[Buddha-l] Non-arising

[Dan Lusthaus]

Hi Bernhard,

You ask, re: Lamotte's footnote 119 in the Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra tramslation 
(tr. from French to English by the late Sara Boin-Webb), about his comment 
that kṣānti is used in (at least) two senses: 'patience' and 'certainty,' 
and, since the typical Skt. Eng. dictionaries don't mention the latter 
meaning, whether I agree with Lamotte's comment. Yes?

Short answer: Yes.

Longer answer: This is a splendid question, since it really isn't a matter 
of a simple yes or no, assent or disagree. It is also a useful, instructive 
case for how scholars go about addressing such issues -- in distinction from 
how some (not all) devotees might handle things.

A couple of preliminary remarks:
1. The "standard" English rendering of kṣānti has been "forbearance" for a 
century or so. Nevermind that the average English speaker probably does not 
have a completely clear idea of what the English word "forbearance" means, 
since it is not in much use these days (most will probably imagine it's an 
archaic synonym for "tolerance," perhaps with a bit more emphasis on 
suffering for one's patient resolve -- taking the hits, as it were). Even if 
the English reader has a more or less clear idea of what "forbearance" 
means, as soon as one starts to read Buddhist literature in which the term 
appears, cognitive dissonance emerges, since that sense rarely makes sense 
in the Buddhist contexts in which the term kṣānti appears. So kṣānti has 
long been a term in search of an adequate English equivalent (like so many 
other basic Buddhist terms; hence the instructive value of taking up this 
question).

2. In Pali texts khanti often appears in tandem with mettā (deep friendship, 
typically mistranslated "love"), implying some sort of patronizing 
gentleness, and is there also translated as "forbearance, patience," and so 
on.

3. Lamotte is doing what a first-class scholar should do: He collects and 
presents the evidence, without trying modifying it for cleaner narrative 
impact. He states up front, right away, this is a challenging term. He 
quotes other scholars (e.g. J. May), summarizing their acknowledgement that 
different Buddhist texts and thinkers deploy the term differently. He then 
proceeds to give prime examples from the array of differing Buddhist uses of 
the term. (A devotee will simply reiterate endlessly whatever his "main" 
teacher told him, and try to make all alternate and opposing uses "fit" the 
meaning he prefers, or consider the text(s) deploying it in those other ways 
someone less significant.)

4. If one wishes to believe that all Buddhavacana fell from the lips of 
Siddhartha Gautama, and were faithfully and accurately transcribed, 
recorded, and transmitted to this very day, whether Mahayana, tantra, 
Prajnaparamita, or Tipitaka, then the discrepancies between the variant uses 
of terms like kṣānti will be a problem (Oh yeah, Buddha uses language 
differently for different audiences...). If one sees the literature as 
composed and compiled over long periods of time, such that a later text 
might have incorporated materials from different sources that, for instance, 
reflect different historical developments of terms like kṣānti, then even 
when different meanings occur in the same text, one has a ready model on 
hand to explain how this happens.

5. Similarly, one can look at different texts as reflecting different 
histories, in which terms, models, etc., demonstrate alternate developments.

6. A word that assumes a central, or near central position in the doctrinal 
formulations of a tradition, will inevitably contain a certain degree of 
ambiguity, and will be understood and used differently in different times 
and places by different people.

7. As for kṣānti, Berhard points out:

> Now, when I look for 'khanti' in Rhys Davids & Stede and for 'ksham' in
> Monier-Williams I'll only find 'patience, forbearance, ...' and no
> 'certainty'.

Technically correct. Dictionaries are wonderful, but they are rarely the 
complete story.

Both Apte and Monier-Williams, in their respective Skt Dictionaries, give 
the following definition:

Apte
 क्षान्तिः kṣāntiḥ : (page  623; cf. MW p. 326)

    f. [क्षम्-भावे क्तिन्] 1 Patience, forbearance, forgiveness; 
क्षान्तिश्चेद्वचनेन किम् Bh.2.21; अहिंसा क्षान्ति- रार्जवम् Bg.13.7;18.42.-2 
The state of saintly abstraction.

"State of saintly abstraction" basically means: This is something really 
good, high level, we have no idea what it is, what it entails, aside from 
that fact that it's highly prized and only available to high-attainment 
people.

That doesn't tell us what it is, but, in virtue of being a second meaning, 
it does suggest that kṣānti has a meaning beyond "patience, forbearance," 
etc. Only saints are patient? Nonsense.

What might these other meanings be? If we look at cognates, we find (from 
Apte, same page)

क्षम्य kṣamya
क्षम्य a. Being in the earth, terrestrial; यः पार्थिवस्य क्षम्यस्य राजा 
Rv.2.14.11.

क्षान्त kṣānta
क्षान्त p. p. [क्षम्-क्त] 1 Patient, forbearing, enduring. -2 Forgiven. -3 
Borne, endured. -4 Friendly. -तः N. of Śiva. -ता The earth. -तम् Patience, 
indulgence; Rām.1.

क्षान्तु kṣāntu क्षान्तु a. [क्षम्-तुन् वृद्धिश्च] Patient, forbearing.-तुः 
A father.

क्षाम्य kṣāmya
क्षाम्य pot. p. 1 To be borne. -2 To be pardoned or forgiven.

Monier-Williams (p. 326):
kṣamá
mf(ā)n.  patient (said of the earth , perhaps with reference to 2. kṣám) 
[...] mfn. ifc. ( Pa1n2. 3-2 , 1 Va1rtt. 8) enduring , suffering , bearing , 
submissive , resisting MBh. S3ak. Kum. v , 40 [...] adequate , competent , 
able , fit for (loc. or inf. or in comp. , e.g. vayaṃ tyaktuṃ kṣamāḥ , " we 
are able to quit " , S3a1ntis3. ) Nal. R. Ragh. &c [...] favourable to 
(gen.) R. ii , 35 , 31 [...] bearable , tolerable S3ak. Pan5cat. (= Subh.) 
[...] fit , appropriate , becoming , suitable , proper for (gen. dat. , loc. 
inf. or in comp.) MBh. (e.g. kṣamaṃ kauravāṇām , " proper for the kauravas " 
, iii , 252) R. (e.g. na sa kṣamaḥ kopayitum , " he is not a fit object , 
for anger " , iv , 32 , 20) &c [...] kṣamá n. propriety fitness W. ([cf. 
Hib. cam , " strong , mighty ; power " ; cama , " brave. "]) [...]

So what do we learn?

kṣānti is associated with the Earth. "Earth" (kṣāntā) => is female, ergo 
long-enduring, sustaining, long-suffering, like a wife, like Sita, etc. 
Earth is also solid, upholding, firm, fixed, the ground or grounding, hence 
security, strength, courage, competent, fit, etc.

Pali also knows the "earth" connotation: "Khamā (f.) [fr. ksam] (a) 
patience, endurance. (b) the earth (cp. chamā & see khamati) J iv.8 (v. l. 
B. chamāya)" (see the PTS Dict., p. 234 under "Khamanatā").

It also has a masculine sense (kṣāntuḥ=father), hence produces, establishes, 
etc.

So kṣānti becomes a solid basis, a platform, a firm place from which one 
produces, is established, is secure. "Certainty" is not unreasonable in the 
sense of "being/feeling assured", which is what I suspect Lamotte was 
suggesting. It is more than confidence, but perhaps not "certainty" in the 
sense of niścita.

> Do you think, that 'anupattika-dharmakshânti' with this meaning is used
> in coherent way in the mahayana context?

That would assume that Mahayana is coherent. There is nothing coherent in a 
doctrinal system grounded on causal analysis that suddenly argues, without 
coherent argument, that nothing arises or ceases.

Dan