The Bodhicaryāvatāra (The Path of Light) · 9 of 9
Chapter IX: The Perfection of Wisdom
CHAPTER IX
THE PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
All this equipment (46) the Sage has ordained for the sake of wisdom; so he that seeks to still sorrow must get him wisdom. We deem that there are two verities, the Veiled Truth and the Transcendent Reality. The Reality is beyond the range of the understanding; the understanding is called Veiled Truth (47). . . . Thus there is never either cessation or existence; the universe neither comes to be nor halts in being. Life’s courses, if thou considerest them, are like dreams and as the plantain’s branches (48) ; in reality there is no distinction between those that are at rest and those that are not at rest. Since then the forms of being are empty, what can be gained, and what lost? who can be honoured or despised, and by whom? Whence should come joy or sorrow? What is sweet, what bitter? What is desire, and where shall this desire in verity be sought? If thou considerest the world of living things, who shall die therein? who shall be
THE VEILED TRUTH
born, who is born? who is a kinsman and who a friend, and to whom? Would that my fellow-creatures should understand that all is as the void! They are angered and delighted by their matters of strife and rejoicing; with grief and labour, with despair, with rending and stabbing one another, they wearily pass their days in sin as they seek their own pleasure; they die and fall into hells of long and bitter anguish; they return again and again to happy births after births and grow wonted to joy (49). … In life are oceans of sorrow, fierce and boundless beyond compare, a scant measure of power, a brief term of years; our years are spent in vain strivings for existence and health, in hunger, faintness, and labour, in sleep, in vexation, in fruitless commerce with fools, and discernment is hard to win; how shall we come to restrain the spirit from its wont of wandering? There, too, the Spirit of Desire (50) is labouring to cast us into deep hells; there evil paths abound, and unbelief can scarce be overcome; it is hard to win a brief return, exceeding hard for the Enlightened to arise to us; the torrent of passion can scarce be stayed. Alas, how sorrow follows on sorrow! Alas, how lamentable is the estate of them that are borne down in the floods of affliction, and in their sore distress see not how sad their plight is, like one who should again and again come forth from the waters of his bath and cast himself
94 THE PERFECT KNOWLEDGE
into fire, and so in their sore trouble deem themselves to be in happy estate! As thus they live in sport that knows not of age and dissolution, dire afflictions will come upon them, with Death in their forefront. Then when will the day come when I may bring peace to them that are tortured in the fire of sorrow by my ministrations of sweetness born from the rain-clouds of my righteousness, and when I may reverently declare to the souls who imagine a real world that all is void, and righteousness is gathered by looking beyond the Veiled Truth (51) ?
NOTES
(i) “ As is fitting, the book begins with homage to the ‘ threefold jewel,’ or c three pearls,’ i.e. in early Buddhism, the Buddha (Sakya-muni), the Law preached by him (Dharma), and the brotherhood of his monks (Sangha). Here, agreeably to the doctrines of the Great Vehicle, we have (i) the Buddhas, designated by the title Sugata, * the well gone,’ or ‘ the well arrived,’ i.e. ‘ they who have left the world of becoming in order to enter Nirvana,’ or ‘ who know the truth,’ ‘ who have departed to return no more,’ ‘ who have cast off all frailty of body, speech, and mind.’ These definitions aim at establishing from every point of view a fundamental difference between the Buddhas and all other beings, (ii) The sons of the Buddhas, namely (a) the Bodhi-sattvas (‘creatures of enlightenment’) who have reached a ‘ stage,’ a ‘ ground,’ even though it be the first, in their career as future Buddhas (in opposition to the future Buddhas, Bodhi-sattvas, who have not yet entered upon the career, or are only at the outset of it) ; ( b ) all ‘ the worshipful ones,’ i.e. the ‘ teachers of discipline or doctrine,’ etc. We must understand ‘ all spiritual friends.’ (iii) The ‘ Body of the Law,’ i.e. either the sum-total of the Scriptures or * the Body of the Law of the Buddhas,’ in opposition to their bodies as visible upon this earth, and to their bodies as beatified in paradise. This Body is the uncreated wisdom which constitutes the essence of all the Buddhas; and the Law preaohed by the Buddhas is only
NOTES
the intellectual or verbal expression of this wisdom ” (Prof, de la Vallee Poussin).
(2) The “ Thought of Enlightenment ” ( Bodhi-chitta ) is to the Maha-yana what ‘ grace ’ is to Christian theology. Buddhism, in common with the other schools of Indian thought, holds that all living beings are fettered in the beginningless and endless cycle of embodied births, metempsychosis or samsdra, in which every instant of present experience is a resultant of former actions. Only the Buddhas, the loving teachers of salvation to mankind, have risen after aeons of effort in countless births into the transcendental peace of Nirvana. Hence the great religious duty of the believer is aspiration to become a Buddha for the weal of fellow-creatures. This yearning arises in his heart, by the special grace of the Buddhas, in the form of the Bodhi-chitta, which is finely expressed by our author in his third chapter. By this vow the believer constitutes himself a Bodhi-sattva, “or creature of enlightenment,” of the first stage; he has devoted himself to the acquisition of merit by charity and knowledge which shall raise him through higher and higher planes of existence, until he reaches the condition of the celestial Bodhi-sattvas, such as Manjughosha and Avalokitesvara, who have attained the highest beatification that the finite universe can give, and are only delaying their departure into the infinite stillness of Nirvana in order to continue their works as loving guides and helpers of mankind towards happiness and spiritual sanctification.
(3) The minions of life are the passions and other frailties which keep the soul enchained in the cycle (samsara) of bodily births.
(4) The Musa sapientum.
(5) See the chapter on the Perfect Long-suffering, below.
(6) The Buddhas, here styled Tathagata, on which see the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1893, p. 103 f. Compare the term Sugata (above, note 1).
(7) This term here denotes the divine Bodhi-sattvas
NOTES
(Avalokitesvara, Manju-ghosha, etc.), who have reached the higher stages of beatification.
(8) A Buddha-kshetra, or “ domain of Buddha,” is a system of a thousand millions of worlds, each under the guardianship of a Buddha.
(9) ^ This refers to the Buddha of the present era, Gautama the Sakya, and the places hallowed by his pious deeds in var ous births previous to his Nirvana.
(10) The Buddha, the Law, and the Congregation.
(11) See above, note 2.
(12) These are the celestial Bodhi-sattvas (see notes 1, 2).
(13) “ Stillness ” is perhaps the most suitable term to express the idea of Nirvana; compare Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophic, bd. i., abteil. 3, pp. Ill f., 152 f., etc. Nirvana does not signify extinction or annihilation, as is commonly imagined in Europe, but the very reverse, perfect spiritual self-realisation in transcendental being. The metaphor first occurs in the Upanishads, and frequently reappears later in non-Buddhist theology; it denotes mo - ksha, the state in which the individual soul, identifying itself with universal Being, is entirely at rest in itself and in Brahma, in the stillness of infinite thought. The fire of delusion and earthly desire has become extinguished in it by the annihilation of its fuel, the false imagination of finite being. Nirvana is thus similar to the yoga, or ecstasy of the Yogic adept, which is technically defined as chitta-vrittinirodha, cessation of the activity of the finite imagination, and it is frequently used in the same connection. Nirvana properly may denote either the blowing-out of a flame, or the burning of a flame undisturbed by -wind (compare Bha - gavad-gitd, vi. 19). The latter interpretation will suit the oldest passages where the word occurs; but the former is also applicable, and is necessary in some of the later passages. Now the Buddhists denied the existence of a soul, or permanent Self. Logically, therefore, they could not assert the existence of a Nirvana, or transcendental existence of the soul or Self; and theoretically, indeed, the Madhyamika
NOTES
school of the Maha-yana denied Nirvana as well as finite being, substituting for the whole the universal “ Void,” Sunya, which however is only another name for infinite Being, the unqualified Transcendental. Buddhist orthodoxy refused to speculate on this antinomy. But in the same way as Buddhism, while denying the Brahmanic conception of the soul, substitutes for it the santdna, or succession of moments of consciousness, which practically differs very little from it, so its conception of Nirvana practically amounted to much the same as the Brahmanic ideal. See above, p. 19.
(14) The “lucky jar” is a magic vessel in which is found whatever the owner desires; the “ wishingtree ” and the “ cow of plenty ” are part of the furniture of the Hindu paradise, and have similar properties.
(15) Namely, human birth under the dispensation of a Buddha.
(16) Meru is an imaginary mountain in the Hindu cosmology, wThich forms the centre of the universe, and around which the sun and moon turn.
(17) The ten points of space are the north, south, east, west, north-east, south-east, north-west, south-west, zenith, and nadir.
(18) The remembrance is of the Law of the Buddha and of the teachings of his Church.
(19) The Perfect Charity ( Dana-paramita ) is not an actual deliverance of the world from poverty (misery due to worldly desire), but an intention for such deliverance; it is a grace of the spirit. Thus purity of the will is the greatest of all virtues, and the foundation of all. Similarly, the Perfect Conduct (Sila-pdramita), which is the subject of this chapter, consists essentially in the will to hurt no living creature.
(20) Morality is higher than charity, patience than morality, etc., and the aspirant to Buddhahood must not practise charity at the expense of morality, and so on. But this rule has an exception. The essential principle of the divine Bodhi-sattvas’ conduct is siksha-samvara, “ right and holy
NOTES
conduct,” the dyke which holds in their place the “ waters of righteousness ” ; and this principle must never be infringed by the aspirant’s action.
(21) The aspirant, having collected alms of food by begging from door to door, will divide it into four parts, one for each of the three classes here mentioned, and one for himself. The three robes allowed to Buddhist devotees are of yellow rags.
(22) Namely, a person wThose compassion is excited merely in connection with friends, enemies, the unfortunate, etc. The aspirant devotes his whole self to the welfare of fellow-creatures, but this gift must not be too hastily given. It should be reserved for occasions when it will assist to enlightenment, etc., another aspirant of equal or greater power for good.
(23) The fundamental principle of Hindu medicine, like that of the Greeks, is the existence of three “humours” {dosha, dhatu), namely, wind, gall, and slime, which when in equipoise cause health, and when disturbed produce sickness.
(24) Here comes a polemic against the Sankhya and the Vedanti schools. The former divide existence into primal Matter and individual souls which by connection with the former assume the functions of finite thought. The Vedantis believe in a single universal soul or Brahma, essentially indeterminate, which by the operation of the cosmic Illusion {Maya) differentiates itself into individual finite souls. Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent soul, substituting for it a succession of instants of consciousness.
(25) It may be objected that if all action is a purely mechanical result of previously existent forces, the action of the mind in hatred, etc., is also mechanical, and cannot be checked, and hence the peace and salvation of the spirit are unattainable. But this is not the case, according to our author. Existence is a series of forces proceeding one from the other (the prat itya-samutpada; but by arresting one of these the individual arrests all subsequent forces as far as he is concerned; and the primary force is ignorance.
NOTES
(26) If I save myself from hell by refraining from retaliation upon those who wrong me, the merit of this is mine; and their merit, which consists in forcing me to suffer and expiate my guilt from former deeds, is not lessened by this merit of mine.
(27) The objector claims that, while he admits the merits of the person praised, he cannot abide the pleasure which the eulogist feels in praising him. But this is a sin. To every man must be given his just reward, both in this and other worlds; and both the eulogy and the eulogist’s joy are part of the reward of the person eulogised.
(28) The presence of a pravrajalca, an ascetic who has himself withdrawn from the world, causes us to perform the pravrajya, i.e. to take from him the vows of his ascetic order and become a monk in his company.
(29) Living creatures are a “domain” ( kshetra ) for the acquisition of merit by the aspirants to enlightenment; for merit is gained by showing love, charity, etc., towards them. The Buddhas or “Conquerors” ( Jina ) are likewise a “domain ” ; merit is gained by doing service to them. (Cf. note 7 above.)
(30) Both Buddhas and inferior creatures alike assist the aspirant to win merit and become a Buddha himself. True, the Buddhas are immeasurably good and great, and are always consciously beneficent, while other creatures often are in their intention maleficent. But if we measure the worth of a purpose by its results, noting that wrong-doing is a “ blessing in disguise ” to the sufferer, we must conclude that the purpose of a Buddha’s help is not more valuable to the aspirant than the various motives of other creatures with whom he has dealings.
(31) This refers to the Eastern custom of keeping fish alive in tanks until they are needed for the kitchen.
(32) See p. 76.
(33) This is a polemical reference to the Hina-yana school of Buddhism, of which the adepts ( Sravaka ) sought enlightenment and Nirvana for themselves and by themselves.
NOTES
Is not such a course more rapid and sure than that recommended by our author, in which the aspirant to Buddhahood deliberately postpones his^ Nirvana in order to work for the welfare of the world? Santi-deva here brushes aside this objection. In his ninth chapter, in a passage omitted in this translation, he attempts to prove that the Hina-yana can attain neither Nirvana nor suppression of passion.
(34) The sacred kite on which the god Vishnu rides.
(35) A reference to an ordeal in a well-known legend.
(36) See Dhamma-pada, ch. ii.
(37) Namety, conceptions inspired by sensual love, hatred, or delusion, which agitate the spirit.
(38) To wit, alms of food and the rags from which is made the beggar-monk’s robe.
(39) This is a play on words. Bala signifies (i) a fool, and (ii) the morning sun, the red glow of which does not stain the pure whiteness of the new moon.
(40) The bearers of the funeral bier.
(41) At the hour of death he can fix his thought upon the Buddha and the Law, without disturbance from the laments of kinsfolk and friends.
(42) Under the malignant influence of former evil works men fail to use the opportunity of salvation offered by their human birth, and after death are reborn in hell or as lower beings.
(43) The chief of the gods, who dwolls in paradise, svarga.
(44) Dhamma-pada, ch. ii.
(45) This refers to the spiritual exercises practised by the Buddhists, as by other Hindu devotees. In order to render the thought immobile and uninfluenced by external sensations, various physical objects are prescribed to be rigidly con tem plated by it, which, together with the themes of meditation described above, raise it to a state of still ecstasy, from which it passes either into a blessed rebirth or into final Nirvana.
( 4 6) Namely, the Perfections of charity, morality, etc.
( 47) This distinction of “ veiled ” or conventional reality
NOTES
( samvriti-satyci ) and transcendental reality ( paramdrtha satya) is shared by the Madhyamikas with the monistic Vedantis. The former conceives objects as they appear to the normal intelligence of finite beings; but this mode of conception is false when viewed from the standpoint of transcendental verity, which insists upon the essentially infinite and inconceivable nature of things. Thus in the higher reality nothing can be predicated of anything; all is inconceivable, “ void.” Our author here launches upon a long discussion, omitted in our translation, in which he argues that the impermanence of finite being, which the Hlna-yana regards as the highest truth, is, from the transcendental standpoint of his school (the Madhyamika) mere illusion; that the Vijnana-vadis, who hold that nothing exists but pure absolute thought, are likewise mistaken; that the Hfna-yana is insufficient in theory and in practice; that the conception of an ego held by non-Buddhist philosophers is false; that the principles upon which various heretical schools wrongly regard being as based are nonexistent; and that the only legitimate attitude is that of the Madhyamikas, with their denial of the validity of the means of knowledge and their doctrine of a conventional reality on the one hand and a higher reality or “ void ” on the other.
(48) See above, note 4.
(49) The following stanza appears to mean: “ In life there are many precipices, and no true reality” (reading atatvam) ; “ there are contradictions, and can be no true reality.” But as this meaning is somewhat uncertain, I have omitted it in my translation.
(50) Mara, the embodiment of worldly desire and lust of the flesh.
(51) The tenth chapter, which follows in the original Sanskrit, is omitted in this translation, as its 58 verses contain only prayers for the welfare of all beings for the sake of the merit acquired by our author in composing this work. A quotation is given in the Introduction, p. 28 f.
APPENDIX
[As an epilogue to the Bodhi-charyavatara, I append a translation of the Karikas, or metrical summary of the main themes of Santi-deva’s other great work, the Siksha-samuchchaya. These verses consist of twenty-eight stanzas in the anushtubh metre, and may be taken as an epitome of the Bodhi-charyavatara.]
Since both I and my fellow-creatures dread and hate pain, what is the peculiar quality of my Self, that I should care for it, rather than for my fellowmen?
He that would make an end of sorrow and come to the bound of happiness must stablish firmly the root of Faith and immovably set his thought upon Enlightenment.
The Bodhi-sattva’s rule of holiness deveiopes from the Maha-yana. Therefore one should know its principles, and so be free from evil.
APPENDIX
Surrender to all creatures thine own person 1 and thy pleasures, yea, and thy righteousness too, in past, present, and future time; guard them, and increase thy holiness.
For the enjoyment of fellow-creatures are sacrificed our own persons and the like. If they be not guarded, how can they be enjoyed? and can that be a gift that is not enjoyed?
Therefore to the end that fellow-creatures may have the enjoyment thereof, one should protect his own person and the like, by leaving never the Blest Friend and by studying ever the Scriptures.
Now what means it to guard one’s own person? to shun mishap. How is this all found? by shunning fruitless effort.
Fulfil this work ever by mindfulness. From deep reverence springs mindfulness; and reverence, the glory of the chastened spirit, arises from an understanding zeal.
He that hath concentred thought under-
1 The word dtma-bJidva, literally “ condition of self,” i.e. person or body, properly denotes the plexus of concepts which collectively form the idea of an individual being as conceived by himself.
APPENDIX
stands what is as it verily is,” said the Saint. Let the spirit turn away from outward action, and fall never away from its stillness.
Steadfast throughout, mild of spirit, one should by gentle address win over worthy men, and thus become acceptable.
The worldly folk who scorn the scion of the Conqueror and accept him not shall be broiled in all the hells, like fire hidden under ash.
Therefore the Conqueror in the Eatna-megha has told in brief the holy rule: “ Heedfully avoid that which gives displeasure to thy fellowcreatures.” 1
Thus to care for one’s own person with medicines, clothing, and the like, if it be to indulge the lust of the flesh, leads to grievous misfortune.
“ Let man set himself to good deeds, and withal know the mean throughout.” Through this precept it is easy for him to guard his enjoyment.
By quenching the lust for issues of thine own advantage, thy righteousness will be well guarded. Regret not thy deeds, nor make a public talk of them.
1 Or, “ that whereby fellowcreatures lose their faith.”
APPENDIX
The Bodhi-sattva will dread gain and honour, will shun exaltation; he will have glad faith in the Law, and dismiss doubts.
When the body is made pure, it becomes wholesome for creatures to enjoy, like perfect spotless rice.
As a crop of grain overgrown by weeds sinks under disease, and thrives not, so a scion of the Buddha, if overcome by sin, cannot grow in grace.
What is the “ cleansing of our person ” ? Cleansing it of evil and sin, in obedience to the words of the Enlightened. If this endeavour be lacking, hell awaits us.
Let men be long-suffering, and fain to hear the Law, then let them withdraw to the forest, strain the thought on concentred effort, and ponder upon the uncleanness of the flesh and the like.
Understand how to make clean thy enjoyments, until thy soul be cleansed. Make thy merit pure by deeds full of the spirit of tenderness and the Void. 1
1 Acts are to be inspired by knowledge of the Void and brotherly love. These two requisites ( sambhara ), the intellectual and the moral, are necessary for spiritual advancement; one is of no avail without the other.
APPENDIX
Full many there are who will take from thee. If thou hast but little, what of that? if it gives not full satisfaction, then it must be increased.
What is increase of the body? increase of strength and energy. Increase of enjoyment is from almsgiving full of the spirit of tenderness and the Void.
Firstly should a man with care establish firmly his resolution and purpose; then with an attendant spirit of tenderness, he should strive to increase his merit.
The rule of right conduct — wmrship and the like — should ever be reverently observed. Let faith and the like be always practised, likewise brotherly love and the remembrance of the Buddha.
In short, the weal of fellow-beings in all conditions, the godly gift without worldly desire, and the Thought of Enlightenment cause righteousness to increase.
Perfection arises from constancy in the heedful effort to make right renunciations, by remembrance, by attention, and by true meditation.
