- - -- ---- - -- --Upaj ti (K rti)tapo-vane 'sminn-atha ni kriyo vsa k r a-dharme patito ' ucir-v|-- - -- ---- - -- --das-tvayyena na te vivatstad-br hi y vad-rucito 'stu v sa|| 7.42
7.42OR ELSE, IN THIS FOREST OF PAINFUL PRACTICE, YOU HAVE SEEN A NEGLECTER OF RITES;
OR YOU HAVE SEEN ONE WHO IS NOT PURE, ONE WHO, IN A COMMINGLED DHARMA, HAS FALLEN;
FOR WHICH REASON THERE IS IN YOU NO DESIRE TO DWELL --
THEN SAY AS MUCH, AND ...BE PLEASED TO STAY![OR] ON THE ACT OF ABIDING, LET LIGHT BE SHONE!
COMMENT: The implicit question A vagho a is asking us again, in today's verse, as I read it is this:
Is the speaker one of them?
Or is he one of us?
If my starting point is that I am right, because I not only know aboutBuddhism (as a Buddhist scholar knows about Buddhism) but I also through my sitting practice know the Buddha's teaching itself, that starting point is liable to lead me to the sectarian conclusion that the veteran forest practitioner, steeped though he may be in many years of painful practice, is one of them. He is a devotee of asceticism, whereas I know that the sitting practice I do every day does not belong to asceticism.
If my starting point, conversely, is that the only thing I truly know, the only thing I have learned from 30 years of sitting practice and 20 years of Alexander work, is that "I am right" is wrong, then I may be more open to the possibility that the veteran forest practitioner, though he is wearing an ascetic guise, may in fact be on the same side as me. More than that, he might be a bodhi-sattva or a maha-sattva who is presaging the Buddha's golden preaching of praj.
If the speaker is one of them, every element of today's verse can be read in the light of him being one of them. Hence:
tapo-vane: "in the ascetic grove;" the standard Vedic term used by many generations of forest practitioners since ancient times. Since the speaker is a devotee of tapas, ascetic practice, he uses the term tapo-vana, "the ascetic grove" without any of the irony that might be conveyed by a more knowing translation like "the woods of asceticism."
ni kriya : "neglectful of religious rites;" describes, for example, a blameworthy ascetic who, when night falls, neglects the kinds of rite referred to in BC7.33 - making burned offerings in sacred flames, performing bathing rites, and muttering prayers.
sa k r a-dharme patito ' uci : "impure from having fallen into an adulterated dharma" [EHJ]; a conception rooted in ancient Indian views of purity and adulteration that A vagho a lampoons (albeit circumspectly) in SN Canto 1:With soft, sandy, and smooth soil, made yellowish white by a covering of kesara blossoms, / And divided into areas, with no commingling (asa k r ai ), it was like a body painted with cosmetic pigments. // SN1.7 //[Footnote: Asa k r aimeans not mixed, not adulterated, not polluted, not impure, not born of a mixed marriage. Beneath a camouflage of kesara flowers, A vagho a may be alluding, always with due circumspection, to traditional Bhramanical conceptions around caste.]
yena na te vivats : "for which reason you do not wish to stay"; the veteran ascetic fears that because of having witnessed somebody's laxity in practice the prince does not wish to stay in this ashram.
rucito 'stu v sa : "be pleased to dwell here" [EHJ]; simple expression of the veteran ascetic's wish that the prince might remain in this ashram.
If the veteran practitioner is heard as one of us, however, or as one who is like us only better, a first among equals, then each of the above elements has to be read in a different light:
tapo-vane: "in the forest of painful practice;" an appropriation of the ancient term by a practitioner who has abandoned the viewpoint of asceticism, but who nonetheless continues to live in the forest and to experience practice there as painful.
ni kriya : "neglectful of rites;" describes, for example, a Japanese Zen master like Kodo Sawaki, or a Chinese Zen master like Tendo Nyojo (Ch: Tiantong Rujing), each of who famously placed a marked emphasis on the primacy of sitting-meditation, as opposed to ritual bells and whistles.
sa k r a-dharme patito ' uci : "fallen, in a dharma of commingling; not pure" might be, again, an ironic description of Zen masters of the ilk of Kodo Sawaki and Tendo Nyojo, who sat in lotus with body, sat in lotus with mind, and who dropped off everything, in a dharma in which body and mind, subject and object, us and them, inside and outside, are all commingled; and who thus transcended viewpoints of purity and impurity.
yena na te vivats : "for which reason there is no desire in you to dwell"; for which reason, there is no complacency in you --the veteran practitioner understands how witnessing the sincere devotion of one human being to the practice of sitting-meditation can facilitate the growth of that same devotion (as opposed to lazy dwelling) in another human being.
rucito 'stu v sa : "let abiding be shone upon"; in other words, let the backward step be learned of turning the light and letting it shine.
VOCABULARYtapo-vane (loc. sg. n.): in the ascetic wood asmin (loc. sg. n.): this atha: ind. now, then , elseni kriya(nom. sg. m.): = ni -karman: mfn. inactive ; exempt from or neglecting religious or worldly actsv : or
sa k r a-dharm patita[old Nepalese manuscript / EHJ] (nom. sg. n.): fallen into a commingled dharma (EHJ: fallen into an adulterated dharma) sa k r a: mfn. mingled , confused , disordered , adulterated , polluted , impure ; born of a mixed marriagedharma: dharma patita: mfn. happened , befallen; descended -pat: to fly towards , come flying ; to hasten towards , rush in or on ; to fall towards or onsa k r a-dharme [Gawronski]: into a commingled dharma patita(nom. sg. n.): mfn. fallen , dropped , descended , alighted ; (ifc.) fallen upon or froma uci(nom. sg. m.): mfn. impure v : or
da(nom. sg. m.): mfn. seen tvay(inst. sg.): by youyena (inst. sg.): by which, for which reason na: not te (gen. sg.): of you vivats(nom. sg.): f. (fr. Desid. of5. vas) desire of dwelling, Bcar.vas: , to dwell , live , stop (at a place) , stay (esp. " overnight "); to remain, abide
tad (acc. sg. n.): it, that ; ind. in that case, thenbr hi = imperative br : to speak , say , tell y vat: ind. (connective particle) during which time; until, up to (acc.); ind. (relative adv.) for as long as, while, until EHJ note: I understand y vat as = t vac ca, this use of the relative being not uncommon in A vagho a.("mention it and just be pleased to dwell here.") rucita(nom. sg. m.): mfn. shone upon (by the sunpleasant , agreeable astu (3rd pers. sg. imperative as): let it bev sa(nom. sg.): m. staying , remaining (esp. " overnight ") , abiding , dwelling
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