⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Puṣpitāgrā
guru-parigha-kapāṭa-saṁvtā
yā na sukham-api dvi-radair-apāvriyante
|
⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
vrajati
npa-sute gata-svanās-tāḥ
svayam-abhavan
vivtāḥ puraḥ pratolyaḥ || 5.82
5.82
Primary pathways were blocked by
gates with heavy bars
[or by gates whose bars
were gurus],
– Gates not easily
opened, even by elephants –
But as the prince went
into movement,
Those major arteries,
noiselessly and spontaneously, became open.
COMMENT:
The
challenge in a verse like today's verse, as I read it, is to see the
real, practical meaning that Aśvaghoṣa hid beneath words which
seem at first glance to describe a miracle of the kind which defies the laws of
nature.
Thus,
the ostensible meaning of today's verse is to describe something as miraculous as those so-called miracles that can't be explained except by divine
interference with the ordinary working of cause and effect – miracles like
Jesus walking on water, or turning water into wine, or rising from
the dead, or showing his face in people's cheese on toast. What today's verse ostensibly describes is a religious
miracle of that ilk – heavy iron bars lifting themselves up and out
of their mighty latches and then floating noiselessly onto the
ground.
If
that were the only meaning that Aśvaghoṣa intended to convey in
today's verse, however, that would render every single word that he
wrote – at least for the purposes of a post-post-modernist follower of the Buddha who understands the Buddha's teaching to be the abandonment of religious views – a total waste of time. If that was what
Aśvaghoṣa really meant, we might just as well revert to
Christianity, or some other God-fearing religion, pray to God “Thy will be done,” and be done with it.
No. The
real miracle behind today's verse might be the miracle of non-doing,
the miracle of the right thing doing itself, or in other words, the
miracle of spontaneous flow.
That is where the 2nd law of thermodynamics comes in, shedding real (not spiritual) light on the meaning of the words svayam in the 4th pāda, which means "by themselves" or "naturally" or "automatically" or "spontaneously." Long after God and all his miracles have been consigned to the dustbin of human history, I dare to think, the 2nd law of thermodynamics and all its miracles will still be going strong.
Miracles
of spontaneous opening, unlike religious miracles like ash turning
into firewood or a dead person coming back to life, invariably
proceed in the direction of time's arrow. They do not go against the
2nd law of thermodynamics. On the contrary, they provide
conspicuous manifestations of the 2nd law in action.
When
today's verse is read in this light, gates that block roads might be a
metaphor for what blocks spontaneous flow of human energy – as a
damn temporarily prevents water from flowing; or as what chemists
call “activation energy barriers” temporarily prevents the
carbon in wood from combining with oxygen; or as a person's relationship
with his father or other guru can constitute a psychological
barrier to the spontaneous flow of his vital energy.
Insofar
as such blocks are physical, their removal is liable to involve a
certain amount of noise – the sound of ice cracking, for example, or of weights being lifted and
dropped, or of feet pounding a running track. But
insofar as those blocks are mental, their evaporation tends to happen
noiselessly – just at the moment, for example, when a practitioner goes mindfully
into movement.
The
dictionary gives pratolī as “a broad way, a principal road through
a town or village,” but EHJ, endeavoring to clarify the ostensible
meaning, adds in a footnote that the Tibetan translation renders
pratolī 'gatehouse,' obviously right here and adequately
authenticated. In the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya the word is used of
constructions along the wall between towers for providing access from
inside to the wall. Hence EHJ
translates puraḥ pratolyaḥ as “the city gatehouses.”
If
we give primacy to the hidden meaning, however, pratolī is better
understood not as a gatehouse but as per the dictionary as a broad
way, or principal route; and pur can be understood as meaning the
body (considered to be the stronghold of the puruṣa, the personal
and animating principle in men), in which case the hidden meaning of
puraḥ pratolyaḥ is “the principle pathways (meridians?) of the
body.”
My
translation of today's verse, I must admit, thus owes a lot to the
discoveries of FM Alexander who used to say of it – whatever it is (spontaneous energy flow?) – that “We get it in movement.”
I
have quoted on this blog many times the good advice that FM's niece
Marjory Barlow gave to me, which was:
When you think you are wrong, say No [primarily to the idea of doing anything with a view to being right]; give your directions; and go into movement, without a care in the world. Let it come out in the wash!
Experience
shows that I am quite capable of ostensibly saying No while, below
the surface, not really meaning it.
This,
I think, is primarily why Marjory cautioned further “It has to be real.”
My
conclusion, then, might be to remind myself, as per yesterday's
conclusion:
“Try
again, with meaning.”
In
other words, keep working to principle – then eventually it will
all open out, naturally, like a great big cabbage.
VOCABULARY
guru-parigha-kapāṭa-saṁvṛtāḥ
(nom. pl. f.): closed by doors with heavy iron bars ; blocked by
those doors in which a guru is the obstacle
guru:
mfn. heavy ; m. any venerable or respectable person (father , mother
, or any relative older than one's self) ; m. a spiritual parent or
preceptor
parigha:
m. ( √ han) an iron bar or beam used for locking or shutting a gate
; (fig.) a bar , obstacle , hindrance ; (once n.) an iron bludgeon or
club studded with iron ; the gate of a palace , any gate
kapāṭa:
mn. a door , the leaf or panel of a door
saṁvṛta:
mfn. covered , shut up , enclosed or enveloped in (loc.) , surrounded
or accompanied or protected by (instr. with or without saha , or
comp.) , well furnished or provided or occupied or filled with , full
of (instr. or comp.)
yā
(nom. pl. f.): [those] which
na:
not
sukham:
ind. easily
api:
even
dvi-radaiḥ
(inst. pl.): m. 'two-tusked'; an elephant
apāvriyante
= 3rd pers. pl. passive apā- √ vṛ: to open, uncover,
reveal
vrajati
= loc. sg. m. pres. part. vraj: to go , walk , proceed , travel ,
wander , move
nṛpa-sute
(loc. sg. m.): the son of a protector of men; the prince
gata-svanāḥ
(nom. pl. f.): without noise
gata:
mfn. gone, being absent
svana:
m. sound , noise
tāḥ
(nom. pl. f.): they
svayam:
ind. by themselves, spontaneously
abhavan
= 3rd pers. pl. imperfect bhū: to be, become
vivṛtāḥ
(nom. pl. f.): mfn. uncovered , unconcealed , exposed , naked , bare
; unclosed, open
puraḥ
= gen. sg. pur: f. a rampart , wall , stronghold , fortress , castle
, city , town; the body (considered as the stronghold of the puruṣa
q.v.); the intellect (= mahat)
puruṣa:
the primaeval man as the soul and original source of the universe
(described in the puruṣa-sūkta q.v.) ; the personal and animating
principle in men and other beings , the soul or spirit
pratolyaḥ
= nom. pl. pratolī: f. a broad way , principal road through a town
or village ; a kind of bandage applied to the neck or to the penis
重門固關鑰 天神令自開
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