[No
Sanskrit text]
Tibetan:
|
las maṅ rnams kyis thob pa yis | | mtho ris mi brtan g-yo ba la |
|
’bral bas byas pa’i sdug bsṅal ni | | gaṅ du ’di ’dra
thob par ’gyur |
| kye ma ded las khyad par du | | ’jig rten mdzad pa’i chos ñid de |
| kye ma ded las khyad par du | | ’jig rten mdzad pa’i chos ñid de |
|
’dod chags bral ba thob nas kyaṅ | | gźan rnams lha nas ṅes
par lhuṅ |
| ’di ni rtag par gnas pa ste | | źes ni ṅes pa’i sems ldan rnams |
| ’jig rten ’di yi raṅ bźin ni | | ’di lta bur ni mthoṅ ma yin |
las:
karma, action
mang;
many
rnams:
[plural marker]
kyis:
[instrumental marker]
thob
pa yis: for the attainment
mtho
ris: high estate, heaven
mi
brtan: transitory
ba
la: strength
bas:
since
byas:
do;
act; perform; fabricate
sdug
bsngal: suffering, pain
ni:
[separative particle]
gang
du: wherein [Skt: yatra]
thob
par: to attain
kye
ma: Alas!
=
bata [EHJ]
las:
karma,
action
nges
par : inexorably = dhruvam [EHJ]
khyad
par du:
especially =
viśeṣataḥ
[EHJ]
rten:
basis
mdzad:
action, deed, do
chos
nyid: reality, real nature
de:
that
chags
bral ba: freedom from attachment/ desire/ bondage, indifference (離於愛欲)
thob
nas:
having
gained/obtained/attained
kyang:
though, even
gzhan
rnams: all others
lha
nas: grain
offered to the gods, from the gods
rtag
par: eternal,
always, forever
gnas
pa: abide
ste:
[gerundive
connective particle]
zhes
ni: such
and such
nges:
ascertain, understand, determine, be certain about (決定)
sems
ldan: sensible
rnams:
[plural
marker]
rten: support, seat, station
yi
rang:
rejoicing
bzhin:
face,
likeness, similar to
lta
bur: such
as, similar
mthong:
to see, perceive
ma
yin: is
not
EHJ's
translation from the Tibetan:
42.
Seeing that Paradise, obtained by many labours, is uncertain and
transitory, and that such suffering will be caused by separation from
it,
43.
Alas, inexorably this is in an especial degree the law of action in
the world; this is the nature of the world and yet they do not see it
to be such.
44.
Others, who have disjoined themselves from sensual passion, conclude
in their minds that their station is eternal; yet they fall miserably
from heaven.
Chinese
積劫修苦行 永離於愛欲
謂決定長存 而今悉墮落
thro' lapse of ages bearing suffering, striving to crush [sic] desire and lust ,
Now certainly expecting long reprieve, and yet once more destined to fall ! (SB)
Practicing asceticism for eons and forever free from desire, one may think one will surely abide a long time, but in the present all miserably fall. (CW)
COMMENT:
In
a note to verses 43-44, EHJ says
the Chinese shows the Tibetan's order to be wrong here; my verse 43 is made up of Weller's 44ab, 45cd, and verse 44 of 45ab, 44cd. In the first line of 43 I read ṅes-par for des las [=ded las in the TLB version?] and understand something like lokakāryasya dharmo' yaṁ dhruvaṁ bata viśeṣataḥ. Verse 44 refers to the inhabitants of the Brahmā world.
So
that is as clear as mud.
As
far as I can tell, the four lines of Chinese (4 lines of 5 characters each) must have rendered
only in summarized form the 12 pādas of original Sanskrit which, in
verses 42-44, were represented by 12 lines of Tibetan.
Thus
積劫修苦行
(accumulated
kalpas of practising painful practice)
seems
to correspond in EHJ's translation to
“obtained
by many labours” (in EHJ's verse 42)
永離於愛欲 (forever
separated from sensual desire)
seems
to correspond in EHJ's translation to
“who
have disjoined themselves from sensual passion” (in EHJ's verse 44)
謂決定長存 (though
they with certainty assumed a long existence)
seems
to correspond in EHJ's translation to
“conclude
in their minds that their station is eternal” (in EHJ's verse 44)
而今悉墮落
(and
yet now all fall down)
seems
to correspond in EHJ's translation to
“yet
they fall miserably from heaven” (in EHJ's verse 44).
The
Chinese thus seems to offer a scant basis upon which to fiddle around with the
order of the Tibetan text, as EHJ has done.
But the gist of this part, in any event,
was as per what Ānanda emphasized for Nanda's benefit in SN Canto
11:
Since in spiralling through saṁsāra you have gained celestial nymphs and left them / A hundred times over, what is this yearning of yours for those women? // 11.31 // A fire is not satisfied by dry brushwood, nor the salty ocean by water, / Nor a man of thirst by his desires. Desires, therefore, do not make for satisfaction. // 11.32 // Without satisfaction, whence peace? Without peace, whence ease? / Without ease, whence joy? Without joy, whence enjoyment? // 11.33 // Therefore if you want enjoyment, let your mind be directed within. / Tranquil and impeccable is enjoyment of the inner self and there is no enjoyment to equal it. // 11.34 // In it, you have no need of musical instruments, or women, or ornaments; / On your own, wherever you are, you can indulge in that enjoyment. // 11.35 // The mind suffers mightily as long as thirst persists. / Eradicate that thirst; for suffering co-exists with thirst, or else does not exist. // 11.36 // In prosperity or in adversity, by day or by night, / For the man who thirsts after desires, peace is not possible. // 11.37 // The pursuit of desires is full of suffering, and attainment of them is not where satisfaction lies; / The separation from them is inevitably sorrowful; but the celestial constant is separation. // 11.38 // Even having done action that is hard to do, and reached a heaven that is hard to reach, / A man comes right back to the world of men, as if to his own house after a spell away. // 11.39 // The backslider when his residual good has run out / Finds himself among the animals or in the world of the departed, or else he goes to hell. // 11.40 // Having enjoyed in heaven the utmost sensual objects, / He falls back, beset by suffering: what has that enjoyment done for him? // SN11.41 //
Ānanda's point is not to negate the
possibility of sexual contact with nymphs in a heaven which is clearly a much sexier place than the Anglican heaven with which I am more familiar -- at least from second-hand descriptions of it on BBC Radio 4. Ānanda is rather emphasizing the ultimately transitory and unsatisfactory nature of
enjoyment in heaven of the utmost sensual objects.
In making this point, Ānanda says:
riraṃsā yadi te
tasmād adhyātme dhīyatāṃ manaḥ
Therefore if you want
enjoyment, let your mind be directed within.
This line from
SN11.34 might have provided a good segue into what I had
planned to highlight
in detail in today's
comment, namely, pratītya-samutpāda not
as a doctrine of depending origination, but rather
as active practice of
the backward step of turning light and
letting it shine.
However, as the
Japanese proverb goes, isogaba maware
– When in a hurry, take the roundabout route.
The intention remains
to connect
(a) pratītya-samutpāda
as teaching and practice,
with
(b) Dogen's backward
step,
with
(c) Alexander's
teaching and practice of non-doing.
But the making of that
connection involves, in practice, the growth of connections between
zillions of neurons. And such growth cannot be hurried.
We will get there,
slowly. In light of which intention, it does not matter that working
on the three verses covered today has been like trudging through mud.
What I will add in closing, mainly for my own benefit, because I am so easily prone to forget, is Marjory Barlow's words: "You are all perfect, apart from what you are doing."
How can we really know that?
How can we know that we are perfect, when it so rarely feels that way?
Not by taking a religious leap of faith. Because to believe is not really to know.
And not by reading and writing blog posts like this, because intellectual knowing is not it.
The answer must be by learning Dogen's backward step, and, equally, by steeping oneself in the practice of non-doing.
Thus, it seems to me, pratītya-samutpāda was not primarily a doctrine about how the world arises from co-dependent causes and conditions. Pratītya-samutpāda-pravṛtti is not a doctrine or a law to be understood, but is teaching and practice -- an actual practice (pravṛtti) to be learned in practice.
But learning in practice takes the time it takes, and I for one continue to surprise on the downside, when it comes to showing myself to be slow on the uptake.
No comments:
Post a Comment