−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Sālā)
sargaṁ
vadantīśvaratas-tathānye tatra prayatne puruṣaṣya ko 'rthaḥ
|
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
ya
eva hetur-jagataḥ pravttau hetur-nivttau niyataḥ sa eva ||
9.63
9.63
Others say, in a
similar way,
that creation arises
from Īśvara, the Almighty.
What meaning for a
person, in that case, is there in effort,
When what causes the
world's carrying on
Is the same immutable
agency that causes cessation?
COMMENT:
Today's
verse as I read it is designed to cause us to consider what kind of
effort is required in nivṛtti (cessation, non-doing) as opposed to
pravṛtti (carrying on, doing).
In
other words, what kind of effort did the Buddha have in mind when he
told Nanda:
tasmāt
pravṛttiṃ-parigaccha duḥkhaṃ pravartakān-apy-avagaccha
doṣān /
Comprehend,
therefore, that suffering is doing;
witness the faults impelling it forward;
witness the faults impelling it forward;
nivṛttim-āgaccha
ca tan-nirodhaṃ nivartakaṃ cāpy-avagaccha mārgam // SN16.42 //
Realise
its stopping as non-doing;
and know the path as a turning back.
and know the path as a turning back.
According
to the view which the counsellor attributes to others (without even
having the gumption to own that view himself), all is the will of the
Almighty, and so no effort is required on the part of the individual.
This may not have been the original intention of the likes of Jesus
or Mohammed when they taught their followers sentiments like “Thy
will be done” or Insha'Alla, but
some Christians and Muslims have seemed through history to take the
teaching that way, as a justification for passivity. Thus, I remember reading in Bruno Bettleheim's
account (The Informed Heart) of his experiences in a Nazi
concentration camp, that Jewish inmates who had lost all spark and totally resigned themselves to their fate were known by other Jewish inmates
as “Muslims.”
The
false thesis, then, seems to that because all creation arises from
the Almighty, individual effort is pointless, but rather “Thy will be
done.” Are we to think, in that case, that the true Buddhist
anti-thesis is “My will be done”? As opposed to the passive
viewpoint of the religious martyr, should we think that the viewpoint
of the operatic prima donna is the true one?
Again,
I think Aśvaghoṣa is having the counsellor cite a one-sided
view NOT so as to stimulate us to take the other side, in a
philosophical debate, but rather to stimulate our grey matter into
thinking what the Buddha's teaching really is, and what relation the Buddha's teaching bears to philosophical conflicts.
My
Zen teacher Gudo Nishijima came to the conclusion some time around
the early 1990s that the Buddha's teaching is not a religion but is a
philosophy.
From
where I sit, the Buddha's teaching is very intimately related with FM
Alexander's observation that “there is no such thing as a right
position, but there is such a thing as a right direction.”
FM
Alexander was not interested in philosophy. He loved horses, and
was more a fan of the turf than of intellectual pursuits. So when he
observed that “there is no such thing as a right position, but
there is such a thing as a right direction,” he was not making a
philosophical proposition. He was, however, making an observation
that has philosophical implications.
The
main implication, it seems to me, might be that whenever
philosophical views are competing with each other to establish which
one is more true – e.g. “Thy will be done” vs “My will be
done”, or free will vs determinism, or the Enlightenment view of
objective reality vs post-modernism – the right direction for a
follower of the Buddha's teaching is always towards the abandonment
of those views.
At
the level of sitting-meditation, I venture to submit, to hold a view
is to hold undue tension, and to abandon a view is to release undue
tension – or, in other words, to come undone.
Hence, in a real, physical sense, to move in the direction
of abandoning all views is to move in the direction of undoing, i.e. the direction of muscular release (mokṣa), i.e. of lengthening and widening, i.e.
of growing upward and outward.
"You cannot do an undoing," Marjory Barlow used to say.
In conclusion, then, if today's verse is read on the basis of belief in God as eternal prime mover in the Universe, then what the counsellor is saying makes a certain sense.
But on the basis of the practical truth that "You cannot do an undoing," the counsellor's understanding of pravṛtti (carrying on, doing) and nivṛtti (cessation, non-doing), could not be more different from what the Buddha taught.
The cause of pravṛtti (carrying on, doing), as the Buddha used that term, is unconscious thirsting/grasping. The cause of nivṛtti (cessation, non-doing), as the Buddha used that term, is just an effort of consciousness.
So in the Buddha's teaching, in my book at least, there is not one common immutable cause of doing and non-doing. On the contary, there are two distinct causes which are opposed to each other.
VOCABULARY
sargam
(acc. sg.): m. (fr. √ sṛj) letting go , discharging , voiding (as
excrement) ; a herd let loose from a stable , any troop or host or
swarm or multitude ; emission or creation of matter , primary
creation (as opp. to pratisarga " secondary creation ") ,
creation of the world (as opp. to its pralaya " dissolution "
, and sthiti , " maintenance in existence ")
vadanti
= 3rd pers. pl. vad: to speak, say
īśvaratas:
from Īśvara; from the Almighty
īśvara:
mfn. able to do , capable of master , lord , prince , king ; m. God,
the supreme being
-taḥ:
(ablative suffix)
tathā:
ind. likewise
anye
(nom. pl. m.): others
tatra:
ind. there, in that case, in those circumstances
prayatne
(loc. sg.): m. persevering effort , continued exertion or endeavour
puruṣaṣya
(gen. sg.): m. a man , male , human being ; a person
kaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): what?
arthaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. use, utility, sense, meaning, advantage
yaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): [that] which
eva:
(emphatic)
hetuḥ
(nom. sg.): m. " impulse " , motive , cause , cause of ,
reason for (loc. , rarely dat. or gen)
jagataḥ
(gen. sg.): n. that which moves or is alive ; the world
jagat:
(pres. part. √gam, to go) living
pravṛttau
(loc. sg.): f. onward movement, doing, continuing activity, carrying
on
hetuḥ
(nom. sg.): m. cause
nivṛttau
(loc. sg.): f. returning, non-doing, ceasing; ceasing from worldly
acts , inactivity , rest , repose (opp. to pra-vṛtti)
niyataḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. (past. part. ni- √yam, to fasten) fixed ,
established , settled , sure , regular , invariable , positive ,
definite [EBC: determined; EHJ: certainly]
niyataḥ
= gen. sg. m. pres. part. ni-√i: to go into (cf. nyāya) , enter ,
come or fall into , incur (acc.) ; to undergo the nature of i.e. to
be changed into
sa
(nom. sg. m.): it, that
eva:
(emphatic)
諸有生天者 自在天所爲
及餘造化者 無自力方便
若有所由生 彼亦能令滅
何須自方便 而求於解脱
及餘造化者 無自力方便
若有所由生 彼亦能令滅
何須自方便 而求於解脱
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