−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Indravajrā)
duḥkha-pratīkāra-nimitta-bhūtās-tasmāt-prajānāṁ
viṣayā na bhogāḥ |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
aśnāmi
bhogān-iti ko 'bhyupeyāt-prājñaḥ pratīkāra-vidhau pravttaḥ
|| 11.39
11.39
To the people, therefore, objects in the sensory realm
Are factors in counteracting pain and
suffering, and not enjoyments.
What wise one would admit “I am
relishing enjoyments,”
While engaged in the counteraction?
COMMENT:
The rhetorical question in the second
half of today's verse, as in the series of verses from BC11.22, seems
to invite the answer: No wise person would! No person who was truly
wise, truly in possession of himself, would admit to that!
On the surface the bodhisattva is
continuing to put the blame on kāmeṣu and viṣayeṣu, desires
and objects of desire, as per the Canto title. Therefore, to
interpret his rhetorical question further, he is asking: “What wise
person would consider himself to be relishing enjoyments while he is
taking that bitter medicine which is the remedy to suffering?”
And the expected answer is along the
lines of: “Nobody would. To take the bitter medicine is not to
relish any kind of enjoyment.”
Hence in the Reflections
(Paccavekkhaṇā) traditionally recited in Sri Lanka et cetera....
Paṭisaṅkhā yoniso cīvaraṁ
paṭisevāmi,
With proper discernment I make use of the robe,
With proper discernment I make use of the robe,
yāvad-eva sītassa paṭighātāya,
uṇhassa paṭighātāya,
only to ward off the cold, to ward off the heat,
only to ward off the cold, to ward off the heat,
ḍaṁsamakasavātātapasiriṁsapasamphassānaṁ
paṭighātāya,
to ward off contact with gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, the heat (of the sun), and creeping things,
to ward off contact with gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, the heat (of the sun), and creeping things,
yāvad-eva
hirikopīnapaṭicchādanatthaṁ....
only as a cover for the shameful parts....
only as a cover for the shameful parts....
And similarly for food, for a dwelling,
and for medicine.
But wait a minute. Even in the Pali
recitation there is something that doesn't quite fit with this surface
reading of today's verse in which counteracting suffering is identified with bitter medicine. The verse on how to make use of a dwelling finishes with the
phrase paṭisallānārāmatthaṁ, “so as to delight in
seclusion.”
When we stop and think about it, what
is so bitter about being protected from extremes of cold and heat,
and from contact with gadflies, mosquitoes and creepy crawlies?
Again, referring back to the material
things cited in BC11.37, starting with water, what is inherently
bitter about using those objects? What is so bitter, when we are
thirsty, about being able to drink drinking water?
In his introduction to his translation
of the Reflections (Paccavekkhaṇā), Ānandajoti Bhikkhu describes
these recitations as encouraging frugality and contentment. So
therein might lie an alternative answer to the bodhisattva's question
–
Q: “Who would admit to relishing
enjoyments while engaged in counteracting suffering?”
A: “A wise person in possession of
himself, being frugal and content, might admit to relishing
enjoyments just in that very moment when engaged in the work of
counteracting suffering.”
There again, a verse recited after a
meal eaten in the formal manner, in a Zen temple in Japan, begins:
GA-SHI-SEMPASSUI,
This water I have used to wash my bowl,
NYO TEN-KAN-RO-MI...
Tastes like sweet dew from heaven...
As regards the second half of today's
verse, for the moment, I rest my case.
Having understood the second half of
today's verse like this, what are we to make of what the bodhisattva
says in the first half?
One way of understanding is in terms of
the distinction between the mass of living creatures or ordinary human beings (prajānām) who are not
wise yet, and a wise man (prājñaḥ)
who is wise already. For the former, simple material requisites like
water, food, a dwelling and a robe have not yet become objects whose
use is associated with true enjoyment. For the latter, to use those
objects well, with frugality and contentment, in the context of the
living of a simple life, might be the very essence of enjoyment.
For those of us still included in the former group, incidentally, i.e. for those for whom work on the self
remains to be done, for those for whom developing remains to be
developed, for those like Nanda was before his realization of the
worthy state, the Buddha recommended the practice of bhāvana
employing a variety of nimitta, usually translated “a subject of
meditation,” but more literally “a cause,” “a factor” or
(to borrow a key term from Alexander work on the self) “a
stimulus.” So the appearance of the word nimitta in the 1st
pāda may well be intended as an allusion to such work on the self.
To come
back, however, to the main point...
Q: Why
did Master Tendo Nyojo refuse from an appreciative donor a gift of
gold bullion?
A:
Because the Chinese Zen Master, in his real wisdom, being one who
knew the score, was simply enjoying his simple life.
In
today's verse the bodhisattva calls the wise one, the one who knows,
prajñaḥ, whereas Nāgārjuna at the end of MMK chapter 26 calls
him vidvān. But sitting on one round black cushion witnessing breath
passing in and out of his nostrils, he might have been the same
shaven-headed person. He might have been a prajñaḥ, a wise man,
and a vidvān, one who knows, as a result of developing just
this knowing...
saṁsāra-mūlaṁ
saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |
avidvān
kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||10||
Volitional
formations, the root of saṁsāra,
Thus
the ignorant one forms.
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 ||11||
In
the ceasing of ignorance,
There
is the non-coming-into-being of formations.
The
cessation of ignorance, however,
Is
because of the developing (because of the bringing-into-being)
of
just this knowing.
tasya
tasya nirodhena tat-tan nābhipravartate |
duḥkha-skandhaḥ
kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||12||
By
the ceasing of this one and of that one,
This
one no longer advances and that one no longer advances.
This
whole aggregate of suffering
In
this way is well and truly ceased.
Just
this knowing might be what
the Buddha knew by sitting under the bodhi tree, and might be what
the Buddha knew on the night before he died when, in teaching the
truth of alpecchu-saṁtuṣṭi, “wanting little and being
content,” the Buddha asserted that a person of small desire already
has nirvāṇa.
I have
again laboured the point. But the point I am making deserves to be
laboured at least to the extent that previous translators have not
got it. In Aśvaghoṣa's writing irony is every-present, and today's
verse is no exception. But the irony is wicked, and so it has tended to be missed, almost completely, by Buddhist scholars who have seen Aśvaghoṣa as some kind of goody-goody Buddhist evangelist. (Thus, for example, EHJ: What wise man engaged in a remedial process would assume that he is partaking of enjoyments? PO: What wise man, while employing remedies, would think 'I am relishing enjoyments?')
The irony in today's verse, to sum it
up, might be that the very thing that the wise relish most, is the
work of counteracting suffering – while drinking their washing-up water, while entering a simple dwelling in a secluded place, while putting on a
seven-stripe robe, and so on... but primarily with their sitting bones placed on a
round meditation cushion.
VOCABULARY
duḥkha-pratīkāra-nimitta-bhūtāḥ
(nom. pl. m.): being causes of counter-acting suffering ; EBC: means
for remedying pain; EHJ: means for remedying [people's] suffering
pratīkāra:
m. requittal, revenge ; opposition , counteraction , prevention ,
remedy
nimitta-bhūta:
mfn. become or being a cause or reason or means
nimitta:
a butt , mark , target ; cause , motive , ground , reason [but see
SN Canto 16]
bhūta:
mfn. actually happened , true , real (n. an actual occurrence , fact
, matter of fact , reality); (ifc.) being or being like anything ,
consisting of , mixed or joined with
tasmāt:
ind. therefore, from that
prajānām
(gen. pl.): f. living creatures, mankind, people
viṣayāḥ
(nom. pl.): m. objects, sensual enjoyments, objects of the senses
na: not
bhogāḥ
(nom. pl.): m. enjoyment ; any object of enjoyment (as food , a
festival &c )
aśnāmi
= 1st pers. sg. aś: to eat, consume, enjoy
bhogān
(acc. pl.): m. enjoyment ; any object of enjoyment (as food , a
festival &c )
iti:
“...,” thus
kaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): who?
abhyupeyāt
= 3rd pers. sg. opt. abhy-upa-√i: to go near ; to admit
as an argument or a position
prājñaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. a wise man
pratīkāra:
m. requital ; revenge; opposition , counteraction , prevention ,
remedy
pratīkāra-vidhau
(loc. sg.): the counteracting
vidhi:
m. use , employment , application ; a means , expedient for ; (ifc.
often pleonastically e.g. mathana-vidhi , the [act of] disturbing)
pravṛttān
(acc. pl. m.): mfn. going to , bound for (acc. loc.); devoted to
(loc.)
pravṛttaḥ
[EHJ] (nom. sg. m.): mfn. purposing or going to , bent upon (dat.
loc. , or comp.) ; engaged in , occupied with , devoted to (loc. or
comp.); acting , proceeding , dealing with (loc.)
是故應當知 五欲非自在
如人得熱病 求諸冷治藥
如人得熱病 求諸冷治藥
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