27 May 2013

Mūlamadhyamaka-kārikā 1.1


na svato nāpi parato na 
dvābhyāṃ nāpy ahetutaḥ |
utpannā jātu vidyante 
bhāvāḥ kva cana ke cana ||

Not from self, nor from other, nor from both, or for no reason;
Are any beings found to arise anywhere.


06 May 2013

śūnyatā

sunyata by jayarava
sunyata, a photo by jayarava on Flickr.

Got my calligraphy pens out for the first time in ages to do some words for a new internet project.

24 March 2013

Dhāraṇī vs Pidgin

"Words from early-stage pidgins consist largely of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, with few or no articles, auxiliary verbs, conjunctions, prepositions, or pronouns. As for grammar, early-stage pidgin discourse typically consist of short strings of words with little phrase construction, no regularity in word order, no subordinate clauses, and no inflectional endings on words." Jared Diamond. The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanazee p.142. 
 Cf this dhāraṇi from the Saddharmapuṇḍarikā Sūtra:
Anye manye mane mamane citte carite same samita viśānte muke muktame same avishame samasame jaye kṣāye akṣāye akṣaīne śānte samite dhāraṇī ālokabhāshe pratyavekṣāṇi nidhiru abhyan taranivishṇe abhyantarapāriśuddhi utkule mutkule araṭe paraṭe sukāṅkṣaī asamasame buddhavilokite dharmaparīkṣaite saṃghanirghoshaṇi nirghoshanī bhayā-bhayaviśodhani mantre mantrākṣāyate rule rutakauśalye akṣāye akṣāyavanatāye vakkule valoda amanyanatāye svāhā.
Diamond's description of early-stage pidgins is a pretty good description of the strings of words found in dhāraṇīs. Make of that what you will.