Thursday, July 2, 2009

SAUNDARANANDA 12.40: The Primacy of Confidence

yasmaad dharmasya c' otpattau
shraddhaa kaaraNam uttamam
may" oktaa kaaryatas tasmaat
tatra tatra tathaa tathaa

= = = = - = = =
= - = - - = - =
- = = = - = = =
= - = - - = - =

12.40
Since in the emerging of Dharma

Confidence is the primary cause,

Therefore I have named it after its effects

In this case like this, in that case like that.


COMMENT:
This verse, as I read it, again comes back to consideration of cause (kaaraNa) and effect (kaarya); and to consideration of how primary (uttama) is confidence (shraddhaa).

There have been times in my life, particularly during my 20s, when I had the sense of making terrific personal sacrifices and terrific effort to cause the Dharma to emerge -- sacrifices and effort "to produce the Holy Law" in EHJ's terminology. Conversely, sometimes the right thing has seemed to do itself without much sense of effort or hardship on my part.

At the centre of the former heroic effort has been a very stubborn optimism -- an optimism that turned out to be unfounded and unhealthy. Learning to allow the right thing to do itself, conversely, whenever I have succeeded in that, has been centred very much on confidence. I would like clearly to draw a distinction, based on my own experience, between optimism and confidence.

Many areas of learning spring to mind in which good teachers are able to remove anxious end-gaining from the learning process, so that a pupil is freed from anxiety and able to learn with confidence. I think of good teachers of swimming (Ian & Chie Cross), dog-handling (Ceasar Milan), and language teaching (Michel Thomas), who from the outset make a point of seeing to it that they inspire confidence in their students.

In my own teaching experience, not that I have got a tremendous amount of it, I endeavour to convey the sense of confidence that Marjory Barlow conveyed to me, which is the confidence that comes from working to a definite principle. I struggle with a tendency to be impatient which, unless I stop it off at source, is liable to excite a student's fear reflexes -- the opposite of confidence. If this impatience is a liability, one asset that I have as a teacher is understanding how important vestibular dysfunction is in undermining a person's confidence. I understand that it is very difficult for a human being to be confident if their vestibular sense is such that they are unsure which way is up, which way is down; which way is forward, which way is back; and which way is left, which way is right.

This understanding of the primary importance of the vestibular system owes much to my Alexander head of training, the late Ray Evans. Following Ray's lead I started training in 1998 in the diagnosis and treatment of immature vestibular reflexes. I went into this field motivated mainly by a desire to understand myself, but as part of the training at INPP Chester we were required to take several children through reflex inhibition programmes, and this led me into continuing with this kind of work, in a small way. Consequently over the past 10 years I have made the following observation time and time again: After a child has for a few weeks been doing the initial daily exercise to slowly recalibrate his vestibular system, I ask the mother if she has noticed any changes and she replies, "Not really anything in particular. It is just that he seems altogether more confident."

EH Johnston:
Since faith is the chief agent in the production of the Law, therefore I give it these names from its action in these ways.

Linda Covill:
As faith is the primary factor in the arising of dharma, I have called it different names on various occasions due to its effects.

VOCABULARY:
yasmaat: since
dharmasya (genitive): of dharma
ca: and
utpattau = locative of utpatti: f. arising , birth , production

shraddhaa: belief, trust, confidence
kaaraNam (accusative): cause, instrument, element ; agency , instrumentality , condition
uttama: highest, chief, primary

mayaa (instrumental of aham): by me
uktaa: (f.) uttered, said, spoken, described
kaarya: to be made or done or practised or performed ; n. conduct , deportment ; n. an effect, result ; n. motive , object , aim , purpose ; n. the denouement of a drama
- taH: (ablative suffix) from, in accordance with
tasmaat (correlative of yasmaat): from that, therefore

tatra tatra: in that and that case
tathaa tathaa: in that and that manner

No comments: