⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
śucau
śayitvā śayane hiraṇ-maye prabodhyamāno niśi tūrya-nisvanaiḥ
|
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
kathaṁ
bata svapsyati so 'dya me vratī paṭaikadeśāntarite mahī-tale ||
8.58
8.58
How
will he who, having slept on a pure golden bed
[after
lying down in a pure golden act of lying down],
Is
awakened in the night by sounds of musical instruments
[Is
caused to expand in the night by sounds in the fourth state]:
How
now will my vow-keeper drop off,
On
the surface of the earth, with a single piece of cloth in between?"
COMMENT:
The stated aim of this
blog is to dig out the meaning of kāñcanam-āsanam, golden sitting.
Along the way such excavation may also involve a bit of spadework
directed at golden standing, golden walking, and golden lying down.
In the 1st pāda
of today's verse as I read it, śayane
hiraṇ-maye (which ostensibly means “on a golden bed”)
is an allusion to the latter golden act – a golden act of lying down.
Śucau (pure) can be read as a pointer to this hidden meaning.
Because what in reality is pure gold? In practice, even with all the
technological prowess modern industrialized societies possess, the
purest 24-Carat gold one can buy is gold of 99.99% purity. But an act
of lying down, in my book, can at least in principle be truly pure. The same, in very rare
instances, may be true of an act of sitting.
In an impure act of
sitting, the thought comes into the head of a human being with faulty
sensory appreciation “sit down,” and the human being in question
reacts immediately, as unconsciously as if he or she were a robot,
and the habitual manner of bending the knees and flexing the hips
comes into play. For most people that habitual manner of sitting is
such that when the knees bend and the hips flex the knees and the
hips are drawn towards each other as muscles (hip and knee flexors)
contract more than they need to. A pure act of sitting might be one
in which this habitual doing was prevented.
Now how does one
prevent one's habitual doing? Not by doing something; that's for damn
sure.
It turns out that one way to prevent one's habitual doing is thinking – for example,
thinking before and during the bending of one's knees “knees
forwards and away.” This is part of what FM Alexander meant by
thinking, that is, thinking but not what people generally mean by
thinking – in Zen parlance “non-thinking.”
A lot can be learned
about thinking like this and sitting like this in the context of
lying down, and thus being caused to wake up, and, equally, being
caused to expand.
EHJ
noted that In b niśi is curious, as it is at dawn that kings are
woken by drums and the songs of bards.
Given
that tūrya, which ostensibly means “musical instruments” but
which also can mean “the fourth,” is it possible that Aśvaghoṣa,
below the surface, was describing his own experience of sitting in
the fourth stage of sitting-meditation, listening to sounds like
hooting of owls and streams flowing through the night?
Following
this stream of hidden meaning, the 3rd pāda, in which
ostensibly Gautamī with a rhetorical question is expressing her
concern, becomes an open question not so much about dropping off to
sleep as about dropping off body and mind....
How
does a vratin – one devoted to rules, vows, obedience or practice
(vrata) – drop off body and mind? Perhaps, by being prepared, if
necessary, to break every rule in the book? I don't know,
but a Chinese Zen master in ancient times once famously said that No
rule is our rule. Again, the Alexander teacher Marjory Barlow
used to tell new students in lesson one, in the context of learning
how to practise a golden act of lying down: Now I want you to be
thoroughly disobedient.
Finally,
then, in the 4th
pāda, the reference to a single sheet of cloth brings ostensible and
hidden meanings together. The single sheet of cloth in question is
known in Japanese as za-gu (坐具;
lit.
“sitting gear”), i.e. a prostration cloth.
In
the end is a prostration cloth a tool that is useful for a
practitioner whose efforts are directed at dropping off in golden
acts of walking, standing, and lying down, and ultimately in the
golden act of golden sitting?
Not
on its own it isn't. A prostration cloth on its own is as useless as
a round black cushion. Even an act of prostration on its own, if practised in
an end-gaining manner, is only the practising of one's old bad
habits. What is also needed, to make an act of standing or bowing or
lying down or sitting into a true act of pure gold, at least in my
book, is a decision not to follow habit, before and in combination with preventive thinking along the lines of “knees forwards and
away.”
Never
in a million years could I have written the above comment if I had never come across the teaching of
FM Alexander. At the same time, I would never have thought to translate today's
verse as I have translated it, taking śayane to mean not only a bed
but a golden act of lying down, without having been taught by my Zen
teacher Gudo Nishijima. Gudo truly venerated action. He worshipped,
adored, and sang the praises of action. He loved action like a man
loves a woman (as long as she belongs to him).
In
this blog I am in a way endeavouring to clarify and carry on my
teacher's teaching, centred as it was on action. At the same time, I
never seem to tire of criticizing my teacher's teaching, because,
from where I sit, in the end that teaching wasn't quite 100% pure
gold.
Gudo
used to say “Zazen is the standard for our action.”
On reflection, the 1st
pāda of today's verse seems to me to hint invitingly at a gold standard in which gold is truly pure.
It is good to have something to aim for. And yet perfectionism, in
Gudo's four-phased philosophical system, invariably belongs to the
first phase and requires opposition from a materialistic anti-thesis.
In
practice, Gudo demonstrated in his life the virtue of not worrying
overly much about purity and impurity. Perfectionism might be a tendency that a real keeper of the vow of
practice, on the surface of the earth, with only a sheet of cloth in
between, in the end is called upon snoringly to drop off.
VOCABULARY
śucau
(loc. sg. n.): mfn. shining , glowing , gleaming , radiant , bright
; brilliantly white , white ; clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.)
śayitvā
= abs. śī: to lie , lie down , recline , rest , repose ; to lie
down to sleep , fall asleep , sleep
śayane
(loc. sg.): n. the act of lying down or sleeping , rest , repose ,
sleep ; n. a bed, sleeping-place
hiraṇ-maya
(loc. sg. n.): mfn. golden , gold-coloured
hiraṇya
n. (prob. connected with hari , harit , hiri) gold (orig. "
uncoined gold or other precious metal " ; in later language "
coined gold " -or " money ")
prabodhyamānaḥ
= nom. sg. m. caus. passive pres. part. pra- √ budh: to wake up ,
awaken (trans.) ; to cause to expand or bloom ; to stimulate (by
gentle friction) ; to make sensible , cause to know , inform ,
admonish , persuade , convince
niśi
(loc. sg.): in the night
tūrya-nisvanaiḥ
(inst. pl.): by the sounds of musical instruments
tūrya:
n. a musical instrument; mfn = turya
turya:
mfn. 4th ; forming a 4th part ; n. the 4th state of soul
(» °rīya)
turīya:
n. the 4th state of spirit (pure impersonal Spirit or brahma) ; mfn.
being in that state of soul
sa-tūrya:
mfn. accompanied by music
tūrya-maya:
mfn. musical
tūryāṁśa:
m. a 4th part
nisvana:
m. sound , noise , voice
katham:
ind. how?
bata:
ind. an interjection expressing astonishment or regret , generally =
ah! oh! alas!
svapsyati
= 3rd pers. sg. future svap: to sleep , fall asleep
saḥ
(nom. sg. m.): he
adya:
ind. today, now
me
(gen. sg.): my [EHJ note: I take me in c as merely expletive.]
vratī
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. observing a vow , engaged in a religious
observance &c ; m. an ascetic , devotee ; m. a religious student
vrata:
n. will , command , law , ordinance , rule ; obedience , service ;
sphere of action , function , mode or , manner of life (e.g. śuci-vr°
, " pure manner of life " ), conduct , manner , usage ,
custom ; a religious vow or practice , any pious observance ,
meritorious act of devotion or austerity , solemn vow , rule , holy
practice (as fasting , continence &c ; vratáṁ- √car , "
to observe a vow " , esp. " to practise chastity ")
paṭaikadeśāntarite
(loc. sg.): with one piece of cloth in between
paṭa:
m. woven cloth , cloth , a blanket , garment , veil , screen ; a
painted piece of cloth , a picture ; monastic habit
eka-deśa:
m. one spot or place , one passage , a certain spot or passage , some
place ; a part , portion or division of the whole
antarita:
mfn. gone within , interior , hidden , concealed , screened ,
shielded ; separated, excluded ; impeded
mahī-tale
(loc. sg.): n. the surface of the earth , ground , soil
清淨寶床臥 奏樂以覺惛
豈能山樹間 草土以籍身
豈能山樹間 草土以籍身
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