[INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor

[Christopher Wallis]

Thank you very much Dr Houben for this extremely valuable additional
information!

best, CW

On 7 July 2014 11:14, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Christopher,
> In addition to the valuable observations already made I would like to
> point out that jīrṇa here probably refers (indeed) to the or a saṁskāra
> of jāraṇa having been performed, (however) with jāraṇa not in the sense
> of māraṇa (which is often [partly] parallel to what was called
> calcination in the past: heating leading to oxidation in the case of
> metals, to elimination of CO2 and or H2O etc. in the case of some minerals)
> but very precisely in the sense of swallowing or digestion or assimilation
> (as mercury is able to dissolve metals including gold but also minerals
> such as abhra or mica: initially the mercury remains as fluid as before it
> started to "eat" the gold etc. but at a certain point its viscosity
> increases significantly).
> In Abhinavagupta's "fourth state" the objectivity
> of śūnyādi-deha-dhātv-antaṃ "permeated" by "consciousness" (having
> undergone the procedure or saṁskāra of  vedha by "consciousness") starts
> to fall away as it were,
> in the "state beyond the fourth" that objectivity is entirely "swallowed"
> / "dissolved" by consciousness just as gold is entirely "swallowed" by the
> fluid rasa i.e. mercury.
> The tertium comparationis in the case of gold would then not be its beauty
> or shiny nature but its capability of being "swallowed" by mercury (which
> remains fluid or druta as long as it is not saturated).
> I also agree that the already mentioned rich, encyclopedic Woerterbuch
> of Oliver Hellwig (Wörterbuch der mittelalterlichen indischen Alchemie.
> Groningen 2009 Supplements to eJournal for Indian Medicine, 2) is a must
> for a fullfledged analysis of the fascinating passage you cite as it shows
> with numerous citations and translations that major texts may differ
> considerably in the concepts and procedures they accept.
> Regarding vedha and its application to the human body (dehavedha) you may
> also wish to consult Gordon White's The Alchemical Body Chicago 1996.
> Jan Houben
>
>
> Prof. Dr. Jan E.M. Houben,
> Directeur d Etudes « Sources et Histoire de la Tradition Sanskrite »
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, SHP,
> A la Sorbonne,45-47, rue des Ecoles,
> 75005 Paris -- France.
> JEMHouben at gmail.com
> *https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
> <https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben>*
>
>
>
> On 7 July 2014 16:25, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei at uchicago.edu> wrote:
>
>>  You may be interested to compare Bodhicaryāvatāra 1.10, which uses a
>> similar metaphor.
>> In this case, in the line
>> rasajātam atīva vedhanīyam,
>>
>> vedhanīyam must mean something like "catalytic."
>>
>> The Tibetan in this case paraphrases, saying "the finest form of the
>> gold-transmuting essence"
>> (gser 'gyur rtsi yi rnam pa) and the available Skt. commentator,
>> Prajñākaramati, is not very helpful.
>> In his gloss on vedhanīyam he writes  only:
>> kartari anīya.h kara.ne vā
>>
>> Matthew
>>
>>
>> Matthew Kapstein
>> Directeur d'études,
>> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
>>
>> Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
>> The University of Chicago
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>>
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>
>


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