..续本文上一页 failure to which craving is necessarily doomed is caused not only by its own inherent illusions, but also, on the objective side, by the unfathomable diffuseness of the world — that intricate samsaric net of interactions in which the frantic flutterings of craving are invariably caught, be it here or in a beyond, now or later.

　　The very same ideas as those of our verse are conveyed in the first text of the Samyutta Nikaya (Kindred Sayings). There we read:

　　 "How, Lord, did you cross the flood (of samsara)

　　"[15]

　　"Without tarrying, friend, and without struggling did I cross the flood."

　　"But how could you do so, O Lord

　　"

　　"When tarrying, friend, I sank, and when struggling I was swept away. So, friend, it is by not tarrying[16] and not struggling that I have crossed the flood."

　　What in our verse is called "going too far"[17] is here spoken of as "struggling," which has the attendant danger of being "swept away" all over the wide expanse of the samsaric flood. The "lagging behind" is here expressed by "tarrying," which leads to "sinking" or declining — possibly to the lowest depth.

　　There is a similar metaphor in the verses 938-939 of the Sutta Nipata:

　　 I saw what is so hard to see,

　　the dart embedded in the heart —

　　the dart by which afflicted we

　　in all directions hurry on.

　　If once this dart has been removed,

　　one will not hurry, will not sink.

　　These two extremes — going too far (struggling) and lagging behind (tarrying) — point also to basic tendencies of life and mind, manifesting themselves in various ways: as motor impulses and inertia; the phases of "opening," developing, evolving, and of[18] "closing," shrinking, receding; dispersal and contraction; dilution and hardening; distraction and concentration; hypertension and laxity; the flights of imagination and the confinement by habit and routine; the will to conquer and the desire for self- preservation; the wish for independence and for security ("freedom and bread"); imperturbable will to believe, and unappeasable skepticism, and so on. The sets of paired terms given in the canonical texts considered here, that is:

　　 Going too far — lagging behind (Sutta Nipata) Struggling — tarrying (Samyutta Nikaya)

　　Being swept away — sinking (Samyutta Nikaya),

　　have been explained by the Buddhist commentators by corresponding dual concepts taken from the terminology of the Dhamma. A selection of these explanations follows. Where it serves greater clarity, the separate commentarial statements on the two texts have been combined, paraphrased and amplified by additional comments.

　　By clinging to the defiling passions, tarrying and seeking a hold in them, beings will sink into a low and unhappy existence in the course of future rebirths; and in this life, their moral and mental standard will sink and deteriorate; or at least they will "lag behind," stagnate, in whatever higher aims they have in their life.

　　Struggling for life”s varied aims, for what is really a mere accumulation of kammic bondage, beings are liable to "go too far" by aiming at unattainable goals; be it the gratification of insatiable desires, the pursuit of insatiable ambitions, or the fulfillment of unrealizable ideals. In that vain effort, beings are swept away, carried along in all directions of the samsaric ocean.

　　Driven by craving for continued existence, longing after the bliss of a theistic heaven or for any other form of a happy rebirth, one "goes too far" by following one”s wishful thinking or one”s desire for self-perpetuation; and when turning to self- mortification of body or mind to achieve these aims, one likewise goes to excess. When adopting a materialist creed, the view of annihilationism, one struggles for an earthly paradise, fights fanatically against any religious teaching and may even go so far as to d…

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