⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−− Aupacchandasaka
atha
kāñcana-śaila-śṅga-varṣmā
gaja-megha-rṣabha-bāhu-nisvanākṣaḥ |
⏑⏑−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−¦¦⏑⏑−−⏑⏑¦−⏑−⏑−−
kṣayam-akṣaya-dharma-jāta-rāgaḥ
śaśi-siṁhānana-vikramaḥ
prapede || 5.26
5.26
Then, statuesque as a golden mountain
peak,
With the arms, voice, and eyes
of an elephant, a cloud, and a bull,
An ardent desire having been aroused in him
for something
imperishable,
He of moon-like faces and lion's paces
entered the palace.
COMMENT:
The Heart Sutra famously says that the
material is the immaterial, form is emptiness, and vice versa.
Today's verse, as I read it, is a meditation along those lines.
The 2nd law of
thermodynamics describes what is readily observable in this world:
that the energy in all material things tends to dissipate, unless
prevented from doing so. This is true of golden mountain peaks; is
true of elephants, clouds, and bulls; is true of royal palaces; and
is even true of golden full moons, white crescent moons, and feline kings of the jungle. But it is not true of
the 2nd law itself. This is a point that struck me a few
months ago. Perhaps I read it somewhere but I can't remember where,
so it feels like I hit upon it off my own bat, even though I probably
didn't. In any event the point is this: the 2nd law of
thermodynamics does not apply to itself, because the 2nd
law of thermodynamics is not material; it does not have any energy to
dissipate.
The material objects
cited in today's verse – objects which do have energy to dissipate – fall into four groups following
a certain philosophical progression, so that (1) a golden mountain
suggests something singular and ideal, (2) arms like an elephant's
trunk, a voice like thunder, and big eye's like a bull's, are
individual symbols of physical prowess; (3) a dwelling is a practical
necessity of life; and (4) having moon-like faces and a lion's paces
suggests something transcendent.
The factor that is not
a material object, the factor that corresponds to the immaterial, the
empty – the factor which has no energy to dissipate – is akṣaya-dharma
("something imperishable") in the 3rd
pāda. Something imperishable means something, for example, like the
2nd law,
or like the prince's as yet unrealized aim of pari-nirvāṇa.
In such a way as to cause the reader or listener to pay particular attention and think for himself or herself, akṣaya-dharma in the 3rd
pāda is juxtaposed firstly with kṣayam and secondly with jāta-rāgaḥ.
So kṣayam
(which means 1. abode/palace, and 2.
decay/ destruction / termination / end) is juxtaposed with akṣaya-dharma
(“something indestructible / imperishable / not subject to ending”).
Here Aśvaghoṣa is playing with words, and at the same time I think
he is alerting us to consider what the relationship really is between
that which is empty, devoid of energy/matter (like the 2nd law) and
things that have material form (which the 2nd law describes).
As EHJ points out in a footnote,
Aśvaghoṣa makes a similar play on the double-meaning of kṣaya in
SN Canto 10, where he has Nanda speak of an abode (kṣayam) which
represents the end of adversity (vyasana-kṣayaṃ):
In you who abides conspicuously in the state of refuge, I seek refuge. So that I do not wander through this world loafing in this place and that place; / So that I might come to and then go beyond that abode which is my adversity-ending end (vyasana-kṣayaṃ kṣayaṃ), please, repeatedly I plead that you help me." // 10.57 //
Secondly, Aśvaghoṣa juxtaposes in one compound akṣaya-dharma (something
imperishable) and jāta-rāgaḥ (arising of red passion, or vehement
desire). I think these are intended to strike us as strange
bed-fellows. Normally red desire is associated with material objects,
not with imperishable laws. A strong desire to hold onto a beautiful
sunrise reflected on a snowy mountain peak; or to maintain forever
the vigorous arms, voice and eyesight of our youth; or to shelter in
a dwelling that won't fall down; or to shine forever in the world and to walk
forever through it like a lion-king – these are strong
desires that, even if they are delusory, are understandable.
But who spawns a
raging passion for something like the 2nd law of thermodynamics? A
chemist or a physicist, perhaps – in which case
akṣaya-dharma-jāta-rāgaḥ might be understood to mean "his ardent
interest aroused in that law which is is not subject to decay."
Even if this is what
akṣaya-dharma-jāta-rāgaḥ might mean below the surface, I think
to translate it like that would be against Aśvaghoṣa's intention,
which might primarily be to cause us to reflect on what truly is
imperishable, and what attitude we might choose to take (if we have
any choice in the matter) towards what is imperishable.
For example, should we
revere the 2nd
law of thermodynamics as real; and think light of the world of
matter/energy that the 2nd
law describes? Or conversely, should we revere things that
temporarily have energy, like a Himalayan peak bathed in sunshine,
or a strong man, or a stout dwelling, or a moon or a lion; and think
light of empty abstractions like the 2nd
law?
At the level of
sitting-meditation, if sitting-meditation is our primary thing,
should we tend to assign more weight to feeling, and tend to negate
dry reason; or should we tend to assign more weight to thinking, and
tend to negate unreliable feeling? Or should we just blindly sit –
drop off body and mind! 1-2-3, just do it! – revering action
itself and thinking light of both feeling and thinking ?
I was taught by my Zen teacher to take
the latter view – just sit, as the dropping off of body and mind.
But I found, the hard way, that my Zen
teacher's view was also a view to be abandoned.
Against the view to which Gudo
attached, as I have argued many times on this and my previous blogs,
I find support in Dogen's exhortation that we should 1. sit in lotus
bodily, 2. sit in lotus mentally, and 3. sit in lotus as body and
mind spontaneously dropping off.
Dogen's teaching, then, is not a stool
with only one leg. And neither, reading behind the lines, is
Aśvaghoṣa's.
Speaking of the moon, at the time of
Galileo, the powers that be in Rome were attached to the view that
the moon was perfectly round. But when Galileo looked at the moon
through a telescope, Galileo could see mountains and craters on the
surface of the moon which falsified the prevailing view.
Alexander work here in England has been
the telescope through which my teacher's view on sitting posture,
which I had already suspected to be false, I found without any doubt
to be false. To sit as Gudo taught was to be a slave to feeling.
Hooray! By devoting my youth to
learning how to sit under a teacher who thought he knew everything
but whose teaching in fact was false, I proved myself to be a
complete bloody idiot, who put all his eggs in the wrong basket.
Quad Erat Demonstrandum
Apopros of nothing, just as I was preparing to publish this, looking out through the window on a grey and damp scene, I was surprised to hear the call of the first cuckoo of spring, unintentionally preaching its temporary defiance of what the 2nd law predicts.
VOCABULARY
atha:
ind. then, and so
kāñcana-śaila-śṛṅga-varṣmā
(nom. sg. m.): his majestic stature like the peak of a golden
mountain
kāñcana:
n. gold; mfn. golden
śaila:
m. a rock , crag , hill , mountain
śṛṅga:
horn, peak
varṣman:
n. height , top , surface , uttermost part ; n. height , greatness ,
extent ; n. measure ; n. body ; n. a handsome form or auspicious
appearance
gaja-megha-rṣabha-bāhu-nisvanākṣaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): his arm, voice, and eyes [like] an elephant's [trunk],
a thunder-cloud, and a bull's [eyes]
gaja:
m. an elephant
megha:
m. " sprinkler " , a cloud
rṣabha:
m. a bull
bāhu:
m. the arm
nisvana:
m. sound , noise , voice
akṣa:
n. [only ifc. for akṣi] , the eye.
kṣayam
(acc. sg.): 1. m. an abode , dwelling-place , seat , house ; 2. m.
loss , waste , wane , diminution , destruction , decay , wasting or
wearing away ; end , termination
akṣaya-dharma-jāta-rāgaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): with desire aroused for a dharma exempt from decay
akṣaya:
mfn. exempt from decay , undecaying
dharma:
n. dharma; a thing
jāta-rāga:
mfn. enamoured
jāta:
mfn. born ; grown , produced , arisen , caused , appeared
rāga:
m. colour , hue , tint , dye , (esp.) red colour , redness ; any
feeling or passion , (esp.) love , affection or sympathy for ,
vehement desire of , interest or joy or delight in (loc. or comp.)
śaśi-siṁhānana-vikramaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): with the face and paces of the moon and a lion
śaśin:
m. " containing a hare " , the moon
siṁha:
m. (prob. fr. √ sah, to prevail) " the powerful one " , a
lion
ānana: n.
the mouth ; the face
anana:
n. breathing , living
vikrama:
m. a step , stride , pace; going , proceeding , walking , motion ,
gait ; valour , courage , heroism , power , strength
prapede
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. pra- √ pad: to go forwards set out
for , resort to , arrive at , attain , enter
身如金山峰 傭臂如象手
其音若春雷 紺眼譬牛王
無盡法爲心 面如滿月光
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