BUDDHACARITA 5.22: Having Regard for People (Not Causing Collateral Damage)

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

tata indra-samo jitendriyāśvaḥ pravivikṣuḥ param-aśvam āruroha |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

parivartya-janaṁ tv-avekṣamāṇas-tata evābhimataṁ vanaṁ na bheje || 5.22

5.22

And so, powerful as Indra, 
with the powerful horses of his senses tamed,

He mounted his highest of horses, wishing to get started.

But then, having regard for people, 
he turned [his horse] around again,

And did not repair directly to the longed for forest.

COMMENT:

When I prepared yesterday's comment I had not translated or formed a view on today's verse, so it is reassuring to find that today's verse, at least as I read it, supports the tentative conclusion I came to yesterday about directness and indirectness of approach.

The point, as I read it, is that the prince – even in spite of his Indra-like strength of mind and his strong desire to get started – remained somewhat circumspect and aware of himself as part of a wider picture. He did not just dive in following the lowly evolved end-gaining principle.

Part of the reason I hadn't formed a view on today's verse until translating it just now is that there were some textual issues to iron out in process of translation.

In the 2nd pāda, EHJ amended the original param (best/highest [describing the horse]) to puram (the city [object of wishing to enter]). The Chinese translation's 還入城 appears to support this amendment.

In the 3rd pāda, EHJ amended the original parivartya (he turned [himself/his horse] around, and...) to parivāra, so that parivāra-janaṁ means “his following” or “his companions.”

EHJ's reading, then, is that the prince wished to go back to the city out of consideration for his companions:  

"Then he, who was Indra's peer and had conquered the horses of the senses, mounted his horse with the intention of entering the city; but out of regard for his following he did not go straight to the longed for forest."

But in that case, as EHJ himself recognizes in a footnote, the appropriate particle in the 3rd pāda would be hi and not tu.

I prefer the original reading of param and parivartya for two or three reasons: firstly, because it is the original reading; secondly because it fits the logic of tu; and thirdly because I think there is philosophical and practical meaning in the description of the prince not going directly for the target in an end-gaining manner but rather having the circumspection and flexibility to turn around (pari-vṛt).

In this the prince was both similar and different to Nanda as described in SN Canto 4:

Reverence for the Buddha drew him on; love for his wife drew him back: / Irresolute, he neither stayed nor went, like a king-goose pushing forwards against the waves. // SN4.42 // Once she was out of sight, he descended from the palace quickly -- / Then he heard the sound of ankle bracelets, and back he hung, gripped in his heart again. // 4.43 // Held back by his love of love, and drawn forward by his love for dharma, / He struggled on, being turned about (vivartyamānaḥ) like a boat on a river going against the stream. // SN4.44 //

The similarity is indicated by the two verbs from the root vṛt – vivartyamānaḥ in Nanda's case, parivartya in his older brother's case. The difference also might be indicated by these two verbs, with Nanda being turned around passively while his older brother makes a decision to turn around, out of regard for people.

It would be natural to say “out of regard for others,” but as discussed previously I think that in this part Aśvaghoṣa is deliberately avoiding the language of self and others. Hence when he describes the prince as janam avekṣamāṇaḥ, “having regard for people,” people includes not only others but also self.

This having regard also is related with the question of directness or indirectness, to do or not to do. When we just do, i.e. when we go directly for the end we have in view, there is self and its object. Others exist but their existence is incidental and they are liable to suffer collateral damage. But when we eschew such end-gaining in favour of non-doing, then collateral damage does not have to follow. Undesirable side effects, in other words, if we slow down and follow indirect means, might be avoidable.

FM Alexander saw that evolution has equipped us all, like animals, to go directly for whatever end we have in view, relying on instinctive or subconscious guidance and control. He saw further that when human beings whose sensory appreciation is faulty rely on these means, even if we gain the end we have in view, we only do so at the expense of undesirable and unintended consequences – like side-effects in medicine, and collateral damage in war.

The antidote that Alexander proposed to this kind of ignorance was the application of a principle he called “inhibition and direction” to everyday actions like sitting, standing, and lying down. Hence:

I venture to assert that if the gap is to be bridged, it will be by means of a knowledge, gained through practical experience, which will enable us to inhibit our instinctive, 'subconscious' reaction to a given stimulus, and to hold it inhibited while initiating a conscious direction, guidance, and control of the use of the self that was previously unfamiliar." (The Universal Constant in Living, 1946)

This principle as I understand it is, if not the same, then very close to the Buddha's teaching of smṛti, mindfulness or awareness.

In today's verse, as I read it, the prince is exhibiting such mindfulness or awareness in a natural, undeveloped form – in the form that comes naturally to us as healthy human beings before we are corrupted by personal agendae and other tainted things; in the form, that is, of common consideration for fellow human beings.

The initial irony of Zen practice might be that in our desire to rush in like fools and get started in it, we are liable to demonstrate that lack of mindful consideration that results in harmful side effects. I know whereof I speak. 

Human instinct and human ignorance being as strong as they are, and the end-gaining habit being as strong as it is, the ultimate irony of Zen practice manifests itself when a Zen master barges about creating harmful side-effects in the pursuit of the drug of sexual pleasure, or creating collateral damage in the pursuit of his historical mission as conceived by him.

Whether I myself am part of the problem or part of the solution, I do not honestly know. I am afraid that much of the time I am trying to be part of the solution, and in that very trying I inevitably maintain myself as part of the problem. On a bad day, impatient end-gaining thus causes me to fly into a rage when wires get tangled up, or a computer doesn't work as expected, or I cannot find something which I feel I need in a hurry. “WHERE IS MY FUCKING KEY???!!!”

On a good day, especially when I am alone here in France, I distance myself from the desire to be right and other delusions and from tainted things like trying, and thereby experience the joy and ease of the first dhyāna, born of separateness.... which is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end, but which might be a worthwhile end in the beginning.

I think there a lot of people in the United States who have suffered the harmful side-effects, or collateral damage, from the end-gaining of Zen masters of Japanese and other stripes.

If I personally went over to America with the agenda of trying to sort it all out, trying to do some kind of imitation of Bodhidharma, nothing is more certain than that I would be part of the problem. Not that I don't sometimes have that impulse. But I am thankfully able to realize it as one of those ideas described in SN Canto 15, whose title is "Abandoning Ideas." 

Still, I would not hesitate to recommend the writings of FM Alexander as pointing to the solution, and I hope that, in spite of the personal shortcomings of the translator, this translation and these comments also might be part of the solution.

VOCABULARY

tataḥ: ind. then

indra-samaḥ (nom. sg. m.): like Indra

jitendriyāśvaḥ (nom. sg. m.): the horses of his senses conquered

jita: mfn. conquered, defeated

indriya: mfn. fit for or belonging to or agreeable to indra; n. sense, power of the senses

aśva: horse

pravivikṣuḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. Desid. pra- √viś) wishing to enter (acc.)

pra- √viś: to enter , go into , resort to ; to enter upon , undertake , commence , begin , devote one's self to

param (acc. sg. m.): mfn. extreme; best, highest

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

aśvam (acc. sg. ): m. horse

āruroha = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. ā- √ ruh: to ascend, mount

parivartya = abs. causative pari- √ vṛt: to cause to turn or move round or back or to and fro ; to overthrow , upset (a carriage) ; to invert , put in a reverse order ; to turn topsy-turvy i.e. search thoroughly ; (A1.) to cause one's self to be turned round (in having one's head shaved all round)

janam (acc. sg.): m. people , subjects (the sg. used collectively ; ayaṁ janaḥ , " this person , these persons " , I , we )

parivāra-janam (acc. sg. m.): his companions

parivāra: m. surroundings , train , suite , dependants , followers

tu: but

avekṣamāṇaḥ = nom. sg. m. pres. part. ava √īkṣ: to look towards , look at , behold

tataḥ: ind. then, from that time

eva: (emphatic)

abhimatam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. longed for , wished , desired ; supposed , imagined

abhi- √ man: to think of , long for , desire

vanam (acc. sg.): n. forest

na: not

bheje = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. bhaj: to turn or resort to ; to declare for , prefer , choose (e.g. as a servant)

歛情抑諸根 徐起還入城 

眷屬悉隨從 謂止不遠逝

[Relation with Sanskrit tenuous]

BUDDHACARITA 5.21: Decision Time (1) – A Means

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

gaganaṁ kha-ga-vad-gate ca tasmin n-varaḥ saṁjahṣe visismiye ca |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

upalabhya tataś-ca dharma-saṁjñam-abhiniryāṇa-vidhau matiṁ cakāra || 5.21

5.21

When he had gone, like a bird into the sky,

The foremost of men was full of gladness and wonder;

And having thus received a hint of dharma,

He set his mind on the matter of marching forth.

COMMENT:

The four ga in the 1^st pāda, I am afraid, are lost in translation. “When he had gone like a sky-goer into the going-going-gone-ness...”?

The hint of dharma (dharma-saṁjñam or dharma-saṁjñām) mentioned in the 3rd pāda can be understood as referring to an indication received from the celestial striver, but I prefer to understand that the hint was received from the experience of gladness and wonder described in the 2nd pāda.

So whereas on the surface the prince felt gladness and wonder because of the intervention of a celestial being, a more ironic reading is that the prince felt gladness and wonder after the god or demon had buggered off and left him alone. And on that basis (tataś-ca), on the basis of that initial experience of gladness and wonder, the prince received a hint of the greater and deeper gladness and wonder which practice of the dharma would eventually hold in store for him. 

Today's verse and BC5.25 both end with the expression -vidhau matiṁ cakāra, “he set his mind on the matter of ...” In today's verse the matter in question is abhiniryāṇa, “marching out,” i.e. leaving home and going forth into the homeless life of a wandering mendicant. In BC5.25 the matter is parinirvāṇa, “complete extinction/happiness” i.e. conclusive ending of afflictions and associated suffering.

The former decision can be understood as deciding on a means, the latter decision as deciding on an end – in which case it might be noteworthy that, in the prince's decision-making process, the means came before the end.

The first dhyāna, we are told in BC5.11, as in SN17.42, is viveka-jam, “born of separateness.” But it is not separation of self and other, and not disunity of body and mind. Neither it is the kind of divergence from the intended outcome which tends to arise when we identify an end and go for it directly, without stopping to consider what is the appropriate means.

If I were immune to this "end-gaining" tendency in myself I might not feel such strong emotional criticism when I see it in others – particularly men who have assumed positions as leaders and teachers.

To the extent that march means “walk with a rhythmic stride and in step with others,” march may not be the right word, since the prince is going to depart on his horse and not initially on foot. But the second definition of march the dictionary gives fits better: to move in a direct purposeful manner.

As with separateness, then, so too with directness. Going directly for an end without proper consideration of proper means, is a hallmark of ignorance. And at the same time, going directly may be the manifestation of a certain clarity in one's decision-making.

In the prince's decision to march on out, I think there were elements of both kinds of directness – bad directness and good directness, if you like. Thus in the opening verse of Saundara-nanda Canto 3, Aśvaghoṣa indicates the bad directness with the opening words tapase tataḥ, and the good directness with the closing words niścita-manā vanaṁ yayau.

For ascetic practice (tapase tataḥ), then, he left Kapilavāstu -- a teeming mass of horses, elephants and chariots, / Majestic, safe, and loved by its citizens. Leaving the city, he started resolutely for the forest (niścita-manā vanaṁ yayau). // SN3.1 //

tapase tataḥ kapilavāstu

haya-gaja-rath'-augha-saṁkulaṁ

śrīmad-abhayam-anurakta-janaṁ

sa vihāya niścita-manā vanaṁ yayau

This whole translation effort, at the relentless snail's pace of one verse per day, is an exercise in endeavoring to suppress the bad directness of end-gaining while manifesting the good directness of energy resolutely directed in a particular direction. I still have a long way to go, in more ways than one. But on the basis of progress made so far, my tentative conclusion about today's verse is as follows:

Just because the prince marched forth to the forest for ascetic practice doesn't necessarily mean that we should react to his example by feeling that we should rush to do the same.

VOCABULARY

gaganam (acc. sg.): n. the atmosphere , sky , firmament

kha-ga-vat: ind. like a bird

kha-ga: m. 'moving in the air,' a bird

kha: n. ( √khan, to dig) a cavity , hollow , cave , cavern , aperture ; vacuity , empty space , air , ether , sky ; heaven

ga: only ifc. going , moving

-vat: (affix expressing likeness)

gate (loc. sg. m.): mfn. gone, deparated, disappeared

ca: and

tasmin (log. sg. m.): he

nṛ-varaḥ (nom. sg.) m. best or chief of men , sovereign , king

saṁjahṛṣe = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. saṁ- √ hṛṣ: to bristle , stand erect (as the hair of the body from joy or fright) ; to thrill with delight , be glad , rejoice

visismiye = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. vi- √ smi: to wonder , be surprised or astonished at

ca: and

upalabhya = abs. upa- √ labh: to seize , get possession of , acquire , receive , obtain , find; to perceive , behold , hear ; to understand , learn , know , ascertain

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

ca: and

dharma-saṁjñam (acc. sg.): consciousness of dharma

saṁjña: mfn. (ifc. for saṁ-jñā e.g. labdha-saṁjña , " one who has recovered consciousness "

dharma-saṁjñām (acc. sg. f.): consciousness of dharma; the term 'dharma'

dharma: m. that which is established or firm , steadfast decree , statute , ordinance , law; the law or doctrine of Buddhism (in comp. for dharman)

dharman: n. law , rule , duty; n. practice , custom , mode , manner

saṁjñā: f. agreement , mutual understanding , harmony ; consciousness , clear knowledge or understanding or notion or conception ; a sign , token , signal , gesture ; direction ; a track , footstep ; a name , appellation , title , technical term (ifc. = " called , named ")

abhiniryāṇa-vidhau (loc. sg.): the matter of marching forth ; a means of leaving home

abhiniryāṇa: n. march of an assailant

abhi-nir- √ yā: to march out , go out towards (dat.) or from (abl.)

niryāṇa: n. going forth or out , exit , issue ; setting out , decamping (of an army) , going out (of cattle to the pasture ground)

vidhi: m. a rule , formula , injunction , ordinance , statute , precept , law , direction ; method , manner or way of acting , mode of life , conduct , behaviour ; a means , expedient for (dat. loc. , or comp. ); any act or action , performance , accomplishment , contrivance , work , business (ifc. often pleonastically e.g. mathana-vidhi , the [act of] disturbing)

matiṁ cakāra = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. matiṁ √ kṛ: to set the heart on , make up one's mind , resolve , determine

太子心歡喜 惟念過去佛
建立此威儀 遺像見於今
端坐正思惟 即得正法念

當作何方便 遂心長出家

[Conflated with previous verse? anya-buddhi misunderstood as 過去佛?]

BUDDHACARITA 5.20: Towards Mindfulness

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

iti paśyata eva rāja-sūnor-idam-uktvā sa nabhaḥ samutpapāta |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

sa hi tad-vapur-anya-buddhi-darśī smtaye tasya sameyivān divaukāḥ || 5.20

5.20

He uttered these words,

while the son of the king looked powerlessly on,

And then he vanished into the clouds;

For he was a sky-dweller who,

peeping the prince's mind conflicting with his body,

Had come to help him towards mindfulness.

COMMENT:

Today's verse as I read it has a humorous aspect and at the same time is saying something deadly serious about the mutually reinforcing relationship between mindfulness and psycho-physical unity.

I trust, incidentally, that jiblet's excitement will be undiminished at this latest example,in the 1^st pāda, of Aśvaghoṣa's use of the genitive absolute, with paśyataḥ. The effect, as jiblet pointed out in his comment to BC5.14, particularly in combination with eva, is to emphasize that the prince was no longer in the driver's seat as he sat there under the rose-apple tree – he was no longer fully engaged either in vipaśyana or in dhyāna.

In accordance, then, with the traditional principle that when our practice is weak we are liable to be peeped by a demon, the sky-dweller appeared out of nowhere, said his piece, and then evaporated back into the clouds as the prince came back to earth.

If we understand today's verse like this, then returning to BC5.16, I think we should understand the double ca to indicate immediate connection in terms of contiguity in time rather than causal connection. In other words, the prince's mind was dustless at one moment, and then at the next moment a little disharmony between mind and body crept in, whereupon the śramaṇa crept up. 

With respect to the relationship between mindfulness and pyscho-physical unity, FM Alexander wrote of a philosophical disconnect between 'mind' and 'body' which left an unbridged gap between unconsciousness and consciousness. Smṛti (i.e. mindfulness, awareness, attention) can be understood as the fundamental means taught by the Buddha for bridging that gap. For Alexander the means was what he called “inhibition and direction;” hence:

I venture to assert that if the gap is to be bridged, it will be by means of a knowledge, gained through practical experience, which will enable us to inhibit our instinctive, 'subconscious' reaction to a given stimulus, and to hold it inhibited while initiating a conscious direction, guidance, and control of the use of the self that was previously unfamiliar." (The Universal Constant in Living, 1946)

In the 4th pāda smṛtaye tasya sameyivān, lit. “had come in the interests of his mindfulness/awareness,” might be translated “had come to remind him to be mindful.” EBC translated “had come to him for the sake of rousing his recollection”; EHJ “had encountered him to rouse his attention”; and PO “had come down to arouse the attention of the prince.” In translating “had come to help him towards mindfulness,” I am mindful that mindfulness is described as an adornment of the 4th dhyāna, that is, the ultimate stage of sitting-meditation, allied to which Nanda proceeded to realize the worthy state of the arhat...

Then, having already transcended ease and suffering, and emotional reactivity, /He realised the lucidity in which there is indifference and full awareness (smṛtimad): thus, beyond suffering and ease, is the fourth stage of meditation. // SN17.54 // Since in this there is neither ease nor suffering, and the act of knowing abides here, being its own object, / Therefore utter lucidity through indifference and awareness (smṛti) is specified in the protocol for the fourth stage of meditation. // SN17.55 // Consequently, relying on the fourth stage of meditation, he made up his mind to win the worthy state, / Like a king joining forces with a strong and noble ally and then aspiring to conquer unconquered lands. // SN17.56 //

Smṛti, then, is something that we can practise here and now, as for example when we watch breath passing in and out of nostrils (mindfulness of breathing); and at the same time it is something to work towards. In the former sense it might be akin to attentive sewing of back-stitches, one by one, when making a robe. In the latter sense it might be akin to being cocooned in a robe which has become like a cocoon, or like a suit of armour.

Alfred Tomatis, as I understand him, saw listening as having this dual aspect – which is to say that I can intentionally listen in the sense of consciously giving my attention to the bird now singing outside. This kind of focusing of attention is something we all can do. But at the same time Tomatis saw listening as a kind of state of grace that was not truly developed in many people. Very few people, Tomatis said, really know how to listen.

To practise mindfulness in the former sense is nobody's responsibility but my own. But when it comes to being graced by mindfulness as a state of being which pervades and cocoons a person's whole being, I would like to appeal for the help of any sky-dwellers out there who might be reading this, because in order to go in that direction we all need all the help we can get.

VOCABULARY

iti: thus

paśyataḥ = gen. sg. pres. part. paś: to look; to be a spectator , look on

eva: (emphatic)

rāja-sūnoḥ (gen. sg.): m. the king's son, prince

idam (acc. sg. n.): this

uktvā = abs. vac: to speak , say , tell

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

nabhaḥ (acc. sg.): n. mist , clouds , vapour (esp. of the soma) ; the sky or atmosphere ; ether

samutpapāta = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. sam-ut- √ pat : to fly up together , spring up , ascend , rise (as the sun , clouds &c ) ; to fly away , depart , disappear

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

hi: for

tad-vapur-anya-buddhi-darśī (nom. sg. m.): seeing that his mind was opposed to his body

tad: that, his

vapus: n. form , figure , (esp.) a beautiful form or figure , wonderful appearance , beauty ; the body

anya: other, different ; other than , different from , opposed to (abl. or in comp.)

buddhi: f. the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general notions , intelligence , reason , intellect , mind , discernment , judgement

darśin: mfn. ifc. seeing , looking at , observing , examining , finding

smṛtaye = dat. sg. smṛti: f. remembrance , reminiscence ; memory ; mindfulness

tasya (gen. sg.): of/in him

sameyivān = nom. sg. m. perf. active part. sam-ā-√i: to come together , approach together , meet at or in (acc. or loc.) or with (instr. with or without samam) , go to or across , arrive at (acc.); to enter

divaukāḥ (nom. sg.): m. " sky-dweller " , a deity

diva: sky

okas: n. house , dwelling , place of abiding , abode , home , refuge , asylum

即於太子前 輕擧騰虚逝 

BUDDHACARITA 5.19: Lonesome Traveller, Without Baggage?

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

nivasan kva-cid-eva vkṣa-mūle vijane vāyatane girau vane vā |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

vicarāmy-aparigraho nirāśaḥ paramārthāya yathopapanna-bhaikṣaḥ || 5.19

5.19

Dwelling anywhere – at the root of a tree,

Or in an abandoned house, or on a mountain, or in the forest,

I wander here and there, with no possessions and no expectations,

Subsisting, for the sake of ultimate riches,

on whatever scraps I chance to get from begging.”

COMMENT:

The concluding words of the śramaṇa can be read as containing the kind of irony that Aśvaghoṣa himself favours. But is the śramaṇa himself aware of the irony in his words, or not?

I may be doing the śramaṇa a disservice, but I suspect that there is an irony of which he is aware, and an irony of which he is not aware.

The irony that the śramaṇa, like any religious striver, knows is the embracing of poverty here on earth for the sake of future riches, hopefully in heaven. Some hope!

The deeper irony may be that the śramaṇa describes himself as nirāśaḥ, that is, being without āśa (wish, desire, hope, expectation). In other words, while striving in hopeful and expectant pursuit of paramārtha, the highest object, or ultimate riches, he sees himself as being without any expectation.

The striver, I suspect, is like those Zazen practitioners and Alexander teachers who delude ourselves, who do not know who we are, when we see our Zen practice as 無所得 (MU-SHOTOKU; “not expecting anything”; see Shobogenzo chap. 87) , or think that our Alexander work might not be in the thrall of any end-gaining idea.

In Saundara-nanda Canto 17, it is true, Aśvaghoṣa describes Nanda as being nirāśah, without expectation:

Having attained to the seat of arhathood, he was worthy of being served. Without ambition, without partiality, without expectation (nirāśah); / Without fear, sorrow, pride, or passion; while being nothing but himself, he seemed in his constancy to be different. // SN17.61 //

But this description comes after Nanda has realized paramārtha – the paramount aim, the supreme truth/meaning, the highest object, ultimate value, ultimate riches, the primary task, the one great matter – not while he is striving in pursuit of it.

The compound paramārtha appears in Saundara-nanda, from a quick search, four times – twice in the words of the Buddhist striver (in Cantos 8 and 9), and twice in the words of the Buddha (in Cantos 15 and 18).

Again, to him whose thinking is not firmly fixed – in the matters of hearing, grasping, retaining and understanding the supreme truth (paramārthāya), and in the matter of mental peace -- / To him who easily changes his mind, joy in dharma is not apportioned. // SN8.24 //

For him who drags around a hurting, perishable body, there is no such thing, in the supreme sense (paramārthataḥ), as happiness; / For what he determines to be happiness, by taking counter-measures against suffering, is only a condition wherein suffering remains minimal. // SN9.40 //

Therefore disregarding what is not helpful focus on what is helpful, / Which might be valuable for you here and now and might be for the reaching of ultimate value (paramārthasya). // SN15.19 //

"As a man of action who got the job done and who knows the primary task (paramārtha-vit), none but you, O crafty man!, should express this affirmation -- / Like a great trader, having crossed a wasteland and got the goods, who affirms the work of a good guide.” // SN18.50 //

The expression in the Lotus Sutra 一大事 (Jap: ICHI-DAI-JI), “the one great matter,” which Dogen uses in Shobogenzo to refer to the practice of sitting-meditation, may originally have been, in Sanskrit, paramārtha. Like so many key Sanskrit phrases, paramārtha could be translated in any number of ways. For a start, the dictionary gives five definitions of the compound, viz: the highest or whole truth, spiritual knowledge; any excellent or important object; the best sense ; the best kind of wealth. EBC and EHJ have “the highest good” while PO goes with “the supreme goal.”

In today's verse, then, paramārthāya in the dative case could mean “with an [idealistic] view to the highest spiritual knowledge,” or it could mean “for the sake of the best kind of [material] wealth.” Either way, what it really means, to a buddha-ancestor like Aśvaghoṣa or Dogen, in the final analysis, is just to sit in full lotus without any expectation of getting anything out of it.

So the meaning of paramārthāya in today's verse depends on the intention and understanding of the person who is saying it. Hence the relevance of the prince's question in BC5.17, vada ko 'si – Say! Who are you?

If you were FM Alexander, you might say that the paramount aim had to do with that matter of primary importance which is the head-neck-back relation, or, in Alexander jargon “the primary control of the use of the self.”

This, a stern Zen drill might think, is Alexander baggage with which a bloke with his own agenda is weighing down the original pure teaching of Gautama, Aśvaghoṣa and Dogen.

But come the revolution, everybody will thank me for making these connections! (I live in hope.)

My point is that I know from Alexander work that a gap – the wrong kind of separateness – is liable to arise between what I feel to be an upward direction and what the upward direction truly is. And this gap is a sometimes shocking indicator, or a measure, of a gap between who I think am and who I really am. The more "tight and right" my sitting is, the wider is the gap. 

Who was Aśvaghoṣa? I think Aśvaghoṣa was a teacher who knew that gap very well and who, in his writing, is inviting us to study that gap in painstaking detail.

For those of us who are not quick on the uptake, to go at a rate of one verse per day might be too ambitious.

VOCABULARY

nivasan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. ni- √ vas: to sojourn , pass or spend time , dwell or live or be in (loc.)

kva-cid: ind. anywhere

eva: (emphatic)

vṛkṣa-mūle (loc. sg.): at the root of a tree

vijane (loc. sg. n.): mfn. free from people , destitute of men , deserted , solitary , lonely; n. a deserted or solitary place

vā: or

āyatane (loc. sg.): n. resting-place , support , seat , place , home , house , abode

girau (loc. sg.): m. mountain

vane (loc. sg.): n. forest

vā: or

vicarāmi = 1^st pers. sg. vi- √ car: to move in different directions , spread , expand , be diffused ; to rove, ramble about

aparigrahaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. destitute of possession

nirāśaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn without any hope or wish or desire , indifferent

āśa: f. wish , desire , hope , expectation , prospect

paramārthāya (dat. sg.): m. the highest or whole truth , spiritual knowledge ; any excellent or important object ; the best sense ; the best kind of wealth

parama: mfn. best, highest

artha: m. object, purpose, aim, thing

yathopapanna-bhaikṣaḥ (nom. sg. m.): living on extemporaneous offerings

yathopapanna: mfn. just as may happen to be at hand , just as happened , just as occurring , unconstrained , natural

yathā: ind. as, according to

upapanna: mfn. obtained , reached , gained; happened , fallen to one's share , produced , effected , existing , being near at hand ; fit , suited for the occasion , adequate , conformable

bhaikṣa: mfn. living on alms , subsisting by charity

所安唯山林 空寂無所營

塵想既已息 蕭條倚空閑
精麁無所擇 乞求以支身

BUDDHACARITA 5.18: Chasing Liberation and Eschewing Objects

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

jagati kṣaya-dharmake mumukṣur-mgaye 'haṁ śivam-akṣayaṁ padaṁ tat |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

sva-jane 'nya-jane ca tulya-buddhir-viṣayebhyo vinivtta-rāga-doṣaḥ || 5.18

5.18

Desiring liberation in a world marked by decay,

I pursue that happy step which is immune to decay.

I am even-minded towards my own people and other people;

Turning back from objects, 
I have allowed the stain of redness to fade away. 

COMMENT:

After posting yesterday's verse, I felt a doubt about having translated śramaṇaḥ prejudicially as “an ascetic striver.” Śramaṇa literally means a person who makes effort, whether that effort be of the ascetic's habitual end-gaining variety or of the more mindful variety which the Buddha advocated, following a conscious plan in the middle way.

As usual, I am afraid, it won't be a straightforward matter for us to decide who this śramaṇa is, who is making the briefest of cameo appearances -- his speech which started in yesterday's verse ends in tomorrow's verse. 

It might be that Aśvaghoṣa would like us to consider the śramaṇa's words on more than one level, understanding what they seem to say on the surface and at the same time digging for deeper layers of possible understanding or misunderstanding.

In the first half of today's verse, for example, the śramaṇa's description of his object of pursuit tallies closely with Aśvaghoṣa's description in SN Canto 3 of the Buddha's enlightenment, and with what the Buddha tells Nanda in SN Canto 16 about the ultimate indestructible step. Hence:

Sitting there, mind made up, as unmovingly stable as the king of mountains, / He overcame the grim army of Māra and awoke (bubudhe) to the step 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 (sākṣi-kuruṣva dharmaṃ) 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, in which to dwell at ease. // SN16.27 //

If we wish to put the śramaṇa in the dock, however, accused of the sin of ascetic striving, the case for the prosecution might centre on his use of the words mṛgaye 'ham, which means "I pursue" but with connotations of hunting or chasing after, or striving after. The śramaṇa's use of the verb mṛg might be contrasted with Aśvaghoṣa's use of bubudhe (from budh, to wake up) and the Buddha's phrase sākṣi-kuruṣva dharmaṃ (“experience the reality for yourself”).

Similarly the 3rd pāda brings to mind what the Buddha tells Nanda in Saundara-nanda Canto 15:

Among beings dragged by our own doing through the cycle of saṁsāra / Who are our own people (sva-janaḥ), and who are just people (janaḥ)? It is through ignorance that people attach to people. // 15.31 // For one who turned on a bygone road into a relative (sva-janaḥ), is just a person (janaḥ) to you; / And a person (janaḥ), on a road to come, will become your relative (sva-janaḥ). // 15.32 // Just as birds in the evening flock together at separate locations, / So is the mingling over many generations of one's own (sva-janasya) and people (janasya). // SN15.33 //

As I mentioned in commenting on BC5.12, however, the Buddha does not separate “one's own people” (sva-jana) and “other people” (anya-jana). Unlike the śramaṇa in today's verse, the Buddha seems to go out of his way to avoid using the phrase anya-jana. To the Buddha it may have been that anya-jana, people who were other, odd, different, individual, were truly sva-jana, his own kind.

The 4^th pāda is difficult to translate. Vinivṛtta seems to me to express both the fading away of rāga-doṣaḥ and also a turning back from viṣayebhyaḥ. Hence, with a sense of dissatisfaction, I have ended up translating vinivṛtta twice, as “fade away” and as “turning back”: 

“Turning back from objects, I have allowed the stain of redness to fade away.” 

More literally the 4^th pāda seems to mean “From objects, [I am in a state of] the fault of tainted redness having been turned back/faded away.”

As in several other places in Aśvaghoṣa's writing, EHJ read rāga-doṣaḥ at the end of today's verse as equivalent to rāga-dveṣaḥ; hence, “longing for and hatred of the objects of sense have passed from me.” It is true that if Aṣvaghoṣa had wanted to speak of love and hate, rāga-dveṣaḥ would not have fitted the metre, as it would have resulted in four long syllables (the dv- in dveṣaḥ making the preceeding syllable long). But the 4^th pāda (and especially the grammar of viṣayebhaḥ) makes better sense to me if rāga-doṣaḥ is understood literally as “the fault/stain of redness,” i.e. the fault of vehement, end-gaining desire, which we are called upon to turn back from the direct, unconscious pursuit of objects, and learn to channel consciously instead.

“Turning back from objects, I have allowed the stain of redness to fade away” is, for the present, as sympathetic a translation as I can manage. Having translated the ṣramaṇa's words like this, what evidence is there in Saundara-nanda that might provide a basis for affirming or finding fault with the ṣramaṇa's expression?

In Canto 12, Aśvaghoṣa describes Nanda's mind turning back from heaven:

Turning back from heaven, the chariot of his mind, whose horse was willpower, / Was like a great chariot turned back from a wrong road by an attentive charioteer. // SN12.5 // After turning back from his thirst for heaven, he seemed suddenly to become well. / He had given up something sweet that was bad for him, like a sick man finding the will to live. // SN12.6 //

In this analogy, it seems to me, heaven is not so much an object as a road or path of thirst. What Nanda turns back from is not so much heaven as an end, as the path of end-gaining which he previously believed would lead him to heaven. Yes, it is nit picking. But my sense is that such nit picking is what Aśvaghoṣa is inviting us to do.

In Canto 13 the Buddha tells Nanda:

On this basis, standing grounded in awareness, / You should hold back the naturally impetuous senses from the objects of those senses. // SN13.30 //

In this instruction, the Buddha is not telling Nanda to turn back from objects; the Buddha is telling Nanda to hold back his senses. The Buddha's intention might be, in other words, "when chopping wood, do not resort to end-gaining. Keep the senses in check by adhering to the means-whereby principle, before, during, and after the hitting of the target with your axe." In this analogy the wood to be chopped is the target, or the object to be chopped.

Later in Canto 13, the Buddha concludes a series of verses reflecting on the relationship between senses and their object by telling Nanda:

For through an illusory fixed conception one is bound to an object; / Seeing that very same object as it really is, one is set free. // SN13.51 //

In this teaching, there is no encouragement to turn back from objects. On the contrary, the point is to square up to an object and see it as it is. This, rather than turning back or turning away from objects, is the route by which Nanda eventually earns the Buddha's glowing affirmation:

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 //

If with the above quotes I have built a case for the prosecution, what the Buddha tells Nanda at the very end of Saundara-nanda might be cited for the defence:

Then, surely, when she hears of your steadfast mind with its chariots turned back from sundry objects (nivṛtta-nānā-viṣayair-mano-rathaiḥ) / Your wife following your example will also talk, to women at home, the talk of dispassion. // 18.59 //

Even in this verse, however, a distinction can be drawn between turning back the chariots of one's mind from sundry objects, which is laudible, and turning back from one's primary object, which might not be laudible.

Does the śramaṇa understand this distinction or not? The way the 4^th pāda is worded, it is not clear. And I think that might be just the way that Aśvaghoṣa intended it.

That Aśvaghoṣa saw our human fondness for objects as an obstacle is undeniable. At the same time, Aśvaghoṣa was evidently very clear in his own mind what his own object was. His object was to give us an object out of which, by our own effort (an object-oriented effort which might indirectly result in the fading away of redness), we might cause to be yielded up a very valuable object:

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

jagati (loc. sg.): n. the world

kṣaya-dharmake (loc. sg. n.): subject to destruction

kṣaya: m. loss , waste , wane , diminution , destruction , decay , wasting or wearing away

dharmaka: mfn. (ifc = dharma); nature , character , peculiar condition or essential quality , property , mark , peculiarity

mumukṣuḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. Desid. muc) eager to be free (from mundane existence) , striving after emancipation

muc: to loose , let loose , free , let go , slacken , release , liberate

mṛgaye = 1^st pers. sg. mṛg: to chase , hunt , pursue ; to seek , search for or through , investigate , examine ; to seek or strive after , aim at , endeavour to obtain (acc.)

aham (nom. sg. m.): I

śivam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. auspicious , propitious , gracious , favourable , benign , kind , benevolent , friendly; happy, fortunate

akṣayam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. exempt from decay , undecaying

padam (acc. sg.): n. step ; position , rank , station , site , abode , home

tat (acc. sg. n.): that

sva-jane (loc. sg.): my own people

anya-jane (loc. sg.): other people

ca: and

tulya-buddhiḥ (nom. sg. m.): being even-minded

tulya: mfn. even, like, equal

buddhi: f. the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general notions , intelligence , reason , intellect , mind , discernment , judgement

viṣayebhyaḥ (abl./dat. pl.): m. object, anything perceptible by the senses , any object of affection or concern or attention , any special worldly object or aim or matter or business , (pl.) sensual enjoyments , sensuality

vinivṛtta-rāga-doṣaḥ (nom. sg. m.): with the fault of redness turned away

vinivṛtta: mfn. turned back , returned , retired , withdrawn ; turned away or averted or adverse from , (abl. or comp.) ; desisting from (abl.) , having abandoned or given up , disappeared , ended , ceased to be

vi-ni- √ vṛt: to turn back; to be extinguished (as fire)

rāga-doṣa: [MW] prob. = rāga-dveṣa; m. du. love and hatred
rāga: m. colour , hue , tint , dye , (esp.) red colour , redness ; any feeling or passion , (esp.) love ; vehement desire of
doṣa: mfn. fault , vice , deficiency ; damage , harm , bad consequence , detrimental effect ; badness , wickedness , sinfulness
衆生老病死 變壞無暫停
故我求常樂 無滅亦無生
怨親平等心 不務於財色

BUDDHACARITA 5.17: Who the Hell Are You?

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−   Aupacchandasaka

nara-deva-sutas-tam-abhyapcchad-vada ko 'sīti śaśaṁsa so 'tha tasmai |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

nara-puṁgava janma-mtyu-bhītaḥ śramaṇaḥ pravrajito 'smi mokṣa-hetoḥ || 5.17

5.17

The prince asked him:

“Say! Who are you?”, to which he replied:

“O bull among men! Alarmed by birth and death,

I have gone forth as an ascetic striver, for the sake of liberation.

COMMENT:

The prince asks ko 'si – kaḥ (Who?) + asi (are you).

George Soros whose billions evince better-than-average understanding of the relationship between thinking and reality says that subjective happiness arises from a congruence between who I think I am and who I really am.

GS's observation when I read it struck me as very true. At the same time, the prince's question today causes me to reflect that both who I think I am and who I really am are moving targets.

A few months ago as I was cycling to the boulangerie, or the bread shop as we would call it in Birmingham, a French policeman stopped me wanting to know who I was. “Je suis un Anglais qui habite dans un petit maison la,” was my explanation. I am an Englishman who lives in a little place over there. What he had observed was some scruffy-looking bloke cycling around at 10.00 am in the morning rather than being in gainful employment, and so he might have thought I was up to no good. So my explanation of who I really was satisfied him and he sent me politely on my way.

If an English policeman stopped me in Aylesbury in similar circumstances, however, “I am an Englishman who lives in a little place way over there by the forest in France,” would be an answer only liable to lead me further into trouble. 

Equally liable to arise suspicion would be the answer that Bodhidharma gave when Emperor Wu asked who the hell he thought he was – “I don't know.”

The point is, then, that when somebody asks who we are, we don't generally take it as a stimulus for ontological self-questioning. We generally put ourselves in the questionner's shoes and supply the information that we deem it appropriate for him or her to know.

About 30 years ago when my old Karate friend Nigel used to take me with him after training to nightclubs in Tokyo, he used to get me to announce myself on the door as a fashion model with Such & Such agency, so that I could get in free. The ruse invariably worked, despite my lack of resemblance to a fashion model, largely because Nigel himself was at that time working successfully as a model in Tokyo, and nobody wanted to offend Nigel by saying "Nigel surely your friend is too ugly and unfashionable to be a model!?."  I cite it as an extreme example of telling the person who asks “Who are you?” what one deems it necessary to tell them, no matter how distantly separated the information is from the reality.

When one reflects on it, who we say we are is very flexible; but not only that, who we think we are is also very subject to change. And not only that, who we really are, also, might be subject – albeit less rapidly – to change.

The answer to “Who are you?” then, on many levels is impermanent, because there is no abiding self which makes the question properly answerable. And this situation, as George Soros recognized, is liable to give rise to a gap, or separateness, that is full of suffering.

As I sat this morning reflecting on all this, stimulated by today's verse, it occurred to me that I have spent much of the last 30 years finding congruence between who I think I am and who I really am by practising 坐禅 (Jap: ZAZEN), sitting-dhyāna. But maybe it would be truer to think, on a morning like this morning, that I was sitting in lotus and practising, less ambitiously, vipaśyana.

Just because we think we are practising dhyāna, or thinking, does not mean that we necessarily are truly practising thinking. As FM Alexander pointedly observed to his student teachers: “None of you know what thinking is!”

Who are you?

I am just a bloke who practises Zazen.

Don't kid yourself!

A couple of further points to mention about today's verse:

Firstly, both yuga-pādas begin with nara, “man” – “the prince” is nara-deva-suta (lit. “son of the man-god”) and “O bull among men” is nara-puṁgava. This repetition is lost in my translation; I am not sure if Aśvaghoṣa intended anything in partiuclar by it.

Secondly, by calling the prince a bull and speaking of being startled or alarmed by birth and death, the striver in today's verse echoes a verse in Saundara-nanda Canto 3:

Many then who were clear in mind -- alert to the agony of birth and death -- / Among mighty Śākya-born men of action, went forth into the wandering life, like bulls that had been startled by fire. // SN3.28 //

In the end, we don't know who this being who calls himself a striver or an ascetic striver (śramaṇa) is. He might not know himself. For example, does he ever sleep? If he does, is he still a striver then? In any event, when the prince asks him who he is, he tells the prince what it is useful for the prince to know – that there are traditional examples of people who were alarmed by birth and death going forth into the wandering life. So here was a traditional path that the prince might opt to follow, in pursuit of liberation.

Even if the striver thought himself to be an ascetic striver, let us forgive him for that fault, because he had the merit of telling the prince what it was useful for the prince to know. 

VOCABULARY
nara-deva-sutaḥ (nom. sg. m.): the king's son

nara-deva: m. " man-god " , a king

tam (acc. sg. m.): him

abhyapṛcchat = 3^rd pers. sg. imperf. abhi- √ prach: to ask or inquire after

vada = 2^nd pers. sg. imperative vad: to speak

kaḥ (nom. sg. m.): who

asi = 2^nd pers. sg. as: to be

iti: “...,” thus

śaśaṁsa = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. śaṁs to recite , repeat

saḥ (nom. sg. m.): he

atha: ind. and, and so, then

tasmai (dat. sg. m.): to him

nara-puṁgava (voc. sg.): O bull of men

puṁgava: m. a bull ; a hero , eminent person , chief of

puṁs: a man , a male being

gava: mfn. (for go) a man , a male being

janma-mṛtyu-bhītaḥ (nom. sg. m.): alarmed by birth and death

janman: n. birth

mṛtyu: m. death , dying

bhīta: mfn. frightened , alarmed , terrified , timid , afraid of or imperilled by ; anxious about

śramaṇaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. making effort or exertion , toiling , labouring , (esp.) following a toilsome or menial business ; m. one who performs acts of mortification or austerity , an ascetic , monk , devotee , religious mendicant

pravrajitaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. gone astray or abroad ; one who has left home to become a religious mendicant ; m. a religious mendicant or a monk

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

mokṣa-hetoḥ (gen. sg.): for liberation

mokṣa: m. emancipation , liberation , release

hetu: m. " impulse " , motive , cause , cause of , reason for (gen. " for a cause or reason " , " by reason of " , " on account of " )

問言汝何人 答言是沙門
畏厭老病死 出家求解脱