−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Sālā)
spaṣṭocca-ghoṇaṁ vipulāyatākṣaṁ tāmrādharauṣṭhaṁ sita-tīkṣṇa-daṁṣṭram |
⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
idaṁ
hi vaktraṁ tanu-rakta-jihvaṁ jñeyārṇavaṁ pāsyati
ktsnam-eva || 7.56
7.56
For,
beneath a straight and high nose,
and
lengthened and widened eyes,
With
its lower lip the colour of copper,
and
its large teeth, sharp and white,
This
mouth, with its thin red tongue,
Will
drink up the whole ocean of what is to be known.
COMMENT:
Today's
verse relates to the matter of knowing – to the matter of knowing
what is to be known, as all the Zen patriarchs of India, China, and
Japan have known what is to be known, by parking their arses for long
periods of time upon round black cushions.
Aśvaghoṣa
was the 12th Zen patriarch in India. Bodhidharma was the
28th in India and the 1st in China. The 2nd
Zen patriarch in China was a monk known in Japanese as Taiso Eka.
When
Bodhidharma was about to die, and he asked Taiso Eka to demonstrate
what he knew, Bodhidharma wasn't necessarily asking for a
ten-thousand word essay. And neither did Taiso Eka serve up a
ten-thousand word essay.
That
being so, if I was in the business of imitating Taiso Eka, I might
not bother writing long comments like the one I wrote yesterday or
the one I am writing now.
There
again, if Aśvaghoṣa had been in the business of imitating his 11
predecessors, he might not have bothered writing several thousand
verses of Sanskrit epic poetry, like the one we are studying now.
The verse begins, according to the old Nepalese manuscript, with the phrase paṣṭoś-ca ghoṇaṁ. This does not seem to mean anything, since paṣṭa is not in the dictionary. EB Cowell's Sanskrit text has puṣṭāśva-ghoṇaṁ, which EBC translated “with the nose of a well-fed horse.” To me the phrase puṣṭāśva-ghoṇaṁ would suggest a meaning like “with the [flaring] nostrils of a complete horse” or “with the [flaring] nostrils of a horse in full cry.”
On
the basis of the Tibetan translation, however, EHJ amended to
spaṣṭocca-ghoṇaṁ and translated “a straight high nose.”
The
Chinese rendering of the 1st pāda is 隆鼻廣長目,
“high nose, wide long eyes.”
All
things considered, though I am drawn to EBC's version comparing the
nose of the Buddha-to-be to the nose of a horse with flaring
nostrils, EHJ's amendment looks more likely.
In
that case:
the
1st pāda of today's verse expresses balanced proportions
and openness;
the
2nd pāda expresses vivid colours;
the
3rd pāda alludes to the thin tongue which is one of the
80 minor marks of a buddha, and at the same time the 3rd
pāda relates the face or mouth which is the subject of the verse to
action itself (since vaktra literally means “agent of
speech”);
and
the 4th pāda suggests what real knowing might be, by
means of the metaphor of drinking up the whole ocean.
So
what?
So,
I for one am caused to reflect, there is wanting to know for the sake
of being the one who knows. And there is wanting to know for the sake
of wanting to know.
Last
night, after writing the above, I had a dream in which I was making
preparations to go swimming in the sea and was asking if anybody
wanted to join me. I didn't actually get as far as the sea-side in
the dream. The scene of the action, if it could be called action, was
the dining room of a B&B at breakfast time, where I was making an
announcement that anybody who wanted a proper swimming lesson from a
professional swimming teacher had better go along to the pool with my
wife, but I was going to go for a swim in the sea and anybody was
welcome to join me if they wanted, on an informal basis – not that I
was offering in any way, I wished it to be understood, to take
responsibility for anybody else's safety or for teaching them
anything.
The
dream protected a sleep which followed a day in which, before and
after writing the above comment, I had recited today's verse a few
times to commit it to short-term memory – as Zen monks would surely
have committed Aśvaghoṣa's verses to their memory nearly two
thousand years ago.
Consequently,
when I woke up, the elements of today's verse seemed to have fallen
even more clearly and decisively into a definite order – so that
when I considered a title for today's post, the one that came to me
was Subject Object Gulping Ocean. Except that the title that actually
came to me was Subject Object Gulping Ocean... Fuck Off!
Why
the impulse to taint something that sounds good by adding a profanity? Possibly a certain skepticism towards any words that purport to sound too good. At the same time, part of the answer is
possibly in the dream. It is difficult enough being responsible for
my own vestibularly-challenged self. Taking responsibility for others
in a professional sort of a manner might cause me not to sleep so
easily. Better leave that to others like my brother and my wife, who
are happy to teach people on a professional basis. And since, following in my footsteps, they both trained as teachers of the FM Alexander Technique, what they actually teach in the water is not so much swimming. I would say that they teach others to know, in water,
that stillness in which knowing abides. But there again, fuck off!
Seeing
elements as being presented in a certain order is an aid to
memorizing them, and conversely memorizing each verse is an aid to
seeing how the elements fall into a certain order, so that, to put it
another way:
the
1st pāda of today's verse describes facial proportions
that represent a balanced mind;
the
2nd pāda expresses colours that suggest a healthy
physical body;
the
3rd pāda expresses the agents of an action (speaking)
that joins subject and object.
and
the 4th pāda expresses the agents of an action (drinking)
that joins object and subject –
or, maybe more to the point, an action (drinking/knowing) that
causes object and subject to be subsumed into a greater whole of
knowing.
So
what?
So
in wanting to know for the sake of being the one who knows, there is
the subject who wants to be the one, and there is knowing as an
object. But drinking up the whole ocean of what is to be known is too
ambitious a target even for the most ambitious of drinkers. The
action which most properly and happily joins the subject who wants to
know with the ocean of what is to be known, might be the action of
swimming, or the action of diving, so as to submerge oneself in the
ocean and lose oneself in the ocean. Fuck off!
A phrase in Saundara-nanda with which this echoes is in Aśvaghoṣa's
description in SN Canto 17 of the fourth of the four stages of
sitting-zen (which, it should be clearly understood, is not the same
as the fourth effect i.e. the fruit of arhathood):
Since in this there is neither ease nor suffering, and the act of knowing abides here, being its own object (jñānaṃ ca tatrāsti tad-artha-cāri), / Therefore utter lucidity through indifference and awareness is specified in the protocol for the fourth stage of meditation. // SN17.55 //
Fuck
off!
VOCABULARY
puṣṭāśva-ghoṇam
[EBC] (nom. sg. n.): 'with the nose of a well-fed horse' (EBC)
puṣṭa:
mfn. nourished , cherished , well-fed , thriving , strong , fat ,
full , complete , perfect , abundant , rich , great , ample ;
full-sounding , loud ;
aśva:
m. horse
ghoṇā:
f. the nose (also of a horse)
spaṣṭocca-ghoṇam
[EHJ] (nom. sg. n.): with its straight and high nose
spaṣṭa:
mfn. clearly perceived or discerned , distinctly visible , distinct ,
clear , evident , plain , intelligible ; straight (opp. to "
crooked ") ; n. growth , increase , gain , acquisition , wealth
, property (esp. of children or cattle)
ucca:
mfn. high , lofty , elevated ; tall
vipulāyatākṣam
(nom. sg. n.): with its large and lengthened eyes
vipula:
mfn. large , extensive , wide , great , thick , long (also of time) ,
abundant , numerous , important , loud (as a noise) , noble (as a
race)
āyata:
mfn. stretched , lengthened ; extended, long
akṣa:
n. eye
tāmrādharauṣṭham
(nom. sg. n.): with its coppery red lower lip
tāmra:
mfn. of a coppery red colour
adhara:
mfn. lower
oṣṭha:
m. the lip
sita-tīkṣṇa-daṁṣṭram
(nom. sg. n.): with its white, sharp large teeth
sita:
mfn. white, bright
tīkṣṇa:
mfn. sharp
daṁṣṭra:
m. a large tooth , tusk , fang
idam
(nom. sg. n.): this
hi:
for
vaktram
(nom. sg.): n. " organ of speech " , the mouth , face ,
muzzle , snout
tanu-rakta-jihvam
(nom. sg. n.): with thin, red tongue
tanu:
mfn. thin , slender , attenuated , emaciated , small , little ,
minute , delicate , fine (texture) ; (said of a speech or hymn)
accomplished (in metre) ; f. the body , person , self ; m. form or
manifestation ; m. the skin
rakta:
mfn. red, crimson
jihva:
m. the tongue
tanu-jihvatā:
f. the having a thin tongue (one of the 80 minor marks of a buddha)
jñeyārṇavam
(acc. sg. m.): the ocean of what is to be known
jñeya:
mfn. to be known ; to be learnt or understood or ascertained or
investigated or perceived or inquired about
arṇava:
m. the foaming sea
pāsyati
= 3rd pers. sg. future pā: to drink
kṛtsnam
(acc. sg. m.): all , whole , entire
eva:
(emphatic)
隆鼻廣長目 丹脣素利齒
薄膚面光澤 朱舌長軟薄
如是衆妙相 悉飮爾炎水
薄膚面光澤 朱舌長軟薄
如是衆妙相 悉飮爾炎水
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