[INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor

[Walter Slaje]

You may wish to consult

Oliver Hellwig, Wörterbuch der mittelalterlichen indischen Alchemie.
Groningen 2009 [Supplements to eJIM.2.]

on such matters.

Kindly regarding,
WS


-----------------------------
Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
D-99425 Weimar
Deutschland

Ego ex animi mei sententia spondeo ac polliceor
studia humanitatis impigro labore culturum et provecturum
non sordidi lucri causa nec ad vanam captandam gloriam,
sed quo magis veritas propagetur et lux eius, qua salus
humani generis continetur, clarius effulgeat.
Vindobonae, die XXI. mensis Novembris MCMLXXXIII.


2014-07-07 2:03 GMT+02:00 Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com>:

> Dear respected colleagues,
>
> I wonder if anyone here knows about alchemy (rasāyana) and can clarify the
> meaning of the word *jīrṇa *in that context. In the passage below (ĪPvv
> III p. 328), in discussing mystical experience, Abhinavagupta uses an
> alchemical metaphor involving *siddharasa *(≈ mercury)*, drutarasa, *and
> *kanakadhātu*. The meaning of the passage is fairly clear to me, I am
> just wondering about the alchemical significance of of *jīrṇa *(matured?) and
> *drutarasa*.
>
> the passage follows.
>
> *yadā tu parāmṛṣṭa-nityatva-vyāpitvādi-dharmakaiśvarya-ghanātmanā
> ahambhāva-siddharasena śūnyādi-deha-dhātv-antaṃ vidhyate yena prameyatvāt
> tat cyavata iva, tadā turyadaśā*;
> *yadāpi viddho 'sau prāṇa-dehādi-dhātuḥ saṃvid-rasena abhiniviṣṭo ’tyantaṃ
> kanaka-dhātur iva jīrṇaḥ kriyate yena sa druta-rasa iva ābhāti kevalaṃ
> tat-saṃskāraḥ, tadāpi turyātīta-daśā sā bhavati*
> 'But when the [layers of limited selfhood] from Void to the physical body
> are penetrated by the “alchemical elixir” that is the (true)
> I-sense—replete with the sovereignty of the qualities of eternality,
> all-pervasiveness, etc. which are cognized [as aspects of that I], by which
> their objectivity falls away as it were, then it is the Fourth State.
> When, further, these elements of *prā**ṇa*, body, etc., penetrated by the
> elixir of Consciousness, are completely immersed [in it], they are
> “matured” like the element of gold . . .'(?)
>
>
> best wishes,
>
> Christopher Wallis, M.A. (Cal), M.Phil. (Oxon), Ph.D. (ABD, Cal)
>
>
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