nayaM shrutvaa shakto yad ayam abhivRddhiM na labhate
paraM dharmaM jNaatvaa yad upari nivaasaM na labhate
gRhaM tyaktvaa muktau yad ayam upashaantiM na labhate
nimittaM kausiidyaM bhavati puruShasy' aatra na ripuH
16.96
When a capable person hears the guiding principle
but makes no progress,
When he knows the most excellent method
but gains no upward repose,
When he leaves home
but in freedom finds no peace:
The cause is his weak direction of energy in himself,
and not an enemy.
COMMENT:
FM Alexander said, “When an investigation comes to be made, it will be found that every single thing we are doing in the Work is exactly what is being done in Nature where the conditions are right...”
To observe what is being done in Nature where the conditions are right, I spend as much of the spring and summer as I can by the forest in France. And what I observe there is that in Nature where the conditions are right plants, animals, and people become, for a time, channels of a vibrant upflow of energy. Notwithstanding the prediction of the 2nd law of thermodynamics that all energy has an inherent tendency to disperse, as in water flowing downward, in Nature where the conditions are right living things temporarily manifest an upward concentration of energy, associated with vibrant growth.
Again, FM Alexander said, “When an investigation comes to be made, it will be found that every single thing we are doing in the Work is exactly what is being done in Nature where the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously.”
That is the point. What FM Alexander’s teaching is all about, and what this Canto as I read it is all about, is conscious direction of energy. We are learning consciously to direct our energy. Learning the backward step of turning light and shining means learning consciously to direct one’s energy.
In this connection FM Alexander wrote: “I wish to indicate the process involved in projecting messages from the brain to the mechanisms and in conducting the energy necessary to the use of these mechanisms.”
So it is not enough to have heard the guiding principle: real progress depends on working to that principle. Real progress depends not only on the brain sending down the right messages but also on the belly sending out the requisite energy.
Again, it is not enough to have benefited from personal demonstrations of that most excellent method by which to allow the free working of the natural mechanisms of upright posture: for experience of upward repose to be real, one has to make the method one’s own, by learning to work on oneself, which means learning to direct one’s own energy.
Again, it is not even enough to adopt the outer forms of a forest monk, a hermit, or a wandering mendicant: peace depends on inward work on oneself.
Coming to the last line, I struggled to find a translation of kausiidya that exactly conveyed the sense I wished to convey of a weak attitude towards this business of working on oneself -- that conveyed, in other words, a person’s lack of initiative in directing his or her own energy.
In context, kausiidya is being used as an antonym of viirya, which means manliness, valour, strength, power , energy, heroism. So kausiidya, as opposed to viirya, may be understood as expressing girlishness, diffidence, weakness, impotence, weak energy, wimpishness.
The dictionary defines kausiidya as sloth, indolence, laziness. But these terms strike me as blunt instruments for conveying what I think Ashvaghosha wishes to convey, which is not only physical laziness and not only mental negligence, but rather a lack of both clarity and initiative in a person’s conscious direction of his or her own energy.
So, unable to hit upon a suitable one-word translation of kausiidya, I resorted to a four-word translation: weak direction of energy
In making the above comments, I am drawing on experience that precedes my first encounters with Alexander work in 1994, and with Zazen in 1982. Back in 1971, when I was aged 11, my parents received my first school report in which my house master and rugby coach Billy Buttle, a man whose opinion I respected, described my performance on the rugby field as “diffident.” Not knowing what the word meant, but fearing that praise wasn’t being heaped upon me, I nervously looked the word up in the dictionary: “hesitant in acting or speaking through lack of self-confidence.” I soon learned to compensate -- some would say over-compensate -- for the inherent tendency to diffidence and, aided by daily weight-training sessions in the gym, I developed on the rugby field into an aggressive and loud-mouthed pack leader. But compensation comes at a price and, however convincingly life-like the mask may be, compensation never goes to the root of diffidence.
Inherent diffidence, as I see it, is not only my problem. It is everybody’s problem. All humanity stands to benefit from the discoveries of FM Alexander because human beings are everywhere prone to suffer from lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. And the faultier the unconscious functioning of a person’s vestibular system, the stronger this tendency is liable to be.
Q. E. D.
EH Johnston:
It is indolence, not his enemy, that is the cause that a man capable of success, on hearing of the method, fails to progress, that, knowing the supreme Law, he does not gain an abode above and that, having left his home, he does not attain peace in Salvation.
Linda Covill:
When a competent person hears the method but makes no progress, when he knows the supreme dharma but wins no higher estate, when he leaves his home but finds no peace in freedom -- the reason for this is his own laziness, and not an enemy.
VOCABULARY:
nayam (acc. sg.): m. leading (of an army) ; plan , design ; leading thought , maxim , principle, system , method , doctrine
shrutvaa = absolutive of shru: to hear ; to hear (from a teacher) , study , learn
shaktaH (nom. sg.): m. one who is able, a capable person
yad: [the fact] that
ayam (nom. sg. m.): this one, this man
abhivRddhim (acc. sg.): f. growth , increase, prosperity
abhi: ind. (a prefix to verbs and nouns , expressing) to , towards , into , over
vRddhi: f. growth , increase , augmentation , rise , advancement , extension , welfare , prosperity , success , fortune , happiness
na: not
labhate = 3rd person singular of labh: to take, gain ; to gain possession of , obtain , receive , conceive , get
param: m. excellent, best, highest, supreme
dharmam: m. teaching, method
jNaatvaa = absolutive of jNaa: to know
yad: [the fact] that
upari: ind. above , upon , on , upwards
nivaasam (acc. sg.): m. clothing , dress ; m. living , dwelling , residing , passing the night ; dwelling-place , abode
na: not
labhate = 3rd person singular of labh: to take, gain ; to gain possession of , obtain , receive , conceive , get
gRham (acc. sg.): m. house
tyaktvaa = absolutive of tyaj: to leave , abandon , quit
muktau = locative of mukti: f. setting or becoming free , release , liberation
yad: [the fact] that
ayam (nom. sg. m.): this man, he
upashaantim (acc. sg.): f. cessation , intermission , remission ; tranquillity , calmness
na: not
labhate = 3rd person singular of labh: to take, gain ; to gain possession of , obtain , receive , conceive , get
nimittam (nom. sg.): n. cause
kausiidyam (nom. sg.): n. sloth , indolence
bhavati: is
puruShasya = gen. sg. puruSha: m. a man, a person
atra: (used in sense of locative case asmin) in him
na: not
ripuH (nom. sg.): m. a deceiver , cheat , rogue; m. an enemy , adversary , foe
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