to the 4^th pāda, the indirect object of the prince's giving ("[them]") is understood to be the ornaments, or items of jewellery, mentioned in the 3rd pāda. Originally, however, asmai saṁtapta-manase dadau simply means "he gave to the one whose mind was inflamed with grief," with no indirect object specified. As such it might work better as a metaphor for the Buddha's giving. 

What, in the end, did the Buddha give? Did he give ornaments? Some sūtras, come to think of it, do have "ornament" in their title. But it might be more to the point to acknowledge that the Buddha gave us a means, centred on sitting-meditation, to be practised on an individual basis (each cleansing his or her own mind), for eradicating faults. 

VOCABULARY

iti: “...,” thus

uktvā = abs. vac: to speak

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

mahā-bāhuḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. long-armed

ānṛśaṁsa-cikīrṣayā (inst. sg. f.): with the desire to do an absence of harm

anuśaṁsa-cikīrṣayā [EHJ] (inst. sg. f.): with the desire to confer comfort

ānṛśaṁsa: n. (fr. a-nṛ-śaṁsa) absence of cruelty or harm , absence of injury , mildness , kindness , benevolence

nṛ-śaṁsa: mfn. injuring men , mischievous , noxious , cruel , base

anuśaṁsa: m. speaking ill ; comfort, privilege

cikīrṣā: f. intention or desire to make or do or perform (generally ifc.)

bhūṣaṇāni (acc. pl.): n. ornament

avamucya = abs. ava- √ muc : to loosen , let go, unharness

asmai (dat. sg.): to him

saṁtapta-manase (dat. sg.) with a grief-tormented mind

saṁtapta: mfn. greatly heated or inflamed , burnt up &c ; oppressed , pained , tormented , distressed , wearied , fatigued ; n. pain , grief , sorrow

dadau = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. dā: to give

即脱寶瓔珞 以授於車匿
具持是賜汝 以慰汝憂悲

BUDDHACARITA 6.11: Back to the Future

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kim-uktvā bahu saṁkṣepāt-ktaṁ me sumahat-priyam |

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nivartasvāśvam-ādāya saṁprāpto 'smīpsitaṁ padam || 6.11

6.11

Why say much?

It is a great kindness to me 

that you have, in a word, done.

Take the horse and turn back! 

I have arrived where I wanted to be.”

COMMENT:

The 4th pāda of today's verse is difficult in a couple of ways.

First, on a textual point, the old Nepalese manuscript and consequently EBC's manuscripts which were apparently copied therefrom, all end with the word vanam (wood, forest), in which case I would translate “I have reached the wood I wished to reach.” (EBC: “I have attained the desired wood.”)

EHJ amended vanam (wood, forest) to padam (step, footing, place) based on the Tibetan and Chinese translations. The Chinese 所求處今得 does indeed mean “I have arrived at the place I sought.” (處 means place, not wood.)

I have accepted EHJ's amendment because I think padam fits with the progession of today's verse through four phases, namely, having to do with (1) words, (2) action itself, (3) a process of turning back, and (4) arrival at a stage in a process. 

Read in that light, today's verse can be understood as pre-saging the whole process by which, from now on, the prince is going to realize himself as the enlightened Buddha.

Hence the second difficulty introduced by saṁprāpto 'smi (lit. “I am arrived”) in the 4^th pāda relates to the manifold dangers inherent in the whole concept of (4) arrival.

Before getting there, I shall briefly consider the other three elements of (1) words, (2) conduct, and (3) turning back, and the relations between those elements.

(1) On the subject of words, or speaking, notice that the prince does not negate words or speech per se; the negation he suggests is the negation of too many words or too much speech.

Today's verse is another excellent example (in marked contrast to these commentaries) of Aśvaghoṣa saying a lot very elegantly, in very few words.

Thus with the one word kṛtam (done) in the 2^nd pāda, he expresses (2) action itself, as opposed to words.

And with the imperative nivartasva (turn back!) in the 3^rd pāda, he expresses the principle of (3) turning back, as per the nivartanaḥ of the Canto title chandraka-nivartanaḥ, The Turning Back of Chandraka.

It is a fine point, but notice that Aśvaghoṣa does not here describe the prince turning back Chandraka. Rather, he quotes words by which the prince invites Chandraka to turn back.

So what?

So sometimes woffling on interminably, instead of just acting, is an irritating mistake.

And sometimes just acting directly, instead of simply requesting politely what ought to be requested, is a fatal error.

On that topic, kṛtaṁ vacena. Enough said.

What might it mean, then, if it is intended as I have interpreted, as a suggestion of enlightenment itself, (4) to have arrived at that step / stage / place (padam) where one wants to be?

All I can talk about from my own experience is timeless moments by the forest in France, whose authenticity, when some problem crops up and my whole world seems to be in danger of crumbling, I can't help subsequently doubting.

An abudance of more reliable clues, however, is provided in Saundara-nanda, Aśvaghoṣa's epic story of Beautiful Happiness:

Sitting there, mind made up, as unmovingly stable as the king of mountains, / He overcame the grim army of Māra and awoke to the step (padam) which is happy, irremovable, and irreducible. // SN3.7 //

Again, the ending of suffering follows from the disappearance of its cause. Experience that reality for yourself as peace and well-being, / A place of rest, a cessation, an absence of the red taint of thirsting, a primeval refuge which is irremovable and noble, // SN16.26 // In which there is no becoming, no aging, no dying, no illness, no being touched by unpleasantness, / No disappointment, and no separation from what is pleasant: It is an ultimate and indestructible step (padam), in which to dwell at ease. // 16.27 // A lamp that has gone out reaches neither to the earth nor to the sky, / Nor to any cardinal nor to any intermediate point: Because its oil is spent it reaches nothing but extinction. // 16.28 // In the same way, a man of action who has come to quiet reaches neither to the earth nor to the sky, / Nor to any cardinal nor to any intermediate point: From the ending of his afflictions he attains nothing but extinction. // SN16.29 //

The action which on fire, trees, ghee and water is exerted by rainclouds, wind, a flame and the sun, / Nanda exerted that action on the faults, quenching, uprooting, burning, and drying them up. // SN17.59 // Thus he overcame three surges, three sharks, three swells, the unity of water, five currents, two shores, / And two crocodiles: in his eight-piece raft, he crossed the flood of suffering which is so hard to cross. // 17.60 // Having attained to the seat of arhathood, he was worthy of being served. Without ambition, without partiality, without expectation; / Without fear, sorrow, pride, or passion; while being nothing but himself, he seemed in his constancy to be different. // SN17.61 //

Then, after listening to him who had emerged already out of heedlessness, after hearing his firmness and his testimony / And a clarity consistent with the gist of dharma, the Sage boomed at him like a thundercloud: // SN18.21// "You who stands firm in the dharma which is loved by those who study it, stand up! Why are you fallen with your head at my feet? / The prostration does not honour me so much as this surefootedness in the dharma. // 18.22 // Today, conqueror of yourself, you have truly gone forth, since you have thereby gained sovereignty over yourself. / For in a person who has conquered himself, going forth has worked; whereas in an impulsive person whose senses remain unconquered, it has not. // 18.23 // Today you are possessed of purity of the highest order, in that your voice, body, and mind are untainted, / And in that, henceforward, my gentle friend, you will not again be confined in the ungentle womb of unready slumber. // 18.24 // Listening ears open to the truth which is replete with listening, and with purpose, today you stand surefooted in the dharma, in a manner that befits the listening tradition. / For a man equipped with listening ears who is wavering is like a swordsman lacking valour: he is worthy of blame. // 18.25 // Ah! What firmness in you, who is a slave to objects no more, in that you have willed the means of liberation. / For, facing the end of existence in this world and thinking 'I will be finished,' it is a fool who gives in to a state of quivering anxiety. // 18.26 // Happily, this meeting with the present moment, which is so hard to come by, is not being wasted under the sway of ignorance. / For a man who has been down goes up with difficulty, like a turtle to a hole in a yoke, in the foaming sea. // 18.27 // Having conquered Māra, who is so hard to stop in battle, today, at the forefront of the fight, you are a hero among men. / For even a hero is not recognized as a hero who is beaten by the foe-like faults. // 18.28 // Today, having extinguished the flaming fire of redness, happily, you will sleep well, free of fever. / For even on a fabulous bed he sleeps badly who is being burned in his mind by the fires of affliction. // 18.29 // You used markedly to be mad about possessions; today, because you have stopped thirsting, you are rich. / For as long as a man in the world thirsts, however rich he may be, he is always deprived. // 18.30 // Today you may fittingly proclaim that King Śuddhodana is your father. / For it is not commendable for a backslider, after falling from the dharma alighted on by ancestors, to proclaim his lineage. // 18.31 // How great it is that you have reached the deepest tranquillity, like a man making it through a wasteland and gaining possession of treasure. / For everybody in the flux of saṁsāra is afflicted by fear, just like a man in a wasteland. // 18.32 // 'When shall I see Nanda settled, given over to the living of a forest beggar's life?', / So thinking, I had harboured from the start the desire to see you thus. What a wonderful sight you are for me to behold! // 18.33 // For even an unlovely sort is a sight to behold when he is well-adorned with his own best features. / But a man who is full of the befouling faults, strikingly beautiful man though he may be, is truly ugly. //18.34 // Developed in you today is the real wisdom by which you have done, totally, the work you had to do on yourself. / For even a highly educated man lacks wisdom, if wisdom fails to show in his practice of a better way. // 18.35 // So it is with seeing, among people with eyes open and with eyes closed. / For when a man lacks sight that is packed with intuition, though he has eyes, the Eye is not present in him. // 18.36 // Struck by calamity, stung to do something to combat suffering, the world exhausts itself with work like ploughing; / And yet it is ceaselessly re-visited by that suffering, to which, using what you know, you today have put an end. // 18.37 // People in the world are impelled ever forward by thinking 'There might be for me no hardship, just happiness....' / And yet the world does not know a means whereby that happiness might come to be -- that rarely attained happiness which you today have properly realized." // SN18.38 //

Sometimes it helps me to allay my doubts if I reflect that padam originally means not only a stage or state but also a step -- a backward step that is always available, that is never further away than the nearest round black cushion. But any allaying of self-doubt that arises from such reflection is at best temporary. No, let us not kid ourselves. What Aśvaghoṣa and the Buddha appear to be pointing to is arrival (notwithstanding the 2nd law of thermodynamics) at something more final. A stage in a process of turning back, yes, but at the same time, a final stage, from which there is no backsliding. 

Turning back as an endless process is all very well, at the 3rd of the aforecited four phases. But in the 4th pāda of today's verse, as I read it,  as one who has not finally arrived yet, saṁprāpto' smīpsitaṁ padam ("I have arrived where I wanted to be"), is pointing back to the future. 

VOCABULARY

kim: ind. why?

uktvā = abs. vac: to speak

bahu: ind. much , very , abundantly , greatly , in a high degree

saṁkṣepāt (abl. sg.): m. throwing together ; - āt " briefly " , " concisely " , " in short "

kṛtam (nom. sg. n.): mfn. done

me (gen. sg.): of/for me

su-mahat (nom. sg. m.): mfn. very great , huge , vast , abundant

priyam (nom. sg.): n. love , kindness , favour , pleasure

nivartasva = 2^nd pers. sg. imperative ni- √ vṛt : to turn back , stop

aśvam (acc. sg.): m. horse

ādāya = abs. ā- √ dā: " to give to one's self " , take ; to take back , reclaim ; to take or carry away with one's self

saṁprāptaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. one who has reached or attained , arrived at , met with , fallen into (acc.)

sam-pra- √āp: to reach or attain fully to , arrive at , effect , accomplish ; to get , obtain , acquire , partake of , incur , undergo

asmi = 1^st pers. sg. as: to be

īpsitam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. (Desid. of √āp)wished , desired

vanam (acc. sg.): n. forest

padam [EHJ] (acc. sg.): n. step ; a footing , standpoint ; position , rank , station , site , abode , home ; a plot of ground

至言不煩多 今當略告汝
汝事我已畢 今且乘馬還
自我長夜來 所求處今得 

BUDDHACARITA 6.10: An Agenda Causes Unselfishness

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kulārthaṁ dhāryate putraḥ poṣārthaṁ sevyate pitā |

−⏑−−¦⏑⏑⏑−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−   navipulā

āśayāc-chliṣyati jagan-nāsti niṣkāraṇāsvatā || 6.10

6.10

For the sake of continuing a line, a son is maintained;

For the sake of nurturing growth, a father is served;

Living beings cohere because of an agenda –

There is no unselfishness without a cause.

COMMENT:

On the surface, again, the prince is praising Chandraka for being a special individual, by contrasting Chandraka with people in general who, unlike him, only act out of selfish motives. (This ostensible meaning is more explicit in the Chinese translation's 一切皆求利 汝獨背利遊 "Everybody seeks gain; You only, turning your back on gain, rove.") 

The hidden meaning of today's verse, below the surface, however, is not to bemoan the  general human tendency to be selfish, but rather to affirm the universal truth that a true agenda, or worthy cause, makes any of us (not only Chandraka) unselfish. The real point might be to celebrate, in other words, that unselfishness really does exist; and when it exists, invariably, there lies behind it a true agenda, or a real cause.

On the surface the prince illustrates his point with reference to a human family (kula) in which a son (putraḥ) is maintained with a view to carrying on the line and a father (pitā) is served not for the sake of service itself (as per the theoretical Buddhist ideal) but on account of his role as breadwinner.

Below the surface kula suggests the Buddha's house, or a lineage of the transmission of the Buddha's dharma, putraḥ suggests a dharma-heir, and pitā suggests a patriarch or buddha-ancestor.

So ostensibly the prince is talking about fathers in general and generic sons, but really Aśvaghoṣa might be talking about Pārśva and Puṇyayaśas, and about Kapimala and Nāgārjuna.

It is Aśvaghoṣa's style to avoid being preachy. But each of us is free to read between the lines and interpret his words as prescriptively as we like, and the message I take is that I should devote myself to a task– like maintaining a son or like serving a father – with a view to following some greater over-arching agenda. And in that case, though I should not necessarily expect it, the happiness of unselfishness may inadvertently ensue.

The wise course, in other words, if we are talking about the virtue of unselfishness, might be not to target unselfishness directly, but rather to identify a cause worth devoting oneself to.

Forgive me for labouring the point, but it is a point that is worth the effort to be clear about. The apparently skeptical observation that “There is no such thing as unselfishness without a cause,” can be read as concealing Aśvaghoṣa's joyous affirmation “There is such a thing as unselfishness, and it always has a cause.”

The ironic gist of the second half of today's verse boils down to this:

An agenda is the cause of unselfishness.

The truth of this seemingly paradoxical statement, when one stops and thinks about it, is everywhere borne out in team sports. In football, for example, overpaid Premier League prima donnas can be watched every week-end taking a yellow card for the team, or passing the ball to a teammate who is better placed to shoot, instead of going for glory themselves. Why does a footballer exhibit such unselfishness? Because of the team's shared agenda, which is to score more goals than the opposition.

Another example happened to be highlighted by a BBC4 documentary last night on the coherence – notwithstanding over-consumption of cocaine and alcohol and legendary struggles in the personal lives of individual band members – of Fleetwood Mac, whose shared agenda during the making of their album Rumours was such that, come what may, you would never break the chain.

For a parallel example drawn from Aśvaghoṣa's own writing, there are the words that the Buddha speaks to Nanda at the end of the epic tale of Beautiful Joy:

Therefore forgetting the work that needs to be done in this world on the self, do now, stout soul, what can be done for others. / Among beings who are wandering in the night, their minds shrouded in darkness, let the lamp of this transmission be carried. // SN18.57 //

On a textual note, the 3^rd pāda of EBC's text has āśayāśliṣyati = āśayā (with hope) + śliṣyati / ā-śliṣyati (to embrace); and, more crucially, in the 4^th pāda EBC took niṣkāraṇāsvatā as a compound formed of niṣkāraṇa (causeless) + asvatā (unselfishness). Hence: “the world shows kindness for the sake of hope; there is no such a thing as unselfishness without a motive.” (EBC)

EHJ read niṣkāraṇā-svatā = niṣkāraṇā (causeless) + sva-tā (ownership). EHJ understood ownership to mean the feeling that something is one's own, and noted that here the context demands that the something should be one's relation to others. Hence EHJ translated: “The attachment of the world is always due to some motive. No feeling that this or that person is one's kin subsists without a cause.” PO followed EHJ: “The world shows affection for a motive; kinship cannot endure without a cause.”

So I have followed EBC in taking niṣkāraṇāsvatā as niṣkāraṇa (causeless) + asvatā (unselfishness), and have understood Aśvaghoṣa hidden agenda in today's verse to be to convey the gist that a true agenda saves us from selfishness.

As I write these words, the story suddenly comes into my mind, as recounted by Matthieu Ricard, of the famous Tibetan master whose former life as a hunter was suddenly turned around when one day he shot a pregnant doe, and then watched her produce her fawn and nurture it with her dying breaths.

It is not that my unselfishness and lack of an agenda causes me, as a Buddhist, to do this work for no pay. It is rather that the agenda behind this work – which is as true to me as the agenda behind the actions of the dying doe – is the cause that saves me (on a good day) from the selfish misery of feeling sorry for my non-Buddhist self, and keeps me (more or less) coherent.

In that spirit I take today's verse as a kind of reminder and clarification of what the original  agenda was behind this work – e.g. to nurture or contribute to growth or prosperity (poṣam). Accepting the truth of that original agenda, the task before me is to serve an ancestor (pitaram) who wished to cause to be yielded up serviceable gold:

Seeing, in general, that the world is moved primarily by fondness for objects and is repelled by liberation, I for whom liberation is paramount have told it here like it is, using a kāvya poem as a pretext. / Being aware of the deceit, take from (this verb-rooted dust) what pertains to peace and not to idle pleasure. Then elemental dust, assuredly, shall yield up serviceable gold. // SN18.64 //

VOCABULARY

kulārtham (acc. sg. n.): for the sake of the family / lineage

kula: n. a herd ; a race , family , community , tribe , caste , set , company ; the residence of a family , seat of a community ; a house ; a noble or eminent family or race

kul: to accumulate , collect ; to be of kin , behave as a kinsman ; to proceed continuously or without interruption

artha: aim, purpose

dhāryate = 3^rd pers. sg. passive dhṛ: to hold , bear (also bring forth) , carry , maintain , preserve

putraḥ (nom. sg.): m. son

poṣārtham (acc. sg. n.): for the sake of thriving / growth

poṣa: m. ( √ puṣ) thriving , prosperity , abundance , wealth , growth , increase ; nourishing , nurture , rearing , maintaining , supporting

√ puṣ: to thrive , flourish , prosper

sevyate = 3^rd pers. sg. passive sev: to serve , wait or attend upon , honour , obey , worship; to cherish, foster

pitā (nom. sg.): m. father ; m. pl. the fathers , forefathers , ancestors

āśayāt (abl. sg.): m. resting-place , bed ; seat , place ; the seat of feelings and thoughts , the mind , heart , soul ; thought , meaning , intention ; disposition of mind , mode of thinking

śliṣyati = 3^rd pers. sg. śliṣ: to adhere , attach , cling to (loc. , rarely acc.) ; to clasp , embrace ; to unite , join (trans. or intrans.) ; (A1.) to result , be the consequence of anything

āśayā [EBC] = inst. sg. āśā f. wish , desire , hope , expectation , prospect

ā- √ śliṣ: to adhere or cling to ; to embrace

jagat (nom. sg.): n. that which moves or is alive , men and animals , animals as opposed to men , men ; n. the world , esp. this world , earth ; n. people , mankind

na: not

asti = 3^rd pers. sg. as: to be

niṣkāraṇāsvatā [EBC] (nom. sg. f.): causeless unselfishness ; [EBC] 'unselfishness without a motive'

niṣkāraṇa: mfn. causeless , unnecessary ; groundless , not proceeding from any cause ; n. taking off , killing

āsvatā [EBC] (nom. sg.): f. the having no property ; unselfishness, Bcar. vi, 10.

niṣkāraṇā [EHJ] (nom. sg. f.): mfn. causeless , unnecessary ; groundless , not proceeding from any cause

sva-tā [EHJ] (nom. sg.) : f. the state of belonging to one's self , ownership

夫人生育子 爲以紹宗嗣

所以奉敬王 爲以報恩養
一切皆求利 汝獨背利遊 

BUDDHACARITA 6.9: Turning It Around

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ko janasya phala-sthasya na syād-abhimukho janaḥ |

⏑−⏑⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑⏑−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

janī-bhavati bhūyiṣṭhaṁ sva-jano 'pi viparyaye || 6.9

6.9

What person would not tend to turn his face 

In the direction of a person who offers promise of reward?

[or a person whose practice is (its own) reward?]

Even one's own people become, 

on the whole, part of common humankind, 

In the event of a turnaround in the opposite direction. 

COMMENT:

The difficulty in today's verse centres on the ambiguity of two words, phala-sthasya and viparyaye, which are in the dictionary, and one word janī-bhavati, which is not.

On the surface the first half of today's verse asks a rhetorical question about the ordinary human attitude towards the promise of reward (EBC: “Who would not be favourably disposed to one who stands to him as bringing him reward?”; EHJ: “Who would not be favourably disposed to a man in a position to reward him?”; PO: “What man will not fawn upon someone bestowing rewards?”)

Ostensibly, then, the prince is suggesting that Chandraka is a special kind of person, since  ordinary people are motivated by expectation of reward, whereas Chandraka was not. 

But I think that what Aśvaghoṣa might really mean to suggest by  janasya phala-sthasya is a buddha, in following whose teaching we are required to turn our attention from outside to inside ourselves. 

Phala needs to be translated as “reward” for conformity with the previous verse, and to convey the sense that a question under consideration is indeed purity of motivation – i.e. whether or not action is tainted by expectation of reward. At the same time, pala-stha is given in the dictionary as “useful,” and taking the compound literally it also means “abiding in the fruit” or “practising the fruit.”

With these latter meanings janasya phala-sthasya suggests not so much a person who is in a position to bestow rewards on others as a buddha (one who is abiding in the fruit or one who is practising the fruit), in which case the answer to the prince's question "What person would not keep his face turned theretowards?" might be provided by the Buddha himself in SN Canto 14:

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. // SN14.50 //

The closing word of the verse, viparyaye, is given in the dictionary as meaning, in its indeclinable form, in the opposite case, otherwise. (Hence EHJ: “In the opposite case...”) Viparyaye, however, can also be read as the locative of viparyaya, whose meanings include (1) reverse of fortune (hence EBC: “in a reverse of fortune”); and (2) turning round (hence PO: “When the tide turns...”).

In all three of these renderings of viprayaye, the suggestion is of a reversal or turnaround on the outside — a reverse —  such that even family members, for example, begin to squabble with each other.

But I think the real or hidden meaning that Aśvaghoṣa intended to suggest is a turnaround from the outside to the inside.

This turnaround is a function of learning, to use Dogen's famous phrase, the backward step of turning one's light and letting it shine.

When this kind of turnaround is realized, the hidden suggestion seems to be, the distinction between one's own people (sva-jana) and people in general (jana / janya) falls away. This mirrors what the Buddha tells Nanda in SN Canto 15:

saṃsāre kṛṣyamāṇānāṃ sattvānāṃ svena karmaṇā /

ko janaḥ sva-janaḥ ko vā mohāt sakto jane janaḥ // SN15.31 //

Among beings dragged by our own doing through the cycle of saṁsāra, / Who are our own people, and who are [other] people? It is through ignorance that people attach to people.//

As regards the problematic janī-bhavati, EBC notes: Janībhavati may be a quaint expression for parajano bhavati — this seems the meaning of the Tibetan. Or we might read janyo bhavati.

EHJ notes that against janībhavati the old Nepalese manuscript has an old marginal gloss apara (the other); and EHJ also makes the connection with the use of jana in SN15.31.

Since I do not know what janī means, and since paleographically janī and janyo  are fairly similar, I have gone with EBC's conjecture of  janyo [but see comment below].  Either way, whether we read janī-bhavati or janyo bhavati, the gist of today's verse as I read it is:

(1) On the surface, that ordinary human beings (in contrast with the stalwart Chandraka) are liable to change our tune when expected reward turns into impending retribution, in such a way that even a family member is liable to be relegated in our esteem to the level of any old person, a stranger.

(2) Below the surface, that through the solitary practice of learning to turn our own light and let it shine, each one of us can transform ourselves in such a way that everybody on the planet is elevated in our esteem to the level of a human brother or sister, or son or daughter.

The difficulty with (2) is that getting people to subscribe to this gist as a nice idea is one thing, but actually being willing to realize the turnaround in practice is a whole other thing.

The last surviving first-generation teacher of the Alexander Technique (i.e. a teacher trained by FM  Alexander himself) lives just 20 miles up the road from here in Oxford. Her name is Elizabeth Walker, and she is getting on for a hundred years old.  A couple of years back I visited an Alexander training school shortly after Elizabeth had been teaching there and I heard that she was heard to say — never in a heavy kind of way — that one needs to love everybody. 

This statement is all the more remarkable to me, and all the stronger corroboration of the transformative power of Alexander work, when I reflect that Elizabeth tragically lost her young son shortly after WWII when he went in for a simple operation to have his tonsils out but the operation went wrong. 

If the Buddha's teaching is that, through the transformative power of practice, one can come to love every human being on the planet as if he or she was one's own son or daughter.... that, at least, might be something to work towards. 

Immediately, however, one or two examples spring to mind in regard to whom I would like to ask for special dispensation. Still, I am a young whipper-snapper with less than 20 years behind me in Alexander's work, and not much more than 30 years of daily sitting practice. 

Yesterday a friend reminded me, with an example he cited of instant retribution, of the principle of how karma operates in three times. Yesterday also the price of gold went down to another level, which caused me to wake up in a sweat at about 1 o'clock in the morning. Reflecting on cause and effect, however, I fell back into a deep and peaceful sleep, secure in the knowledge that however much of the family savings I have lost, it is totally my own damn fault — whereas when I have suffered other big losses in the past, like the loss of my translation partnership and friendship with Gudo Nishijima, the picture was somehow complicated by the black deeds of others besides me, which made it somehow more difficult for me to get my head and heart around it. I begin to see, painful insight though it is, why George Soros found the financial markets to be a clean laboratory for testing out his Popperian-based philosophy, with its dual pillars of fallability and reflexivity. 

These comments of mine are getting to be so long that it is ridiculous. I hope, if nothing else, that they serve to demonstrate how much lies beneath the surface of every verse that Aśvaghoṣa wrote, if we take the time to dig for it. 

VOCABULARY

kaḥ (nom. sg. m.): who, what

janasya (gen. sg.): m. person

phala-sthasya (gen. sg. m. ): mfn. useful (cf. -saṁstha, bearing fruit) ; abiding in the fruit ; practising the fruit

phala-saṁstha: mfn. bearing fruit

phala: n. fruit; fruit (met.) , consequence , effect , result , retribution (good or bad) , gain or loss , reward or punishment , advantage or disadvantage ; benefit

stha: mfn. standing , staying , abiding , being situated in , existing or being in or on or among; occupied with , engaged in , devoted to performing , practising

na: not

syāt = 3^rd pers. sg. optative as: to be

abhimukhaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. with the face directed towards , turned towards , facing ; taking one's part , friendly disposed (with gen. or instr.)

janaḥ (nom. sg.): m. person

janī-bhavati = 3rd pers. sg. janī-bhū: to become 

jana: m. creature , living being , man , person , race; m. people; m. a common person , one of the people

janyaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. jána) belonging to a race or family or to the same country , national; belonging or relating to the people ; m. a common man

para-janaḥ (nom. sg. m.): m. another person , a stranger

bhavati = 3^rd pers. sg. bhū: to be , become

bhūyiṣṭham: ind. for the most part , mostly , chiefly ; abundantly , numerously ; in the highest degree , very much

bhūyiṣṭha: mfn. (accord. to Pa1n2. 6-4 , 158 superl. of bahu) most numerous or abundant or great or important , chief , principal

sva-janaḥ (nom. sg. m.): one's own people

api: even

viparyaye (loc. sg.): m. turning round , revolution ; m. running off , coming to an end; m. transposition , change , alteration , inverted order or succession , opposite of; buddhi-v° , the opposite opinion ; svapna-v° , the opp of sleep , state of being awake ; saṁdhi-viparyayau , peace and its opposite i.e. war ; °yaye ind. ,°yena ind. and °yāt ind. in the opposite case , other wise ; m. change for the worse , reverse of fortune , calamity , misfortune

vi-parā- √i : to go back again , return


捐棄世榮利 進歩隨我來
何人不向利 無利親戚離
汝今空隨我 不求現世報  
[Conflated with previous verse]

BUDDHACARITA 6.8: Action Gets the Marrow

−−−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−−¦⏑−⏑−

tat-prīto 'smi tavānena mahā-bhāgena karmaṇā |

−⏑−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

dṛśyate mayi bhāvo 'yaṁ phalebhyo 'pi parāṅ-mukhe || 6.8

6.8

Therefore I am gladdened

By this most magnificent action of yours.

This attitude towards me is conspicuous,

[Or this transformation into me is realized,]

Turned away while I am from rewards.

COMMENT:

Today's verse is another verse to be wrestled with long and hard. Its difficulty, centred on the many meanings of the word bhāva, is indicated by my resort to square brackets.

Today's verse is ostensibly all about how a devoted servant thinks and feels towards his master. On the surface, then, the key word in today's verse is bhāva, and bhāva means “feeling” (EBC/EHJ) or “love” (PO). 

Below the surface, though, the key words in today's verse are really tavānena mahā-bhāgena karmaṇā, “this most magnificent action of yours.” Because what today's verse is really all about is that which transcends thinking and feeling, and love and hate, which is namely most magnificent action.

In the 3rd pāda, then, mayi bhāvaḥ ostensibly means “a feeling (of love or affection) towards me,” but if we follow the hidden meaning in which action is to the fore mayi bhāvaḥ suggests at least two other readings.

First, bhāva can mean “manner of acting” or “disposition,” in which case mayi bhāvaḥ can be understood to mean nothing to so emotional or attached as a servant's feeling of love for the master to whom he is devoted; on the contrary, if we understand bhaktimān (“being devoted”) in yesterday's verse to express devotion not to a person but to the principle of action itself, then mayi bhāvo' yam (“this attitude towards me” or “this manner of acting towards me”) suggests the manner of action of one who is learning to devote himself just to his own action, without clinging to, or trying to curry favour with, or win brownie points from, his teacher/master.

Second, and more profoundly removed from the ostensible reading, since bhāva with the locative can mean “turning into,” mayi bhāvaḥ can be understood as a master describing a servant's action of just serving as “turning into me.” The 3^rd pāda in that case means something like “This transformation into me becomes visible” or “This transformation into me is realized.”

In that case, the 3^rd pāda can be read as pre-saging Bodhidharma's famous words to four successors, “You have got my skin,” “You have got my flesh,” “You have got my bones,” and “You have got my marrow.”

On a textual note, I have retained EBC's Sanskrit, which is as per the old Nepalese manuscript except with yas at the end of the 3^rd pāda amended to 'yaṁ. In these original versions of the text the 3^rd pāda begins with dṛśyate (EBC: “is seen”) which I have understood to mean “is conspicuous” or “is realized.” And the verse ends with parāṅ-mukhe (loc. sg.) agreeing with mayi (hence EBC: “I am regardless...”):

“I am pleased with this noble action of thine; this feeling is seen towards me, even though I am regardless of conferring rewards.” (EBC)

EHJ changed dṛśyate in the 3^rd pāda to yasya te, and changed parāṅ-mukhe in the 4^th pāda to parāṅ-mukhaḥ, which then agrees not with mayi (towards/into me) but with bhavāh (feeling or love). Hence:

“Therefore I am well-pleased with this your noble action in displaying towards me this feeling, which takes no count even of possible rewards.” (EHJ)

“I am delighted, therefore, at this lofty deed of yours; This love of yours toward me, has no regard for rewards.” (PO)

With EHJ's amendments, then, the emphasis undergoes a significant lovey-dovey shift, bringing to mind again the analogy of the husband on Valentine's Day sweet-talking his neglected but loving wife.

Whereas the thrust of the original text, as I read it, is to subvert just such sentimentality and point in the direction of what gets the marrow, after an arm has been cut off, which is action itself.

Finally, if in the 4^th pāda we accept the parāṅ-mukhe of the original text, the implicit suggestion might be as per the chapter of Shobogenzo called Kuyo-shobutsu, in which Dogen considers the whole question of having and not having an agenda in serving buddhas.

The point might be, to spell it out, that in the action of serving buddhas, buddha is totally free of any reward-seeking agenda. But for the servant engaged in the lengthy process of learning what it means to serve buddha, how is it? 

In a theory like that of pure land Buddhism, when we light incense, chant ineffectual chants (“May all beings be well.”... “May all beings be well”...), ring bells, and blow whistles, our mind in serving buddhas is not tainted by any consideration of result or reward.

But how is it really, in practice?

Speaking for myself, there are moments, I must admit, when I hope the heroic nature of my lonesome efforts will some day be recognized (and all the blots will be magically erased from the karmic copybook). Nothing too grand, you understand, just a few craggy lines on some old bit of rock somewhere...

VOCABULARY

tad: ind. so, therefore

prītaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. pleased or delighted or satisfied with , joyful at , glad of (with instr. loc. gen. , or ifc.)

asmi = 1^st pers. sg. as: to be

tava (gen. sg.): of yours

anena (inst. sg. n.): this

mahā-bhāgena (inst. sg. n.); mfn. one to whom a great portion or lot has fallen , highly fortunate , eminent in the highest degree , illustrious , highly distinguished (mostly of persons and frequently in address) ; virtuous in a high degree , pure , holy

bhāga: m. ( √ bhaj) a part , portion , share , allotment , inheritance (in Ved. also = lot , esp. fortunate lot , good fortune , luck , destiny)

√ bhaj: to divide , distribute , allot or apportion to (dat. or gen.) , share with (instr.) ; (A1.) to grant , bestow , furnish , supply ;

karmaṇā (inst. sg.): n. act , action , performance , business

dṛśyate = 3^rd pers. sg. passive dṛś: to be seen , become visible , appear ; to be shown or manifested , appear as (iva) , prove

yasya [EHJ] (gen. sg.): of which

te [EHJ] (gen. sg.): of you

mayi (loc. sg.): to me

bhāvaḥ (nom. sg.): m. being; turning or transition into (loc. or comp.) ; manner of being , nature , temperament , character ; manner of acting , conduct , behaviour ; any state of mind or body , way of thinking or feeling , sentiment , opinion , disposition , intention ; love , affection , attachment ; the seat of the feelings or affections , heart , soul , mind

yaḥ (nom. sg. m.): [relative pronoun] which, that

ayam (nom. sg. m.): this , this here , referring to something near the speaker

phalebhyaḥ (abl./dat. pl.): n. fruit (met.) , consequence , effect , result , retribution (good or bad) , gain or loss , reward or punishment , advantage or disadvantage

api: even

parāṅ-mukhe (loc. sg. m.): mfn. having the face turned away or averted , turning the back upon ; averse from , hostile to , regardless of , shunning

parāṅ-mukhaḥ [EHJ] (nom. sg. m.): ibid

捐棄世榮利 進歩隨我來
何人不向利 無利親戚離
汝今空隨我 不求現世報 
[Conflated with next verse]