KSHAMAA-SHIPHO DHAIRYA-VIGADHA-MUULASH
CAARITRA-PUSHPAH SMRTI-BUDDHI-SHAAKHAH
JNAANA-DRUMO DHARMA-PHALA-PRADAATAA
N'OTPAATANAM HY ARHATI VARHADAMAANAH
BUDDHACARITA 13.65
-- Ashvaghosha, circa 50 AD
For the tree of knowledge, when flourishing, should not be cut down, the tree whose fibres are forbearance, which is rooted deep in resolution, whose flowers are good conduct and whose boughs awareness and wisdom, and which yields the fruit of dharma.
-- trans. E. H. Johnston, 1936
For it's not proper to cut down this flourishing tree of knowledge,
That provides the fruits of dharma,
whose fibers are patience,
whose deep roots are resolve,
whose flowers are good conduct,
And whose boughs are mindfulness and wisdom.
-- trans. Patrick Olivelle, Clay Sanskrit Library version, 2008
The fact that Buddha-carita is written in four-line stanzas tempts me to look for a four-phased structure in each verse, as I became accustomed to doing while translating 4-line verses in Shobogenzo. For the present, not all, not even most, of the four-line stanzas of Buddha-carita seem to cry out to be translated in this way, but I think that the verse quoted above definitely does. So here goes:
With soft root fibres of forbearance and roots dug deep in doggedness;
With flowers, each a course of action; with remembering, intelligent limbs,
A tree of knowing, which will bear its dharma-fruit,
But now is growing, up and out, ought not to be torn down.
This is a verse in praise of Sitting-buddha. According to legend, with this and other verses in Buddha-carita Canto 13, Victory Over Mara, an invisible being in the sky scolded Mara, who was bent on bringing the Sitting Sakyamuni down. But the legend is only a legend. The truth is that Ashvaghosha, in the guise of a gifted yarn-spinner, is drawing our attention back to the living reality of Sitting-buddha, whose essence, I venture to suggest, is not know-ledge, but know-ing -- knowing up and out, and growing up and out. In the original Sanskrit, the final word of the fourth line of the verse (the word that, in 4-line Chinese poetry, often points the reader away from words) is VARHADAMAANAH, growing.
With soft root fibres of forbearance and roots dug deep in doggedness;
With flowers, each a course of action; with remembering, intelligent limbs,
A tree of knowing, which is going to bear its dharma-fruit,
Should not be torn down, for it is growing.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
The Eightfold Awakening of a Great Human Being -- Ashvaghosha / Johnston version
When I received the Clay Sanskrit Library version of Buddhacarita a few weeks ago, the first thing I did was turn to the end of Ashvaghosha's biography of the Buddha, to see if there might be, as I had hoped, some account of the Buddha's final eightfold preaching, as recorded by Master Dogen in the final chapter of Shobogenzo.
Unfortunately, the original Sanskrit has been lost for the second half of Canto 14 through to Canto 28 of Buddhacarita, although the content has apparently been preserved reliably in a Tibetan translation, and also via translation into Chinese.
In the Clay Sanskrit Library version of Buddhacarita, these translations are summarized very briefly. Hence, the summary of Canto 26, The Maha-parinirvana, relates simply that:
The Buddha then gives his final instructions to his disciples by telling them that after he is gone they should consider the Pratimoksha, the code of monastic rules, to be their guide. There follows a long discourse on how the monks should conduct themselves.
The Clay Sanskrit Library version gives no clue as to the content of this final discourse.
The day before yesterday, however, a copy arrived through the post of Ashvaghosha's Buddhacarita, or Acts of the Buddha, translated by E.H. Johnston and first published in 1936.
This version contains, among other things, a mind-numbing scholarly discussion of which sect of Buddhism Ashvaghosha might be regarded as belonging to. Johnston thus announces himself as something of a sand-counter -- one whose years of Ashvaghosha study did not result in him getting even to first base in understanding for himself what Ashvaghosha was really intending to convey.
To his eternal credit, on the other hand, the scrupulously conscientious Johnston evidently went back to the Tibetan and Chinese versions in order to arrive as nearly as he could at the meaning of Ashvaghosha's original text. And so, in his translation from the Tibetan of Canto 26, Johnston relates the Buddha's final teaching as follows:
42. "...Pass the entire day and also the first and last watches of the night in the practice of yoga, and lie down in the middle watch, full of awareness so that the time of sleep does not bring on calamity.
43. For when the world here is being burnt up by the fire of Time, is it proper to sleep for the whole night? When the sins, which strike down like enemies, abide in the heart, who would go to sleep?
44. Therefore you should sleep, after exorcising with knowledge and the repetition of sacred texts the snakes of the sins which reside in the heart, as one does black snakes in a house by magic and charms; besides it is a question of self respect.
45. Self-respect is an ornament and the best clothing, the ankus for those who have strayed from the path. Such being the case, you should act with self-respect; for to be devoid of self-respect is to be devoid of all the virtues.
46. A man is honoured to the extent to which he has self-respect, and he, who is lacking in self-respect and who is devoid of discrimination between what is and what is not his real good, is on a level with the brute beasts.
47. Even should anyone cut off your arms and limbs with a sword, you should not cherish sinful thoughts about him or speak unforgiving words; for such action is an obstruction to you alone.
48. There are no austerities equal to forbearance, and he who has forbearance has strength and fortitude, whereas those who cannot tolerate harsh treatment from others do not follow the way of those who lay down the Law, nor are they saved.
49. Do not allow the slightest opening to anger, which ruins the Law and destroys fame, and which is the enemy of beauty and a fire to the heart; there is no enemy to the virtues like unto it.
50. While anger is contrary to the profession of religion, like the fire of lightning to cold water, it is not contrary to the life of the householder; for the latter are full of passion and have taken no vows about it.
51. If pride arises in your heart, it must be controverted by touching your head shorn of its beautiful locks, by looking on your dyed clothes and your begging bowl, and by reflecting on the conduct and occupations of others.
52. If worldly men who are proud strive to overcome pride, how much more should those do so, whose heads are shaven, who have directed themselves to salvation, and who eat the bread of mendicancy and have proved themselves.
SMALL DESIRE (1)
53. Since deceitfulness and the practice of the Law are incompatible, do not resort to crooked ways. Deceitfulness and false pretences are for the sake of cheating, but for those who are given to the Law, there is no such thing as cheating.
54. The suffering which comes to him whose desires are great does not come to him whose desires are small. Therefore smallness of desire should be practised, and especially so by those who seek for the perfection of all the virtues.
55. He who does not fear the rich at all is not afraid of the sight of stingy people; for he obtains salvation, whose desires are small and who is not cast down on hearing that there is nothing for him.
CONTENTMENT (2)
56. If you desire salvation, practise contentment; with contentment there is bliss here and it is the Law. The contented sleep peacefully even on the ground, the discontented are burnt up even in Paradise.
57. The discontented man, however rich is always poor, and the contented man, however poor, is always rich. The discontented man, seeking the beloved objects of sense, creates suffering for himself by toiling to obtain satiety.
TRANQUILITY (3)
58. Those who desire to obtain the highest bliss of peace should not give themselves up to the pleasures in such degree. For even Indra and the other gods envy the man in the world who is solely devoted to tranquility.
59. Attachment is the roosting-tree of suffering; therefore give up attachment, whether to relations or to strangers. He who has many attachments in the world is stuck fast in suffering, like a decrepit elephant in the mud.
APPLICATION OF ENERGY (4)
60. A stream, whose waters ever flow, however softly, in time wears away the surface of the rock. Energy finds nothing impossible of attainment. Therefore be strenuous and do not put down your loads.
61. The man who stops repeatedly in drilling with fire-sticks finds it hard to get fire from wood, but by the application of energy it comes easily. Therefore where there is diligence, the task is accomplished.
NOT LOSING AWARENESS (5)
62. When awareness is present, the faults do not enter into activity; there is no friend or protector equal to awareness, and if awareness is lost, all certainly is lost. Therefore do not lose hold of awareness directed towards the body.
63. The firm in mind, putting on the armour of awareness towards the body, conduct themselves in the battlefield of the objects of sense like heroes, who gird on their armour and plunge fearlessly into the ranks of their foes.
PRACTICE OF CONCENTRATION (6)
64. Therefore, keeping your feelings level and restraining your minds, know the origin and passing away of the world and practise concentration. For no mental ills touch him who has obtained concentration of mind.
65. Just as men diligently make embankments for holding up water that is overflowing, so concentration is declared to be like the embankment for bringing the water of knowledge to a stand.
CULTIVATION OF WISDOM (7)
66. The wise man, who abides giving away his possessions and entirely devoted to this Law in his heart, is saved; how much more then should the mendicant, who has no home, be saved?
67. Mystic wisdom is the boat on the great ocean of old age and death, a lamp, as it were, in the darkness of delusion, the medicine that smites all illnesses, the sharp axe that cuts down the trees of the sins.
68. Therefore practise learning, knowledge, and meditation for the increase of mystic wisdom; for he who has the eye that is of the nature of mystic wisdom, though without ocular vision, has indeed sight.
FREEDOM FROM MENTAL ACTIVITIES (8)
69. Although a man has left his home, yet, if he is engaged in the varied activities of the mind, he is not saved; those who desire to obtain the supreme tranquility should know this and become free from all activities.
70. Therefore adhere to heedfulness as to a guru, and avoid heedlessness as an enemy. By heedfulness Indra obtained sovereignty, by heedlessness the arrogant Asuras came to destruction.
71. I have done all that should be done by a compassionate sympathetic Master, Who aims at others' good; do you apply yourselves and bring your minds to tranquility.
72. Then, wherever you may be, on the mountains or in empty dwellings or in the forest, ever be strenuous in religious practice and do not give way to remorse.
73. It is for the physician, after full consideration of their constitutions, to explain the proper medicines to his patients, but it is the sick man, not the physician, who is responsible for attending to their administration at the proper time.
74. When the guide has pointed out the magnificent straight level road which is free from danger, and those who hear him do not proceed along it but go to destruction, there is no debt in the way of instruction still due from the guide.
75. Whoever of you has any desire about My teaching of the Four Truths, suffering and the rest, let him confidently speak out to Me at once and cut off doubt."
76. When the Great Seer thus spoke aloud, they were free from doubt and said nothing.
Unfortunately, the original Sanskrit has been lost for the second half of Canto 14 through to Canto 28 of Buddhacarita, although the content has apparently been preserved reliably in a Tibetan translation, and also via translation into Chinese.
In the Clay Sanskrit Library version of Buddhacarita, these translations are summarized very briefly. Hence, the summary of Canto 26, The Maha-parinirvana, relates simply that:
The Buddha then gives his final instructions to his disciples by telling them that after he is gone they should consider the Pratimoksha, the code of monastic rules, to be their guide. There follows a long discourse on how the monks should conduct themselves.
The Clay Sanskrit Library version gives no clue as to the content of this final discourse.
The day before yesterday, however, a copy arrived through the post of Ashvaghosha's Buddhacarita, or Acts of the Buddha, translated by E.H. Johnston and first published in 1936.
This version contains, among other things, a mind-numbing scholarly discussion of which sect of Buddhism Ashvaghosha might be regarded as belonging to. Johnston thus announces himself as something of a sand-counter -- one whose years of Ashvaghosha study did not result in him getting even to first base in understanding for himself what Ashvaghosha was really intending to convey.
To his eternal credit, on the other hand, the scrupulously conscientious Johnston evidently went back to the Tibetan and Chinese versions in order to arrive as nearly as he could at the meaning of Ashvaghosha's original text. And so, in his translation from the Tibetan of Canto 26, Johnston relates the Buddha's final teaching as follows:
42. "...Pass the entire day and also the first and last watches of the night in the practice of yoga, and lie down in the middle watch, full of awareness so that the time of sleep does not bring on calamity.
43. For when the world here is being burnt up by the fire of Time, is it proper to sleep for the whole night? When the sins, which strike down like enemies, abide in the heart, who would go to sleep?
44. Therefore you should sleep, after exorcising with knowledge and the repetition of sacred texts the snakes of the sins which reside in the heart, as one does black snakes in a house by magic and charms; besides it is a question of self respect.
45. Self-respect is an ornament and the best clothing, the ankus for those who have strayed from the path. Such being the case, you should act with self-respect; for to be devoid of self-respect is to be devoid of all the virtues.
46. A man is honoured to the extent to which he has self-respect, and he, who is lacking in self-respect and who is devoid of discrimination between what is and what is not his real good, is on a level with the brute beasts.
47. Even should anyone cut off your arms and limbs with a sword, you should not cherish sinful thoughts about him or speak unforgiving words; for such action is an obstruction to you alone.
48. There are no austerities equal to forbearance, and he who has forbearance has strength and fortitude, whereas those who cannot tolerate harsh treatment from others do not follow the way of those who lay down the Law, nor are they saved.
49. Do not allow the slightest opening to anger, which ruins the Law and destroys fame, and which is the enemy of beauty and a fire to the heart; there is no enemy to the virtues like unto it.
50. While anger is contrary to the profession of religion, like the fire of lightning to cold water, it is not contrary to the life of the householder; for the latter are full of passion and have taken no vows about it.
51. If pride arises in your heart, it must be controverted by touching your head shorn of its beautiful locks, by looking on your dyed clothes and your begging bowl, and by reflecting on the conduct and occupations of others.
52. If worldly men who are proud strive to overcome pride, how much more should those do so, whose heads are shaven, who have directed themselves to salvation, and who eat the bread of mendicancy and have proved themselves.
SMALL DESIRE (1)
53. Since deceitfulness and the practice of the Law are incompatible, do not resort to crooked ways. Deceitfulness and false pretences are for the sake of cheating, but for those who are given to the Law, there is no such thing as cheating.
54. The suffering which comes to him whose desires are great does not come to him whose desires are small. Therefore smallness of desire should be practised, and especially so by those who seek for the perfection of all the virtues.
55. He who does not fear the rich at all is not afraid of the sight of stingy people; for he obtains salvation, whose desires are small and who is not cast down on hearing that there is nothing for him.
CONTENTMENT (2)
56. If you desire salvation, practise contentment; with contentment there is bliss here and it is the Law. The contented sleep peacefully even on the ground, the discontented are burnt up even in Paradise.
57. The discontented man, however rich is always poor, and the contented man, however poor, is always rich. The discontented man, seeking the beloved objects of sense, creates suffering for himself by toiling to obtain satiety.
TRANQUILITY (3)
58. Those who desire to obtain the highest bliss of peace should not give themselves up to the pleasures in such degree. For even Indra and the other gods envy the man in the world who is solely devoted to tranquility.
59. Attachment is the roosting-tree of suffering; therefore give up attachment, whether to relations or to strangers. He who has many attachments in the world is stuck fast in suffering, like a decrepit elephant in the mud.
APPLICATION OF ENERGY (4)
60. A stream, whose waters ever flow, however softly, in time wears away the surface of the rock. Energy finds nothing impossible of attainment. Therefore be strenuous and do not put down your loads.
61. The man who stops repeatedly in drilling with fire-sticks finds it hard to get fire from wood, but by the application of energy it comes easily. Therefore where there is diligence, the task is accomplished.
NOT LOSING AWARENESS (5)
62. When awareness is present, the faults do not enter into activity; there is no friend or protector equal to awareness, and if awareness is lost, all certainly is lost. Therefore do not lose hold of awareness directed towards the body.
63. The firm in mind, putting on the armour of awareness towards the body, conduct themselves in the battlefield of the objects of sense like heroes, who gird on their armour and plunge fearlessly into the ranks of their foes.
PRACTICE OF CONCENTRATION (6)
64. Therefore, keeping your feelings level and restraining your minds, know the origin and passing away of the world and practise concentration. For no mental ills touch him who has obtained concentration of mind.
65. Just as men diligently make embankments for holding up water that is overflowing, so concentration is declared to be like the embankment for bringing the water of knowledge to a stand.
CULTIVATION OF WISDOM (7)
66. The wise man, who abides giving away his possessions and entirely devoted to this Law in his heart, is saved; how much more then should the mendicant, who has no home, be saved?
67. Mystic wisdom is the boat on the great ocean of old age and death, a lamp, as it were, in the darkness of delusion, the medicine that smites all illnesses, the sharp axe that cuts down the trees of the sins.
68. Therefore practise learning, knowledge, and meditation for the increase of mystic wisdom; for he who has the eye that is of the nature of mystic wisdom, though without ocular vision, has indeed sight.
FREEDOM FROM MENTAL ACTIVITIES (8)
69. Although a man has left his home, yet, if he is engaged in the varied activities of the mind, he is not saved; those who desire to obtain the supreme tranquility should know this and become free from all activities.
70. Therefore adhere to heedfulness as to a guru, and avoid heedlessness as an enemy. By heedfulness Indra obtained sovereignty, by heedlessness the arrogant Asuras came to destruction.
71. I have done all that should be done by a compassionate sympathetic Master, Who aims at others' good; do you apply yourselves and bring your minds to tranquility.
72. Then, wherever you may be, on the mountains or in empty dwellings or in the forest, ever be strenuous in religious practice and do not give way to remorse.
73. It is for the physician, after full consideration of their constitutions, to explain the proper medicines to his patients, but it is the sick man, not the physician, who is responsible for attending to their administration at the proper time.
74. When the guide has pointed out the magnificent straight level road which is free from danger, and those who hear him do not proceed along it but go to destruction, there is no debt in the way of instruction still due from the guide.
75. Whoever of you has any desire about My teaching of the Four Truths, suffering and the rest, let him confidently speak out to Me at once and cut off doubt."
76. When the Great Seer thus spoke aloud, they were free from doubt and said nothing.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
AARYO NYAAYAH: A NOBLE PRINCIPLE
Deathlessness is lost to him whose mindfulness goes outwards, but when he stays mindful of his body, he holds deathlessness in his hand. Where is the noble plan of a man lacking mindfulness? And if he does not have a noble plan, then he has lost the true path.
Saundarananda 14.42, trans. Linda Covill
"Noble plan" in Linda Covill's translation is AARYO NYAAYAH.
AARYO means Aryan, noble.
NYAAYA is as in the phrase discussed previously NYAAYENA YUKTAA SMIRTIH, mindfulness yoked to a leading thought, or a plan, or a means-whereby principle.
So here is another clue as to what Ashvaghosha meant by NYAAYA -- Ashvaghosha evidently had in mind not something that is base and coarse, not something swilling around in the world of what FM Alexander called "lowly evolved swine" (ordinary, subconsciously-controlled human beings who are going around the whole time simply reacting to stimuli perceived through the senses, on the basis of faulty sensory appreciation which is rooted in immature vesibular reflexes and smeared with the poison of fixed and wrong conceptions).
I think that Ashvaghosha, with the word AARYO, is pointing our human heads not back and down into our bodies, as if we were fearful turtles, but courageously forward and up towards what FM Alexander called "conscious control, as primarily a plane to be reached."
What was I taught by Marjory Barlow, the niece of FM Alexander, if not mindfulness of my own body, yoked to the noble principle of inhibition?
What is the fundamental teaching of Zen Master Dogen, if not the forgetting of my own body, through conscious effort to remember it, through the backward step of turning light and glowing?
Saundarananda 14.42, trans. Linda Covill
"Noble plan" in Linda Covill's translation is AARYO NYAAYAH.
AARYO means Aryan, noble.
NYAAYA is as in the phrase discussed previously NYAAYENA YUKTAA SMIRTIH, mindfulness yoked to a leading thought, or a plan, or a means-whereby principle.
So here is another clue as to what Ashvaghosha meant by NYAAYA -- Ashvaghosha evidently had in mind not something that is base and coarse, not something swilling around in the world of what FM Alexander called "lowly evolved swine" (ordinary, subconsciously-controlled human beings who are going around the whole time simply reacting to stimuli perceived through the senses, on the basis of faulty sensory appreciation which is rooted in immature vesibular reflexes and smeared with the poison of fixed and wrong conceptions).
I think that Ashvaghosha, with the word AARYO, is pointing our human heads not back and down into our bodies, as if we were fearful turtles, but courageously forward and up towards what FM Alexander called "conscious control, as primarily a plane to be reached."
What was I taught by Marjory Barlow, the niece of FM Alexander, if not mindfulness of my own body, yoked to the noble principle of inhibition?
What is the fundamental teaching of Zen Master Dogen, if not the forgetting of my own body, through conscious effort to remember it, through the backward step of turning light and glowing?
Friday, November 21, 2008
NYAAYENA YUKTAA SMIRTIH: REMEMBERING, THE PROPER WAY
For one obtains fire by rubbing the wood,
and one finds water by digging the earth;
There is nothing that is impossible
for the man who is persistent;
Everything can be accomplished,
when it is done the proper way.
Buddha-carita 13.60, trans. Patrick Olivelle
The final line in Sanskrit is:
NYAAYENA YUKTAM CA KRTAM CA SARVAM.
In this passage, Patrick Olivelle has translated NYAAYENA YUKTAM as "when it is done the proper way."
NYAAYENA YUKTAM corresponds to the phrase discussed in the previous post, NYAAYENA YUKTAA, where it was used in relation to mindfulness or remembering.
So NYAAYENA YUKTAA... SMIRTIH might be translated "remembering practised the proper way."
What Ashvaghosha seems to be saying in the above passage is that everything is possible for the persistent man, as long as what he does is yoked to a method, as long as his effort is systematic, as long as his energy is directed in accordance with a conscious means-whereby principle -- and not scattered here and there by end-gaining in an unconscious, willy-nilly fashion.
(Why do I have a nagging sense that with the words "end-gaining in an unconscious, willy-nilly fashion," I have just exactly described my own blogging efforts over the past few years, charging here and there like a locomotive off the rails? Or like a blind donkey seeking a lost carrot.... yes, I am afraid it is the latter metaphor that hits the target with tragic accuracy.)
A further clue in Saundarananda to the meaning of NYAAYA is that Ashvaghosha seems to use the word as synonymous with UPAAYA, which definitely means "method" or "means-whereby" -- as in the title of the 2nd chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
"... for even diligence is destructive if it is accompanied by the wrong method [AN-UPAAYA]" In this way, the Sugata spoke to him concerning right method [NYAAYAM] and the retreat from the wrong method [A-NYAAYA].
Saundarananda 16.70, trans. Linda Covill
The Clay Sanskrit Library translations of Ashvaghosha provide a tremendous resource. Using them as a starting point, I now firmly intend to clarify for myself, by studying for myself Ashvaghosha's words in their original Sanskrit, what Ashvaghosha was really driving at.
Little by little I aim to continue progressing like this, in small degrees, from greater to lesser misunderstanding of Ashvaghosha's words, as if removing grosser then finer impurities from gold.
By manifesting myself groping in the dark like this, as a novice of Sanskrit, I am probably making even more of a fool of myself than I have already done to date. But as Ashvaghosha concluded, "serviceable gold necessarily comes from ore-born dust."
So, in the Ashvaghosha / SAS spirit of Who Dares Wins, I will try again:
Out and out remembering -- yoked, for the purpose of getting at the truth, to the means-whereby principle -- along with out and out stillness: this pair constitutes the two precepts on [body-mind] integration, whose purpose is mastery, seated in peace, of the practice of thinking.
Saundarananda 16.33
and one finds water by digging the earth;
There is nothing that is impossible
for the man who is persistent;
Everything can be accomplished,
when it is done the proper way.
Buddha-carita 13.60, trans. Patrick Olivelle
The final line in Sanskrit is:
NYAAYENA YUKTAM CA KRTAM CA SARVAM.
In this passage, Patrick Olivelle has translated NYAAYENA YUKTAM as "when it is done the proper way."
NYAAYENA YUKTAM corresponds to the phrase discussed in the previous post, NYAAYENA YUKTAA, where it was used in relation to mindfulness or remembering.
So NYAAYENA YUKTAA... SMIRTIH might be translated "remembering practised the proper way."
What Ashvaghosha seems to be saying in the above passage is that everything is possible for the persistent man, as long as what he does is yoked to a method, as long as his effort is systematic, as long as his energy is directed in accordance with a conscious means-whereby principle -- and not scattered here and there by end-gaining in an unconscious, willy-nilly fashion.
(Why do I have a nagging sense that with the words "end-gaining in an unconscious, willy-nilly fashion," I have just exactly described my own blogging efforts over the past few years, charging here and there like a locomotive off the rails? Or like a blind donkey seeking a lost carrot.... yes, I am afraid it is the latter metaphor that hits the target with tragic accuracy.)
A further clue in Saundarananda to the meaning of NYAAYA is that Ashvaghosha seems to use the word as synonymous with UPAAYA, which definitely means "method" or "means-whereby" -- as in the title of the 2nd chapter of the Lotus Sutra.
"... for even diligence is destructive if it is accompanied by the wrong method [AN-UPAAYA]" In this way, the Sugata spoke to him concerning right method [NYAAYAM] and the retreat from the wrong method [A-NYAAYA].
Saundarananda 16.70, trans. Linda Covill
The Clay Sanskrit Library translations of Ashvaghosha provide a tremendous resource. Using them as a starting point, I now firmly intend to clarify for myself, by studying for myself Ashvaghosha's words in their original Sanskrit, what Ashvaghosha was really driving at.
Little by little I aim to continue progressing like this, in small degrees, from greater to lesser misunderstanding of Ashvaghosha's words, as if removing grosser then finer impurities from gold.
By manifesting myself groping in the dark like this, as a novice of Sanskrit, I am probably making even more of a fool of myself than I have already done to date. But as Ashvaghosha concluded, "serviceable gold necessarily comes from ore-born dust."
So, in the Ashvaghosha / SAS spirit of Who Dares Wins, I will try again:
Out and out remembering -- yoked, for the purpose of getting at the truth, to the means-whereby principle -- along with out and out stillness: this pair constitutes the two precepts on [body-mind] integration, whose purpose is mastery, seated in peace, of the practice of thinking.
Saundarananda 16.33
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
YOGA-VIDHYAU: THE TWO PRECEPTS ON BODY-MIND INTEGRATION
Out and out remembering, driven by the intention of getting at the truth, along with out and out stillness -- this pair constitutes the two precepts on [body-mind] integration, for the purpose of mastering, while seated in peace, the practice of thinking.
Saundarananda 16.33
Linda Covill's translation of the same sentence is:
Right mindfulness, conjoined to the plan for the discovery of the truth, and right concentration -- these two occur in the ordinance on yogic practice, and are a basis for peace in order that one's thoughts may be circumscribed.
As already mentioned, I like very much Linda Covill's style as a writer and translator of Ashvaghosha's words. And anybody can see from the dictionary definitions below that LC's translation is literal enough. Still I have dared to have a go myself at this important passage from the section on the fourth noble truth. I hope my translation conveys something of the sense of urgency that Ashvaghosaha's words convey to me. As old-age and/or death rapidly approach, and notion after notion that we held to be true turns out to have been false, while the world continues to burn, as it has always burned... in this situation we need a definite plan, like a plan of military action, so that, binding on the armour of mindfulness, we may defeat those foe-like faults that have so far been defeating us. No! more than anybody else's plan, we need to find within ourselves the courage and strength of purpose that lead to the kind of thinking by which faults are eliminated. That is the kind of thinking that FM Alexander discovered -- inhibitory thinking, thinking that inhibits the reptilian faults, thinking that will not take 'no' for an answer.
The original Sanskrit is:
NYAAYENA SATYAABIGAMAAYA YUKTAA
SAMYAK SMRTIH SAMYAG ATHO SAMAADHIH --
IDAM DVAYAM YOGA-VIDHAU PRAVRTTAM,
SHAMAASHRAYAM CITTA PARIGRAHAAYA.
NYAAYA [Monier-Williams pp. 528] plan, design; leading thought, principle, system, method, doctrine.
NYAAYENA [instrumental case] by the leading thought
SATYA the truth
ABIGAMA [MW61] approaching, visiting
ABIGAMAAYA [dative case: indicating purpose] for the purpose of approaching, for the discovery of, with the intention of getting at
YUKTAA yoked to, yoked with
NYAAYENA ... YUKTAA literally means, I think, "by the leading thought [remembering] is yoked..." So the image that is conjured is not the all-too-easily evoked remembrance of the war veteran or the pining lover; it is closer to the effort that I make to remember when I have forgotten what I went upstairs for. If we call it "mindfulness," then it is mindfulness whose energy is harnessed to a strongly directed driving force, like a cart harnessed to a horse. And this horse is pulling in one direction, towards liberation, which is synonymous in Ashvoghosha's eyes with elimination of faults.
SAMYAK out & out, straight, true
SMRTI remembrance, reminiscence, thinking of or upon, calling to mind, memory
ATHO [connecting particle] next, then, along with
SAMAADHIH samadhi, stillness
For SAMAADHI, Monier-Williams [MW1159] gives: putting together; bringing into harmony, agreement; fixing the mind on.
For Master Dogen, however, the king of samadhis is the act, with right foot on left thigh and left foot on right thigh, of sitting still (but without fixing anything on anything).
IDAM [nominative, singular of AYAM] this
DVAYAM couple, pair
YOGA [MW856] the act of yoking, joining, harnessing; junction, union, combination
VIDHI [MW968] a rule, formula, injunction, ordnance, statute, precept
VIDHAU [nominative, dual of VIDHI] two precepts
PRAVRRTAM [MW693] resulted, arisen, produced, happened, occurred
SHAMA tranquility, peace
AASHRAYAM [MW158] that to which anything is annexed or with which anything is closely connected or on which anything depends or rests [or sits]
CITTA thinking, thoughts, mind
PARIGRAHA [MW593] to take hold of on both sides, embrace, surround, enfold, envelop; to fence round, to occupy on both sides; to seize, clutch, grasp, catch; to take or carry along with one; to take possession of, master, overpower; to take, adopt, conform to, follow
PARIGRAHAAYA [dative case, denoting purpose, of PARIGRAHA]
for the purpose of practising
I have suggested already at the end of this post that to me the purpose denoted is not so much the quashing of thoughts as the practice of inhibitory thinking of the kind that Ashvaghosha proceeds to describe -- thinking in a friendly manner towards oneself as an antidote to ill-will, contemplating the impurity of the body as an antidote to passion, et cetera.
The three characters below, taken from the Fukan-zazengi scroll thought to be written in Master Dogen's own hand, may be understood as expressing the original meaning of the word YOGA. The first character, JO, means become or realize. The second two characters, IPPEN, mean one piece. JO-IPPEN means becoming one piece, or realizing/rememembering that one is already, has already been from the beginning, one piece.
Saundarananda 16.33
Linda Covill's translation of the same sentence is:
Right mindfulness, conjoined to the plan for the discovery of the truth, and right concentration -- these two occur in the ordinance on yogic practice, and are a basis for peace in order that one's thoughts may be circumscribed.
As already mentioned, I like very much Linda Covill's style as a writer and translator of Ashvaghosha's words. And anybody can see from the dictionary definitions below that LC's translation is literal enough. Still I have dared to have a go myself at this important passage from the section on the fourth noble truth. I hope my translation conveys something of the sense of urgency that Ashvaghosaha's words convey to me. As old-age and/or death rapidly approach, and notion after notion that we held to be true turns out to have been false, while the world continues to burn, as it has always burned... in this situation we need a definite plan, like a plan of military action, so that, binding on the armour of mindfulness, we may defeat those foe-like faults that have so far been defeating us. No! more than anybody else's plan, we need to find within ourselves the courage and strength of purpose that lead to the kind of thinking by which faults are eliminated. That is the kind of thinking that FM Alexander discovered -- inhibitory thinking, thinking that inhibits the reptilian faults, thinking that will not take 'no' for an answer.
The original Sanskrit is:
NYAAYENA SATYAABIGAMAAYA YUKTAA
SAMYAK SMRTIH SAMYAG ATHO SAMAADHIH --
IDAM DVAYAM YOGA-VIDHAU PRAVRTTAM,
SHAMAASHRAYAM CITTA PARIGRAHAAYA.
NYAAYA [Monier-Williams pp. 528] plan, design; leading thought, principle, system, method, doctrine.
NYAAYENA [instrumental case] by the leading thought
SATYA the truth
ABIGAMA [MW61] approaching, visiting
ABIGAMAAYA [dative case: indicating purpose] for the purpose of approaching, for the discovery of, with the intention of getting at
YUKTAA yoked to, yoked with
NYAAYENA ... YUKTAA literally means, I think, "by the leading thought [remembering] is yoked..." So the image that is conjured is not the all-too-easily evoked remembrance of the war veteran or the pining lover; it is closer to the effort that I make to remember when I have forgotten what I went upstairs for. If we call it "mindfulness," then it is mindfulness whose energy is harnessed to a strongly directed driving force, like a cart harnessed to a horse. And this horse is pulling in one direction, towards liberation, which is synonymous in Ashvoghosha's eyes with elimination of faults.
SAMYAK out & out, straight, true
SMRTI remembrance, reminiscence, thinking of or upon, calling to mind, memory
ATHO [connecting particle] next, then, along with
SAMAADHIH samadhi, stillness
For SAMAADHI, Monier-Williams [MW1159] gives: putting together; bringing into harmony, agreement; fixing the mind on.
For Master Dogen, however, the king of samadhis is the act, with right foot on left thigh and left foot on right thigh, of sitting still (but without fixing anything on anything).
IDAM [nominative, singular of AYAM] this
DVAYAM couple, pair
YOGA [MW856] the act of yoking, joining, harnessing; junction, union, combination
VIDHI [MW968] a rule, formula, injunction, ordnance, statute, precept
VIDHAU [nominative, dual of VIDHI] two precepts
PRAVRRTAM [MW693] resulted, arisen, produced, happened, occurred
SHAMA tranquility, peace
AASHRAYAM [MW158] that to which anything is annexed or with which anything is closely connected or on which anything depends or rests [or sits]
CITTA thinking, thoughts, mind
PARIGRAHA [MW593] to take hold of on both sides, embrace, surround, enfold, envelop; to fence round, to occupy on both sides; to seize, clutch, grasp, catch; to take or carry along with one; to take possession of, master, overpower; to take, adopt, conform to, follow
PARIGRAHAAYA [dative case, denoting purpose, of PARIGRAHA]
for the purpose of practising
I have suggested already at the end of this post that to me the purpose denoted is not so much the quashing of thoughts as the practice of inhibitory thinking of the kind that Ashvaghosha proceeds to describe -- thinking in a friendly manner towards oneself as an antidote to ill-will, contemplating the impurity of the body as an antidote to passion, et cetera.
The three characters below, taken from the Fukan-zazengi scroll thought to be written in Master Dogen's own hand, may be understood as expressing the original meaning of the word YOGA. The first character, JO, means become or realize. The second two characters, IPPEN, mean one piece. JO-IPPEN means becoming one piece, or realizing/rememembering that one is already, has already been from the beginning, one piece.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
MAITRII -- FRIENDLINESS, GOODWILL
"But when the fault of ill-will is disturbing one's thinking, then [thinking] should be practised by supplying oneself with goodwill."
Saundarananda 16.62
This translation is a kind of groping in the dark. Please don't quote me.
Still, what is not in doubt is that Ashvaghosha is advocating, as an antidote to the fault of malice or ill-will (VYAAPAADA), the introduction of its opposite, which is goodwill (MAITRII).
MAITRII is conventionally translated, rather wetly to my ears, as "loving-kindness." Hence Linda Covill's translation of the above sentence is:
But when the mind is disturbed by the fault of malice, the loving-kindness meditation should be practised with reference to one's own position.
My understanding of Sanskrit grammar is not yet adequate to understand exactly in my own mind, or to explain for others, how each word of Ashvaghosha's relates to the others in this sentence, but I am able to look up each word in the dictionary, thus:
VYAAPAADA malice, ill-will, evil intent
DOSHA fault, defect, taint
KSHUBHITE (case?) shaken, agitated
TU but
CITTE (locative case of CITTA?) thinking, mind
SEVYAA practised [I am not sure about the grammar - can anybody help?]
SVA-PAKSHA one's own wing/side/half/place; oneself
UPANAYENA (instrumental case of UPANA) by supplying, by introducing
MAITRII goodwill, friendship
With each passing day I am more determined that I will learn Sanskrit properly (though my facility for picking up languages is not what it once was), and I will clarify for self and others what Ashvaghosha really meant. And this time I will do it independently, with the intention of serving nobody other than Ashvaghosha himself and whoever reads my stuff. Insofar as I am able to direct my energy simply towards this service of one who is truly worthy of being served, the Great Arhat Ashvaghosha, I think that I might be able to turn over a new leaf. I might manage to supply even myself with a bit of goodwill. I might feel that this field of misfortunes which is my body, insofar as it might become a kind of wheelbarrow for transporting the serviceable gold of Ashvaghosa, might be worth redeeming.
In so redeeming myself, however, I do not think that I will need to bother resorting to a meditational technique of loving kindness. I think Ashavghosha's message is not about a technique of meditation, but is, more directly and simply, about learning how to think.
I think that what Ashvaghosha is saying is along the lines of what FM Alexander used to say, as quoted to me by his niece Marjory Barlow, that "This work is an exercise in finding out what thinking is." And "In this work being wrong is the best friend you have got."
From this bias, I suspect that Ashvaghosha is saying that what is to be practised, by supplying oneself with friendship, is thinking itself, by which faults are eliminated and peace ultimately won.
Or this interpretation could be a prejudice which the process of approaching a direct and literal translation of Ashvaghosha's words will require me to drop off.
Translation as I enjoy doing it is like this. It is rather like Alexander work under a good teacher -- repeatedly finding that you were wrong; repeatedly finding that what you thought might be it, was in fact not it.
Translation as I enjoy doing it is like this -- a work in progress.
Saundarananda 16.62
This translation is a kind of groping in the dark. Please don't quote me.
Still, what is not in doubt is that Ashvaghosha is advocating, as an antidote to the fault of malice or ill-will (VYAAPAADA), the introduction of its opposite, which is goodwill (MAITRII).
MAITRII is conventionally translated, rather wetly to my ears, as "loving-kindness." Hence Linda Covill's translation of the above sentence is:
But when the mind is disturbed by the fault of malice, the loving-kindness meditation should be practised with reference to one's own position.
My understanding of Sanskrit grammar is not yet adequate to understand exactly in my own mind, or to explain for others, how each word of Ashvaghosha's relates to the others in this sentence, but I am able to look up each word in the dictionary, thus:
VYAAPAADA malice, ill-will, evil intent
DOSHA fault, defect, taint
KSHUBHITE (case?) shaken, agitated
TU but
CITTE (locative case of CITTA?) thinking, mind
SEVYAA practised [I am not sure about the grammar - can anybody help?]
SVA-PAKSHA one's own wing/side/half/place; oneself
UPANAYENA (instrumental case of UPANA) by supplying, by introducing
MAITRII goodwill, friendship
With each passing day I am more determined that I will learn Sanskrit properly (though my facility for picking up languages is not what it once was), and I will clarify for self and others what Ashvaghosha really meant. And this time I will do it independently, with the intention of serving nobody other than Ashvaghosha himself and whoever reads my stuff. Insofar as I am able to direct my energy simply towards this service of one who is truly worthy of being served, the Great Arhat Ashvaghosha, I think that I might be able to turn over a new leaf. I might manage to supply even myself with a bit of goodwill. I might feel that this field of misfortunes which is my body, insofar as it might become a kind of wheelbarrow for transporting the serviceable gold of Ashvaghosa, might be worth redeeming.
In so redeeming myself, however, I do not think that I will need to bother resorting to a meditational technique of loving kindness. I think Ashavghosha's message is not about a technique of meditation, but is, more directly and simply, about learning how to think.
I think that what Ashvaghosha is saying is along the lines of what FM Alexander used to say, as quoted to me by his niece Marjory Barlow, that "This work is an exercise in finding out what thinking is." And "In this work being wrong is the best friend you have got."
From this bias, I suspect that Ashvaghosha is saying that what is to be practised, by supplying oneself with friendship, is thinking itself, by which faults are eliminated and peace ultimately won.
Or this interpretation could be a prejudice which the process of approaching a direct and literal translation of Ashvaghosha's words will require me to drop off.
Translation as I enjoy doing it is like this. It is rather like Alexander work under a good teacher -- repeatedly finding that you were wrong; repeatedly finding that what you thought might be it, was in fact not it.
Translation as I enjoy doing it is like this -- a work in progress.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
INTRODUCING MY FRIEND MARA
Vowing to win release,
The great seer, born in a line of royal seers,
Sat there, and the world rejoiced.
Shaking with fright, however, was the enemy of true dharma -- Mara.
Comment:
The opening verse of the 13th canto, "Victory over Mara," of Buddha-carita is translated by Patrick Olivelle like this:
When that great seer, who was born in a line
of royal seers, sat down there with the pledge
to win release, the world rejoiced, and yet
Mara, foe of true Dharma, shook with fright.
I don't see anything to criticize in Patrick Olivelle's translation.
But when I examine the original four-line verse, through (I cannot deny it) the eyes of my teacher Gudo:
the first line is about the Buddha's mind;
the second line expresses objectively, in terms of his royal ancestry, who the Buddha was;
the third line centres on the actions of sitting and rejoicing; and
the fourth line describes, with poetic license, the real effect on the evil one -- poor old Mara.
The great seer, born in a line of royal seers,
Sat there, and the world rejoiced.
Shaking with fright, however, was the enemy of true dharma -- Mara.
Comment:
The opening verse of the 13th canto, "Victory over Mara," of Buddha-carita is translated by Patrick Olivelle like this:
When that great seer, who was born in a line
of royal seers, sat down there with the pledge
to win release, the world rejoiced, and yet
Mara, foe of true Dharma, shook with fright.
I don't see anything to criticize in Patrick Olivelle's translation.
But when I examine the original four-line verse, through (I cannot deny it) the eyes of my teacher Gudo:
the first line is about the Buddha's mind;
the second line expresses objectively, in terms of his royal ancestry, who the Buddha was;
the third line centres on the actions of sitting and rejoicing; and
the fourth line describes, with poetic license, the real effect on the evil one -- poor old Mara.
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