−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Indravajrā)
asthi
kṣudhārtā iva sārameyā bhuktvāpi yān-naiva bhavanti tptāḥ
|
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
jīrṇāsthi-kaṅkāla-sameṣu
teṣu kāmeṣu kasyātmavato ratiḥ syāt || 11.25
11.25
People afflicted by
hunger, like dogs with a bone,
However much they chew
on them, never become satisfied.
When desires are like
skeletons of dry bones,
Who in possession of
himself would delight in those desires?
COMMENT:
Today's verse provides
further evidence, if any were needed, that translation is a losing
game.
The difficulty centres
on how to handle -sameṣu in the 3rd pāda, since sama at
the end of a compound ostensibly simply means “like,” but at the
same time sama means balanced, constant, not emotional. So
jīrṇāsthi-kaṅkāla-sameṣu
teṣu kāmeṣu could mean “when those desires are something as
balanced, constant and peaceful as skeletons of dry bones.”
On the face of it,
then, today's verse again poses a rhetorical question, whose
presumptive answer is “nobody would!”
What sane person would
delight in desires like fierce angry snakes?
Nobody would!
Except, when we stop
and think about it, there are sane individuals in this world who love
all kinds of snakes, even fearsome angry ones.
What sane person would
delight in skeletons of dry bones?
Nobody would!
Except, when we stop
and think about it, the Pali Suttas tell of a traditional practice,
employed as an antidote to blind desire, whereby a practitioner sits
contemplating skeletons in a charnel ground.
Thus The Long
Discourse about the Ways of Attending to Mindfulness
(Mahāsatipaṭṭhānasuttaṁ; DN 22) begins with Contemplation
of the Body (Kāyānupassanā), and this opening part of the
Sutta ends with a section titled The Section about the Nine Charnel
Grounds (Navasīvathikapabbaṁ). The fifth charnel ground, for
example, is described (as translated by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu) as
follows:
Puna ca paraṁ,
bhikkhave, bhikkhu seyyathā pi
Moreover, monks, it's as if a monk
Moreover, monks, it's as if a monk
passeyya sarīraṁ
sīvathikāya chaḍḍitaṁ,
might see a body thrown into a charnel ground,
might see a body thrown into a charnel ground,
aṭṭhisaṅkhalikaṁ
apagatamaṁsalohitaṁ nahārusambaddhaṁ.
a skeleton, no longer having flesh and blood, bound together by tendons.
a skeleton, no longer having flesh and blood, bound together by tendons.
So imam-eva kāyaṁ
upasaṁharati:
He then compares it with his very own body (thinking):
He then compares it with his very own body (thinking):
“Ayam-pi kho kāyo
evaṁdhammo evaṁbhāvī etaṁ anatīto” ti.
“This body also has such a nature, has such a constitution, has not gone beyond this.”
“This body also has such a nature, has such a constitution, has not gone beyond this.”
So this is the first
clue to hidden meaning -- meaning hidden in the words jīrṇāsthi-kaṅkāla, skeletons of dry bones -- that Aśvaghoṣa may have intended us to
consider in today's verse.
But what is perhaps
most liable to be lost in translation is all the meanings that
Aśvaghoṣa might have secretly recognized in the word -sameṣu,
which ostensibly just means “like.” Hence:
these pleasure, which
are like a skeleton composed of dry bones (EBC);
those passions, which
are like skeletons of dry bones (EHJ);
pleasures, that are
like a skeleton of dry bones (PO).
If this were the only
meaning of -sama, then what the Buddha tells Rāhula (in The Long Discourse Giving Advice to Rāhula) could best be translated,
simply and directly, as follows:
Paṭhavīsamaṁ
Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop earth-like developing, Rāhula.
Develop earth-like developing, Rāhula.
How Ānandajoti Bhikkhu
actually translated it, however, was like this, with the following
footnote.
Paṭhavīsamaṁ
Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, that is to be even as the earth,
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, that is to be even as the earth,
There is evidently a pun intended in the Pāḷi here on -sama, which may mean similar to or the same as on the one hand; and calm or peaceful on the other. The present translation is an attempt to maintain the same ambiguity in the English. If we took the liberty to translate the word twice we could give it as: develop the meditation that is to be peaceful just as the earth is...
Paṭhavīsamaṁ
Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, that is to be peaceful just as the earth is.
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, that is to be peaceful just as the earth is.
The many definitions of
sama given in MW dictionary indicate how much stands to be lost in
translation, even having taken this liberty of translating sama
twice, viz:
sama: mfn. even, smooth, flat, plain, level, parallel (bhūmeḥ samaṁ- √kṛ, "to make level with the earth"); same, equal, like (samaṁ- √kṛ , " to make equal , balance"); always the same, constant, unchanged, fair, impartial towards; having the right measure, regular, normal, right, straight; equable, neutral, indifferent; equally distant from extremes, ordinary, common, middling; just, upright, good, straight, honest.
Paṭhavīsamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop the
developing, Rāhula, which is earthlike balance.
Paṭhavīsamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of the
earth.
Āposamaṁ Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of water.
Tejosamaṁ Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of fire.
Vāyosamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of the
wind.
Ākāsasamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of space.
Going further, many other synonyms of sama could be substituted:
Paṭhavīsamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the constancy of the
earth.
Āposamaṁ Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the stillness of
water.
Tejosamaṁ Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the impartiality of
fire.
Vāyosamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance, Rāhula; develop balance like the evenness of the
wind.
Ākāsasamaṁ Rāhula bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop balance,
Rāhula; develop balance like the universality of space.
Insofar as balance is a
momentary state, it is meaningless to talk like this of developing
balance. As a momentary state, balance exists or else it does not
exist. A set of weighing scales is in balance or else it is not. A
bloke riding a bike is either in balance, or else, when he stops
pedalling, he has to put his feet on the ground to stop himself from
falling over.
This, it seems to me,
is primarily how my Zen teacher taught us his students about balance.
He seemed to see balance, primarily, as a momentary state of the
autonomic nervous system. This was somewhat in agreement with the
teaching of Zen Master Dogen who recommended us, in seeking to
understand balance, to study a steelyard.
But there may be
another aspect of balance to be investigated, which is balance as
something to be developed over time. With this aspect of balance in mind, an Alexander teacher named Walter Carrington wrote a pamphlet with the memorable title, "Balance as a Function of Intelligence."
I think maybe similarly, with the aim in mind of developing over time, the Buddha told Rāhula (in Ānandajoti Bhikkhu's
translation):
Asubhaṁ Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvehi,
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, on the unattractive,
Develop the meditation, Rāhula, on the unattractive,
asubhaṁ hi te Rāhula
bhāvanaṁ bhāvayato
for, Rāhula, from developing the meditation on the unattractive
for, Rāhula, from developing the meditation on the unattractive
yo rāgo so
pahīyissati.
whatever passion there is will be given up.
whatever passion there is will be given up.
Matthieu Ricard in his book The Art of Meditation: has a very instructive and clearly written section sub-titled APPLYING ANTIDOTES in which he exhorts us to Apply the antidote of inner freedom to the desire that causes suffering....
Desire tends to
distort reality and to make you view its object as fundamentally
desirable. In order to regain a more accurate view of things, take
the time to examine all aspects of the object of your desire and
meditate for a few moments on its less attractive and less desirable
sides.
So this is one way of understanding a hidden meaning of today's verse, in light of how bhāvana (developing / meditation) can be practised using contemplation of dry bones as an antidote to blind and obsessive sexual desire.
But I think that Aśvaghoṣa may have intended us to continue on beyond this too.
He is asking us: what sane person would delight in desires which are like skeletons of
dry bones?
And it looks like a rhetorical question to which the answer is: Nobody would!
Except maybe a person
whose own development of balance was such that desires themselves had
become balanced.
In such a case,
included in the word “balance” (sama) might be not only mental
qualities like calmness, peacefulness, constancy, equability,
impartiality, honesty, and so on, but also the use a person's self in
a psychophysical activity like sitting still.
This use of the self,
twenty years in Alexander work have taught me, is centred on the
functioning, for good or for ill, of the vestibular system.
One of the things for
us to investigate, when we investigate balance, then, might be the relation between vestibular balance and
psychological balance.
When the vestibular
system of a dyslexic or dyspraxic child is given appropriate
stimulation, for example, does that child tend to show a marked
psychological improvement in his or her confidence? That question, at
least, I can answer with a degree of certainty, based on fifteen
years of practical experience of working (albeit in a small way) not
only as an Alexander teacher but also as a developmental therapist.
The answer is an unequivocal yes.
If this kind of balance, balance in the gravitational field, mediated at brain-stem level by the vestibular system, is the most fundamental kind of balance, how does a person
develop it?
Primarily, it seems to
me, by inhibiting unconscious behaviour that is imbalanced. Such
behaviour may be understood as rooted in immature vestibular
reflexes. Equally it may be understood as rooted in perception of
reality that is distorted by egotism or selfishness. But in whatever
way imbalanced unconscious behaviour is understood, a buddha sitting
might be the very embodiment of its inhibition.
jīrṇāsthi-kaṅkāla-sameṣu
teṣu kāmeṣu kasyātmavato ratiḥ syāt
Who in possession of
himself would delight in those desires, which are as balanced [calm,
peaceful, constant, equable, impartial, honest] as skeletons of dry
bones?
Maybe a buddha would.
Maybe somebody would who had thoroughly developed the developing
which is to be as constant as the earth and as still as still water.
There again, maybe a
non-buddha would. Maybe somebody would who had thoroughly developed
the developing which is to be as dry as dry bones.
My final reflection, in
another unduly long comment, having slept on all this and sat, is
that as followers of the teaching of Zen Master Dogen, we have not
been taught to use a variety of antidotes in the effort to combat
ignorance. We have been encouraged instead just to sit in stillness.
But it seems to me that by recognizing how the use of antidotes is
described in the Pali Suttas as elucidated for example by Ānandajoti
Bhikkhu, and by recognizing again how the use of antidotes is
practised in the Tibetan tradition as elucidated for example by
Matthieu Ricard, we can better understand what kind of antidote “just
sitting” might be against what kind of ignorance.
As an insecure person
with particularly deep-seated weaknesses in vestibular functioning, I
am undoubtedly biased in all my perceptions of reality. But I tend to
see the original root of all human ignorance, not only my own, in the vestibular
system. And if there was any truth in that perception, then it would
make sense, if we wanted to go straight to the root of the problem
and cut ignorance off at its original source, to focus all our
attention on the problem of how simply to sit in balance.
I would like to think that I have become relatively good at understanding this problem because of the many obstacles I have faced on the way to not yet solving it. On one side during my thirteen painful and misguided years in Japan I was like a chicken in an egg pecking in a haphazard and ineffective manner due to its own congenital vestibular dysfunction. On the other side my Zen teacher, with his verbal instruction and manual guidance on "correct sitting posture," was like a mother hen pecking in the wrong place. Together we may have provided, in those thirteen years and beyond, an almost perfect demonstration of how NOT to go about liberating a chicken from an egg.
VOCABULARY
asthi
(acc. sg.): n. bone
kṣudhārtāḥ
(nom. pl. m.): afflicted by hunger
ārta:
mfn. fallen into (misfortune) , struck by calamity , afflicted ,
pained , disturbed
iva:
like
sārameyāḥ
(nom. pl.): m. (fr. saramā) a dog (esp. one of the two four-eyed
brindled watch-dogs of yama , conjectured by some to have been
originally indra and agni)
saramā:
f. " the fleet one " , N. of a female dog belonging to
indra and the gods; a female dog in general
bhuktvā
= abs. bhuj: to enjoy , use , possess , (esp.) enjoy a meal , eat ,
eat and drink , consume ; to make use of , utilize , exploit ; (with
pṛthivīm , mahīm &c ) to take possession of , rule , govern
api:
even
yān
(acc. pl. m.): which
na:
not
eva:
(emphatic)
bhavanti
= 3rd pers. pl. bhū: to be, become
tṛptāḥ
(nom. pl. m.): mfn. satisfied
jīrṇāsthi-kaṅkāla-sameṣu
(loc. pl. m.): like skeletons of old bones ; as balanced as a
skeleton of old bones
jīrṇa:
mfn old , worn out , withered , wasted , decayed
asthi:
n. a bone
kaṅkāla:
mn. a skeleton
sama:
mfn. even , smooth , flat , plain , level , parallel (bhūmeḥ
samaṁ- √kṛ , " to make level with the earth "); same,
equal, like (samaṁ- √kṛ , " to make equal , balance ");
always the same , constant , unchanged , fair , impartial towards ;
having the right measure , regular , normal , right , straight ;
equable , neutral , indifferent ; equally distant from extremes ,
ordinary , common , middling ; just , upright , good , straight ,
honest ; full , complete , whole , entire
teṣu
(loc. pl. m.): those
kāmeṣu
(loc. pl.): m. pleasures, desires
kasya
(gen. sg.): who?
ātmavataḥ
(gen. sg. m.): being self-possessed
ratiḥ
(nom. sg.): f. pleasure , enjoyment , delight in , fondness
syāt
= 3rd pers. sg. optative as: to be
勤苦嚙枯骨 無味不充飽
徒自困牙齒 智者所不嘗
徒自困牙齒 智者所不嘗
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