BUDDHACARITA 5.78: Quickly & Boldly, Please (But Without Toxic Side-Effects)

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

tad-idaṁ parigamya dharma-yuktaṁ mama niryāṇam-ato jagadd-hitāya |

⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−

turagottama vega-vikramābhyāṁ prayatasv-ātma-hite jagadd-hite ca || 5.78

5.78

Fully appreciate, then, this act of mine, 

yoked to dharma, of getting out,

Proceeding from here, for the welfare of the world;

And exert yourself, O best of horses, 

with quick and bold steps,

For your own good and the good of the world.”

COMMENT:

I cannot get out of the nest of my habitual doing by doing this and that, however quickly and boldly I go about doing it. The real way out – not that I always, or often, take it – is practice of non-doing.

Thus, when we apply ourselves to fully appreciating today's verse, not only by using our top two inches but by proceeding from here, on what Dogen called 出身之活路 (SHUSSHIN NO KATSU-RO), "the vigorous road of getting the body out," there is much more to today's verse than initially meets the eye. 

There is more to today's verse than initially met my eye when I provisionally translated it in commenting on BC4.83. (So realize well that my departure from here is yoked to dharma for the welfare of the world / And exert yourself, O best of horses, with speed and prowess, for your own good and the good of the world //BC5.78//)

As I already observed yesterday, the closing words of today's verse, which are the closing words of encouragement that the prince says to his horse, represent a synthesis of the gist of BC5.76 (which suggests that turning to dharma is a solitary undertaking) and of BC5.77 (in which the prince reflects that we are all in the same boat).

This much is readily apparent. At the same time, since the prince is addressing a horse, and Aśvaghoṣa, whose name means “Horse Whisperer,” might see himself as a servant of the Buddha akin to a willing horse, the hidden sub-text of today's verse might be the author encouraging himself, along with any other horse-like servants of the Buddha who might be listening in, in the direction of 

(1) full appreciation of the act of getting out, starting from here; and 

(2) exerting oneself with quick and bold steps for the good of self and world – as opposed, for example, to reacting to one's own good intentions with impatient haste and blundering stupidity and thereby making a general mess (I know whereof I speak).

It has become the norm in England for the children of moneyed parents to take a gap year in in between school and university and do something for the good of the world (while possiblly enhancing their CV in the process), for example, by flying off to scrub the floors of some distant orphanage. But does any good ever really come of it? An old friend of mine spent some years working for Greenpeace, but he found the organization to be full of petty in-fighting. So what might it really mean to act for the benefit of the world? Signing up to some apparently worthy organization has never seemed to me to be the answer – ever since I studied “Organizational Effectiveness” at university. The organization, in my book, is not the basic unit of acting for the welfare of the world.

But neither does a robust individual necessarily have all the answers. 

I remember an episode from about 25 years ago, when I had finished asking my Zen teacher Gudo Nishijima questions on Shobogenzo and was about to leave his office, at which point he said, in English, “Please take care of yourself.” The context was that I was at a low ebb energetically. Ever the awkward customer, I replied very directly to his innocent “Please take care of yourself” with a stern “What do you mean?” Gudo said, “In Japan, we usually say o-karada o daijin ni.” “Yes” I persisted, “but what does that really mean?”

My intention was: You are supposed to be a bloody Zen master. I am here struggling. You ought to be able to give me some practical guidance as to how to get myself going in the right direction.

A couple of days later I received a parcel in the post from Isetan department store, containing a fleece blanket and a box containing a selection of cheeses. The gift was appreciated, and there was wisdom in it, inasfar as sleeping well and eating well are always a help.

But what I was really crying out for, like a fish in a dwindling pond, was more practical instruction on how to sit well. And for all that was good and generous about Gudo, that was the one thing his teaching lacked – the most important thing.

That is why, five years later, when I finally encountered the teaching of FM Alexander, I embraced it (or maybe more accurately, I grabbed for it) with such great enthusiasm.

Sitting well, I venture to submit, on the basis of Alexander work, is a not so much a matter of learning what to do, but rather a matter of learning what NOT to do, and to that end what not to think, but what to allow. This requires a quickening of consciousness and the right kind of vikrama (whose meanings include boldness and initiative as well as capability, skill, prowess), in the absence of which I easily fall back into my habitual patterns of doing.

Sitting well, in short, is non-doing. Sitting badly, according to the lowly-evolved end-gaining principle, brings into play faulty sensory appreciation, so that even if the end is consistently gained (e.g. sitting in full lotus for five hours a day, or sitting in lotus for three hours a day and translating Shobogenzo for five hours a day), that effort of doing is liable over the long run to produce undesirable side effects – side effects that are detrimental to the welfare of the practitioner and detrimental to the welfare of the world.

Thus, what has been foremost in my mind for the past five years has been NOT to repeat the mistakes that I made, in my attitude to sitting and in my attitude to translating, during the Shobogenzo translation process. Those efforts were characterized not by quickness of consciousness (at least not on my part), but rather by impetuous haste, and (in spite of a fondness for Dogen's phrase 出身之活路) by very limited appreciation of what it really means to get the body out.

If, in my eagerness not to repeat the mistake of impetuous haste, I am failing to manifest sufficient quickness or boldness of step, is that not what human beings always do in our unenlightened unconsciousness – veering from one side of the great broad mid-way path to the other? 

If we take a wide overview of what it might mean to work for the good of the world, it is hard to think of any way in which this blue planet could be made to seem, to a spaceman, any more beautiful than it is. But it might be within our power as human beings to make planet earth seem less beautiful than it presently it, for example, by accidentally turning the earth – through the side-effects of our unconscious end-gaining – into another red planet.

VOCABULARY

tad: ind. therefore

idam (acc. sg. n.) this

parigamya = abs. pari- √ gam: to go round or about or through ; to come to any state or condition , get , attain (acc.)

dharma-yuktam (acc. sg. n.): connected with dharma

yukta: mfn. yoked to ; set to work , made use of , employed , occupied with , engaged in , intent upon (instr. loc. or comp.) ; furnished or endowed or filled or supplied or provided with , accompanied by , possessed of (instr. or comp.); (ifc.) connected with , concerning

mama (gen. sg.): my

niryāṇam (acc. sg.): n. going forth or out ; departure

ataḥ: ind. from this

jagadd-hitāya (dat. sg.): for the welfare of the world

hita: n. (sg. or pl.) anything useful or salutary or suitable or proper , benefit , advantage , profit , service , good , welfare , good advice

turagottama (voc. sg.): O best of horses

turaga: m. " going quickly " , a horse

uttama: mfn. uppermost, highest, best

vega-vikramābhyām (abl./inst. dual): with speed and prowess

vega: m. impetuosity , vehemence , haste , speed , rapidity , quickness , velocity

vikrama: m. a step , stride , pace ; going , proceeding , walking , motion , gait ; valour , courage , heroism , power , strength (vikramaṁ- √kṛ , to display prowess , use one's strength)

prayatasva = 2^nd pers. sg. imperative pra- √ yat: to be active or effective ; to strive , endeavour , exert one's self , devote or apply one's self to (loc.

ātma-hite (loc. sg.): for your own good/welfare

jagadd-hite (loc. sg.): for the welfare/good of the world

ca: and

吾今欲出遊 爲度苦衆生
汝今欲自利 兼濟諸群萌
宜當竭其力 長驅勿疲惓