−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Vāṇī)
tasmiṁs
tu bāṇe 'pi sa vipramukte cakāra nāsthāṁ na dhteś cacāla
|
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
dṣṭvā
tathainaṁ viṣasāda māraś
cintā-parītaś ca śanair jagāda || 13.15
13.15
But even when the arrow was unleashed
at him,
He thought nothing of it; from
constancy, he did not budge.
Seeing him like this, Māra sank down
into despondency
And, filled with anxious thought, he
said in a low voice:
COMMENT:
saṁsāra-mūlaṁ
saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ
The
doings which are the root of saṁsāra thus does the ignorant one
do.
There are two kinds of essentially downward direction which the ignorant one, as exemplified by Māra, does do.
The first can be summarized as “puffed
up.” When we are puffed up, we feel like we are really going up,
but the feeling is delusory. Our sensory appreciation, to use FM
Alexander's phrase, is not reliable. Our sensory appreciation,
Alexander would sometimes say, is debauched.
Psychologically speaking, this
puffed-up postural state tends to be associated with
(a) self-assertive statements
like, “I shall go to destroy his vow, like the swollen torrent of a
river breaking through a dike!” (BC13.6); and
(b) conceited views of past triumphs,
as Māra has demonstrated in connection with his bringing down of
Sūrpaka, the fishes' foe (BC13.11), of Purū-ravas and of Śan-tanu
(BC13.12).
Since pride invariably comes before a
fall, wrong direction of the first kind invariably leads to wrong direction of the second kind, which is expressed in the 3rd pāda of today's verse as
viṣasāda, “he sank down.”
This depressed or slumping postural
state (which Zazen practitioners are liable to try to disguise by an
external mask of uptightness – uptightness masquerading as
uprightness ) is associated psychologically with a heavy load of
anxious thought.
At the same time, both kinds of
downward direction – both the puffed-up state and the pulled-down
state – are associated with a loss of vocal power.
Just such a loss of vocal power was the
starting point in the investigations of FM Alexander -- without whose
teaching this comment would not have been possible.
The
task I see ahead in 2015 is to clarify in my own way, based on the
discoveries of FM Alexander in the field of non-doing, what the
Buddha meant by the teaching preserved in Sanskrit as
pratītya-samutpāda.
We
don't have Aśvaghoṣa's own account in Sanskrit of this teaching –
though the relevant part from BC Canto 14 is preserved in the
Tibetan, and we have EHJ's translation from the Tibetan.
Fortunately, however, we do have the Sanskrit of Aśvaghoṣa's Dharma-grandson Nāgārjuna,
whose MMK (mūla-madhyamaka-kakārikā) begins as follows:
a-nirodham
an-utpādam an-ucchedam a-śāśvatam
an-ekārtham
a-nānārtham an-āgamam a-nirgamam ||MMK1.1
Beyond
closing down, beyond springing up,
Beyond
discontinuity, beyond continuity,
Beyond
identity, beyond distinctions,
Beyond
coming near, beyond going away,
yaḥ
pratītya-samutpādaṁ prapañcopaśamaṁ śivam |
deśayām āsa
saṁbuddhas taṁ vande vadatāṁ varam ||MMK1.2
There
is Springing
Up, by going back
,
Which,
as the wholesome cessation of spin,
He
the Fully Awakened Sambuddha taught.
I
praise him, the best of speakers.
Then, 25 chapters later, in the penultimate chapter of MMK, Nāgārjuna makes it crystal
clear exactly what the Buddha meant by the pratītya
(going back) of pratītya-samutpāda.
In
the first verse of the chapter, Nāgārjuna states:
punar-bhavāya
saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |
abhisaṁskurute
yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||MMK26.1||
The
doings that lead to repeated becoming,
One
veiled in ignorance, in three ways,
[With
body, mouth, and mind] does do; and by these
Actions,
he enters a sphere of existence.
Nāgārjuna
then goes through the twelve links in the twelvefold chain linking
ignorance (1), doings (2), consciousness (3), psychophysicality (4),
six senses (5), contact (6), feeling (7), thirsting (8), clinging
(9), becoming (10), birth (11), and the suffering of ageing, death
et cetera (12), before coming back to his beautifully succinct conclusion. In this conclusion, Nāgārjuna comes back to the real root of saṁsāric suffering, in ignorant doing:
saṁsāra-mūlaṁ
saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |
avidvān
kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||MMK26.10
The
doings which are the root of saṁsāra
Thus
does the ignorant one do.
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 ||MMK26.11
In
the destroying of ignorance,
There
is the non-coming-into-being of doings.
The
destroying of ignorance, however,
Is
because of the allowing-into-being of just this act of knowing.
tasya
tasya nirodhena tat-tan nābhipravartate |
duḥkha-skandhaḥ
kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||MMK26.12
By
the destruction of this one and that one,
This
one and that one are discontinued.
This
whole edifice of suffering
Is
thus well and truly demolished.
In
MMK26.11 jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt is
translated here “because of the
allowing-into-being of just this act of knowing.” bhāvanāt
could equally be translated as “because of
the cultivation.” and jñānasyāsyaiva
could equally be translated as “of just this wisdom.” Thus, for
example:
avidyāyāṁ
niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |
avidyāyā
nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||MMK26.11
In
the cessation of ignorance,
There
is the non-coming-into-being of doings.
The
cessation of ignorance, however,
Is
because of the cultivation of just this wisdom.
If
you ask the Dalai Lama what MMK26.11 really means – and if you get
the chance, please do ask – I imagine this is what he will tell you.
Ignorance is caused to cease not by religious prayer, but by true education,
which is the cultivation of wisdom.
I
think that teaching is totally true, as far as it goes.
But
the present series of verses as I read it points to a still truer
understanding of jñānasyāsyaiva
bhāvanāt whereby the -na neuter action noun jñāna
“knowing,” expresses real wisdom as something less abstract than what tends to be conveyed with the word “wisdom.”
That something is the simple non-doing act of sitting still.
My
point is that Aśvaghoṣa does not describe the bodhisattva defeating Māra with wisdom; he describes the bodhisattva
defeating Māra by a more concrete means. The bodhisatta just keeps on sitting still. Whatever Māra
unleashes at him, the bodhisattva does not break his sitting posture, and does not budge.
This means, concrete action though it is, is not an act of doing. It is an act of knowing.
VOCABULARY
tasmin
(loc. sg.): at him
tu
(but)
bāṇe
(loc. sg.): m. an arrow
api:
even
sa
(nom. sg. m.): he
vipramukte
(loc. sg.): mfn. loosened ; discharged , shot , hurled
vi-pra-
√ muc: to loosen , unfasten , take off ; to liberate , set free ;
to discharge , hurl , shoot
cakāra
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. kṛ: to do, make
na: not
āsthām
(acc. sg.): f. consideration, care
na: not
dhṛteḥ
(abl. sg.): f. holding , seizing , keeping , supporting (cf. carṣaṇī-
, vi-) , firmness , constancy , resolution
dhṛ:
to hold , bear ; to hold back , keep down , stop , restrain ,
suppress , resist
cacāla
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. cal: to be moved from one's usual
course , be disturbed , become confused or disordered , go astray ;
to turn away from , swerve , deviate from (abl. e.g. dharmāt , to
swerve from virtue)
dṛṣṭvā
= abs. dṛś: to see
tathā:
ind. thus, in this way
enam
(acc. sg. m.): him
viṣasāda
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. vi-√sad: to be exhausted or
dejected , despond , despair ; to sink down , be immersed in (loc.)
√sad:
to sit down, to sink down , sink into despondency or distress
māraḥ
(nom. sg.): m. Māra
cintā-parītaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. lost in thought, thoughtful, Bcar.
cintā:
f. thought , care , anxiety , anxious thought about
parīta:
mfn. surrounded , encompassed , filled , taken possession of , seized
(with instr. or in comp.)
ca: and
śanaiḥ:
ind. quietly , softly , gently , gradually , alternately
jagāda
= 3rd pers. sg. perf. gad: to speak articulately , speak ,
say , relate
菩薩不視箭 亦不顧三女
魔王惕然疑 心口自相語
魔王惕然疑 心口自相語
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