H-Net Discussion Networks - Re: QUERY>Nirvana in a cave?!

(Inoue)

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I would like to thank Prof. John Huntington for commenting on my response to the "Nirvana in a cave!?" inquiry, and here, I would like to add a few clarifications to my previous posting. 1. Although I cited scientific descriptions of the Bodhi-tree (Ficus religiosa and benghalensis) by specialists (E. J. H. Corner and J. Galil), I have to admit that I am an armchair dendrologist. The closest I have ever been to a huge Bodhi-tree is by watching that wonderful 'Awakening' scene in Bertolucci's "Little Buddha." Siddhartha's tree, as Jesse calls it, is extremely large, and fits the specifications of the Bodhi-tree by J. Galil in his "Ficus religiosa L. the tree-splitter": "the main trunk, below the branches, gives rise to longitudinal, rounded bulges, which give it a distinct corrugated appearance (Fig.2). These bulges extend up the stem into the side branches and downwards, becoming confluent with the spreading roots at the soil surface." (p.188). "As the trunk bulges become larger and abut on each other, they tend to coalesce, owing to the very easy selfgrafting of the Ficus species. Cavities are created where the bulges remain separated, but at points where the bulges meet, the bark is obliterated and the abutting bulges coalesce. Consequently, the entire trunk may become a single massive block, despite the deeply corrugated appearance of its periphery" (ibid. p.189). What I meant in my previous posting by the phrase "inside such a hollow niche (or alcove)" is, to put it more accurately in the case of the Asvattha, "be circumvallated by the spreading roots on the ground, by the canopy of branches above, and by the large crevice between the longitudinal, rounded bulges from behind." Such a niche of the Asvattha, or massive basket-roots in the case of the Nigrodha, may be physically different from a cave structure, but could be called one in a metaphorical sense and also be regarded as "Yakkha's abode, or haunt." The 'treesymbolism' and the 'metaphor of the cave' (here, slightly different from the one used by Plato in The Republic) are not mutually exclusive. That is what I was trying to point out. In this respect, I would like to thank Dr. Hudaya Kandahjaya ("A Heart [hr.daya], Born from the Trunk [skandha-jaya]," like the phrase in the Suciloma sutta? Is this interpretation right, Hudaya-san?) for reminding me of the association between "cave" and "tomb," "womb (garbha)," "house (gr.ha)," and the "muula-sthaana," the last of which fits in very nicely with the significance of the "radical trunk" of the Asvattha and the Nigrodha. (If you search images of "host tree" on the Internet [e.g. using Google], you can find pictures of large basket-roots of the Nigrodha. For example, the one entitled "The inside of a strangler fig that suffocated and killed its host tree," by Jacob Jansen [the third picture in the following page: <http://college.usc.edu/jacob-jensen/

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H-Net Discussion Networks - Re: QUERY>Nirvana in a cave?! (Inoue)

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>], and "The Art of Ecological Research and Strangulation an example of a successful strangulation: a hollow tunnel to the sky where the host once lived" by Kristin [You have to scroll down the following page quite a bit. <http://www.kristinsworld.com/2006_06_01_archive.html >]) 2. As Prof. John Strong pointed out in his response, there seems to have been pre-Buddhist structures at the site of the Buddha's Enlightenment. The "cave/tomb/house/tree overlap" motif can be traced to the early history of caityas. See V. R. Ramchandra Dikshitar, "Origin and Early History of Caityas," Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. 14 No. 3 (1938), pp. 440-451, and B. C. Law, "Appendix: A Note on the Cetiya in the Buddhist Literature," in Geography of Early Buddhism (London: Kegan Paul, 1932), pp.74-80. See also Gregory Schopen, "Immigrant Monks and the Proto-Historical Dead: The Buddhist Occupation of Early Burial Sites in India," in Buddhist Monks and Business Matters (University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), pp.360-381, and Robert DeCaroli, Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2004). According to Dikshitar, caitya is a pre-Buddhist institution, and "caitya-sthaana" in Sanskrit literature meant a burial ground with a "piled-up" structure like a tumulus or a funeral pile, and in the Buddha's days was associated with sacred trees (caitya vr.ks.a), shrines (caitya gr.ha, or caitya praasaada), and the abodes of devataa (devakula). Among the many cetiyas that B. C. Law mentions are Gautama-nyagrodha caitya (p. 75) and Aggaal.ava cetiya in Aal.avii. The latter, in the context of Man.ikan.t.ha Jaataka "was something of the nature of a cave-dwelling or a vihaara." (p.77) In most of these cetiyas, their names seem to refer to sacred trees, i.e., the Asvattha and/or the Nigrodha, together with a piled-like structure in the sanctuary. Here, these artificial structures and the characteristic nature of the Asvattha and the Nigrodha can inseparably be connected: "The tendency to seek shelter inside a variety of objects easily explains the highly efficient, albeit regrettable, manner whereby F. religiosa roots spoil the archaeological remains of ancient civilizations, by growing into the interstices between the stones and the bricks." (J. Galil, "Ficus religiosa L.the tree-splitter," p.198). The picture of a small brick temple (caitya gr.ha) penetrated and enveloped by the roots of the Asvattha (Fig. 12, ibid. p. 200) is quite impressive. The entire shrine is actually inside its massive "radical trunk" (whose diameter is probably more than 4 m) and, in fact, becomes part of it. 3. Perhaps the most significant characteristic of the Nigrodha and Asvattha as a metaphor for the Buddha's attaining Nirvana is this operation of their destructive power on 'man-made structures,' the most radical of which is the tenacious 'conceptualization of self, or ego.' If you remember the Enlightenment scene in "Little Buddha," after Siddhartha overcame the temptation by Mara's daughters and the attack by Mara's army, Mara himself finally emerged from the small pool between the spreading roots (muula-sthaana), looking exactly like Siddhartha (Keanu Reeves), and grabs his hand. Then comes Siddhartha's declaration with that famous metaphor of the house and house-builder (gahakaaraka => sam.khaara). Here, I quote from the original text of the Dhammapada, translated by John Ross Carter and Mahinda Palihawadana (Oxford University Press, 1987, p.219): House-builder, you are seen. The house you shall not build again! Broken are your rafters, all, Freedom from the sam.khaaras has the mind attained. To the end of cravings has it come. (Dhp. 154) The house being completely destroyed, and the earth being the only witness, Siddhartha becomes the Buddha, and shining rays of light emanate from his body. 4. Interpreted in this way (that pays attention to slesha, or

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H-Net Discussion Networks - Re: QUERY>Nirvana in a cave?! (Inoue)

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"multivalent symbology"), the 'tree-symbolism' and the 'metaphor of the cave' (house/shrine/tomb/womb) are significantly related in the early Buddhist discourse on 'Awakening.' The Buddha appropriated the Vedic/Brahmanical sacred trees and the conventional caityas as metaphors and changed their symbolic meanings. In the case of the Asvattha and the Nigrodha, the "splitter" and the "strangler," their destructive power that eventually kills their host trees and breaks up artificial structures has a positive significance in the Buddha's use of this metaphor. From the standpoint of the 'perishing host tree,' the 'crushed house' and 'emptied cave/tomb/womb,' the great power of nature that penetrates from outside is the unwavering enabler of the eventual liberation from samsara. If I may add as a student of Pure Land Buddhism, that is what Tanluan called "other power," while Shandao expounded on "deep entrusting." Shinran experienced the whole process and described it as "jinen honi (lit. naturally as the Dharma operates)" at the age of eighty-six. <http://www.shinranworks.com/letters/mattosho5.htm >. INOUE Takami Otani University --------------------------H-Buddhism (Buddhist Scholars Information Network) Web Site: <http://www.h-net.org/~buddhism/> Posting Guidelines: <http://www.h-net.org/~buddhism/posting_guidelines.html > Handling Your Account: <http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=h-buddhism >

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