−⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−
kā-cid-ājñāpayantīva
provācārdrānulepanā |
⏑⏑−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−
iha
bhaktiṁ kuruṣveti hastaṁ saṁśliṣya lipsayā || 4.32
4.32
As if she were giving
an order,
One girl who was moist
with body oils insisted:
“Perform the act of
devotion here!”
As – wanting it –
she closely attached herself to a hand.
COMMENT:
In the 1st line,
ājñāpayantī (“ordering”) is a causative form of ā-√jñā
(“to understand, notice, realize”), and is related to the noun
ā-jñā, which the dictionary gives as 1. order , command; and 2.
authority , unlimited power. Ānandajoti Bhikku informed me, from
his familiarity with its equivalent in the Pali suttas, that ā-√jñā means
deep knowledge, or knowledge of final liberation. The final canto of
Saundara-nanda is titled, ājñā-vyākaraṇaḥ, which I
tentatively translated as “Knowing Affirmation.”
The ostensible meaning
of ājñāpayantīva, then, is “as if giving an order” or
“bossily,” but I think the hidden meaning that Aśvaghoṣa
intended to convey by ājñāpayantīva, has nothing to do with
bossing others about. It might have to do with obeying or conveying
the Buddha's commandment which, in the first instance, is not to do the
wrong thing. Equally, it might be related to the preventive process
that FM Alexander called ordering, using words like “Let” and
“Allow” as a means of directing one's own energy – causing
one's energy definitely not to flow there but rather allowing it to
flow where nature intended it to flow.
In the 2nd
line, by describing the woman in today's verse as “moist with body
oils,” Aśvaghoṣa might be intending to give a concrete
indication (at the 2nd of Gudo Nishijima's “four
phases”), of the sparkling health of a woman whose autonomic
nervous system is balanced.
In the 3rd
line, bhakti means (1) a line or a streak, like the lines and streaks
which Sundarī painted on herself in the 4th Canto of
Saundara-nanda, and (2) devotion. In light of this ambiguity, if the
ostensible meaning of today's verse is paraphrased in BBC Radio 4
English, iha bhaktiṁ kuruṣva could be translated either as “Paint
a line here, on my make-up,” or as “Have sex with me (= perform
the act of devotion) right here.”
So either:
One girl, her body moist with unguents, bossily insisted, “Make a line here in my make-up,” as – full of desire for sex – she clasped his hand.
Or:
One girl, her body moist with oils, bossily insisted, “Fuck me right here,” as – full of desire for sex – she clasped his hand.
One girl, her body moist with oils, bossily insisted, “Fuck me right here,” as – full of desire for sex – she clasped his hand.
If we follow the hidden
meaning of ājñāpayanti, however, performance of the/an act of
devotion obviously means something very different. If devotion means
devotion to the principle of not doing wrong, it might mean playing
Marjory Barlow's game of lying down on one's back and being clear in one's decision NOT to move a leg, in order to be free to move it.
Equally it might mean a prostration, or an hour or half an hour intelligently spent sitting in
lotus.
For the 4th pāda, the
old Nepalese manuscript has hasta-saṁśliṣya-lipsayā. EH
Johnston amended this, based on his own conjecture, to
hasta-saṁśleṣa-lipsayā (“in the hope of winning the touch of
his hand”). But I have followed EB Cowell's text which has hastaṁ
saṁśliṣya lipsayā.
In EHJ's reading, the
object that the woman wants to get is hasta-saṁśleṣa, “close
contact with [his] hand.” With the latter reading (which is as per
the old Nepalese manuscript before the probable disappearance of
one dot), what the woman wants to get is not specified. Ostensibly,
what she desires is sex. But I think Aśvaghoṣa's real intention is
to describe a practitioner who wants to get what Zen practitioners of
the past famously wanted to get – namely, it.
EBC understood hastaṁ
saṁśliṣya lipsayā to mean “eagerly clasping his hand.”
Though the apparent meaning of hastaṁ (or hasta) is thus “his
hand,” there is originally no “his” – the owner of the hand
in question, though it is ostensibly the prince, is not specified.
What hidden meaning,
then, might Aśvaghoṣa have implied by hastaṁ
saṁ-√śliṣ, “to attach oneself to a hand”?
My first thought
relates to a hymn that I sang many times in my youth, usually in the
irreligious, beer-besotted context of watching Wales play rugby:
Guide me O thy great
redeemer,
Pilgrim through this
barren land.
I am weak but thou art
mighty –
Hold me in thy powerful
hand....
But, on second
thoughts, Aśvaghoṣa is more likely to have had in mind another
kind of metaphorical hand, such as the one discussed by the Buddha in
Saundara-nanda canto 12:
And so I call this confidence the Hand, because it is this confidence, above all, / That grasps true dharma, as a hand naturally takes a gift. // SN12.36 //
This being so, I have found it
difficult in the 4th pāda to find a translation that
conveys both the overt sexual meaning of clasping a prospective lover's hand, and the hidden non-sexual
meaning of putting oneself in the assured hand of a good teacher or true process.
In the end, when
teachers say that one has really got to want it, wanting it means
wanting what?
I find it easier to
answer the question for my own satisfaction in the negative. I don't
always know what I do want. Sometimes I want nothing more than a
bacon and egg sandwich and a cup of hot coffee. Sometimes solitude
and fresh air. Often the absence of noise.
What has become more clear
and more constant over the years is what I don't want. I don't want
to pull myself down while deluding myself that I am directing myself
up. I don't want to delude myself that I am “letting nature work,”
when in fact I am holding my breath. I don't want to go into battle
with the kind of bloke that Jordan calls “a buddy fucker,” and
certainly don't want to go into battle as a buddy fucker. I don't
want to preach anything that I don't practise. The world of Buddhism
and Buddhist studies is full of hypocrisy. I don't want to be part of that problem. Or if I already am, I don't want to make it worse.
A couple of days ago I
read the first few pages (a sample on a Kindle I got for my birthday)
of a book by Charles Allen on King Aśoka. Reading about the
destruction of the great monastic libraries in India which doubtless
contained pristine copies, if not the originals, of Aśvaghoṣa's
writing, something in me would like to help the wheel of karma turn
by showing some angry intolerance right back towards Islaamic
intolerance. Is there any mullah out there, I wonder, who would like
to apologize to us on behalf of his religion for the missing 14
chapters of Buddha-carita?
If I inhibit my own
instinctual responses, however, so that reason might intervene, I see
with renewed clarity that my job is not to stiffen my neck (via the
mirror principle) against Islaamic and other religious intolerance.
My job – the thing I really ought to want – is to allow Aśvaghoṣa
to wield his weapon of choice, against hypocrisy and against
intolerance. And that weapon of choice is irony.
I repeat: Aśvaghoṣa weapon of choice, against hypocrisy and against intolerance, is irony. Thus have I decreed. And to any sanctimonious Buddhist so-and-so, or view-laden Buddhist scholar, who doubts my decree, I can only say, in all humility, "Death to the infidel!"
VOCABULARY
kā-cid (nom. sg. f.):
somebody; one of the women
ājñāpayantī = 3rd
pers. sg. nom. sg. f. pres. part. causative ā- √ jñā: to order
, command , direct ; to assure
iva: like, as if
provāca = 3rd
pers. sg. perf. pra- √ vac: to proclaim , announce , praise ,
commend , mention , teach , impart , explain ; to speak , say , tell
(with acc. , rarely dat. of person , and acc. of thing)
ārdrānulepanā (nom.
sg. f.): moist with body-oils
ārdra: ( √ard, to
dissolve) wet , moist , damp ; fresh , not dry , succulent , green
(as a plant) , living ; soft , tender , full of feeling , warm ;
loose, flacid ; n. fresh ginger ; n. dampness , moisture
anulepana: n. anointing
the body: unguent so used ; oily or emollient application
anulepa: m. unction ,
anointing , bedaubing
lepana: n. the act of
smearing , anointing , plastering , spreading on ; ointment , plaster
, mortar (ifc. = smeared or plastered with) ; flesh, meat ; m.
olibanum , incense
iha: ind. in this place
, here ; in this world
bhaktim (acc. sg.): f.
distribution , partition , separation; division by streaks or lines ;
a streak , line , variegated decoration; f. attachment , devotion ,
fondness for , devotion to (with loc. , gen. or ifc.) , trust ,
homage , worship , piety , faith or love or devotion (as a religious
principle or means of salvation , together with karman , " works
" , and jñāna , " spiritual knowledge ")
kuruṣva = 2nd
pers. sg. imperative kṛ: to do, make
iti: “...,” thus
hastam (acc. sg.): m.
the hand (ifc. = " holding in or by the hand " ; haste √
kṛ [as two words] , " to take into the hand " , "
get possession of " ; haste- √ kṛ [as a comp.] , " to
take by the hand , marry " ; śatru-hastaṁ √ gam , " to
fall into the hand of the enemy ")
saṁśliṣya = abs.
saṁ- √ śliṣ: to stick or attach one's self to (acc.) ; to
clasp , embrace ; to bring into close contact or immediate connection
with (instr.)
√ śliṣ: to adhere
, attach , cling to ; to clasp , embrace ; to unite , join (trans. or
intrans.)
lipsayā (inst. sg.):
f. (fr. desid. labh) the desire to gain , wish to acquire or obtain ,
longing for (loc. or comp.)
labh: to take , seize ,
catch ; catch sight of , meet with , find ; to gain possession of
, obtain , receive , conceive , get , receive ; to gain the power of
(doing anything) , succeed in , be permitted or allowed to ; to
perceive , know , understand , learn , find out
[EHJ:]
hasta-saṁśleṣa-lipsayā (inst. sg. f.): with the desire to
obtain connection via the hand / longing to win the touch of his hand
saṁśleṣa: m.
junction , union , connection , close contact with (instr. or comp.)
; embracing , an embrace
或以香塗身
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