BUDDHACARITA 14.62: Thirsting Arises Depending on Feeling (8→7)

[No Sanskrit text]

Tibetan:

de nas de yis bsams pa ni | | sred pa gaṅ las byuṅ źas so |

| tshor ba’i rkyen gyis sred pa źes | | de nas rnam par ṅes pa mdzad | 

de nas: then

bsams pa: think, thought

sred pa: thirsting

gang las byung: where it comes from

tshor: feeling (受; vedanā)

rkyen gyis: on account of

sred pa: thirsting

zhes: [quotation marker]

de nas: thereon

EHJ's translation from the Tibetan:

62. Then he reflected, “From what does thirst arise?” Thereon he concluded that the cause of thirst is sensation.

Revised:

62. Then he reflected, “From what does thirsting arise?” Thereon he concluded that the cause of thirsting is feeling.

Chinese:

知愛從受生 覺苦樂求安

tṛṣnā comes from vedanā (the perception of pain and pleasure, the desire for rest) ; (SB)

Knowing that craving is produced by experiencing, one understands unpleasant and pleasant, seeking contentment. (CW)

COMMENT:

Neither Nāgārjuna in MMK chapter 26 nor, judging from the Tibetan, Aśvoghoṣa in today's verse, makes the distinction between three kinds of feeling.

The Chinese translator, however, mentions

覺 sensing/perceiving/being aware of

苦 the painful (duḥkha), 

樂 the pleasant (sukha), and 

求安 seeking calmness/rest/repose.

This 求安 is presumably intended to convey an inclination towards indifference, neutrality, or balance. Hence, EHJ notes that the Chinese adds the threefold definition of vedanā as sukha, duḥkha, upekṣā.

The Pratītya-samutpādā-divibhaṅga-nirdeśa-sūtram lists the third kind of feeling as aduḥkhāsukhā.

vedanā katamā

What exactly is feeling?
tisro vedanāḥ sukhā duḥkhā aduḥkhāsukhā ca

There are three kinds of feeling: pleasant, unpleasant, and neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant.

This aduḥkhāsukhā would more readily and more understandably be rendered into Chinese as 非苦樂.

Nāgārjuna, in any event, in MMK chapter 26, simply observes that an object of feeling is thirsted after:

punar-bhavāya saṁskārān avidyā-nivṛtas tridhā |

abhisaṁskurute yāṁs tair gatiṁ gacchati karmabhiḥ ||MMK26.1||

vijñānaṁ saṁniviśate saṁskāra-pratyayaṁ gatau |

saṁniviṣṭe 'tha vijñāne nāma-rūpaṁ niṣicyate ||2||

niṣikte nāma-rūpe tu ṣaḍāyatana-saṁbhavaḥ |

ṣaḍāyatanam āgamya saṁsparśaḥ saṁpravartate ||3||

cakṣuḥ pratītya rūpaṁ ca samanvāhāram eva ca |

nāma-rūpaṁ pratītyaivaṁ vijñānaṁ saṁpravartate ||4||

saṁnipātas trayāṇāṁ yo rūpa-vijñāna-cakṣuṣām |

sparśaḥ saḥ tasmāt sparśāc ca vedanā saṁpravartate ||5||

vedanā-pratyayā tṛṣṇā vedanārthaṁ hi tṛṣyate |

tṛṣyamāṇa upādānam upādatte catur-vidham ||6||

upādāne sati bhava upādātuḥ pravartate |

syādd hi yady anupādāno mucyeta na bhaved bhavaḥ ||7||

pañca skandhāḥ sa ca bhavaḥ bhavāj jātiḥ pravartate |

jarā-maraṇa-duḥkhādi śokāḥ sa-paridevanāḥ ||8||

daurmanasyam upāyāsā jāter etat pravartate |

kevalasyaivam etasya duḥkha-skandhasya saṁbhavaḥ ||9||

saṁsāra-mūlaṁ saṁskārān avidvān saṁskaroty ataḥ |

avidvān kārakas tasmān na vidvāṁs tattva-darśanāt ||10||

avidyāyāṁ niruddhāyāṁ saṁskārāṇām asaṁbhavaḥ |

avidyāyā nirodhas tu jñānasyāsyaiva bhāvanāt ||11||

tasya tasya nirodhena tat tan nābhipravartate |

duḥkha-skandhaḥ kevalo 'yam evaṁ samyaṅ nirudhyate ||12||

The doings that lead to yet further becoming, the one enclosed in ignorance, in three ways, does do; and by these actions he goes to a sphere of existence. Divided consciousness, with doings as its causal grounds, seeps into the sphere of existence. And so, divided consciousness having seeped in, psycho-physicality is instilled. 

Conversely, once psycho-physicality is instilled, there is the coming about of six senses; six senses having arrived, there occurs contact; and – depending upon an eye, upon physical form, and upon the two being brought together – depending thus upon psycho-physicality, there occurs divided consciousness. 

Combination of the threesome of physical form, consciousness and eye, is contact; and from that contact there occurs feeling. With feeling as its causal grounds, there is thirsting – because the object of feeling is thirsted after. While thirsting is going on, taking hold takes hold in the four ways. While there is taking hold, the becoming arises of the taker – because becoming, if it were free of taking, would be liberated and would not become becoming. Five aggregates, again, is becoming itself. Out of the becoming arises birth. The suffering and suchlike of aging and death; sorrows accompanied by lamentations; dejectedness, troubles: all this arises out of birth. In this way this whole aggregate of suffering comes into being. 

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 the realization of reality. In the destruction of ignorance, there is the non-coming-into-being of doings. The destruction of ignorance, however, is because of the bringing-into-being of just this act of knowing. By the destruction of this one and that one, this one and that one no longer advance. This whole aggregate of suffering in this way is well and truly destroyed.