BUDDHACARITA 13.27: Demon Throngs Praying “Thy Will Be Done.”

−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−   Upajāti (Sālā)

evaṁ-vidhā bhūta-gaṇāḥ samantāt taṁ bodhi-mūlaṁ parivārya tasthuḥ |

⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−

jighkṣavaś caiva jighāṁsavaś ca bhartur niyogaṁ paripālayantaḥ || 13.27

13.27

Such were the 'demon throngs' which, on all sides,

Stood surrounding him who was the root of bodhi,

Wanting to capture, and wanting to destroy,

Letting the master's will be done.

COMMENT:

In the 1^st pāda of today's verse, bhūta-gaṇa is the word used by Māra himself in BC13.17:

 “This man merits, at the unlovely hands of demon throngs, frights, rebukes, and beatings.”

More literally, and more neutrally, bhūta-gaṇa would be translated as “groups of beings.” But the asaumya (unlovely) of BC13.17 underlines that Māra's conception is of multitudes of the unlovely,  of bad guys, of demonic others. 

Māra's conception is thus similar to the conception of the yellow peril that one side had during the Pacific War in WWII, and, equally, similar to the conception of white devils that prevailed on the other side. The prevalence of these conceptions is admirably documented in a book that I read in the 1980s titled War Without Mercy, Race & Power in the Pacific War. 

The point of evaṁ-vidhā, "such were...," following on from yesterday's verse, is ironically to subvert Māra's stereotype of groups of demonic others. (The Demonic Other, incidentally, is the title of Chapter 9 of War Without Mercy.) evaṁ-vidhā means real individuals like those just described who, when we get to know them on a person-by-person basis, might each turn out to be a human being with the buddha-nature, or, indeed, might each turn out to be already a buddha.

In the 2^nd pāda, bodhi means Awakening or Enlightenment, and mūla means the root of a tree, and so tad bodhi-mūlam means the root of the tree under which the bodhisattva became the fully awakened Sambuddha; or, in short, the root of the Bodhi tree. At the same time, since that huge fig tree had yet to become the Bodhi tree, it may be more strictly accurate to read taṁ bodhi-mūlam as indicating the bodhisattva himself, as the cause, origin and beginning of Awakening. EHJ and EBC read  tad bodhi-mūlam.  The Tibetan translation, however, indicates  taṁ bodhi-sattvam.

With regard to the 3^rd pāda, EHJ added a note:

Cowell takes the bodhi tree as the object of pāda c; it seems more natural to suppose that the Bodhisattva is intended. Acceptance of [the Tibetan translator]'s reading would have made this clear.

EHJ's footnote confirms that the good professor totally missed Aśvaghoṣa's irony, as also did EBC. Hence:

Such were the troops of demons who encircled the root of the Bodhi tree on every side, eager to seize it and to destroy it, awaiting the command of their lord. (EBC)

Such were the hordes of fiends who stood encompassing the root of the bodhi tree on all sides, anxious to seize and to kill, and awaiting the command of their master. (EHJ)

The irony, again, is that jighṛkṣavaḥ and jighāṁsavaḥ ostensibly express the desire of demons to imprison (grah) others and to kill (han) them; but below the surface jighṛkṣavaḥ also expresses the desire of bodhisattvas and buddhas to grasp (grah) the truth and to captivate (grah) others, while jighāṁsavaḥ expresses the desire of bodhisattvas and buddhas to destroy (han) the ignorance which is the grounds for the doings which are the root of saṁsāra.

Hence, to return again to Nāgārjuna's words:

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||MMK26.10

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra

Thus does the ignorant one do.

The ignorant  one therefore is the doer;

The wise one is not, because of reality making itself known.

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||MMK26.11

In the destroying of ignorance,

There is the non-coming-into-being of doings.

The destroying of ignorance, however,

Is because of the allowing-into-being of just this act of knowing.

In the 4^th pāda, as the present participle of the causative of pari-√pā, lit. “to guard on every side,” paripālayantaḥ is a difficult word to translate literally. EBC and EHJ went with “awaiting,” and naturally understood the lord and master in question to be Māra.

Yesterday my translation of the 4^th pāda was: 

While attending on every side to observance of the master's command.

This morning, however, I decided to go with the more provocative 

Letting the master's will be done.

In the last few weeks and months the US dollar price of oil has fallen more more steeply than anybody was predicting six months ago, from comfortably over $100 per barrel to just over $50.

The simple explanation is that global economic growth has slowed more seriously than anybody expected, reducing demand for oil. 

One geo-political explanation is that the United States is not going to give up without a fight its top-dog status based on the petrodollar. So anybody who dares to challenge that status, like Vladimir Putin, must go down -- just like Saddam Hussein and Mohamar Gadaffi went down. And the best way to bring Putin down might be through lower oil prices. 

Another geo-political explanation, somewhat contradictory to the first, is that Saudi Arabia wishes to nip in the bud growth of the US shale oil industry, and so it is the Saudis and not the powers that be in the US who have engineered the oil price decline. 

And somewhere in the middle way, but probably closer to the truth, economic growth has indeed been slowing, and at the same time it suits both the Saudis and the US authorities, to some extent, to see Russia and Iran suffer, even if it is at the cost of some self-induced pain. 

My conclusion is that I really don't know. Economic reality is unpredictable and uncertain, and policy makers everywhere, even when their intentions are benign, are all too fallible. Moreover, the relations between policy makers and economic realities is reflexive, adding to the probability of wild swings in prices of things. Some people in cyberspace see George Soros, who is of Jewish heritage, as part of a great global conspiracy. But those are the types that give conspiracy theories a bad name. I am an admirer of George Soros, whose twin philosophical pillars of fallibility and reflexivity are evidently the result of open philosophical inquiry and not anything sinister. 

Universal uncertainty notwithstaning, one thing in the world today does seem certain, and that is the mutual enmity that evidently exists between Iran and Saudi Arabia. It is as if the will of God were that muslim brothers should form themselves into opposing factions and demonize each other.

Today's verse, as I read it, touches on this kind of irony. “Thy will be done” might be the truest principle in the world. “Thy will be done” might be the essence of the principle of non-doing.

But politically powerful human beings appropriate the principle and use it to justify the human doings which are the root of saṁsāra. Sometimes they call their own ignorant doings, in which they seek to impose their own ignorant will upon others jihad, or holy war. And sometimes they call their own ignorant doings “the defence of democracy” or “a war on terror.”

So in conclusion I don't know what the hell is really going on in the world. But as for the gap between what people purport to do and what they actually do – that gap exists right there on my round cushion, whenever in thinking up I pull myself down. And recognition of that gap is a good basis for understanding ever-present irony, in Aśvaghoṣa's writing and in the real world.

Religion would be all very well, if there were not always such a gap between what religious people practice and what they preach. Being steeped in Aśvaghoṣa's irreligious irony, as I see it, is a kind of training in not letting that gap stay open for too long.

My final point on this subject is that I don't see why we need God to practise non-doing. Many people say that God helps – that it helps to believe that God is the master whose will must be done. My Alexander head of training, Ray Evans, was one such person. Marjory Barlow, again, told me that she was a Christian if she was anything.

What those teachers were telling me, it seems to me now, was that a little bit of ignorance (i.e. religious belief) can be useful to help us stop the doings which are the root of saṁsāra. If so, I disagree with that view.

I rather agree with the Dalai Lama when he points out that the antidote to ignorance is not religious prayer. As an antidote to ignorance, DL is quite right, praying for divine intervention does not make any sense. 

The true antidote to ignorance might be to allow into being, on an individual basis, the act of knowing. Hence, again: 

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||MMK26.10

The doings which are the root of saṁsāra

Thus does the ignorant one do.

The ignorant  one therefore is the doer;

The wise one is not, because of reality making itself known.

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||MMK26.11

In the destroying of ignorance,

There is the non-coming-into-being of doings.

The destroying of ignorance, however,

Is because of the allowing-into-being of just this act of knowing.

VOCABULARY

evaṁ-vidhāḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. of such a kind , in such a form or manner , such

bhūta-gaṇāḥ (nom. pl. m.): hosts of living beings ; multitudes of spirits or ghosts

samantāt: ind. " on all sides , around " , " or , wholly , completely "

tad (acc. sg.); that

bodhi-mūlam (acc. sg. n.): root of [the] bodhi [tree]

mūla: n. " firmly fixed " , a root (of any plant or tree ; but also fig. the foot or lowest part or bottom of anything) ; basis , foundation , cause , origin , commencement , beginning

parivārya = abs. pari- √ vṛ: to cover , surround , conceal

tasthuḥ = 3^rd pers. pl. perf. sthā: to stand

jighṛkṣavaḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. intending to take or seize ; wishing to rob ; wishing to take up (water , jala.) ; wishing to gather; wishing to learn

grah: to seize , take (by the hand ; to catch , take captive , take prisoner , capture , imprison ; to take possession of , gain over , captivate ; to receive into the mind , apprehend , understand , learn

ca: and

eva: (emphatic)

jighāṁsavaḥ (nom. pl. m.): mfn. desirous of destroying or ruining

ca: and

bhartur (gen. sg.): m. bearer, lord, master

niyogam: m. tying or fastening to ; injunction , order , command, commission , charge , appointed task or duty , business

paripālayantaḥ (nom. pl. m. causative pres. part. pari- √ pā to protect or defend on every side , to guard , maintain): [EBC/EHJ] awaiting

√ pā: to watch , keep , preserve ; to protect from , defend against (abl.) ; to protect (a country) i.e. rule , govern ; to observe , notice , attend to , follow

如是諸惡類 圍遶菩提樹
或欲擘裂身 或復欲呑噉