BUDDHACARITA 12.50: Thinking This, Not to Mention That

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tac ca dhyāna-sukhaṁ prāpya tat-tad eva vitarkayan |

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apūrva-sukha-lābhena hriyate bāliśo janaḥ || 12.50

12.50

Experiencing this state of meditative ease,

While thinking various things

– this but also that –

The immature person is carried away

By enjoyment of the new-found happiness.

COMMENT:

Ostensibly Arāḍa is going through the four dhyānas one by one, in their proper order, dryly, by the book. Below the surface, however (though it could be just me projecting my own joy at finally getting to grips with the four dhyānas), I can't help feeling something joyfully ironic -- humurous and subversive -- running through this description of the first dhyāna.

In the background, I wanted for many years to have a clear explanation of the four dhyānas – ever since reading Shobogenzo chap. 90 whose title Shizen-biku means The Bhikṣu in the Fourth Dhyāna. This refers to the salutary example of a monk who, on attaining the fourth dhyāna, proudly considered himself to have realized the fourth fruit of the Buddha-dharma, which is the state beyond study, the worthy state of an arhat, an enlightened being.

But no satisfactory explanation was available to me while I lived in Japan. The Buddhist dictionaries had abbreviated descriptions in Chinese characters that could have meant almost anything. 

So when I started studying Aśvaghoṣa in Sanskrit, my attention was quickly drawn to his description of the four dhyānas, in this Canto and also in SN Canto 17. Looking back on it now, I still feel grateful to have found Aśvaghoṣa's description, and happy to see their correspondence with the Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasutta (DN 22) quoted yesterday.

At the same time, I can't help feeling that the joke has been on me -- a bit like making an effort and spending money to have an Alexander lesson with a teacher of high repute, only to find that what was on offer, ultimately, was a bit of nothing. 

If I am justified in reading today's verse in this light, then the key hint to this ironic meaning might be the emphatic eva in the 2^nd pāda, which places stress on the second tad. So tat tad vitarkayan means thinking various things, thinking this and that, but tat tad eva vitarkayan means something like “thinking this but especially that” or “thinking this, not to mention that," or "thinking this, but not forgetting that." 

So “thinking this” might mean, for example, noticing that the thumbs are no longer in contact with each other and directing the tips of the thumbs together. Directing the thumbs together means thinking thumbs to lengthen and thinking tips of the thumbs together. Responding to the stimulus of what has been noticed not by doing something directly, not by making a postural adjustment, but as an exercise in thinking. 

Again, “thinking this” might mean thinking ahead to the second of the four stages of sitting-meditation, and thinking beyond the fourth dhyāna towards the worthy state of the arhat. 

But “thinking that” might mean, for example, thinking about what I dreamt last night, or thinking what I am going to have for dinner.  

When we go by the book, "thinking this" is the kind of thinking that rightly belongs to the first stage of sitting-meditation. 

But when we set the book aside, and investigate how it really is on the inside of sitting practice, the truth is that sitting is ever liable to contain a whole lot of extraneous "thinking that."

One thing is for sure. Since I am heading back to England tomorrow and still have a whole load of the winter radishes that I grew in the vegetable patch I dug in July, today's menu is once again going to involve grated radish. 

And while the mind is joyfully given over to thinking that, the fingers curl, as if around the handle of a mattock, and the thumbs again drift apart...

VOCABULARY

tat (acc. sg. n.): that

ca: and

dhyāna-sukham (acc. sg. n.): meditative pleasure

prāpya = abs. pra- √āp: to attain to ; reach , arrive at , meet with , find; to obtain

tat-tad (acc. sg. n.): this and that

eva: (emphatic)

vitarkayan = nom. sg. m. pres. part vi- √ tark: to reflect , ponder , think , believe , suppose , conjecture , consider

apūrva-sukha-lābhena (inst. sg.): by the attainment of ease not experienced before

apūrva: unpreceded , unprecedented ; not having existed before , quite new

sukha: n. ease , easiness , comfort , prosperity , pleasure , happiness

lābha: m. meeting with, finding; obtaining, enjoying

hriyate = 3^rd pers. sg. passive hṛ: to be carried away

bāliśaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. young , childish , puerile , ignorant , simple , foolish

janaḥ (nom. sg.): m. person

既得初禪樂 及與覺觀心
而生奇特想 愚癡心樂著

BUDDHACARITA 12.49: The First Dhyāna, By the Book

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atho viviktaṁ kāmebhyo vyāpādādibhya eva ca |

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viveka-jam-avāpnoti pūrva-dhyānaṁ vitarkavat || 12.49

12.49

Then he realizes the stage secluded from desires,

And also from things like malice;

He realizes the stage born of seclusion –

The first dhyāna, in which there is thinking.

COMMENT:

In the passage which follows below from Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasuttaṁ (DN 22), The Long Discourse about the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness, the Buddha is teaching an assembly of monks the truth of the eightfold path.

The link is to the text and translation prepared by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, whose choice of English words to represent recurring traditional Pali/Sanskrit terms provides a very good benchmark, if not a gold standard. Examples are “the pollutants” for āsravaḥ (MW: defilements, sins); and, in today's verse, “born of seclusion” for vivekajaṁ (MW: produced or arising from discrimination; EBC: arises from discrimination; EHJ: born of discrimination; PO: rising from discrimination).

When I first came across “born of discrimination” as a translation of viveka-jam, six years ago, I felt a doubt about it. But not any more. “Born of seclusion” or “born of separateness” is the meaning. “Born of discrimination” is flat out wrong; it is a translation born of the dictionary, not of practice.

In the passage which follows below, AB translates sammāsamādhi as “right concentration.” “Concentration” is a literal enough reflection of sam (together) + ādhi (putting). The problem with the word concentration, however, as we usually use it, is that it suggests an effort of doing. And “right” tends to be problematic too. I think it was Chogyam Trungpa who taught that samyañc really means “straight” as in taking Scotch whisky straight, not on the rocks. It was maybe an unfortunate metaphor, in view of his reputed alcoholism. In any event, as a translation of sammāsamādhi I have preferred “balanced stillness,” and changed the wording in one or two others places as well. So the following is my reworking of AB's translation:

Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sammāsamādhi?
Now what, monks, is balanced stillness?

Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu vivicceva kāmehi, vivicca akusalehi dhammehi,
Here, monks, a monk, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unwholesome things,

savitakkaṁ, savicāraṁ, vivekajaṁ pītisukhaṁ,
[dwells in the state which] has thinking, has reflection, and the joy and ease born of seclusion –

paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati.
he dwells having attained the first stage of meditation.

It makes me happy to see the common elements in

(a) this passage from the Pali (DN 22);

(b) Arāda's description in Sanskrit in today's verse (BC12.49); as also in

(c) Aśvaghoṣa's description of Nanda's attainment of the first dhyāna in SN Canto 17 (SN17.49).

kāmair viviktaṃ malinaiś ca dharmair vitarkavac cāpi vicāravac ca /

Distanced from desires and tainted things, 
containing ideas and containing thoughts,

viveka-jaṃ prīti-sukhopapannaṃ dhyānaṃ tataḥ sa prathamaṃ prapede //SN17.42

Born of seclusion and possessed of joy and ease, 
is the first stage of meditation, which he then entered.

Though the wording varies, the essential elements are as follows:

• vivicceva kāmehi (DN 22), quite secluded from sense desires
• kāmair viviktam (SN17.42), separated/distanced/secluded from desires
• viviktaṁ kāmebhyaḥ (BC12.49) separated/distanced/secluded from desires / sense desires

So the first dhyāna is defined, when we go by the book, as secluded from sense desires.

• vivicca akusalehi dhammehi (DN22), secluded from unwholesome things,
• viviktaṃ malinaiś ca dharmair (SN17.42), separated/distanced/secluded from tainted things
• viviktaṁ vyāpādādibhyaḥ (BC12.49), separated/distanced/secluded from [things/emotions] like malice

The first dhyāna is defined, when we go by the book, as secluded from unwholesome and tainted things – including, for one example, malice.

• savitakkaṁ, savicāraṁ (DN22), having thinking, having reflection
• vitarkavac cāpi vicāravac ca (SN17.42), having/containing thinking/thoughts/ideas and having/containing consideration/reflection/thoughts
• vitarkavat (BC12.49), having thinking

The first dhyāna is defined as having thinking.

• vivekajaṁ (DN22), born of seclusion
• viveka-jam (SN17.42), born of separateness/seclusion
• viveka-jam (BC12.49), born of separateness/seclusion

The first dhyāna is defined as being born of separateness or seclusion.

• pītisukhaṁ (DN22), having happiness and joy, or joy and happiness, or joy and ease
• prīti-sukhopapannaṃ (SN17.42), being possessed of joy and ease
• apūrva-sukha (BC12.50), ease/pleasure/happiness/joy not experienced before, new-found pleasure

The first dhyāna is characterized by positive feelings.

VOCABULARY

atho: and so, then

viviktam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. separated , kept apart , distinguished , discriminated; isolated , alone , solitary

kāmebhyaḥ (abl. pl.): m. desires

vyāpādādibhyaḥ (abl. pl.): m. malice etc.

vyāpāda: m. evil intent or design , malice

ādi: etc.

eva: emphatic

ca: and

viveka-jam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. produced or arising from discrimination Dharmas. 72; born of solitude/separateness/seclusion

viveka: m. discrimination , distinction

vi- √vic: to sift (esp. grain by tossing or blowing) , divide asunder , separate from

avāpnoti = 3^rd pers. sg. ava√āp: to reach , attain , obtain , gain , get

pūrva-dhyānam (acc. sg. n.): the first dhyāna

vitarkavat (acc. sg. n.): mfn. (speech) containing a conjecture or supposition

vitark: vi- √ tark: to reflect , ponder , think , believe , suppose , conjecture , consider

vitarka: m. conjecture , supposition , guess , fancy , imagination , opinion ; reasoning , deliberation , consideration ; purpose, intention

離欲惡不善 欲界諸煩惱
遠離生喜樂 得初覺觀禪 

BUDDHACARITA 12.48: Mobilizing in the Right Direction

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tato rāgād-bhayaṁ dṣṭvā vairāgyāc-ca paraṁ śivam |

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nighṇann-indriya-grāmaṁ yatate manasaḥ śame || 12.48

12.48

He sees, on these grounds, 

how horror arises out of redness

But the highest happiness out of its absence,

And he mobilizes himself – curbing the senses –

In the direction of quieting of the mind.

COMMENT:

Ostensibly, again, today's verse is leading up to a description of the first dhyāna. So it is describing a practitioner at a stage preparatory to the first of four stages of sitting-meditation. Ostensibly its position is before the first of four stages. 

Below the surface, however, I read today's verse, in common with every verse since BC12.40, as having gone beyond the fourth of four phases. 

As I noted at the end of my comment to BC12.41, in the effort to memorize the verses of the present Canto in series, I have been remembering them in the following four-phased sequence:

BC12.1 – ideal moon (first phase)

BC12.2 - spatial dimensions (second phase)

BC12.3 – subject and object meet at the place of purity (third phase)

BC12.4 - Sitting (fourth phase)...

and so on, group of four after group of four...

BC12.5 – ideal vessel

BC12.6 – dogged constancy, unromantic negation of emotion

BC12.7 – nothing miraculous

BC12.8 – something miraculous

BC12.9 - vi- √ jñā 1. to know

BC12.10 - vi- √ jñā 2. being known

BC12.11 - vi- √ jñā 3. knowing

BC12.12 – Realization

BC12.13 – Motivation and estimation

BC12.14 – skepticism (Can it be explained?)

BC12.15 – Arāḍa acts (his own teaching)

BC12.16 – Listen!

BC12.17 – Intro; concepts / birth, death, aging

BC12.18 – Prakṛti - what is really primary (not what you think)

BC12.19 – Vikāra - physical bits and bobs; equally, the mind

BC12.20 – Knowing the [Unified] Field (= meeting the Tāthagata)

BC12.21 – distinction 1; Awake vs Not Awake

BC12.22 – distinction 2: Manifest vs Not Manifest

BC12.23 – causes of saṁsāra

BC12.24 – the eight concrete causes

BC12.25, 26 – wrong grounding, selfishness

BC12.27, 28 – blurring (x2)

BC12.29, 30 – lack of discrimination, wrong means

BC12.31, 32 – attachment, pulling down

BC12.33 – thus, fivefold ignorance

BC12.34 – tamo, moha, mahā-moha

BC12.35 -  mahā-moha = kāma

BC12.36 – tamīsram (x2)

BC12.37 – duḥkha (saṁsāra as 1^st noble truth)

BC12.38 – negation of “ego” (ironic affirmation of aham)

BC12.39 – truth of cessation

BC12.40 – meeting the Tāthagata tatra, (via the four)

At this point the regular four-phased progression seems to break down. BC12.41 and 12.42, rather than starting a new set of four phases, seem to continue on at, or beyond, the fourth phase. The same can be said for BC12.43 onwards. 

BC12.41 – meeting the Tāthagata again (via the four again) 
BC12.42 – meeting Buddha as brahma-practice (Araḍa's conclusion).

BC12.43 – oneness of means and end (narrator's descripiton)

BC12.44 – oneness of means and end (bodhisattva's question)

BC12.45 – same Dharma, by the book (narrator's descripiton)

BC12.46 – first step / last step --> primacy of action (Araḍa begins again).

BC12.47 – first step / last step  = 少欲知足, no dichotomy 

BC12.48 – transcending raw emotion, by going in the right direction

So the present progression, at one level, is a progression towards Zen Master Arāḍa's description of the first, second, third, and fourth dhyānas. In that case today's verse is about recognition and mental motivation -- getting psyched. 

But at the deeper level, the present series of verses can be read as pointing to the sitting that Zen Master Dogen praised as 安楽法門 ANRAKU [no] HOMON, the Dharma-gate of peace and ease, which is beyond 習禅 SHU-ZEN, learning Zen, or dhyāna to be learned. 

When today's verse is read in this light, its first word, tataḥ, means not simply "then" but rather “on this basis” or “on these grounds.” And on these grounds, referring back to BC12.40,  means on the grounds of meeting Buddha.  In that case, dṛṣtvā, seeing, suggests not so much an easy intellectual recognition as hard-won realization. 

EBC translated the 1st pāda “Then having seen how fear arises from passion...”;
EHJ, “Then, seeing thedanger that arises from passion...”; 
and PO similarly “Then, seeing that from passion comes danger....”

But, like tatra in BC12.40, tataḥ in today's verse can be read as much more than an inconsequential conjunction.

The point is that the one in question (ayam; BC12.46) is ostensibly a devotee (EBC) or an aspirant (EHJ) who happens to notice something. But below the surface the one in question might be a buddha who has already realized everything.

Again, the second half of today's verse can be read on two levels at least. Thus both EBC and PO translated yatate as “he strives”:

EBC: he strives, by restraining all the senses, to attain to tranquillity of mind.

EHJ: he arrests his senses and exerts himself in the matter of mental quietude.

PO: He restrains all his sense organs and strives to quieten his mind. 

These sound like descriptions of the striving of the ignorant one who, in Nāgārjuna's account, does the doings which are the root of saṁsāra.

How in fact does a wise one restrain or arrest the senses?

The answer I think is: not directly. To try to restrain or arrest the senses directly is just the kind of doing that the ignorant one does.

And how can striving take us in the direction of quieting of the mind? 

The answer I think, again, is: not directly. To strive to quieten the mind directly is just the kind of doing that the ignorant one does.

Therefore, if we read today's verse as description of the practice of a wise one, then the true relation between niyate (he makes effort) and nigṛhnan (holding back) might be that making effort is primary and holding back of the senses is a kind of happy accident. 

It is not that we make effort by restraining the senses, as indicated by EBC's translation. Nor is it that we first restrain the senses and then start striving, as suggested by the translations of EHJ and PO. 

Rather, making effort in a particular direction is a means-whereby for allowing the power of the senses naturally to abate. “Direction is the truest form of inhibition,” to borrow a phrase from Alexander work.

A lof of digging for small potatoes, you might think. But if there is a hundredth or thousandth of a gap, as Dogen emphasized, the gulf is wider than the separation of heaven and earth. 

Aśvaghoṣa's verbal irony is the mirror of the irony of practice. Because he knew so well that to strive in the direction of undoing is, ironically, just to do...

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||MMK26.10||

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra

Thus does the ignorant one do.

The ignorant one therefore is the doer;

The wise one is not, because of reality making itself known.

VOCABULARY

tataḥ: ind. then, on that basis

rāgāt (abl. s.g): m. colour , hue , tint , dye , (esp.) red colour , redness ; any feeling of passion  

bhayam (acc. sg.): n. fear ; sg. and pl. terror , dismay , danger , peril , distress ; danger

dṛṣṭvā = abs. dṛś: to see

vairāgyāt (abl. sg.): n. loss of colour ; freedom from all worldly desires , indifference to worldly objects and to life , asceticism

ca: and

param (acc. sg.): highest, supreme, of the highest order

śivam m. happiness , welfare ; n. welfare , prosperity , bliss

nigṛhṇan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. ni- √ grah: to hold down , lower , depress ;

to keep or hold back , draw near , attract ; to seize , catch , hold , hold fast , stop , restrain , suppress , curb , tame , punish

indriya-grāmam (acc. sg.): m. the assemblage of the organs , the senses or organs of sense collectively

grāma: m. an inhabited place , village , hamlet ; the collective inhabitants of a place , community , race ; ifc. (cf. Pa1n2. 6-2 , 84) a multitude , class , collection or number (in general)

yatate = 3^rd pers. sg. yat: to seek to join one's self with , make for , tend towards (loc.) ; to endeavour to reach , strive after , be eager or anxious for (with loc. dat. acc. with or without prati , once with gen. ; also with arthe , arthāya , artham and hetos ifc. ; or with inf.) ; to exert one's self , take pains , endeavour , make effort , persevere , be cautious or watchful

manasaḥ (gen. sg.): n. mind

śame (loc. sg.): m. tranquillity, peace ; tranquillization , pacification , allayment , alleviation , cessation , extinction

見貪欲怖畏 及離欲清涼
攝諸根聚落 安心於寂默

BUDDHACARITA 12.47: Theory & Practice – No False Dichotomy

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saṁtoṣaṁ param-āsthāya yena tena yatas-tataḥ |

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viviktaṁ sevate vāsaṁ nir-dvandvaḥ śāstra-vit ktī || 12.47

12.47

Staying close to the deepest contentment

With whatever, from wherever,

He abides in seclusion,

Free from dichotomies, 

a knower of the teaching, a man of action.

COMMENT:

The irony in today's verse, as I read it, is that Arāḍa is ostensibly describing a step preparatory to realization of the first dhyāna, but his words can also be read as answering the bodhisattva's question about padaṁ naiṣṭhikam, the ultimate step.

The ultimate step, so they say, is nirvāna. And the Buddha on the night before he died, according to a sūtra quoted in the final chapter of Shobogenzo, said that a person of small desire already has nirvāṇa. 

The first two pādas of today's verse, then, read like mirrors of the first two truths of the eight truths of a great human being. These two are recorded in Chinese characters as 少欲知足 (Jap: SHOYOKU-CHISOKU), small desire, knowing contentment. 

In the 3rd pāda, the Zen master Arāda, as he gets round to describing the first dhyāna, by the book, speaks of separation or seclusion, using the Sanskrit terms vivikta and viveka. Aśvaghoṣa, also evidently going by the book, uses these terms himself, as narrator in several places in his poems, in connection with the first dhyāna. See for example SN17.42 and BC5.11 below. (See also use of viviktam in BC5.8)

kāmair-viviktaṃ malinaiś-ca dharmair-vitarkavac-cāpi vicāravac-ca |

Distanced from desires and tainted things, 

containing ideas and containing thoughts,

viveka-jaṃ prīti-sukhopapannaṃ dhyānaṃ tataḥ sa prathamaṃ prapede || SN17.42

Born of seclusion and possessed of joy and ease, 

is the first stage of meditation, which he then entered.

adhigamya tato viveka-jaṁ tu parama-prīti-sukhaṁ manaḥ-samādhim |

But then, having experienced that most excellent state of joy and ease, 

born of separateness, which is integration of the mind,

imam-eva tataḥ paraṁ pradadhyau manasā loka-gatiṁ niśamya samyak || BC5.11

He proceeded to give consideration to the following evident fact 

– since, by means of the mind, he had clearly seen the way of the world.

In two verses time (BC12.49), again, the first dhyāna will be described as viveka-jam, “born of separateness” or “born of seclusion.”

Following the MW dictionary, the three professors, as also Linda Covill in her Handsome Nanda, translate viveka in this context as “discrimination." They take the separateness expressed by viveka to be separateness in the mind -- i.e. the kind of clear-cut thinking which is aided by drinking coffee (don't knock it!). But in today's verse, as in BC5.8 and BC5.11, the context is that Arāḍa is describing not only mental seclusion but also physical solitude or seclusion.

The word vivikta in the 3^rd pāda, then, puts me in mind again of the dual meaning of viveka-jam, which I have worried about in the past, before concluding that “born of separateness” or “born of seclusion” are translations that adequately cover both physical and mental aspects of viveka.

If you enter “born of seclusion” in the search bar on this web-page, by the way, you will find a whole number of English translations of Pali texts in which the phrase "born of seclusion" appears.

The best known of these texts is probably Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasuttaṁ (DN 22), The Long Discourse about the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness.

The Sutta contains the following description of the first dhyāna (Pali, jhānaṁ):

Katamo ca, bhikkhave, sammāsamādhi?
Now what, monks, is right concentration?

Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu vivicceva kāmehi, vivicca akusalehi dhammehi,
Here, monks, a monk, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unwholesome things,

savitakkaṁ, savicāraṁ, vivekajaṁ pītisukhaṁ,
having thinking, reflection, and the happiness and joy born of seclusion,

paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ upasampajja viharati. 
dwells having attained the first absorption.

Evidently, in enumerating the four dhyānas, Arāḍa was indeed going by the book, as were those who listed the four dhyānas in the Pali Sutta, as was Aśvaghoṣa himself in SN Canto 17. 

The foregoing discussion of viviktam in the 3^rd pāda of today's verse, long-winded though the discussion is, is intended to lay the groundwork for me to attempt to explain how I read nir-dvandvaḥ in the 4^th pāda.

Nir-dvandvaḥ describes the practitioner in EBC's translation as “indifferent to all feelings” and in EHJ's translation as “free from the pairs of worldly life.” I think PO is closer to the mark with "free from the pairs of opposites." 

Aśvaghoṣa might have had in mind the false dichotomy alluded to above, between physical and mental seclusion – the truth being that the first dhyāna is born of both.

But what is more sure is that he was hinting at a false dichotomy between theory and practice, in juxtaposing the compounds śāstra-vit (knowing the śāstra, knowing the teaching, knowing the book), and kṛtī (being a man of action).  

Simply thinking, an iron man of Zen has eyes only for action, being as described in Fukan-zazengi ZETSU-GAKU MU-I, through with study and free of doing. An iron man of Zen, ostensibly, is not amenable to being described as śāstra-vit which, according to the MW dictionary, sometimes carries the pejorative connotation of “a mere theorist.”

The truth might be, however, that practice of non-doing involves working to a principle. The principle is the principle of non-endgaining; or, in other words, the means-whereby principle.

It is only by working to this principle, it seems to me, that we have any chance of meeting Nāgārjuna's invitation to bring into being that very act of knowing in which reality makes its presence felt.

Working to this principle was what FM Alexander was talking about when he said:

"When an investigation comes to be made it will be found that every single thing we do in the work is exactly what is done in Nature, where the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously."

For the last six years of his life, apparently, FM Alexander and his niece Marjory Barlow who was so truly devoted to his teaching, did not speak to each other. Something happened that Marjory did not like to talk about; she refers to the incident in her book An Examined Life, written with Trevor Allan Davies, not describing what happened except to recognize that there was a general failure of inhibition. 

A strikingly ironic illustration of how hard it is to learn to do anything consciously.

It is not so hard in theory, but it can be excrutiatingly difficult in practice, especially when relations between family members are involved. Hence the Zen master Arāḍa spoke with good reason in yesterday's verse about leaving home, and hence he speaks with good reason in today's verse about abiding in seclusion. 

VOCABULARY

saṁtoṣam (acc. sg.): m. satisfaction , contentedness

param (acc. sg. m.): better, highest, of the highest order, supreme

āsthāya = abs. ā- √ sthā: to stand or remain on or by ; to ascend , mount ; to stay near , go towards ; to act according to , follow ; to undertake , perform , do , carry out , practise , use ; to side or take part with ; to maintain , affirm

yena tena: with whatever

yatas tataḥ: from wherever (" from any one so ever " , " from any quarter whatever ")

viviktam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. separated , kept apart , distinguished , discriminated; isolated , alone , solitary

sevate = 3^rd pers. sg. sev: to dwell or stay near or in (loc.) ; to remain or stay at , live in , frequent , haunt , inhabit , resort to (acc.) ; to devote or apply one's self to , cultivate , study , practise , use , employ , perform , do

vāsam (acc. sg.): m. staying , remaining (esp. " overnight ") , abiding , dwelling , residence , living ; state , situation , condition

vāsaṁ- √vas , to take up one's abode , abide , dwell

nir-dvandvaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. indifferent to the alternatives or opposite pairs (of feelings , as pleasure and pain) , neither glad nor sorry &c

dvandva: n. pair, couple ; a pair of opposites (e.g. heat and cold , joy and sorrow &c ); strife , quarrel , contest , fight (esp. between two persons , a duel)

śāstra-vit (nom. sg. m.): mfn. acquainted with the śāstras , learned , a specialist (kevala-ś° , " a mere theorist ")

kṛtī (nom. sg. m.): mfn. one who acts , active ; expert , clever , skilful , knowing ,

少欲知足止 精麁任所得
樂獨修閑居 勤習諸經論 

BUDDHACARITA 12.46: Primacy of Walking the Walk

⏑⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−

ayam ādau ghān muktvā bhaikṣākaṁ liṅgam āśritaḥ |

⏑⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−

samudācāra-vistīrṇaṁ śīlam ādāya vartate || 12.46

12.46

“First, having left home

And adopted the beggar's emblem,

Having taken to the way of integrity

which is riveted with acts done well,

The one in question carries on.

COMMENT:

The most important word in today's verse, as I read it, is the last word, vartate, which expresses action going on.

I hear Arāḍa emphasizing that the primary thing is action. And so the word that expresses action, vartate, is given pride of place as the concluding word of the verse.

EBC translates vartate as “goes on,” and PO as “lives.” Inexplicably, however, the professor whose translations are usually the most reliable reflection of the grammar of Aśvaghoṣa's Sanskrit, EHJ, omits to translate vartate. Hence:

EBC:

The devotee (ayam), in the beginning (ādau), having left his house (gṛhān muktvā), and assumed the signs of the mendicant (bhaikṣākaṁ liṅgam āśritaḥ), goes on (vartate), following a rule of conduct which extends to the whole life (samudācāra-vistīrṇaṁ śīlam ādāya).

EHJ:

The aspirant (ayam), after first leaving his family (ādau gṛhān muktvā) and

assuming the mendicant's badges (bhaikṣākaṁ liṅgam āśritaḥ), takes on himself a rule of discipline which covers all proper behaviour (samudācāra-vistīrṇaṁ śīlam ādāya). [no vartate]

PO:

At the outset (ādau), he (ayam) leaves his home (gṛhān muktvā), puts on a mendicant's emblem (bhaikṣākaṁ liṅgam āśritaḥ), and lives (vartate) adhering to a rule of life embracing all standards of good conduct (samudācāra-vistīrṇaṁ śīlam ādāya).

Apropos of the primary thing being action, and with an eye to Arāḍa's forthcoming enumeration of the four dhyānas, it may be worth remembering that dhyāna is originally an -na neuter action noun. So though a dhyāna is generally understood and translated as a stage or a state of meditation or absorption, dhyāna is originally an -ing word; it literally means thinking or meditating.

In the same way, Nāgārjuna's jñāna in MMK26.11 originally means not so much knowledge as knowing, or an act of knowing. Ulimately it might mean the act of knowing, i.e. just sitting. 

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||MMK26.10||

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra

Thus does the ignorant one do.

The ignorant one therefore is the doer;

The wise one is not, because of reality making itself known.

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||MMK26.11||

In the ceasing of ignorance,

There is the non-coming-into-being of doings.

The cessation of ignorance, however,

Is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing.

tasya tasya nirodhena tat-tan nābhipravartate |

duḥkha-skandhaḥ kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||MMK26.12

By the destruction of each,

Each is discontinued.

This whole edifice of suffering

Is thus totally demolished.

I am coming to the end of a 3-month stay by the forest, and as I do so I would like to finish as I began by reflecting on this teaching of Nāgārjuna about doing and non-doing.

Non-doing does not mean not acting. Nor does it mean not going ahead, in due course, and gaining an end.

What we are saying “no” to, in the practice of non-doing, is the desire to go ahead and gain the end directly, by an act of doing, without due attention to the proper means-whereby.

It is not that we wish to replace acts of doing with emptiness, with nothing doing. The challenge is to give up an act of doing and bring into being in its place an act of knowing.

Hence Marjory Barlow summarized the essence of the work like this:

Say No, give your directions, and go into movement, without a care in the world – let it come out in the wash.

It is in light of my Zen teacher's “philosophy of action,” that I understand (or fail to understand) the primacy of vartate in today's verse. At the same time, I see vartate in today's verse as very much corresponding with Marjory's "going into movement." 

VOCABULARY

ayam (nom. sg. m.): this man, the one in question (EBC: the devotee; EHJ: the aspirant)

ādau: ind. (loc.) in the beginning, first up

gṛhāt (abl. sg.): m. house, family

muktvā = abs. muc: to leave, quit

bhaikṣākam (acc. sg.): n. mendicancy, Bcar.

liṅgam (acc. sg.): n. a mark , spot , sign , token , badge , emblem , characteristic ; guise

āśritaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. attaching oneself to, joining; having recourse to; receiving anything as an inherent or integral part Mn.

samudācāra-vistīrṇam

samudācāra: proper or right practice or usage or conduct or behaviour MBh. R. &c

sam-ud-ā- √ car: to move or travel about ; to practise, accomplish, do

sam-udācāra-vat: mfn. one who conducts himself well MBh

vistīrṇa: mfn. strewn or covered or studded with (instr. or comp.) ; spread out , expanded , broad , large , great , copious , numerous

śīlam (acc. sg.): n. habit , custom , usage , natural or acquired way of living or acting , practice , conduct ; good disposition or character , moral conduct , integrity , morality , piety , virtue ; a moral precept (with Buddh. there are 5 fundamental precepts or rules of moral conduct cf. pañca-śīla)

ādāya = abs. ā- √ dā: " to give to one's self " , take , accept ; to take or carry away with one's self ; to put on (clothes) ; to undertake, begin

vartate = 3^rd pers. sg. vṛt: to turn; to move or go on , get along , advance , proceed; to abide

初離俗出家 依倚於乞食
廣集諸威儀 奉持於正戒