⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑− Vaṁśastha
tato
vacas-tasya niśamya mantriṇaḥ priyaṁ hitaṁ caiva npasya
cakṣuṣaḥ |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−
anūnam-avyastam-asaktam-adrutaṁ
dhtau sthito rāja-suto 'bravīd-vacaḥ || 9.72
9.72
Then, after he had
listened to the fond and well-meaning words
Of a counsellor who was
the eye of a ruler of men,
Leaving nothing omitted
and nothing garbled,
neither getting stuck
nor getting carried away,
Standing firm in his
resolve, the son of a king said:
COMMENT:
Today's verse puts me
in mind of what might be the most fundamental issue in
sitting-meditation. It is an issue which, despite what I wrote
yesterday as if I knew what I was talking about, I have barely
understood at all.
The direction of
sitting-meditation, as Aśvaghoṣa describes it in SN Canto 17, is
towards quiet. The process involves seeing faults, or noise in the
system, at subtler and subtler levels, and sitting in such a way that
those faults, or that noise, is absent.
Alexander work, as I
experienced it on the teaching table of FM Alexander's niece Marjory
Barlow, is essentially the same. Hence Alexander is reported to have said, “If
you want to meditate, this is how.”
Now to aspire to
understand what the silence is, is folly. Many people in the
Alexander world approach the subject of reflexes in the hope of
getting their dirty claws around what Alexander meant by “the right
thing does itself.” The approach I have taken, and continue to
take, on the contrary, is that understanding the primitive reflexes,
and in particular the four primitive vestibular reflexes, can help us
understand the wrong doing that we wish to stop. Understanding of
four vestibular reflexes does not help us understand the right thing,
or the silence, but it can help us understand the wrong thing, or the
noise.
I have a congenitally
dodgy vestibular system, as has my father, and my brother. But what I
experienced on Marjory Barlow's teaching table is this: my
vestibular reflexes may be aberrant as all hell, but if I am
absolutely unshakeable clear and firm in my resolve NOT TO DO, then
those wrong patterns do not get a look in.
As the Buddha told
Nanda in SN Canto 16: “Even when violent winds blow, trees do not
shake than never sprouted.”
But what needs to be
emphasized, what I felt I omitted to emphasize yesterday, is that
maintenance of the decision NOT TO DO is not a passive state. It is
not the expression of a fear paralysis response. Rather it is a kind
of firm resolve – but not the kind of resolve that triggers the
Moro reflex into action.
Hence when the penny
drops, people sometimes talk about totally giving up all idea of
doing anything, without giving up. Or stopping trying without giving
up.
This, I venture to submit. is what is most fundamental. So that when the Buddha, at the
beginning of SN Canto 15, tells Nanda to focus the inconstant mind on
the fundamental (ālambana), this is how I understand the Buddha's
words.
kurvīthāś-capalaṃ
cittam-ālambana-parāyaṇam // 15.2 //
Let the inconstant mind
be fully engaged with the fundamental.
In the 2nd
pāda of today's verse, insofar as nṛ-pa meant a king of dharma,
nṛ-pasya cakṣus, “the act of seeing of a protector of men,”
or “the eye of a king,” could be read as an expression of
sitting-meditation itself. But in the context of today's verse,
nṛ-pasya cakṣus does not mean sitting-meditation itself; it
describes King Śuddhodana's counsellor as his eye.
Again, in the 4th
pāda, insofar as rājan means a king of dharma, rāja-sutaḥ, "the son of a king," can be read as an expression of a buddha-to-be, a bodhisattva. In the
context of today's verse rāja-sutaḥ is more naturally taken as
simply meaning the Prince, i.e. Prince Sarvartha-siddha, the son of
King Śuddhodana. The same is true of the kumāra of the Canto title,
kumārānveṣaṇaḥ, “Seeking the Prince.”
What Aśvgahoṣa seems
to be drawing attention to, however, as I hear him, is the firm
resolve of not just the bodhisattva who was Prince Sarvartha-siddha
but the firm resolve which every bodhisattva must have. Hence while
the present Canto is ostensibly about two servants of King Śuddhodana
seeking out King Śuddhodana's son, I think Aśvaghoṣa's real intention is that
any bodhisattva who is reading or listening should use
these words as an aid to seeking himself or herself as a bodhisattva, i.e., as an heir to the teaching of the King of Dharma.
If we think about the
whole canto in that light, the essence of it is that the veteran
priest and the counsellor have presented various arguments why the
bodhisattva should go back on his promise, as if he had never roared
the lion's roar, but all these arguments have left the bodhisattva
totally and utterly unmoved. Rather in his firmness (dhṛtau) he is
stood firm (stithaḥ). Or, as Aśvaghośa puts it in 9.80, his
resolve (tasya niścayam) is sthiram eva [supply your own expletive
for eva] firm, immovable, steadfast.
This resolve on the part of the bodhisattva is a
keeping of a decision NOT TO DO. It is a decision or a vow NOT to
return to Kapilavastu as an ordinary person, an unenlightened being.
But it is not a passive state. The bodhisattva is not content to curl
up in the forest and give up. In the background there is a positive
intent, a determination not to give up, a determination to carry on and realize something.
The 3rd pāda
of today's verse can thus be read as a hint in the direction of the
interface where the fundamental resides, so that an-ūnam (no
omission) suggests one side and a-vyastam (nothing garbled) suggests
the other; and a-saktam (no getting stuck) suggests one side and
a-drutam (not getting carried away, not getting ahead of oneself, not
going too fast) suggests the other.
In terms of the
primitive reflexes, getting carried away is intimately related with
the Moro reflex, whose colour is panicked red. But – and this is
the point that I omitted to mention yesterday – getting stuck is
intimately related with an even more primitive reaction known as the
fear paralysis response, whose colour is deathly white. We don't want
our practice to be ruddily tainted with the former, and even less do we want
our practice to be pallidly steeped in the latter.
VOCABULARY
tataḥ:
ind. then
vacaḥ
(acc. sg.): n. speech, words
tasya
(gen. sg. m.): of him
niśamya
= abs. ni- √ śam: to hear
mantriṇaḥ
(gen. sg.): m. a king's counsellor , minister
priyam
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. fond
hitam
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. beneficial , advantageous , salutary , wholesome
, suitable ; well-disposed , favourable , friendly , affectionate ,
kind
ca:
and
eva:
(emphatic)
nṛpasya
(gen. sg.): m. ruler of men, king
cakṣuṣaḥ
(gen. sg.): n. the act of seeing ; faculty of seeing , sight ; the
eye
an-ūnam
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. not less , not inferior to (abl.); whole , entire
; having full power
ūna:
mfn. wanting , deficient , defective , short of the right quantity ,
less than the right number , not sufficient
a-vyastam mfn.
undecomposed , undispersed , not separated ;
vy-asta:
mfn. cut in pieces , dismembered ; torn asunder , gaping ; severed ,
separated , divided , distinct ; multiplied , various , manifold ;
opposed to , inverse , reverse ; disordered , disarranged , confused
, bewildered
asaktam
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. not stopped or intercepted by or at (loc. ; said
of arrows and of a sword) ; free from ties , independent ; detached
from worldly feelings or passions , unattached or indifferent ; ind.
without obstacle or resistance ; uninterruptedly
sakta:
mfn. clinging or adhering to , sticking in
a-drutam
(acc. sg. n.): mfn. not accelerated
druta:
mfn. quick, quickly or indistinctly spoken
dhṛtau
(loc. sg.): f. holding , seizing , keeping , supporting , firmness ,
constancy , resolution , will , command
sthitaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. remaining
rāja-sutaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. the king's son
abravīt
= 3rd pers. sg. imperfect brū: to speak, say
vacaḥ
(acc. sg.): n. words, speech
太子聞大臣 愛語饒益説
以常理不亂 無礙而庠序
固志安隱説 而答於大臣 以常理不亂 無礙而庠序
No comments:
Post a Comment