−−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−−−¦⏑−⏑−
sūkṣmatvāc caiva
doṣāṇām avyāpārāc ca cetasaḥ |
−−−−¦⏑−−−¦¦−−⏑⏑¦⏑−⏑−
dīrghatvād āyuṣaś
caiva mokṣas tu parikalpyate || 12.75
12.75
And yet, because of the
subtlety of the faults,
Because of the
inactivity of the mind,
And because of the
length of a lifetime,
Liberation is posited.
COMMENT:
Meanings of pari-√kḷp
include to fix, to arrange, and to contrive. So a translation of
parikalpyate is desirable that at least hints at these negative
connotations, while also following in the logical stream from
yesterday's verse.
EBC
translated parikalpyate “is held (by some)”; EHJ “is a
creation of the imagination”; and PO “one imagines.”
EHJ's translation of
the whole verse conveys the meaning like this:
But such liberation is a creation of the imagination based on the subtility of the faults, the inactivity of the mind and the length of life in that state.
The
metaphor which EHJ's translation thus implies, of something created
on a base, is an apt one, in view of the meaning which pari-√kḷp
has of physical as well as mental fabrication.
Based
on a, b, and c...
Liberation
is allowed to form itself into a figment of the imagination.
Since that is a bit long-winded, using ten words where one might do, my
tentative solution, at the risk of arousing the ire of Jordan
Fountain, has been to opt for a $64 word – posited.
However
we handle the translation of parikalpyate, the gist of the
bodhisattva's argument is that what Arāḍa's believes to be liberation
is only a fabrication, a figment of the imagination, which is
facilitated as a practitioner progresses through progressively
refined stages of meditative practice.
And the logic of the
bodhisattva's argument seems to be that there cannot be true and full
liberation, as the bodhisattva sees it, so long as ignorance,
thirsting and karma remain. Equally there cannot be true and full
liberation, as the bodhisattva sees it, so long as the delusory
concept of a separable soul remains.
In today's verse no
direct mention is made of ignorance, thirsting and karma, nor of the
soul. But below the surface I think Aśvaghoṣa might wish us to
understand that
- ignorance tends to go unrecognized because of the subtlety of associated faults;
- thirsting tends to go unrecognized because of inactivity of the mind; and
- the influence of karma tends to go unrecognized because of the length of time over which karma operates.
And these three are the
grounds or the causal roots (pratyayāḥ) for the continued
existence, as a figment of people's imagination, of a separable soul.
From the practical
standpoint, so what?
I remember at the end
of one Alexander lesson Marjory Barlow saying to me quite feistily,
in connection with Alexander work, “It has to be real.”
From that standpoint
today's verse as I read it challenges us to ask what is a figment of
people's imagination, and what, on the contrary, is real.
As a conception of
liberation, how real is the escape from the body of a separable soul?
When people talk of the soul, as a pure spiritual essence
(viśuddho...ātmā ; BC12.71), how real is that?
Conversely, as I sit
here, just here and now, how real is the ignorance that pulls my head
back and down?
How real here and now
is the influence of wrongs that I did in the distant past?
How real is the
tendency to thirst for arrival at a given destination, thereby
failing to drive with due care and attention?
Again, if the king of
samādhis is just liberation itself, is it a sitting posture that can
be fixed or arranged? Is it an enlightenment that can be contrived or
fabricated?
True enlightenment,
from my reading of the records of Zen ancestors, is nothing contrived but just utter forgetting of oneself in the act of sitting.
And a Zen master who could fabricate that
might have it made.
In writing the above, I am half joking. But there again FM Alexander did famously say:
When an investigation comes to be made it will be found that every single thing we do in the work is exactly what is done in Nature, where the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously.
VOCABULARY
sūkṣmatvāt
(abl. sg. n.): because of subtlety
ca:
and
eva:
(emphatic)
doṣāṇām
(gen. pl.): m. fault
avyāpārāt
(abl. sg. m.): because of inactivity
ca:
and
cetasaḥ
(gen. sg.): n. mind, consciousness
dīrghatvāt
(abl. sg. n.): because of length
āyuṣaḥ
(gen. sg.): n. life , vital power , vigour , health , duration of
life , long life
ca:
and
eva:
(emphatic)
mokṣaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. liberation, release
tu:
but, and yet
parikalpyate
= 3rd pers. sg. passive pari- √ kḷp: to fix , settle
, determine ; to perform , execute , accomplish , contrive , arrange
, make ; to suppose
微細過隨故 心則離方便
壽命得長久 汝謂眞解脱
壽命得長久 汝謂眞解脱
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