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Upajāti (Buddhi)
tatjyāja
śastraṁ vimamarṣa śāstraṁ samaṁ
siṣeve niyamaṁ viṣehe
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vaśīva
kaṁ-cid-viṣayaṁ na bheje piteva sarvān-viṣayān dadarśa ||
2.52
2.52
The hymn of praise he could set aside,
dogmatic scripture he could scarce
abide --
He applied himself to equanimity,
and subjected himself to restraint.
Into any sensory realm, like a master,
he did not slide.
All realms, like a
patriarch, he realized.
COMMENT:
A verse like today's verse is always
going to seem more worthwhile in its original Sanskrit, given the
plays on śastraṁ
(hymn of praise / weapon) and śāstraṁ (edict / sacred scripture /
teaching); on siṣeve (applied himself) and viṣehe (subjected
himself); on viṣayaṁ (sense object, sensuality, sensory domain)
and viṣayān ([a king's] territories, dominions).
The 1st pāda belongs to the first of
four phases because it concerns itself with religious matters -- but
in a way that I take, again, to be subversive. People will say that
my translation of the 1st pāda is “idiosyncratic.”
But I am not the one who amended the original word in the old
Nepalese manuscript, vimamarṣa
(“he could hardly bear”) to vimamarśa
(“he pondered”).
Taking śastraṁ to mean “weapon,”
EBC translated “He
laid aside weapons and pondered the Śāstra;” EHJ likewise “He
laid aside weapons, he pondered on the Śāstra;” and PO “He laid
down the sword and mulled over texts.”
Laying
aside weapons and reflecting on sacred texts is the kind of thing one
would expect from a man like the King, as a pious man of pure karma
(puṇya-karmā; 2.50). But today's verse as I read it is portraying
the King in a different light, as one who was not always a pious
religious type, but as one who, on a good day, could be more like an old
Zen drill -- like, for example, the 6th
patriarch in China, Daikan Eno. The 6th
patriarch was formerly an illiterate woodcutter, who had never read a
sacred text in his life, and who neither studied nor preached any
religious dogma.
With
his example in mind, then, I have taken śastraṁ to mean “hymn
of praise” and left vimamarṣa unamended so that it means “he
could barely abide [a sacred text / religious treatise / dogmatic
scripture].”
Whether
or not this reading of the 1st
pāda is the reading that Aśvaghoṣa intended, or whether (which is more likely) Aśvaghoṣa was playing with the amibiguity of words and intended more than one meaning, the gist of the verse as whole is
such that in the space of two verses King Śuddhodhana seems to have
gone from being portrayed as a risible religious sap who is blind to
cause and effect, to a paragon of the universal virtue to be realized
via sitting-meditation. That is a sizeable leap to ask any reader or
listener to make, but Aśvaghoṣa may have reasoned that having had
more than 50 verses to sharpen up our critical faculties, we should
be up to speed by now.
The
2nd
pāda is not concerned either with affirmation or with negation of
religious matters. It is concerned with
equability/even-handedness/level-headedness, and restraint/inhibition
as irreligious matters.
In
the 3rd
pāda, transcending the religious and the irreligious, Aśvaghoṣa
expresses what it is in practice to be the master of oneself.
In the 4th pāda, what does
it mean to see all realms piteva (= pitā + iva), “like a father”?
My first thought was that a father is
one who is at least more experienced than a child, one who is
therefore more informed by understanding that the world is
impermanent, full of suffering, and not all about me. The 4th
pāda, in that case, might be read as an expression of that mature but mundane practice
which causes the tree of afflictions to shake:
For, on those grounds, on the grounds of impermanence and emptiness, on the grounds of absence of self, and of suffering, / He, by the most excellent among mundane paths, caused the tree of afflictions to shake. //SN 17.17 //
Digging deeper, and having just
described 6th patriarch in China, Daikan Eno, as a
patriarch, I think that pitā might be intended to suggest not any
old father -- not any old ejaculator into a woman's vagina of his sperm -- but rather a forefather, that is, a Zen patriarch like Daikan Eno. The 6th
patriarch in China, though he could not read the Lotus Sutra to save
his life, was famous for having understood every word of it without
even trying -- without pondering or mulling over a single sacred
word.
What did a patriarch like Daikan Eno,
together with a patriarch like Daiman Konin, understand?
Possibly something along these lines:
Desire, delusion, hatred,
All we think and feel:
Not a bit of it is sacred,
But everything is real.
VOCABULARY
tatjyāja = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. tyaj: to leave , abandon , quit ; to let go , dismiss ,
discharge; to give up , surrender , resign , part from , renounce ;
to shun , avoid , get rid of , free one's self from (any passion &c
); to set aside, leave unnoticed , disregard
śastram (acc. sg.): (1) n. invocation
, praise (applied to any hymn recited either audibly or inaudibly ,
as opp. to stoma , which is sung , but esp. the verses recited by the
hotṛ and his assistant as an accompaniment to the grahas at the
soma libation); (2) n. an instrument for cutting or wounding , knife
, sword , dagger , any weapon
vimamarṣa = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. vi- √ mṛṣ : to be distressed , bear hardly
√ mṛṣ : to forget , neglect ; to
disregard , not heed or mind , mind , bear patiently , put up with
(acc.)
vimamarśa = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. vi- √ mṛś: (often confounded with vi- √mṛṣ) to
touch (with the hands) , stroke , feel ; to touch (mentally) , be
sensible or aware of , perceive , consider , reflect on , deliberate
about ; to investigate , examine , try , test
śāstram (acc. sg.): n. an order ,
command , precept , rule ; teaching , instruction , direction ,
advice , good counsel; any instrument of teaching , any manual or
compendium of rules , any bock or treatise , (esp.) any religious or
scientific treatise , any sacred book or composition of divine
authority; a body of teaching (in general) , scripture , science
samam (acc. sg.): n. equability ,
equanimity , imperturbability
śamam (acc. sg.): m. tranquillity ,
calmness , rest , equanimity , quietude ; peace
siṣeve = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. sev: to remain or stay at , live in , frequent , haunt ,
inhabit , resort to (acc.) ; to devote or apply one's self to ,
cultivate , study , practise , use , employ , perform , do
niyamam (acc. sg.): m. restraining ,
checking , holding back ; any fixed rule or law , necessity ,
obligation
viṣehe = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. vi + sah: to bear , withstand , resist ; to endure , suffer ,
put up with (acc.)
vaśī = nom. sg. vaśin: m. a ruler ;
m. a sage with subdued passions ; mfn. having will or power , having
authority , a ruler , lord; compliant , obedient ; master of one's
self; having the mastery of one's passions
iva: like
kaṁ-cid: ind. any
viṣayam (acc. sg.): m. sphere (of
influence or activity) , dominion , kingdom , territory , region ,
district , country , abode (pl. = lands , possessions); an object of
sense ; anything perceptible by the senses , any object of affection
or concern or attention , any special worldly object or aim or matter
or business , (pl.) sensual enjoyments , sensuality
na: not
bheje = 3rd pers. sg. perf.
bhaj: to obtain as one's share , receive as (two acc.) , partake of
, enjoy (also carnally) , possess , have (acc.); to turn or resort to
, engage in , assume (as a form) , put on (garments) , experience ,
incur , undergo , feel , go or fall into (with acc.)
pitā = nom. sg. pitṛ: m. father
iva: like
sarvān (acc. pl. m.): mfn. all
viṣayān (acc. sg.): m. sphere (of
influence or activity) , dominion , kingdom , territory , region ,
district , country , abode (pl. = lands , possessions)
dadarśa = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. dṛś: to see , behold , look at , regard , consider ; to see
with the mind , learn , understand; to notice , care for , look into
, try , examine
已樂智慧増 悟道弘正法
先勝名聞所 受行衆妙道
先勝名聞所 受行衆妙道
唯願令太子 愛子不捨家
一切諸國王 生子年尚小
一切諸國王 生子年尚小
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