BUDDHACARITA 5.10: The First Dhyāna Does Itself

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

samavāpta-manaḥ-sthitiś-ca sadyo viṣayecchādibhir-ādhibhiś-ca muktaḥ |

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sa-vitarka-vicāram-āpa śāntaṁ prathamaṁ dhyānam-anāsrava-prakāram || 5.10

5.10

In stumbling upon firm upstandingness of the mind

He was instantly released from worries,

such as those associated with desires for objects;

He entered the first peaceful stage, 
in which there are ideas and thoughts,

Of the meditation whose essence 
is freedom from polluting influences.

COMMENT:

My translation of the 1st pāda may sound idiosyncratic, but it is literal enough and it makes sense to me on the basis of plentiful experience over the years of being alternately held in, and released from, the grip of worries. Which is to say that thirty years of sitting-meditation practice, and twenty years of Alexander work have caused me at least to begin to see that to go directly for firm upstandingness of the body (or “proper posture” as some unenlightened individuals call it) is a recipe for stiff necks, frozen shoulders, bad backs, and mental rigidity. Whereas the secret of attaining firm upstandingness of the mind might reside in the absence of any intention to move a single muscle in the direction of trying to achieve firm upstandingness of the body. This, I think, is why Aśvaghoṣa has described the prince entering the first dhyāna more or less by accident – so that no thanks are due to any understanding on the part of the prince in regard to how to sit, but thanks might rather be due to mother Earth.

Today's verse causes me to reflect on how, while still in single figures, around the age of 8, I used to like to walk up the hill to my old primary school before anybody else had got there, first thing in the morning, and just hang about on the steps to the classroom and in the playground. Again at the age of around 12, before I started drinking home-brew beer in earnest in the evenings, and staying in bed as long as I could in the mornings, I used to get to my old secondary school up to an hour before assembly and just stand in splendid isolation by the radiator of the 2nd-year form room, looking out over the playing fields and out to the Bristol Rd beyond. In some ways I might have been closer to the first stage of dhyāna then than after I came to Japan and learned how to sit in the right physical posture, doing this, doing that, and doing the other. In some ways, again, the last 20 years have been about dropping off the Zen habits I learned in Japan, which mainly centred on trying to be right (i.e. desiring the delusory object of being right), and returning to a more natural way of being. A way of being that I used to enjoy by myself before I developed the polluting influence of a greed for Zen.

Lest this sounds like nothing more than the idiosyncratic interpretation of a disaffected oddball, reflect again on how the Zen ancestor Aśvaghoṣa is telling the story of the prince's experience of the first stage of Zen meditation: The prince has not been initiated into the secret of Zen meditation by any Zen master; he has not yet shaved his head; he has not clothed himself in any Zen uniform; he does not have any idea about how to sit in the right posture. He has not become a Zen Buddhist. Rather, he has ridden on a swift horse, has moved slowly over the earth, has separated himself from prattling companions, and has gone to sit upon the earth in separated solitude at the root of a rose-apple tree growing up from the earth. He has come back more than once to clear/distinct/separated recognition of how all things in the material world come into being and perish – as energy is prevented from dissipating, and then energy dissipates, in accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics.

Thus, without having any idea about standing or sitting firmly upright, the prince has naturally experienced a spontaneous manaḥ-sthitiḥ, lit. “standing upright of the mind.” And thus he has naturally entered the first dhyāna which, as will be mentioned tomorrow, is not born of Zen group-think but, on the contrary, is viveka-jam, “born of separateness.”

VOCABULARY

samavāpta-manaḥ-sthitiḥ (nom. sg. m.): having met with firm upright standing of the mind

samavāpta: mfn. obtained , attained

sam-ava- √āp: to meet with , attain , reach , gain , obtain , incur

manaḥ: n. mind

sthiti: f. standing upright or firmly , not falling ; standing , staying , remaining , abiding ; constancy , perseverance ; standing still , stopping , halting

ca: and

sadyaḥ: ind. on the same day , in the very moment

viṣayecchādibhiḥ (inst. pl.): desires for sensual enjoyments and so on

viṣaya: m. 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

icchā: f. wish , desire , inclination

ādi: ifc. beginning with , et caetera , and so on

ādhibhis (inst. pl.): m. thought , care , anxious reflection , mental agony , anxiety , pain

ca: and

muktaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. loosened , let loose , set free, liberated ; (with instr. or ifc. = released from , deprived or destitute of)

sa-vitarka-vicāram (acc. sg. n.): containing ideas and thoughts

āpa = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. āp: to reach , overtake , meet with , fall upon ; to obtain , gain , take possession of ; to enter

śāntam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. (fr. √1. śam) appeased , pacified , tranquil , calm , free from passions , undisturbed

prathamam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. first

dhyānam (acc. sg.): n. meditation , thought , reflection

an-āsrava-prakāram (acc. sg. n.): of the sort which is free from pollutants

āsrava: m. distress , affliction , pain

ā-: (as a prefix to verbs , especially of motion , and their derivatives) near , near to , towards

srava: m. flowing , streaming , a flow of (comp.)

an-āsrava: mfn. free from mundane inclinations

prakāra: m. sort , kind , nature , class , species , way , mode , manner (mostly ifc. mfn. ; cf. tri- " of three kinds ")

pra- √ kṛ: to make , produce , accomplish , perform , achieve , effect


心定安不動 五欲廓雲消
有覺亦有觀 入初無漏禪 

BUDDHACARITA 5.9: The Most Mental Thing There Is

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

niṣasāda sa yatra śaucavatyāṁ bhuvi vaidūrya-nikāśa-śādvalāyām |

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jagataḥ prabhava-vyayau vicinvan manasaś-ca sthiti-mārgam-ālalambe || 5.9

5.9

There he sat upon the honest, verdant earth

Whose horizons shimmered like emeralds;

And, while reflecting how the living world arises and perishes,

He dangled on the path of standing firmly upright, 
which is of the mind.

COMMENT:

Today's verse is both the conclusion of something and the start of something.

The conclusion is that the prince sat upon the earth, or sat upright within the embrace of mother Earth. 

In the 1st pāda, niṣasāda sa means “he sat,” and in the 2nd pāda, bhuvi (locative) means “in/on/upon the earth.”

What the prince sat in or on Aśvaghoṣa has hitherto called by an elegant variety of names: In BC4.100 in the compound mahī-dharam, “Earth-container” (i.e. mountain), mahī means “the great (feminine) one” or mother Earth. In BC4.102 the word for “dwelling,” dhiṣṇyam, originally means an earthen hearth; and the prince is referred to as kṣiti-pālakātmajaḥ, “the one begotten from a guardian of the earth,” in which compound kṣiti (again feminine) means soil of the earth, or the earth. In BC5.4 when Aśvaghoṣa refers to the merit inherent in the earth (mahī-guṇa), the earth is again “the great (feminine) one”; and in the same verse he describes the bountiful soil/land/earth as vasu-dhā “giver of wealth” (again feminine). BC5.5 describes rasā, the earth/ground/soil (also feminine) being tilled. And in BC5.7 when the prince is described as moving slowly over the ground, the ground is go, which originallly means cow, and hence the earth, as the milk-cow of kings. But in the 1st and 2nd pādas of today's verse Aśvaghoṣa expresses, as a kind of conclusion, niṣasāda sa bhuvi, he sat upon the earth. He thus uses in conclusion what is probably the most everyday general term for the earth, namely, bhū – which is again, feminine.

Having listed these terms like this, each of which is somehow suggestive of Mother Earth's feminine embrace; and having sat this morning not directly on the earth but on a wooden platform under which is thin air, but which is nevertheless very much within the earth's gravitational field, I think it would be more accurate to translate niṣasāda sa bhuvi “he sat within the earth.” The truth of the matter might be that when buddha sits, buddha is lifted up in the earth's embrace, and so the truest translation of niṣasāda sa bhuvi might be “he sat up within the earth.” But what sounds more natural to our English ears is “he sat down on the ground.” Hence EBC, EHJ, and PO all have “he sat down on the ground.” I suppose that none of those guys had come across the principle that in order to sit on or in the earth, it is not always necessary to sit down. A better way might be to keep thinking up while bending one's knees.

In the 3rd pāda, jagataḥ prabhava-vyayau vicinvan (lit. “discerning the arising and passing of the world”) echoes jagato janana-vyayaṁ vicinvan in BC5.7. The point that Aśvaghoṣa might want us not to miss is that recognition of impermanence is an antidote to afflictions like greed and anger, and as such can be practised as a precursor to the first stage of sitting-meditation – the stage which the prince  himself is now going accidentally to enter.

Because recognition of impermanence works in this way as antidote and precursor, the Buddha tells Nanda:

For in him who sees a separate bodily form as it is, and who sees its origin and passing away, / From the very fact of his knowing and seeing, I predict the complete eradication of the pollutants. // SN16.46 // So my friend garner your energy greatly and strive quickly to put an end to polluting influences, / Examining in particular the elements -- as suffering, as impermanent and as devoid of self. // SN16.47 //

And because recognition of impermanence works in this way as antidote and precursor, Nanda faithfully follows the Buddha's instruction:

Desiring to examine its total material and immaterial substance, he investigated the body, /And he perceived the body to be impure, full of suffering, impermanent, without an owner, and again, devoid of self. // SN17.16 // For, on those grounds, on the grounds of impermanence and emptiness, on the grounds of absence of self, and of suffering, / He, by the most excellent among mundane paths, caused the tree of afflictions to shake. // SN17.17 //

In the 4th pāda, I think ā-√lamb, to hang from, relates to that spontaneously flowing response to the earth which Chinese Zen masters called body and mind dropping off, and which FM Alexander called letting the right thing do itself, or going up.

The sense of going up that I described in my comment yesterday cannot be experienced by sitting down and making a physical effort to sit upright. It is rather, on a good day, a symptom of having come undone in sitting-meditation. And an undoing is nothing that anybody can do. “You cannot do an undoing,” observed FM Alexander, whose work is often conceived to be a kind of physical therapy that helps a person to sit or stand in a good physical posture. Alexander himself, however, described his work as “the most mental thing there is.” It is work manasaḥ, of the mind. 

Finally, I notice that the Chinese translator, who generally has a tendency to veer off at his own tangent and to paraphrase rather than translate, came up with a very interesting line inspired by today's verse, namely 端坐正思惟, which means “sitting upright and thinking straight” or “making one's thinking straight by sitting upright.”

端坐正思惟, I venture to submit, is the essence of what Bodhidharma went to China to transmit – the most physical thing there is, the most mental thing there is, and the most droppiest-off of body and mind thing there is.

VOCABULARY
niṣasāda = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. ni-√sad: to sit or lie down or rest upon (loc.)

ni-: ind. down , back , in , into , within

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

yatra: ind. wherein

koravatyām = loc. sg. f. kora-vat: mfn. ( √kur, to utter a sound) a movable joint (as of the fingers , the knee , &c ); a bud

śaucavatyām = loc. sg. f. śauca-vat: mfn. clean , pure (lit. and fig.)

śauca: n. cleanness , purity , purification (esp. from defilement caused by the death of a relation ; n. purity of mind , integrity , honesty (esp. in money-matters)

bhuvi (loc. sg.): f. the earth ; a place , spot , piece of ground

vaidūrya-nikāśa-śādvalāyām (loc. sg. f.): mfn. verdant like beryl, green like emeralds

vaiḍūrya: n. a cat's-eye gem

nikāśa: mfn. ifc. having the appearance of. similar , like; m. ( √ kāś, to appear) horizon , range of sight , proximity

śādvala: mfn. abounding in fresh or green grass , grassy , verdant , green

śāda: m. (fr. √2 śad cf. śāta) falling off , dropping; young grass

√2 śad: to fall off or out

śāta: m. (fr. √2. śad) falling out or decaying (of nails , hair &c )

jagataḥ (gen. sg.): n. n. that which moves or is alive ; the world ;

prabhava-vyayau (acc. dual): origin and passing

prabhava: m. production , source , origin , cause of existence

pra- √ bhū: to come forth , spring up , arise or originate from (abl.) , appear , become visible , happen , occur

vyaya: m. disappearance , decay , ruin , loss ; mfn (fr. 3. vi + √5. i) passing away

vicinvan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. vi- √ ci : 1. (not always separable from 2.) to segregate , select , pick out , cull ; to divide , part (hair) ; 2. to discern , distinguish ; to make anything discernible or clear , cause to appear , illumine ; to search through , investigate , inspect , examine ; to look for , long for , strive after

manasaḥ (gen. sg.): n. mind

ca: and

sthiti-mārgam (acc. sg. m.): path of upright standing

sthiti: f. standing upright or firmly , not falling ; standing , staying , remaining , abiding ; constancy , perseverance ; standing still , stopping , halting

mārga: m. path, road, way

ālalambe = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. ā- √ lamb: to hang from ; to lay hold of , seize , cling to; to rest or lean upon ; to take up ; to bring near ; to get ; to give one's self up to


端坐正思惟
觀察諸生死 起滅無常變

BUDDHACARITA 5.8: Desiring Separateness & Getting Close to the Root

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

manasā ca viviktatām-abhīpsuḥ suhdas-tān-anuyāyino nivārya |

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abhitaś-cala-cāru-parṇavatyā vijane mūlam-upeyivān sa jaṁbvāḥ || 5.8

5.8

And desiring to be alone with his thoughts,

He fended away those amicable hangers on

And drew close to the root of a solitary rose-apple tree

Whose abundant plumage fluttered agreeably all around.

COMMENT:

One of the question marks left hanging over the translation of Aśvaghoṣa's other epic poem, Saundara-nanda, concerns the meaning of viveka in Aśvaghoṣa's descripton of the first stage of sitting-meditation as viveka-jaṃ which means either “born of discrimination” (as per EHJ and as per my original 4-line translation of February 2010) or “born of solitude” (as per my more recent 2-line translation):

Distanced from desires and tainted things, containing ideas and containing thoughts, / Born of solitude (viveka-jaṃ) and possessed of joy and ease, is the first stage of meditation, which he then entered. // SN17.42 //

The compound viveka-jaṁ re-appears in three verses time in BC5.11, but the related term that appears in the 1^st pāda of today's verse is vivikta-tām.

Both viveka and vivikta are derived from the root vi-√vic which the dictionary gives as 1. to sift (esp. grain by tossing or blowing), divide asunder, separate from; 2. to distinguish , discern , discriminate; to decide (a question).

With vivikta the former sense of physical separation seems to be somewhat to the fore. Thus the dictionary gives vivikta as 1. separated, kept apart , distinguished , discriminated; 2. isolated, alone, solitary; 3. clear, distinct. And in compounds such as vivikta-ga (going to a lonely place, seeking solitude) and vivikta-tva (solitude), vivikta-sevin (resorting to or seeking solitude), and viviktāsana (sitting at a sequestered place), vivikta suggests solitude rather than clarity, i.e. physical separateness rather than things being clearly separated in one's mind. In compounds such as vivikta-cetas (pure-minded) and vivikta-tarka (clear in reasoning), however, it is true that vivikta suggests mental clarity rather than physical solitude.

With viveka the sense of mental discrimination or discernment seems, in general usage, to be to the fore. Hence viveka-ja (produced or arising from discrimination) is one of many viveka- compounds for which the dictionary gives viveka as “discrimination.” Other examples are viveka-jña (skilled in discrimination); viveka-jñāna (knowledge arising from discrimination); viveka-dṛśvan (one who sees or is conversant with true knowledge); viveka-bhraṣṭa (one who has lost the faculty of discrimination, foolish); viveka-vat (possessing discrimination, judicious), and so on. There is at least one nice counter-example, however, in which viveka expresses distinctly physical separateness, and that is the compound viveka-rahita, which means 1. not separated (as a description of breasts) and 2. wanting discernment.

We will return in BC5.11 to discuss what Aśvaghoṣa intended by viveka-jam – “born of physical solitude” or “born of mental discrimination” or, what may be more likely, given Aśvaghoṣa's general love of double-meanings, neither exclusively one nor the other. "Born of separateness"?

Further ambiguity in the 1^st pāda attaches to manasā, which can mean 1. mentally, with one's mind; 2. in one's mind, in one's thoughts; 3. with all one's heart and mind. So manasā viviktatām abhīpsuḥ might be translated “Desiring separateness with all his heart...”

All things considered, however, for the purposes of the present verse, I think that manasā viviktatām is close to what we express in English as “being alone with one's thoughts.” Hence, though he avoided the idiom, EBC described the prince as “desiring to become perfectly lonely in his thoughts.” EHJ went with “desiring to reach perfect clearness with his mind” and PO followed suit with “wishing to reach some clarity in his own mind.”

If we continue digging for the earthy sub-text which seems to run through the present series of verses, the phrase mūlam-upeyivān sa (he drew near to the root) in the 4th pāda may be significant, in the sense that mūlam, the root, is the part of tree via which the tree draws nourishment from the earth, and in the sense that upeyivān sa, he drew near, hints at the proximity of the nugget at the end of this particular vein we have been digging in the earth. That denouement comes in tomorrow's verse in the form of the words niṣasāda bhuvi, “he sat on the ground” or “he sat in earth.” EBC, EHJ, and PO all translated niṣasāda as “he sat down,” but as I shall argue tomorrow, the “down” might be superfluous.

Today when I stepped out of the hut where I sit at the bottom of the field, touching the earth through my feet and through the end of a home-made hazel thumbstick, I surprised myself by how up I was. I hadn't noticed while I was sitting how up I was. But when I stepped into the fresh air, surrounded on all sides by natural stuff growing up from the earth, I suddenly noticed how remarkably I was going up with all that other natural stuff.

Such is the reward for setting aside time for sitting, four times every day, for 30 years and counting, and also the reward for 20 years of struggling to work out what the hell FM Alexander was going on about. But the upwardness I have just described does not come from Alexander work, any more than it comes from sitting-meditation. It comes from the ground, the soil, the land, the earth. 

So far, the flag counter tells me, 124 different countries have visited this site – 124 different countries, but one earth.

VOCABULARY

manasā: ind. (inst.) in the mind ; in thought or imagination ; with all the heart , willingly

ca: and

viviktatām (acc. sg.): f. separation , isolation ; f. clearness , purity ; being well , good health ; distinction , discrimination ; an empty or free place , loneliness

abhīpsuḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (from Desid. abhy- √āp) longing for , desiring

abhy- √āp: to reach to , get , obtain

suhṛdaḥ = acc. pl. suhṛt: m. friend

tān (acc. pl. m.): those

anuyāyinaḥ (acc. pl. m.): mfn. going after ; a follower , a dependant , attendant ; following

nivārya = abs. causative ni- √ vṛ: to hold back from (abl. , rarely acc.) , prohibit , hinder , stop , prevent , withhold , suppress , forbid

abhitaḥ: ind. near , in the proximity or presence of (gen.); on all sides , everywhere , about , round

cala-cāru-parṇavatyāḥ (gen. sg. f.): with abundant leaves trembling agreeably

cala: mfn. moving , trembling , shaking , loose

cāru: mfn. agreeable; pleasing , lovely , beautiful

parṇa-vat: mfn. abounding in leaves , leafy

parṇa: n. a feather ; a leaf (regarded as the plumage of a tree)

vijane (loc. sg.): n. a deserted or solitary place

mūlam (acc. sg.): n. a root

upeyivān = nom. sg. m. perfect part upa- √i: to go or come or step near , approach , betake one's self to , arrive at , meet with , turn towards ; near to , at , on , upon ; to join (in singing)

upa-: ind. (a preposition or prefix to verbs and nouns , expressing) towards , near to (opposed to apa , away) , by the side of , with , together with , under , down

sa (nom. sg. m.): he

jaṁbvāḥ = gen. sg. jambu: f. the rose apple tree (Eugenia Jambolana or another species)

安慰諸人衆 各令隨處坐

自蔭閻浮樹 

BUDDHACARITA 5.7: Contacting Harsh Reality

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

avatīrya tatas-turaṅga-pṣṭhāc-chanakair-gāṁ vyacarac-chucā parītaḥ |

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jagato janana-vyayaṁ vicinvan kpaṇaṁ khalv-idam-ityuvāca cārtaḥ || 5.7

5.7

Then, getting down off the back of his fleet-footed steed,

He slowly moved over the ground, overtaken by sorrow.

And as he reflected on how life comes into existence and perishes,

Hurting, he uttered, “How pitiful this is.”

COMMENT:

What is causing the prince to be artaḥ, hurting, or unhappy? And what is causing the prince to experience the world as kṛpaṇam (from the same root as kṛpām in yesterday's verse), pitiable, miserable, or wretched?

Is it the virtue of pity or compassion that causes him to see the world as pitiful?

Or is it the fault of optimistic idealism that causes the prince (like an evangelical Christian) to disdain this world as miserable and wretched (unlike the kingdom of Heaven which awaits true believers in future). 

 Again, is it underlying physical faults in the wiring of the brain, centred on a dysfunctional vestibular system, which give rise to the kind of habits of thought and movement which are characteristic of pessimistic, depressive determinism?

Expressing not any kind of view but his own realization of freedom from both kinds of fault, the Chinese Zen Master Gensa Shibi famously said that the whole world in ten directions is one bright pearl.

My first stab at translating the 4^th pāda was:

He uttered unhappily, “How wretched this world is.”

On the basis of that translation, I prepared a comment contrasting the views of the idealistic young Indian prince who had his head in the clouds and the Chinese Zen Master who had his heels on the ground. I opined that just because the Buddha-to-be, in the process of establishing the bodhi-mind, said that this world is a wretched place, does not make that view true.

If we look for corroboration of the view that the world is wretched in the words of the enlightened Buddha, it is true, we find no corroboration of that view, but only falsification of it. Thus, the Buddha tells Nanda, before Nanda himself has realized this world as not necessarily a miserable place:

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

And then again the Buddha affirms, after Nanda has realized for himself that this world is not necessarily a miserable place:

Struck by calamity, stung to do something to combat suffering, the world exhausts itself with work like ploughing; / And yet it is ceaselessly re-visited by that suffering, to which, using what you know, you today have put an end. // SN18.37 // People in the world are impelled ever forward by thinking 'There might be for me no hardship, just happiness....' / And yet the world does not know a means whereby that happiness might come to be -- that rarely attained happiness which you today have properly realized." // SN18.38 //

And Nanda replies:

For now that I have tasted this pure, peaceful happiness, my mind no longer hankers after happiness born of desires -- /Just as the costliest earthly fare cannot entice a god who has supped the heavenly nectar. // SN18.44 // Alas, the world has its eyes closed by blind unconsciousness; it does not see utmost happiness in a different robe. / Flinging away lasting inner happiness, it exhausts itself so, in pursuit of sensual happiness. // 18.45 // For just as a fool, having made it to a jewel mine, might leave the jewels and carry off inferior crystals, / So would one reject the highest happiness of full awakening and struggle to gain sensual gratification. // SN18.46 //

On second thoughts, however, is the prince necessarily saying, on the basis of idealism or pessimism, that this world is a wretched or miserable place?

EBC's original translation of kṛpaṇaṁ khalv-idam, mirroring the ambiguity of the original, is "this is indeed pitiable." EHJ translated less ambiguously "How wretched this is." And PO went even further in that direction with "How wretched, indeed, is this world!" If I had carried on in the same vein with He uttered unhappily, “How wretched this world is," that might have been another case of send three and fourpence, we are going to a dance.

Is it possible, on second thoughts, that while the prince on the surface is expressing an immature view, what he is really doing is presaging the painful realization of a buddha that, because of all-pervading impermanence (aka the 2^nd law of thermodynamics), the living world is full of things to be pitied, or creatures who are deserving of compassion?

In that case, although on the surface the prince and Gensa appear to be on totally different pages, they might, if we follow the sub-text, be singing from the same hymn sheet – which is to say that the world might be one bright pearl which is full of creatures who deserve to be pitied.

In that case, again, though on the surface the prince sounded to me, on first reading, like he was expressing the unhappy emotional aversion of the idealist to harsh reality, the hidden subtext might be that the prince is sucking up harsh reality and savouring the painful taste of it – somewhat in the manner of George Soros learning from a costly misreading of the mind of the financial markets.

In that case, again, if we are digging for subtext, the real subtext, in today's verse as in previous verses and as in tomorrow's verse, is all about contacting the earth. Hence śanakair-gāṁ vyacarat, “he slowly moved over the ground” – like a baby on its tummy on the floor exploring those all-important developmental movements which will form the basis for all his later unconscious actions within the earth's gravitational field.

If the conclusion of yesterday's comment recognized the fault of failing to recognize how mental is the practice of working on the self (aka 修行 or bhāvana), my conclusion today is to recognize the fault of failing to recognize how physical that work is – how connected to movement, fast and slow, and to stillness, on the ground, on the dirty soil, on the fertile land, on the earth.

And who is to blame for those failures to recognize what work on the self truly entails, both physically and mentally, utilizing both the physical action of movement (or non-movement) and the mental effort of thinking (but not thinking as generally understood)? Generally I blame the self and blame the other. But the Buddha's teaching might be to put the blame on ignorance.

Digging deeper, the Buddha's teaching might be to see even ignorance as part of harsh reality, and not to shrink from the experience of being hurt by it. Those impure,  earthy grounds – and not some twopenny-halfpenny pie-in-the-sky vegan ideology – might be the grounds on which the Buddha developed compassion, and the grounds on which he spoke of developing compassion. 

On these grounds, towards all beings, it is kindness and compassion / Not hatred or cruelty, that you should opt for. // SN15.17//

VOCABULARY

avatīrya = abs. ava- √ tṝ: to alight from

tataḥ: (used for the abl. of tád) thence, from that place

turaṅga-pṛṣṭhāt (abl. sg.): from the horse's back

turaṅga: m. " going quickly " , a horse

pṛṣṭha: n. the back (as the prominent part of an animal) , the hinder part or rear of anything

śanakaiḥ: ind. (dimin. of śanais) quietly , softly , gently , by degrees , in every case that arises , with alternations , alternately

gām (acc. sg.): f. the ground, earth

vyacarat = 3rd pers. sg. imperfect vi- √ car: to move in different directions , spread , expand , be diffused ; to rove , ramble about or through , traverse , pervade ; to sally forth , march against , make an attack or assault ; to wander from the right path , go astray , be dissolute ; to commit a mistake or blunder (with words) ; to graze upon , feed upon (a pasture)

kṣudhā [old Nepalese manuscript] = inst. sg. kṣudh: f. hunger

śucā = inst. sg. śuc: f. (also pl.) pain , sorrow , grief or regret

parītaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. surrounded , encompassed , filled , taken possession of , seized (with instr. or in comp.)

jagataḥ (gen. sg.): n. that which moves or is alive , men and animals , animals as opposed to men , men; n. the world

janana-vyayam (acc. sg.): appearance and disappearance; arising and vanishing; birth and decay

janana: n. birth , coming into existence ; n. production , causation

vyaya: m. disappearance , decay , ruin , loss

vicinvan = nom. sg. m. pres. part. vi- √ ci : to discern , distinguish ; to make anything discernible or clear , cause to appear , illumine ; to search through , investigate , inspect , examine ; to look for , long for , strive after

kṛpaṇam (nom. sg. n.): mfn. inclined to grieve , pitiable , miserable , poor , wretched , feeble; low, vile

kṛp: to mourn , long for (acc.) ; to lament , implore ; to mourn , grieve , lament; to pity

khalu: ind. (as a particle of asseveration) indeed , verily , certainly , truly ; in later Sanskrit khalu frequently does little more than lay stress on the word by which it is preceded , and is sometimes merely expletive

idam (nom. sg. n.): this

iti: “...,” thus

uvāca = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. vac: to speak , say , tell , utter , announce , declare , mention , proclaim

ca: and

ārtaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. fallen into (misfortune) , struck by calamity , afflicted , pained , disturbed; injured; oppressed , suffering , sick , unhappy

慨然興長歎 降身委地坐
觀察此衆苦 思惟生滅法
嗚呼諸世間 愚癡莫能覺

BUDDHACARITA 5.6: Extreme Compassion

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

kṣataḥ puruṣāṁś-ca vīkṣamāṇaḥ pavanārkāṁśu-rajo-vibhinna-varṇān |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

vahana-klama-viklavāṁś-ca dhuryān paramāryaḥ paramāṁ kpāṁ cakāra || 5.6

5.6

Again, seeing the men ploughing,

Their complexions riven by the wind, the sun's rays and the dust,

And seeing the oxen unsteady from the exhaustion of drawing,

The most noble one felt extreme compassion.

COMMENT:

In today's verse the prince is desribed as having (lit. doing) paramāṁ kṛpāṁ, extreme/supreme/best/great/highest compassion, or deepest pity. Both EBC and EHJ translated paramāṁ kṛpāṁ as "extreme compassion." Possibly recognizing, with justification, that in the Buddha's teaching extreme behaviour generally carries a negative connotation, PO translated paramāṁ kṛpāṁ as "great compassion." But, in light of how I read yesterday's verse, I think a somewhat negative connotation may have been hinted at, at least below the surface.

Again, it may be instructive to compare this description of the unenlightened prince's compassion with the description in Saundara-nanda of the compassion of the enlightened Buddha.

Awake to the one great ageless purpose, and universal in his compassion (anukampayā vibhuḥ), / He proceeded, in order to display the eternal deathless nectar, to the city sustained by the waters of the Varaṇā and the Asī – to Vārāṇasī. // SN3.10 //

Though I translated anukampayā (inst. f.) vibhuḥ (nom. sg. m.) as “universal in his compassion," the phrase might have been better and more literally translated as "firm with compassion," or "mighty with compassion" or "effective, with compassion." Vibhu is given in the dictionary as 1. being everywhere, far-extending, all-pervading, omnipresent, eternal; 2 abundant, plentiful 3. mighty, powerful, excellent, great, strong, effective, able to or capable of; 4 firm, solid, hard.

The recognition that Aśvaghoṣa has in the back of his mind, then, might be that extreme compassion, though it played its part in nobly motivating the noble prince, is generally likely to be ineffective and not to make for firmness or solidity but rather to make for undue nervous excitement, associated with fragility. Whereas the compassion of the Buddha was associated not with extremity and fragility but rather with 1. breadth, 2. abundance, 3. effectiveness, and 4. firmness.

Having slept on the above translation and comment, I woke up at 2.30 this morning (1.30 UK time) and spent several hours staring into darkness and listening to the BBC World Service, before finally switching off the radio and digging for what it was incumbent on me to dig for.

It finally occurred to me that what I ought to focus the attention of self and others towards is neither the extreme compassion of the young idealist nor the supreme compassion which the Buddha demonstrates in Aśvaghoṣa's idealized portrayal of him.

In several places in Shobogenzo Dogen speaks in summary of four stages – 発心 (Jap: HOSSHIN), establishment/awakening of the mind; 修行( Jap: SHUGYO), training, practice, cultivation, work on the self; 菩提 (Jap: BODAI), bodhi, enlightenment; 涅槃 (Jap: NEHAN), nirvāna, extinction, peace, happiness.

The compassion that Aśvaghoṣa is now describing arising in the prince belongs to the first of these four stages. It is something noble and at the same time, as I see it, something dangerous and fragile, associated with undue nervous excitement. As such it is a compassion to be treated with a certain degree of wariness or scepticism. The stout compassion of the enlightened Buddha, at the other extreme, belongs to the third and fourth of Dogen's four stages: it might be something for those of us who are not enlightened to believe in, if we are inclined to believe.

But my sense as the birds started to chirrup this morning was that something in the way Aśvaghoṣa is telling the prince's story, with its emphasis on the earth and cultivation thereof, is indirectly orienting my mind back to the second stage, causing me to ask afresh, and dig deeper, for the meaning of what the Buddha called bhāvana – i.e., meditation, or mental development, or cultivation.

At the second stage of 修行, at the hyper-practical stage of training, or working on the self, what might be the meaning of paramāṁ kṛpāṁ, the best or most practical kind of compassion?

In Saundara-nanda Canto 15, the Buddha tells Nanda:

If hatred or cruelty should stir up your mind, / Let it be charmed by their opposite, as turbid water is by a jewel. // SN15.12 // Know their opposite to be kindness and compassion (maitrī kāruṇyam); / For this opposition is forever like brightness and darkness. // 15.13 // He in whom wrongdoing has been given up and yet hatred carries on, / Hits himself with dust like an elephant after a good bath. // 15.14 // Upon mortal beings who are pained by sickness, dying, aging, and the rest, / What noble person with human warmth (sa-ghṛṇah) would lay the utmost pain? // 15.15 // Again, a tainted mind here and now may or may not trouble the other; / But instantly burned up in this moment is the mind of the man of tainted consciousness himself. // 15.16 // On this basis, towards all beings, it is kindness and compassion (maitrīṃ kāruṇyam-eva ca), / Not hatred or cruelty, that you should opt for. // 15.17 // For whatever a human being continually thinks, / In that direction, through habit, the mind of this person veers. // SN15.18 //

When I reflect on my own habits of thought in light of this teaching, I cannot help but be aware of a tendency to blame both self and others, but primarily myself.

To inhibit that tendency to blame, which might mean digging deep for whatever idea or delusory desire lies beneath the tendency, certainly falls within the boundary of what FM Alexander called "working on the self." It might also be what Dogen meant by 修行 (SHUGYO). 

The online dictionary gives 修行 as 1: (Buddhist term) ascetic practices; 2: training; practice; discipline; study. It may well be that, being ineffably slow on the uptake, I have continued to harbour a misconception of 修行 that was biased towards the former sense of hard physical practice. I have been in Alexander work for nearly 20 years now. But for more than 20 years before that, in rugby training, karate training, and Zen training, I relied on a conception of training that was much more physical than mental. And I think this is why I have struggled to make a connection between 修行 (SHUGYO), which I have conceived of as primarily physical training,  and bhāvana which seems to mean something along the lines of meditation in the sense of mental development or cultivation of one's mind. 

My tentative conclusion, then, is that what the Buddha called bhāvana, what Dogen called 修行 (SHUGYO), and what FM Alexander called working on the self, must be in essence one and the same thing – though so far, with truly blameworthy slowness on the uptake, I have failed to realize it as such. 

Speaking in my own mother tongue, FM Alexander called this work "the most mental thing there is" – which was quite something coming from someone who claimed that his work was based entirely on the principle of psycho-physical unity.

VOCABULARY

kṛṣataḥ = acc. pl. m. pres. part. kṛ: to plough

puruṣān (acc. pl.): m. men

ca: and

vīkṣamāṇaḥ = nom. sg. m. pres. part. vi- √īkṣ: to look at , see , behold ; to consider , observe

pavanārkāṁśu-rajo-vibhinna-varṇān (acc. pl. m.): complexion made craggy by wind, the sun's rays and dust

pavana: m. " purifier " , wind or the god of wind , breeze , air

arka: m. the sun

aṁśu: m. a filament (especially of the soma plant); a ray , sunbeam

rajas: n. impurity , dirt , dust

vibhinna: mfn. split or broken in two &c; cleft (said of the temples of an elephant which exude during rut) ; broken, destroyed

varṇa: m. outward appearance , exterior , form , figure , shape , colour ; colour of the face , (esp.) good colour or complexion

vahana-klama-viklavān (acc. pl. m.): bewildered by exhaustion from traction

vahana: n. the act of bearing , carrying , conveying , bringing

klama: m. fatigue , exhaustion , languor , weariness

viklava: mfn. overcome with fear or agitation , confused , perplexed , bewildered , alarmed , distressed ; (ifc.) disgusted with , averse from ; unsteady (as gait) ; exhausted

vi- √klav: to become agitated or confused

ca: and

dhuryān (acc. pl.): m. 'fit to be harnessed'; beast of burden , horse , bullock &c

paramāryaḥ (nom. sg. m.): the most excellent of noble ones

parama: mfn. chief, highest ; best , most excellent , worst (°meṇa cetasā , with all the heart ; °ma-kaṇṭhena , " with all the throat " , roaring , speaking aloud)

ārya: behaving like an Aryan , worthy of one , honourable , respectable , noble; excellent

paramām

kṛpām (acc. sg.): f. pity , tenderness , compassion

kṛp: to mourn , long for ; to lament ; to pity

cakāra = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. kṛ: to do, make

又見彼農夫 勤苦形枯悴
蓬髮而流汗 塵土坌其身
耕牛亦疲困 吐舌而急喘
太子性慈悲 極生憐愍心

BUDDHACARITA 5.5: Dangerous Compassion

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

hala-bhinna-vikīrṇa-śaṣpa-darbhāṁ hata-sūkṣma-krimi-kīṭa-jantu-kīrṇām |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

samavekṣya rasāṁ tathā-vidhāṁ tāṁ svajanasyeva vadhe bhśaṁ śuśoca || 5.5

5.5

As the ploughs tore and scattered tufts of young grass over the soil,

And littered the soil with dead worms, insects, and other little creatures,

He saw that soil like that,

And felt intense sorrow, as if at the killing of his own human relatives.

COMMENT:

Not only today's verse but the gist of the whole of Cantos 3, 4, and 5 of Buddha-carita are summarized in two verses of Saundara-nanda:

For he had seen for himself an old man, a sick man, and a corpse,

After which, as with a wounded mind he witnessed the unwitting world,

He was disgusted to the core (hṛdaya-gata-para-ghṛṇaḥ) and found no pleasure in objects

But wished totally to terminate the terror of being born and dying. // SN2.64 //

Having focused his agitated mind on the end of becoming,

He fled the king's palace, indifferent to the most beautiful of women sleeping there; /

Determined to go to the forest, he fled in the night,

Like a goose from a lake of ruined lotuses. // SN2.65 //

Today's verse, then, elaborates on what the prince witnessed, how his mind was wounded, and how his compassionate desire arose to terminate the terror of being born and dying.

The sense one gets from today's verse is how painfully impotent the prince's compassion was before he realized what he realized while sitting in lotus under the bodhi tree. In SN2.64, hṛdaya-gata-para-ghṛṇaḥ could equally be translated “he experienced utmost compassion in his heart” – ghṛṇaḥ (from the root √ghṛ, to shine or burn) means 1. a warm feeling towards others, compassion, tenderness, and 2. aversion, horror, disgust. In the context of the unenlightened prince finding no pleasure in objects, I think the sense of disgust was to the fore. 

The words Aśvaghoṣa uses to describe the compassion of the enlightened Buddha are less ambiguous: anukampā (from anu-√kamp, lit. to tremble along with, to feel compassion for); and kāruṇika (compassionate).

Awake to the one great ageless purpose, and universal in his compassion (anukampayā vibhuḥ), / He proceeded, in order to display the eternal deathless nectar, to the city sustained by the waters of the Varaṇā and the Asī – to Vārāṇasī. // SN3.10 //

Having instructed many people at Kāśi and at Gaya as also at Giri-vraja, / He made his way then to the city of his fathers, in his deeply compassionate (parama-kāruṇikaḥ) desire to include it. // SN3.15 //

Why is such a distinction worth making, between the kind of compassion that motivated the Buddha to seek enlightenment for the benefit of others, and the kind of compassion that he showed others after he was enlightened?

Certainly in a practical sphere like learning as a student teacher how to go about teaching the FM Alexander Technique, it is explicitly recognized that the compassionate desire to help one's pupil can be a dangeorous stimulus, if one fails to inhibit one's habitual responses to such a stimulus – because those responses are liable to be deluded, or tied up with faulty sensory appreciation.

Hence the wisdom of the old Japanese saying, "Don't give yourself a headache over somebody else's bad back."

VOCABULARY

hala-bhinna-vikīrṇa-śaṣpa-darbhām (acc. sg. f.): tufts of young grass torn and scattered by the plough

hala: mn. a plough

bhinna: mfn. split , broken , shattered , pierced , destroyed; divided into parts

vikīrṇa: mfn. scattered , thrown about , dispersed &c

śaṣpa: n. young or sprouting grass , any grass

darbha: m. a tuft or bunch of grass

hata-sūkṣma-krimi-kīṭa-jantu-kīrṇām (acc. sg. f.): strewn with slain little worms, insects, and [other] creatures

hata: mfn. struck , beaten , smitten , killed , slain , destroyed

sūkṣma: mfn. minute , small , fine , thin , narrow , short , feeble , trifling , insignificant , unimportant

krimi = kṛmi: m. a worm , insect ; an ant

kīṭa: m. a worm , insect

jantu: m. a child; a creature , living being; any animal of the lowest organisation , worms , insects

kīrṇā: mfn. ( √kṝ) scattered , thrown , cast; filled with; covered

samavekṣya = abs. sam-ava-√īkṣ: to look at , behold , observe , perceive , notice ; to reflect or ponder on , consider , mind , heed

rasām (acc. sg.): f. moisture , humidity ; a mythical stream supposed to flow round the earth and the atmosphere; the lower world , hell ; the earth , ground , soil

tathā-vidhām (acc. sg. f.): mfn. of such a sort or kind , being in such a condition or state

tām (acc. sg. f.): that

sva-janasya (gen. sg.): m. a man of one's own people , kinsman ; one's own people , own kindred

iva: like

vadhe (loc. sg.): m. the act of striking or killing , slaughter , murder , death , destruction

bhṛśam: ind. strongly , violently , vehemently , excessively , greatly , very much

śuśoca = 3^rd pers. sg. perf. śuc: to suffer violent heat or pain , be sorrowful or afflicted , grieve , mourn at or for (loc.)

出城遊園林 修路廣且平
樹木花果茂 心樂遂忘歸 

路傍見耕人 墾壤殺諸虫
其心生悲惻 痛踰刺貫心