raag-oddaamena manasaa
sarvathaa duShkaraa dhRtiH
sa-doShaM salilaM dRShTvaa
pathinena pipaasunaa
= = = = - - - =
= - = = - = - =
- = = - - = = =
- - = - - = - =
12.27
With a mind unbridled by passion
It is exceedingly difficult to be steadfast,
As when dirty water is seen
By a thirsty traveller.
COMMENT:
This verse, as I read it, is not opposed to unbridling of the mind per se: it is rather opposed to allowing the mind to be unbridled by an instinctive, unconscious impulse.
A mind that is habitually bridled, by its intellect and by its attachments, can become rapidly unbridled through passion, with sometimes comical results, as happened to John Cleese's character in A Fish Called Wanda; and with sometimes tragic results, as in Othello. This kind of unconscious unbridling of the mind tends to lead not to steadfastness but to errant unconscious behaviour, to breaking of promises, and failure to stick to decisions.
Unbridling of the mind corresponds to the breaking down of activation energy barriers in a spontaneous process of energy release. This can be seen in spontaneous explosions of lust and anger, or in the mass reactions of a mob. Another kind of spontaneous unbridling is realised in learning the backward step, so that body and mind spontaneously drop off and the original face of a true individual emerges.
The former spontaneity is governed by instinct, by unconscious impulses; the latter is consciously guided by reason.
What the Buddha's teaching is now progressing toward, as I read this and the following verses, is the growth of consciousness, reason, will and confidence as opposed to unconsciousness, emotion, instinct and irresolution.
EH Johnston:
Self-control is ever as difficult for the mind which has given a free rein to passion as for the thirst-stricken traveller who sees water which is foul.
Linda Covill:
Steadfastness is in every respect hard to accomplish when the mind is given to unfettered passion, just as it is hard for a thirsty traveler to maintain self-control when he sees dirty water.
VOCABULARY:
raaga: redness, passion
uddaamena = instrumental of uddaama: unrestrained , unbound ; violent , impetuous, fiery ; wanton
manasaa = instrumental of manas: mind
sarvathaa: in every way , in every respect , by all means ; altogether, entirely, in the highest degree ; at all times
duShkaraa: hard to be done or borne , difficult , arduous
dhRtiH = nominal, singular of dhRti: holding , seizing , keeping , supporting ; firmness , constancy , resolution, will, command
sa: (possessive suffix) having, with
doSha: fault, vice, badness, disease
salilam (accusative): water
dRShTvaa = absolutive of dRsh: to see
pathinena = instrumental of pathin: a way , path , road , course
pipaasunaa = instrumental of pipaasu: thirsty
10 comments:
Mike,
Very fascinating. I have made it a point recently to severely restrict my involvement with blogs and the internet in general, believing it to be the primary attachment that prohibits me from keeping promises of steadfastly realising a more consciously-chosen direction for my mental effort and energy.
Unfortunately, once internet explorer is open, a series of either unconscious bad choices, or weakness in resolve to abstain, cause me to lose myself and break my own resolution. This leads to mental scattering, confusion, energy dissipation, and a guilt that I cannot do what I know must be done. So, each failure sets off a cycle that ultimately leads back to my original conviction that I must be strong in my renunciation of mirage-like lures that I know are not good for me.
Luckily each day is another chance...and so I go on trying.
Take care.
Raymond
Hi Mike,
I notice that for the past few days you've been including a representation of the metrical pattern of each verse.
Any particular reason?
Hi Raymond,
I know what you mean. Blogging and the internet have been a means for me making some connections for which I am grateful, like the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and Saunarananda itself, not to mention one or two like-minded individuals, but what is going on between the Buddha and Nanda could not have been communicated by internet communication alone.
Keep on keeping on,
Mike
Hi jiblet,
Gradually hoping to dig a little deeper, I suppose.
They say that Shakespeare beomes easier to understand if you understang iambic pentameter.
And Teach Yourself Sanskrit indicates that the same thing is true in Sanskrit verse. So I will carry on like this for the time being and see if it's useful.
Thanks for your interest as always,
Mike
Hi Mike,
I usually catch up with your blog every two or three days. For some reason I missed Thursday's post - verse 12.26 - and your thoughts about Ashvaghosha's use of meter. Perhaps I missed it because on that day my pop combo auditioned, and happily welcomed, a new drummer. But no, it wasn't that.
Having now read your comments on that verse I see that my question had already been answered. But thanks for the clarification.
Now and then I've taken a shot at digging just a little deeper myself, and have once or twice offered my thoughts on Ashvaghosha's sanskrit to you. As on this occasion you've asked, I briefly investigated 'unmukha'.
All I can offer is the unreliable observation that although the prefix 'ud' [in this case, by sandhi, 'un] does indicate 'up', (or 'out'), when comined with 'mukha', 'face', the meaning is simply 'facing'.
But you may, of course, be right to suppose that, to a native sanskrit-speaking poet, the connotation of upwardness might be implicitly felt, or even consciously employed for poetic or didactic purposes. I have my doubts. But I, like you, don't have enough sanskrit under my belt to be confident of very much.
...and concerning the construction and meaning of the second two lines of 12.26...the syntax does seem tricky to me, more so than usual, and therefore may be open to your interpretation - which depends on 'taadRshaH' being nominative. I think.
Yet both EH and LC read Nanda turning away from fire of passion. Is this because 'taadRshaH' is the ablative form of 'taadRsh/taadRk'? If it is, I wonder why 'raagaagnis' isn't also ablative. Perhaps it doesn't need to be. Trying to make of sense of that possibility, a literal translation might read:
"The fire of passion; who from such is turned away is Dharma-facing".
Just guessing.
I've belatedly checked MW, who has no doubt that unmukha means "raising the face, looking up or at..."
I'm not sure where I got simply "facing" from - although it does seem to accord with EH and LC's reading. I think it was W.H.Maurer's excellent "The Sanskrit Language", but I can't find the reference now.
A further thought on lines 3 and 4 of 12.26: I guess much hangs on where 'yasya' belongs, syntactically. You see it as belonging to 'raagaagniH' ('whose fire of passion/a fire of passion [such as] yours...'), and that does make sense.
Oh well. If I waited till I knew what I was talking about I might never say a word.
Hi jiblet,
Many thanks for taking this trouble.
On unmukha, as you say MW defines unmukha as "raising the face, looking up;" besides that, un-mukham is included in the vocabulary of Teach Yourself Sanskrit, where it is given as "[with the face] upwards."
On taadRshaH, wouldn't the ablative of taadRsha be taadRshaat?
On yasya,I saw it as agreeing with te in the 2nd line.
I have asked Will Tuladhar-Douglas to have a look at the post. It would be good to clear up this problem if we can.
At the same time, not saying a word is sometimes not a bad option to consider -- especially when the nervous system has been maybe over-stimulated by an exciting audition!
All the best,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for staying at the homework party. I eagerly await the arrival of the pandit. Meanwhile...
On taadRshaH, there seems to be disagreement between Coulson on the one hand, who lists the stem as taadRsha, and both MW and Maurer on the other, who list the stem as taadRsh; a consonant stem. If the latter is correct, then tadRshaH would be the ablative/genetive form.
There again, immediately below taadRsh, MW lists tadRshaH, mf(I)n = 'anybody whosever'. Peter Scharf's Sanskrit Library's morphological analyzer confirms these 2 choices: taadRshaH as either the abl/gen of taadRsh, 'such as/such a one' - or a masc nom sing = 'anybody whosoever'. The second option opens up more possibilities!
And yes, I understand your reading of the two genetives te and yasya.
What fun!
Thank you, jiblet. I have emailed W T-D, so let us watch this space, with the confidence that where there's Will there's a way. One thing I am confident about, from past experience, is that the literal translation, if we can pin it down, will be the one with the truest and deepest meaning --though the meaning may require us to dig deeper than we supposed, and to drop off views to which we didn't know we were attaching. This is where the real truth lies in translating the words of a true buddha -- in the challenge of assigning weight to the buddha's words and thinking light of one's own views.
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