−−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦⏑−−⏑¦⏑−⏑−
śoka-tyāgāya
niṣkrāntaṁ na māṁ śocitum-arhasi |
−⏑−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−
śoka-hetuṣu
kāmeṣu saktāḥ śocyās-tu
rāgiṇaḥ || 6.18
6.18
For me who has left, to
leave sorrow behind,
You ought not to
sorrow.
Those stuck on
sorrow-causing desires –
Carriers of the taint
of redness, rather,
are the ones to sorrow
for.
COMMENT:
There is no word in the
English dictionary that adequately translates the Sanskrit rāgin,
which as a noun is given in the Sanskrit-English dictionary as
“lover” or “libertine,” but which as an adjective means dyed
or coloured, and especially dyed or coloured red. The English word
that might come closest, in my mind, would be “redster.” Such a
word is not recorded in the English dictionary, yet – though an
internet search reveals that redster is a brand name for a kind of
ski boot, and it has been used as a term of affection for a gaudily-painted Chevrolet pick-up truck. In any event, today's verse seems to provide a kind
of definition of what a human redster is – redster: one who is stuck on
the desires that cause sorrow.
As regards the gist of
today's verse, it seems worthy of note that the prince, before he
became the enlightened Buddha, already had the recognition that
sorrow is rooted in certain desires. This recognition, then, can be
understood to be associated not only with the ultimate realization of
the four noble truths by one who is no longer tainted by redness; but
also with anybody's (even a redster's) establishment of the will to
realize the truth.
Inhibition of, or in
other words, turning back from, the redness of sorrow-causing
desires, is the third noble truth (śāntir-iyam); and the prince was
aware of it long before he prepared a seat for himself under the
bodhi tree. What changed under the bodhi tree, I suppose, is that the
Buddha must have come into full possession of inhibition as something
more than a true principle; hence ayam-upāya – here is a means.
This, I think, was
Dogen's confidence when he came back in his twenties from China to
Japan. He had the confidence of a man in full possession of a means
of inhibition – not only knowledge, that is, of the truth of
inhibition. Though he was not yet 30 years old, Dogen already knew
the path, as a turning back.
In the title of the
present canto, chandaka-nivartanaḥ, chandaka is ostensibly the
object of nivartanaḥ – Turning Back Chandaka. But I think what is
really going on is that Aśvaghoṣa is using chandaka as a stimulus
to investigate various aspects of nivartanaḥ – In Relation to
Chandaka, Turning Back.
Ostensibly Aśvaghoṣa's
purpose in Buddha-carita is to tell the story of the Buddha's life or
the Buddha's career, from before his birth to after his death, following the direction of Time's arrow. But
Aśvaghoṣa's real purpose, in every verse he wrote, is not that.
Hence in SN Canto 16 he has the Buddha tell Nanda:
Comprehend, therefore, that suffering is doing; witness the faults impelling it forward; / Realise its stopping as non-doing; and know the path as a turning back // SN16.42 //
SUBEKARAKU EKO HENSHO NO TAIHO O GAKU SUBESHI
Learn the backward step of turning the light and letting it shine
nivartakaṃ cāpy-avagaccha mārgam
and know the path as a turning back.
VOCABULARY
śoka-tyāgāya
(dat. sg.): for the quitting of sorrow
śoka:
m. sorrow , affliction , anguish , pain , trouble , grief
tyāga:
m. leaving , abandoning , forsaking ; quitting
niṣkrāntam
(acc. sg. m.): mfn. gone out , departed , come forth
na:
not
mām
(acc. sg. m.): me
śocitum
= inf. śuc: to suffer violent heat or pain , be sorrowful or
afflicted , grieve , mourn at or for (loc. or acc. with prati)
arhasi
(2rd pers. sg. arh): you ought
śoka-hetuṣu
(loc. pl. m.): the causes of sorrow
kāmeṣu
(loc. pl.): m. desires
saktāḥ
(nom. pl. m.): mfn. clinging or adhering to , sticking in (loc);
fixed or intent upon , directed towards , addicted or devoted to ,
fond of , engaged in , occupied with (loc. )
śocyāḥ
(nom. pl. m.): mfn. to be sorrowed for ; to be lamented , deplorable
, miserable
tu:
but
rāgiṇaḥ
(nom. pl. m.): mfn. (fr. √ rañj , and rāga) coloured , having a
partic. colour ; red ; m. a painter ; a lover ,
libertine
爲斷憂出家 勿爲子生憂
五欲爲憂根 應憂著欲者
爲斷憂出家 勿爲子生憂
五欲爲憂根 應憂著欲者
No comments:
Post a Comment