BUDDHACARITA 12.51: The Youngster Who Mistook the First Dhyāna

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śamenaivaṁ-vidhenāyaṁ kāma-dveṣa-vigarhiṇā |

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brahma-lokam-avāpnoti paritoṣeṇa vaṇcitaḥ || 12.51

12.51

Via tranquillity of this order,

Which is the renouncing of loves and of hates,

At a brahma-world this youngster arrives –

If, by feeling fully satisfied, he is taken in.

COMMENT:

The ayam of the 1^st pāda of today's verse refers to the bāliśo janaḥ of yesterday's verse, the immature person. And the immature person means a youngster of any age, with no upper limit.

My Zen teacher never tired of asserting that the tranquillity which is the renouncing of loves and of hates is the balanced state of the autonomic nervous system.

He never suggested, however, that this state of zero might be a means for arriving at an ideal place like a brahma-world (a heaven where pious spirits reside).

So in the first three pādas Arāḍa (and behind him Aśvaghoṣa) has been setting the unsuspecting reader up for the punch-line of the 4^th pāda.

The ultimate set-up is words that encourge us to believe in a religion called Buddhism. 

And the ultimate punch-line might be as expressed by Nāgārjuna at the end of MMK, the gist of which is that there has been any such thing as Buddhism, becasuse the Buddha's teaching points for all time in the direction of abandoning all -isms. 

Now I must do a good job of turning off the water, and draining the outside plumbing so that nothing freezes, and then got on my bike and cycle it 25 miles, laden though it is with winter radishes. 

VOCABULARY

śamena (inst. sg.): m. tranquillity, peace

evam-vidhena (inst. sg. m.): of this kind

ayam (nom. sg. m.): this one, the person in question

kāma-dveṣa-vigarhiṇā (inst. sg. m.): disdainful of love and hate

vigarhin: mfn. (ifc.) blaming

vi- √ garh: to blame , abuse , revile , reproach , despise , contemn

brahma-lokam (acc. sg.) m. (also pl.) the world or heaven of brahmā (a division of the universe and one of the supposed residences of pious spirits)

avāpnoti = 3^rd pers. sg. ava√āp): to reach , attain , obtain , gain , get

paritoṣeṇa (inst. sg.) m. = parituṣṭi: f. complete satisfaction , contentment , delight

vañcitaḥ: mfn. deceived , tricked , imposed upon

心依遠離樂 命終生梵天