BUDDHACARITA 12.62: Further Investigation of Emptiness. Or of Vacuity?

−−⏑⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

ākāśa-gatam ātmānaṁ saṁkṣipya tv aparo budhaḥ |

⏑−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−

tad evānantataḥ paśyan viśeṣam adhigacchati || 12.62

12.62

The self that permeates space

Another one who is wise, in contrast,

condenses into a central mass

And, seeing even that as unbounded,

Thereby attains higher distinction.

COMMENT:

In Saundarananda, Nanda is described as realizing that this world is empty, and that, at the same time, there is no such thing in the world as a clearly delineated self. Hence:

yataś ca saṃskāra-gataṃ viviktaṃ na kārakaḥ kaś-cana vedako vā /

And insofar as separateness is a construct,

there being no-one who creates or who is made known,

samagryataḥ saṃbhavati pravṛttiḥ śūnyaṃ tato lokam imaṃ dadarśa // SN17.20

But doing arises out of a totality,

he realised, on that account, that this world is empty.

yasmān nirīhaṃ jagad asvatantraṃ naiśvaryam ekaḥ kurute kriyāsu /

Since the throng of humanity is passive, not autonomous,

and no one exercises direct control over the workings of the body,

tat-tat pratītya prabhavanti bhāvā nirātmakaṃ tena viveda lokam // SN17.21

But states of being arise dependent on this and that,

he found, in that sense, that the world is devoid of self.

In SN18.14, Nanda puts it in his own words like this:

urvyādikān janmani vedmi dhātūn nātmānam urvyādiṣu teṣu kiṁ cit /

In a birth, I perceive earth and the other elements,

but in earth and those other elements, I perceive no self at all.

So today's verse might be read as somehow relating to this kind of realization about emptiness and no self. There again, since it seems to be leading to a vacuous conclusion that equates liberation with the God Brahma, I think today's verse is better read as being beside the point.

The virtue of today's verse, in that case, is that it encourages us to ask afresh what the point is.

And the point might be that, even for an iron man of Zen, the fourth dhyāna is not the ultimate point, not the highest distinction. The ultimate point, beyond the fourth dhyāna, might be true understanding – understanding synonymous with elimination of faults – of the four noble truths.

Thus, at the beginning of SN Canto 16, the Buddha teaches Nanda as follows about effort subsequent to attainment of the four dhyānas:

evaṃ mano-dhāraṇayā krameṇa vyapohya kiṁ-cit samupohya kiṁ-cit /

Thus, by methodically taking possession of the mind,

getting rid of something and gathering something together,

dhyānāni catvāry-adhigamya yogī prāpnoty-abhijñā niyamena pañca // SN16.1

The practitioner makes the four dhyānas his own,

and duly acquires the five powers of knowing:

ṛddhi-pravekaṃ ca bahu-prakāraṃ parasya cetaś-caritāvabodham /

The principal transcendent power, taking many forms;

then being awake to what others are thinking;

atīta-janma-smaraṇaṃ ca dīrghaṃ divye viśuddhe śruti-cakṣuṣī ca // SN16.2

And remembering past lives from long ago; and divine lucidity of ear; and of eye.

ataḥ paraṃ tattva-parikṣaṇena mano dadhāty-āsrava-saṃkṣayāya /

From then on, through investigation of what is,

he applies his mind to destroying the polluting influences,

tato hi duḥkha-prabhṛtīni samyak catvāri satyāni padāny-avaiti // SN16.3

For on this basis he fully understands suffering and the rest, 
the four true standpoints:

bādhātmakaṃ duḥkham-idaṃ prasaktaṃ duḥkhasya hetuḥ prabhavātmako 'yam /

This is suffering, which is constant and akin to trouble;

this is the cause of suffering, akin to starting it;

duḥkha-kṣayo niḥsaraṇātmako 'yaṃ trāṇātmako 'yaṃ praśamāya mārgaḥ // SN16.4 

This is cessation of suffering, akin to walking away.
And this, akin to a refuge, is a peaceable path.

Consequently, in SN Canto 17, from verse SN17.56 onward, after progressing through the four dhyānas, with the fourth dhyāna being akin to an ally in a military campaign, Nanda is described as working further in the direction of cutting fetters and ending faults:

agni-drumājyāmbuṣu yā hi vṛttiḥ kavandha-vāyv-agni-divākarāṇām /

The action which on fire, trees, ghee and water 

is exerted by rainclouds, wind, a flame and the sun,

doṣeṣu tāṃ vṛttim-iyāya nando nirvāpaṇotpāṭana-dāha-śoṣaiḥ // SN17.59

Nanda exerted that action on the faults, 

quenching, uprooting, burning, and drying them up.

In a footnote to his translation of today's verse, EHJ writes:

The difficulty lies in ātmānam, which I translate mechanically [“his self”]. From the Buddhist descriptions of this trance vijñāna [consciousness] is apparently meant and the original reading might have been akāśa-gata-vijñānam. Vasubandhu, AK., I, 74, however, defends the use of ātman for citta and in Arāḍa's mouth it might stand for the mahān ātmā, the buddhi.

EHJ queries further:

Should not the reading be tam eva in c?

This latter sentence asks a fair question. If the text were amended to tam eva,  the 3^rd line might read “And, seeing that very self to be unbounded,” which might be clearer. For the present, however, I have not made the amendment, as the meaning is not much affected.

Any way up, I think Aśvaghoṣa's intention is that we should understand this: Whatever Arāḍa's words in today's verse might be intended to mean on the surface, Arāḍa's basic gist in this part is not compatible with what the Buddha taught around pursuit of the truth beyond the fourth dhyāna. Thus, the bodhisattva, shortly after Arāḍa has spoken these words, will decide “No, it is not that.”

I think we are required to understand that there was nothing in Arāḍa's first speech that caused the bodhisattva to make up his mind “No, it is not that.” And there was sufficient ambiguity, or irony, in Arāḍa's words up to BC12.60 for the jury to remain out. Even in yesterday's verse and in today's verse, the case for the prosecution might not be proven beyond all reasonable doubt.

Still, I suspect that yesterday's verse and today's verse mark the opening up of a gap such that the bodhisattva was able to decide about Arāḍa's teaching, “No, it is not that.”

So the previous block of four verses (BC12.57-60), as I read those verses, are compatible with effort to realize higher distinction beyond the fourth dhyāna. BC12.57 is a caution against the conceited idea that the fourth dhyāna is liberation itself. BC12.58 tempers that caution by emphasizing that the fourth dhyāna is immensely beneficial – like a powerful ally – in pursuit of higher distinction. And BC12.59 and 12.60 can be read as ironic descriptions of cutting the fetter of self-conscious aspiration (hence, giving up samādhi and letting go of meditation), and working in the direction of eliminating faults, in accordance with how the Buddha taught Nanda to go beyond the fourth dhyāna. 

But the present series of verses which began yesterday do not fit so easily into the scheme of pursuit of the truth as the Buddha outlined it for Nanda, or as Nanda followed it.

The implicit message of today's verse, then, might be taken as a reminder along these lines: If you ever get as far as realizing the fourth dhyāna, then don't subsequently waste time on vacuous matters. Remember, as the Buddha told Nanda:

śirasy atho vāsasi saṃpradīpte satyāvabodhāya matir vicāryā /

Though your head and clothes be on fire

direct your mind so as to be awake to the truths.

dagdhaṃ jagat satya-nayaṃ hy adṛṣṭvā pradahyate saṃprati dhakṣyate ca//SN16.43

For in failing to see the purport of the truths, the world has burned,

it is burning now, and it will burn.

VOCABULARY

ākāśa-gatam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. coming from the air (as a voice) ;

ākāśa: m. a free or open space , vacuity; the ether , sky or atmosphere ; n. brahma (as identical with ether)

ātmānam (acc. sg.): m. the individual soul , self ; the person or whole body considered as one

saṁkṣipya = abs. saṁ- √ kṣip: to throw or heap together , pile up ; to concentrate (the mind) ; to suppress , restrain ; to dash together , destroy ; to condense , compress , contract , abridge , shorten , diminish

√ kṣip: to throw , cast , send , despatch ; to strike or hit (with a weapon) ; to put or place anything on or in (loc.) , pour on , scatter , fix or attach to (loc.) ; to direct (the thoughts) upon (loc.) ; to strike down , ruin , destroy

tu: but

aparaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. other, another

budhaḥ (nom. sg.): m. a wise or learned man , sage

tad (acc. sg. n.): that

tam (acc. sg. m.): that [self]

eva: (emphatic)

ananta: mfn. endless , boundless , eternal , infinite

-taḥ: ablative/adverbial suffix

anantatā: f. eternity , infinity

paśyan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. behold , look at , observe , perceive , notice ; to live to see , experience , partake of, undergo , incur ; to regard or consider as , take for (acc. with acc. or adv. in vat)

viśeṣam (acc. sg.): m. distinction , peculiar merit , excellence , superiority

adhigacchati = 3^rd pers. sg. adhi- √ gam : to go up to , approach , overtake , to approach for sexual intercourse , to fall in with , to meet , find , discover , obtain ; to accomplish ;

終則堅固分 悉成於空觀

略空觀境界 進觀無量識

BUDDHACARITA 12.61: Affirming Emptiness? Or Giving Credence to Vacuity?

⏑−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

śarīre khāni yāny asya tāny ādau parikalpayan |

⏑−⏑⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−

ghaneṣv api tato dravyeṣv ākāśam adhimucyate || 12.61

12.61

Of spaces which are openings in his body,

First he forms a picture;

Then in solid masses also

He affirms empty space.

COMMENT:

With the ambiguity of words, and consequently with the irony of words, Aśvaghoṣa seems to wish to save us from the sin of certainty.

If the previous block of four verses seem on the surface to be idealistic nonsense born of what Patrick Olivelle calls “the Brahmanical religion,” but below the surface can be read, ironically, as the profound teaching of the buddhas, then this next set of four verses might be the other way round. Though they sound on the surface to resonate with Zen Buddhist philosophy around emptiness, Aśvaghoṣa's intention may be that we recognize the intention behind these verses as hollow, vacuous, devoid of real meaning -- culminating as they do in a religious conclusion about a liberation of the Knower of the Field, this liberation being synonymous with a Supreme Spiritual Being, namely, Brahma.

It is this conclusion which the bodhisattva is able to recognize as not the ultimate truth which he is seeking.

For that reason – not because of the words themselves, but because of the wider context in which today's verse appears – I think the irony switches in today's verse so that on the surface, and taken alone, Arāḍa's words might sound valid; but below the surface, in context, he is talking random nonsense.

The superficial validity of Arāḍa's words is that it might sometimes be constructive to form a picture, for example, of air passing through open nasal passages, and to think of space, for example, in the hip joints. These are in fact directions that I have often used in my own sitting practice.

But such directions do not belong here. Which is to say that if Arāḍa was truly describing practice beyond the fourth dhyāna, what he would be discussing is not directions, or visualizations, like these – which might more properly belong to the first dhyāna. He might rather be discussing how to make the four noble truths into one's own possession. He might rather be discussing, as key to the cessation of suffering, the teaching of pratītya-samutpāda, or springing up by going back. 

The readings and construction of the first half of today's verse, EHJ notes, are uncertain. EHJ considers the pros and cons of amending asya to asmin, but concludes: The sense anyhow is clear, the object of the trance being to suppress all sensation of matter with regard to the body and to substitute for it the sensation of unoccupied space.

With regard to the second half of today's verse EHJ notes further that adhimucyate is a troublesome word, for which I would refer to the employment of adhimukti and adhimokṣa in AK [Vasubandhu's abdhidharma-koṣa], and to the discussions there. The general idea is of an act of mental attention which leads a man to approve a particular object or course of action, so that he makes up his mind to attain or do it, as the case may be.

Perhaps Aśvaghoṣa chose such a troublesome word as adhimucyate  because its very ambiguity suited his purpose. 

VOCABULARY

śarīre (loc. sg.): n. the body , bodily frame , solid parts of the body

khāni (acc. pl.): n. a cavity , hollow , cave , cavern , aperture ; an aperture of the human body (of which there are nine , viz. the mouth , the two ears , the two eyes , the two nostrils , and the organs of excretion and generation)

yāni (acc. pl. n.): [those] which

asya (gen. sg.): of this one, of him

asmin [EHJ] (loc. sg. n.): this

tāni (acc. pl. n.): those

ādau: ind. in the beginning , at first

parikalpayan = nom. sg. pres. part. pari- √ kḷp: to fix , settle , determine , destine for (with acc.); to perform , execute , accomplish , contrive , arrange , make ; to suppose , presuppose Sarvad.

parikalpa: m. illusion Buddh.

parikalpana: n. fixing , settling , contriving , making , inventing , providing , dividing , distributing

parikalpanā: f. making , forming , assuming

rūpa-parikalpanā: f. the assuming of a shape (Rāmāyaṇa)

ghaneṣu (loc. pl.): mfn. compact , solid , material , hard , firm , dense

api: also

tataḥ: ind. then, from that

dravyeṣu (loc. pl.): n. a substance , thing , object ; the ingredients or materials of anything ; (phil.) elementary substance

ākāśam (acc. sg.): m. a free or open space , vacuity; the ether , sky or atmosphere ; n. (in philos.) the subtle and ethereal fluid (supposed to fill and pervade the universe and to be the peculiar vehicle of life and of sound) ; n. brahma (as identical with ether)

adhimucyate = 3^rd pers. sg. passive adhi-√muc: EBC: he exerts his will to experience a feeling of [void space]; EHJ: he obtains a clear idea of [space]; PO: he focuses his mind on [the empty space]

adhi: ind. , as a prefix to verbs and nouns , expresses above , over and above , besides

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

adhimukta: mfn. inclined ; confident ; also 'intent on'

adhimukti: f. propensity ; confidence.

adhimokṣa: (= adhimukti)

始自身諸竅 漸次修虚解

BUDDHACARITA 12.60: Losing Interest in Form

⏑−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−

tatas tad-dhyānam utsjya viśeṣe kta-niścayaḥ |

−−⏑⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−

kāmebhya iva sat-prājño rūpād api virajyate || 12.60

12.60

Having thus let go of that meditation,

And with his mind set on higher distinction,

The one who really understands what is real

– like he lost interest in desires –

Loses interest in form.

COMMENT:

Arāḍa now seems to have well and truly lost the plot. The spiritual aspirant whom Arāḍa describes as wise, it seems to us who sit, at first glance, is committing the cardinal sin of the Zen backslider – namely, failing to stick to the principle of daily practise of sitting-meditation. Rather, with his end-gaining mind aspiring to a loftier spiritual aim, the spiritual aspirant is here described as shunning altogether the material world of black cushions, sore legs, and good physical posture. Hence:

EBC: Then, having abandoned this contemplation, being resolved to find a further distinction, he becomes as disgusted with form itself as he who knows the real [sat-prājño] is with pleasures.

EHJ: Then, abandoning the practice of that trance, the wise man  [sa prājño] sets his mind on progress and turns away from all desire for material form even, as previously from the passions.

PO: Then, having cast aside that trance, he sets his sight on a higher state; / As he once withdrew from pleasures, so now the wise man  [sa prājño] withdraws also from visible form.

Each of these translations is, at the outer level, perfectly good. Each provides ample basis for the prosecution of Arāḍa, who stands accused of having departed already from Zen Buddhist orthodoxy.

But once again, Aśvaghoṣa seems to have left the door open for a case to be mounted in Arāḍa's defence. And the case for the defence once again rests on the ambiguity of Arāḍa's words.

Thus, in the 1st pāda, tad dhyānam utsṛjya could once again express

(a) something errant, like being lazy in Zen practice; 

or, ironically,

(b) a bit of nothing, an absence of the whiff of self-conscious pretence that is apt to accompany those who practice Zen Buddhism, not to mention Buddhist-based mindfulness meditation, the FM Alexander Technique, and so on. Beware of receiving a double-dose of  tad dhyānam, that Zen, from true stinkers who are steeped in self-conscious practice of both traditional Zen and Zen as re-discovered by FM Alexander.

The 2^nd pāda, again, could describe

(a) a spiritual aspirant setting his sights on a lofty spiritual goal somewhere over the rainbow; 

or, ironically,

(b) to borrow a phrase from a Chinese Zen master, a beggar boy breaking his begging bowl.

The 3^rd pāda could describe as sat-prājñaḥ

(a) a spiritual aspirant who believes that the real is the spiritual as opposed to the material; 

or, ironically,

(b) a Zen practitioner who understands that the real is the real, as opposed to the spiritual, and as transcendent over the purely material.

The loss of interest in form described in the 4^th pāda, then, is ostensibly a symptom of religious sincerity, but what I think Aśvaghoṣa really had in mind was the loss of interest in form that happens when one makes progess in Alexander work. And if you want to know what I mean by that, then I suggest you spend a few years finding out for yourself!

When we read today's verse as above, taking pains to dig out the irony hidden beneath the surface, it serves as yet another reminder not to jump to conclusions.

When I reflect back on my own life, how often have I acted too quickly, or too dumbly, based on assumptions that turned out to have been not well founded?

Too often to mention!

By the way, we are now half-way through this very long Canto of 121 verses. I note, for the purposes of memorizing the verses in order, that we are 15 verses into Arāda's second speech. The first 11 of those verses (BC12.46-56) took us to the fourth dhyāna. Today's verse can be remembered as the fourth verse in another block of four, so that

1. BC12.47 concerns subjective delusion (abhimāna);
2. BC12.48 Fat Profit (bṛhat-phala);
3. BC12.49 physical realization of the truth of cessation (śarīra-vinivṛttaye);
4. BC12.50 transcendence of interest in form (rupād api virajyate).

VOCABULARY

tataḥ: ind. then, from that place, on those grounds

tad (acc. sg. n.): that, this

dhyānam (acc. sg. n.): act of meditating, stage of meditation

utsṛjya = abs. ut- √ sṛj: to let loose , let off or go ; to set free ; to open ; to sling , throw , cast forth or away ; to lay aside ; to quit , leave , abandon , avoid , eschew ; to discontinue , suspend , cease , leave off

viśeṣe (loc. sg.): m. distinction

kṛta-niścayaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. determined or resolved on (dat. , loc. inf. or in comp.)

kāmebhyaḥ (abl. pl.): m. desires

iva: like, as

sat-prājñaḥ (nom. sg. m.): wise in regard to what is real

sat: n. what is true or real

prājñā: f. intelligence , understanding , wisdom

saḥ [EBC] (nom. sg. m.): he

prājñaḥ [EBC] (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. jñā) intellectual (opp. to śārīra , taijasa) ; intelligent , wise , clever

rūpāt (abl. sg.): n. any outward appearance or phenomenon or colour (often pl.) , form , shape , figure ; handsome form , loveliness , grace , beauty , splendour ; nature , character , peculiarity , feature , mark , sign , symptom ; likeness , image , reflection ; circumstances (opp. to " time " and " place ")

api: also

virajyate = 3^rd pers. sg. vi- √ rañj: to be changed in colour , be discoloured , lose one's natural colour ; to become changed in disposition or affection , become indifferent to , take no interest in (abl. or loc.)

増進修智慧 厭離第四禪
決定増進求 方便除色欲 

BUDDHACARITA 12.59: The Higher Knowledge or an Act of Knowing – Gap or No Gap?

⏑−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−

samādher vyutthitas tasmād dṣṭvā doṣāṁś charīriṇām |

−⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−

jñānam ārohati prājñaḥ śarīra-vinivttaye || 12.59

12.59

The man of wisdom, 
giving up the balancing act of that samādhi,

Having seen the faults of people possessed of bodies,

Rises to the challenge which is the act of knowing –

He rises up, in the direction of bodily extinction.

COMMENT:

On first reading, again, one has the clear impression that a gap has opened up between Arāḍa's teaching and the Buddha's teaching.

The case for the prosecution is that Arāḍa is describing somebody who has diverged greatly or swerved (vy-utthitaḥ) from the Buddha's noble eightfold path, in which the ultimate practice is Zen practice of samādhi, and Zen practice in samādhi. This errant person – who Arāḍa in his non-Buddhist ignorance deems to be wise – has fallen into the religious view of seeing the body as originally sinful. With this religious view that sees all embodied beings as being inherently faulty, the errant and ignorant person, who Arāḍa deems to be wise, aspires to a higher state in which the spiritual intelligence is freed from the fetters of physical existence.

This conception of liberation is, in fact, much as Arāḍa will express it in five verses' time:

Thus, like a muñja stalk from its sheath, like a bird from its cage, / The knower of the field, escaped from the body, is said to be liberated.//12.64

So it looks like an open and shut case.

But not so fast.

Once again, as yesterday, we are required to ask if this case for the prosecution is proven beyond all reasonable doubt.

The case for the defence centres on the ambiguity of each element in Arāda's argument.

Thus, in the 1^st pāda, vy-ud-√sthā, from which the past participle vy-utthitaḥ is derived, could express

(a) something errant, like veering away from the samādhi of accepting and using the self, which is the criterion of true Zen practice; or, ironically,

(b) a bit of nothing, or a bit of the buddha-nature, like going into movement and forgetting oneself.

A person who has been taught the Alexander Technique badly, or who has been taught well but has yet to get the point, is like a person who has been taught so-called Buddhist-based "mindfulness" badly. He or she tends to look self-conscious and stilted. Or even if he or she doesn't look like that on the surface, he or she will invariably be doing this and that below the surface. To be free of such doing, even when one has become aware of the problem, is not so easy. But the 1^st pāda of today's verse can be read as pointing, ironically, to the possibility of such freedom. 

In Britain today there are Alexander teachers who are skilled at teaching non-doing, and Alexander teachers who are not so skilled. So sometimes the Alexander principle of non-doing is taught well and sometimes it is taught badly. But how can so-called Buddhist-based "mindfulness" be taught anything other than badly, when it is taught by people -- like professors of clinical psychology and professors of Buddhist studies -- who are experts in intellectual fields but who are not at all steeped in the principle of non-doing? 

The 2^nd pāda could express

(a) a religious person seeing the body as inherently faulty; or, ironically,

(b) a man of real wisdom seeing a fault in the attitude of those who are, in various unenlightened ways, “body-conscious.” 

One such man of real wisdom – or more accurately, one such woman of real wisdom – was the Alexander teacher Marjory Barlow who often expressed disapproval of subtle forms of body-work (sometimes denigrated as “advanced physiotherapy”) going under the guise of Alexander work. The body-conscious, it turns out, generally tend in the direction of doing. Thus, in the teaching of Nāgārjuna as presented below, the body-conscious one may be taken as synonymous with the ignorant one, the doer.

In the 3^rd pāda jñānam ārohati prājñaḥ could describe

(a) a religious person aspiring to the higher knowledge (derived from meditation on the one Universal Spirit); or, ironically,

(b) a man of real wisdom squaring up to the practical challenge which Nāgārjuna called jñānāsyaiva bhāvana, bringing-into-being just this act of knowing.

The MW dictionary gives jñāna as knowledge, (esp.) the higher knowledge (derived from meditation on the one Universal Spirit), and both EHJ and PO translate jñānam in today's verse as “knowledge.” EBC, in similar vein, translates the 3^rd pāda  as “the wise man climbs to a yet higher wisdom.” But originally jñāna, like dhyāna, is an -na neuter action noun, and so “the act of knowing” is also accurate. "The act of knowing" is not only accurate but also – in sense (b) – meaningful.

In the 4th pāda the dative compound śarīra-vinivṛttaye could indicate

(a) that the aim is cessation of the activity of the body (so that śarīra is object of vinivṛtti); or, ironically,

(b) that the right direction is to practice the third noble truth, the truth of cessation, with the body (so that śarīra is the agent of vinivṛtti).

If one accepts that Aśvaghoṣa was playing with all this ambiguity, then the difficulty is to find a translation that does not come down too heavily on either side. If I have erred on the side of (b), I am in conscious in so erring that each of the three professors erred in every instance on the side of (a):

EBC: But rising beyond this contemplation, having seen the imperfections of all embodied souls, the wise man climbs to a yet higher wisdom in order to abolish all body.

EHJ: On emerging from that concentrated meditation, the wise man sees the evils that exist for those who have a body and betakes himself to knowledge for the cessation of the body.

PO: Seeing the faults of embodied beings, a wise man comes out of that trance / And sets his mind on that knowledge that would rid him of his body.

In conclusion, did Aśvaghoṣa wish us to expend all this energy on digging out these ambiguities and hidden ironies?

Since he is not here to confirm or deny it, we will never know for certain, at least not intellectually. 

If we follow the translations of the three professors, however, Arāḍa is spouting Brahmanical tosh which has no value at all as a needle to our sitting-Zen. Knowledge that would rid of us of our body is of no use to us. 

Whereas when we read today's verse as an ironic reminder of the Buddha's teaching of non-doing, then we are stimulated to ask afresh what it means to use the mainspring of a human body as the essential pivot for extinguishing ignorance....

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 the act 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.

VOCABULARY

samādheḥ (abl. sg.): m. putting together ; union ; setting to rights , adjustment , settlement ; concentration of the thoughts , profound or abstract meditation ; with Buddhists samādhi is the fourth and last stage of dhyāna or intense abstract meditation

vy-utthitaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. greatly divergent in opinion ; strongly excited or agitated (» comp.) ; swerving from duty (with or scil. dharmāt)

vy-ud-√sthā: to rise in different directions (as light) ; to turn away from (abl.) , give up , abandon ; to swerve from duty , forget one's self

ut-thita: mfn. risen or rising (from a seat &c )

ut-tha: (ud- √sthā) to stand up , spring up , rise , raise one's self , set out; to rise (from the dead) ; to rise (from any occupation) , leave off

tasmāt (abl. sg. m.): that

dṛṣṭvā = abs. dṛś: to see

doṣān (acc. pl.): m. fault

śarīriṇām (gen. pl.): m. an embodied being , creature , (esp.) a man

jñānam (acc. sg.): n. knowing, becoming acquainted with , knowledge , (esp.) the higher knowledge (derived from meditation on the one Universal Spirit)

ārohati = 3^rd pers. sg. ā- √ ruh: to ascend , mount , bestride , rise up; to venture upon , undertake ; to attain , gain

prājñaḥ (nom. sg.): m. a wise or learned man

śarīra-vinivṛttaye (dat. sg.): towards bodily cessation

vinivṛtti: f. cessation , coming to an end ; cessation of work, inactivity, Bcar.

vi-ni- √ vṛt: to turn back , return ; to turn away , desist or cease from (abl.); to cease , end , disappear ; to be extinguished (as fire)

於彼禪定起 見有身爲過

BUDDHACARITA 12.58: Zen's Vast Rewards

−−−−¦⏑⏑⏑−¦¦⏑−−−¦⏑−⏑−   navipulā

asya dhyānasya tu phalaṁ samaṁ devair bhat-phalaiḥ |

⏑⏑−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−−¦⏑−⏑− 

kathayanti bhat-kālaṁ bhat-prajñā-parīkṣakāḥ || 12.58

12.58

Whereas, truly, the fruit of this act of meditating,

Like the abundant fruit of the Bṛhat-phala deities,

the Gods of Fat Profit,

Is immensely long-lasting,

Say those who investigate the vast real wisdom.

COMMENT:

Yesterday's verse reminds us that to take the fourth dhyāna as ultimate liberation, is a mistake born of conceit. But, today's verse reminds us further, that is no reason to think light of Zen practice. On the contrary, Arāḍa is suggesting -- presaging Zen Master Dogen by many hundreds of years -- that not even the buddhas themselves can fathom the limitless fruits of everyday Zen practice. 

When the monk who mistook the fourth dhyāna put the blame on the Buddha and went to hell, the fault was not in the fourth dhyāna but was in the monk's conceit. The contrasting example is the monk in Upagupta's order who, having mistaken the fourth dhyāna, was able with all due humility to recognize his mistake, after which the fourth dhyāna did indeed for him, eventually, bring forth the fat fruit of arhathood, the fourth fruit of the noble dharma.

The turning word in today's verse, repeated three times in the original and rendered five times in translation, is bṛhat, which I have rendered as abundant, Bṛhat, Fat, immensely long, and vast. 

I considered translating  bṛhat as "abundant" in every instance, for the sake of conformity, but on further reflection decided to translate bṛhat differently according to the context set by a four-phased progression through today's verse. 

In four phases, today's verse can be read like this: 

1. that Zen practice will produce its reward is sometimes a hopeful idea, a bit of idealism; 
2. Fat Profit is redolent with materialism; 
3. Time, as the immense stage upon which karma plays out, belongs to the third phase;
4. and the vast real wisdom of prajñā is the object, and indeed the subject, of our dedication.

But on first reading today's verse does not easily give up such meaning. On first reading, one suspects that the gap between Arāḍa's teaching and the Buddha's teaching is beginning to open up. Hence, 

EBC: The fruit of this contemplation which is on an equality with the Vṛhatphala deities, those who investigate the great wisdom call the Vṛhatphala.

EHJ: But those who investigate the transic knowledge of the Absolute describe its fruit as enduring for many ages with the Bṛhatphala deities.

PO: Those who explore the knowledge of the Great, however, describe the fruit of this trance / As lasting over a great span of time together with the Brithat-phala gods. 

EHJ added in a footnote: I take bṛhat in d to be a synonym of brahman (neuter). 

Hence EHJ translated bṛhat-prajñā "knowledge of the Absolute" and PO followed suit with "knowledge of the Great." 

This is the kind of reading that leads PO to assert that Buddhacarita presents Buddhism as the crowning and consummation of the Brahmanical religion. 

I think that possibly Aśvaghoṣa may have been inviting us to read Arāḍa's words in that light. Aśvaghoṣa's wish may have been to save us from the sin of certainty.  In any event, bṛhat-prajñā, as I read the compound, more really points not to the God Brahma but rather to the unfathomable vastness of prajñā, real wisdom. And those who investigate this vastness of prajñā, I venture to submit, do so from the inside of sitting practice. 

Read in that light, the parīkṣakāḥ  in the 4th pāda of today's verse can be taken as contrasting with the upekṣakaḥ of BC12.56. Which is to say that in the context of the fourth dhyāna, upa-√īkṣ, to look on with indifference, is a virtue. But beyond the fourth dhyāna what is really profitable might be pari-√īkṣ, to investigate, to look into something and find out all about it, and not only from the outside looking in. 

In outlining the four dhyānas, Arāda has now mentioned gods at each of the four levels.

1. In relation to the first dhyāna, he described how the immature person is liable to get stuck in a brahma-world, an abode of pious divinities (BC12.51).
2. In relation to the second dhyāna, he pointed to the danger of becoming fixed among Ābhāsvara deities, the Shining Gods (BC12.53).
3. In relation to the third dhyāna, he cautioned against wallowing in ease in the company of Śubha-kṛtsna deities, the Gods of Resplendent Wholeness (BC12.55).
4. In today's verse, in relation to the fourth dhyāna, he discusses gods again in the form of  the Bṛhat-phalah deities, the Gods of Great Reward, or Abundant Fruit, or Fat Profit.

Again, I suspect that this progression might contain a kind of set-up for the unwary. The first three references to gods cause an association to form between gods and going astray or getting stuck. If a prejudice against gods has thus been formed, then today's verse, when we study it in depth, might be out to challenge or break the prejudice. 

Thus the gods in question in today's verse are known as  bṛhat-phalah, in which compound bṛhat is cognate with brahma, both words deriving from the root √bṛh, to grow fat. Hence, ironically, in the 2nd pāda bṛhat is redolent with real reward or material fat, but  in the 4^th pāda the derivation from the root √bṛh led EHJ to translate bṛhat as the least material thing there is, namely the Absolute -- i.e. the Supreme, the Indefinable, Immutable, Eternal, of Whom there is None but Him and whose Ultimate Prophet, some vociferously assert, is nobody but Mohammed. 

I am finding it hard to get the register of this comment right. The difficulty may reflect the skill with which Aśvaghoṣa, using various means like the interlocution of Arāḍa, 1. wishes absolutely to smash religious views, 2. wishes that the smashing should take place in a manner in which the smasher himself or herself might be saved from any kind of sin of religious certainty. 

A couple of weeks ago on the radio, in an edition of Great Lives devoted to Dorothy L. Sayers, a letter was read out in which a listener complained to the BBC for broadcasting a play that Sayers (herself a Christian) had written about Our Lord Jesus Christ. In this play, which was broadcast around the time of WWII, Sayers had dared to portray Our Saviour as if he were a normal human being. The writer of the letter sounded very much like an Islaamic fundamentalist of the present era complaining about representation of the Prophet. 

So here was cause to reflect that, somehow, in some respects, we in Britain have been going in the right direction, away from religious fundamentalism. Away, in other words, from religion itself. 

This, I venture to submit, is one of the rewards of Zen practice, if one sticks with it and follows the principle of non-doing. At least in my experience, this practice tends to make a person less religious. And I hope the present translation, the first draft of which all being well I will complete in the spring of 2015, will reflect that progress, and thus find a receptive audience among the irreligious. There again,  I'm not good at making predictions, a wise man once said, especially about the future.

When I read Patrick Olivelle's translation six years ago, I loved it. I loved the translation and I loved the Clay Sanskrit Library book. It was such a useful resource for me starting out on the path of studying Aśvaghoṣa, and it has continued to be a useful resource. But the Buddha's teaching is studied among academics as if "Buddhist studies" belonged in a department similar to Christian studies or Islamic studies. Whereas I would argue that the Buddha's teaching as Aśvaghoṣa presents it is a cut above all religions. And the vast real wisdom to which Arāḍa alludes in today's verse is not the kind of knowledge that can be gleaned from the outside of sitting-Zen practice. 

VOCABULARY

asya (gen. sg.): n. this

dhyānasya (gen. sg.): n. dhyāna, act of meditating

tu: but

phalam (nom/acc. sg.): n. result, fruit

samam (nom/acc . sg. n.): same , equal , similar , like , equivalent , like to or identical or homogeneous with (instr.)

devaiḥ (nom. sg.): m. god

bṛhat-phalaiḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. having large fruit bringing great profit or reward ; m. pl. N. of a class of Buddhist gods

bṛhat: mfn. lofty , high , tall , great , large , wide , vast , abundant , compact , solid , massy , strong , mighty ; full-grown , old

bṛh: to be thick , grow great or strong , increase

kathayanti = 3^rd pers. pl. kath: to tell , relate , narrate , report , inform , speak about , declare , explain , describe (with acc. of the thing or person spoken about)

bṛhat-kālam (acc. sg. n.): for vast swathes of time

kālam: ind. for a certain time (e.g. mahāntaṁ kālam , for a long time)

bṛhat-kāla-jñāna: n. " the large kāla-jñāna or knowledge of times " , N. of wk.

bṛhat-prajñā-parīkṣakāḥ (nom. pl. m.):

parīkṣaka: m. a prover , examiner , judge

pari- √īkṣ: to look round , inspect carefully , try , examine , find out , observe , perceive

任彼四禪報 得生廣果天
以彼久壽故 名之爲廣果