shiilam aasthaaya vartante
sarvaa hi shreyasi kriyaaH
sthaan'-aadyaan' iiva kaaryaaNi
pratiShThaaya vasundharaaM
= - = = - = = =
= = = = - = - =
= = = = - = = =
- = = - - = - =
13.21
For founded on integrity unfurl
All actions in the sphere of higher good,
Just as events like standing unfold
When a force resists the earth.
COMMENT:
A joke told by Irish comic philosopher Dave Allen has stuck in my mind for 35 years. It went something like this:
A priest kneels before God and begs to be forgiven for some terrible sin. The voice of God booms down: "Thou shalt go and play 18 holes of golf." Nervously the priest approaches the first tee, expecting to suffer a lightning strike or some such horror, but nothing happens. Rather, the ball sails straight into the hole. Seventeen further holes-in-one follow. At the eighteenth pin the amazed priest looks up to the heavens and cries out, "Lord, I expected you to punish me for my terrible sin, but in Your great benevolent mercy you have chosen not to punish me!" "On the contrary," booms the voice of God, "Your punishment is that nobody will believe you."
The reason the joke comes back to mind is that I feel my understanding of this verse, on the basis of efforts in sitting practice and Alexander work, is like a hole in one. But if I try to put the understanding in words, and hold it up for public scrutiny, it feels as if nobody is listening to me. Anyway, here is my comment:
Six verses from this verse to 13.26 paint a picture of integrity as the basis of a clear conscience, which is the basis of a sense of fulfillment which is the basis of joy, and so on through buoyancy, psycho-physical ease, balance, insight, consciousness, dispassion, and release. So this verse does the groundwork for the series of six verses, comparing integrity to the earth upon which everything rests.
But besides that, this verse as I read it, is also pointing indirectly to the truth of non-doing.
The verb vRt, translated above as "unfurl" and "unfold," originally means to turn or roll. In this verse, as I read it, vartante carries a connotation of what FM Alexander called "the right thing doing itself" -- as when The Flower of Dharma Turns the Flower of Dharma (the title of Shobogenzo chap. 17, HOKKE-TEN-HOKKE).
Actions that are not on the plane of higher good are done with much grunting, pushing, shoving and holding of breath. This is how FM Alexander saw most of us acting most of the time, as "lowly evolved swine."
To help his pupils up onto what he called "the plane of conscious control," FM taught them primarily NOT to stand up. When his pupils had learned to say NO to their habitual way of standing up, FM gave them a new experience of standing as an unfolding event, a spontaneous happening.
The spontaneity has to do with what Charles Sherrington called "anti-gravity" reflexes. After 15 years looking into it, I understand almost nothing about it. But this verse, as I read it, is touching on that subject. Because what withstands the earth, on the plane of higher good, is basically all the anti-gravity machinery which is driven not so much from the top two inches, but more from the vestibular reflexes.
May the Lotus Universe turn for you.
May your every act of standing be a happening.
And may your God go with you.
EH Johnston:
For by taking your stand on discipline all actions take place in the sphere of the supreme good, just as standing and other actions of the body are performed by taking your stand on the earth.
Linda Covill:
For all actions pertaining to Excellence rest on moral self-restraint, just as the physical activities of standing and so on take place resting on the ground.
VOCABULARY:
shiilam (accusative): discipline, good conduct, integrity
aasthaaya (absolutive of aa-√sthaa):: ind.p. having recourse to , using , employing ; having ascended ; standing , standing by.
aa-√sthaa: to stand or remain on or by ; to ascend , mount ; to stay near , go towards , resort to ; to act according to , follow
vartante = 3rd person plural of vRt: to turn, veer ; to move or go on , get along , advance , proceed , take place , occur , be performed , come off
sarvaaH (nom, pl.): all
hi: for
shreyasi = locative of shreyas: higher good
kriyaaH = nom. pl of kriyaa: f. doing , performing , performance , occupation with (in comp.) , business , act , action ; bodily action
sthaana: the act of standing , standing firmly , being fixed or stationary; position or posture of the body (in shooting &c )
aadya: being at the beginning ; ifc = aadi, et cetera
iva: like
kaaryaaNi = nom. pl. of kaarya: n. work or business to be done , duty , affair ; n. occupation , matter , thing , enterprise , emergency , occurrence , crisis ; n. conduct , deportment
pratiShThaaya = absolutive of pratiShThaa: to stand , stay , abide , dwell; to stand firm , be based or rest on (loc.); to withstand , resist (acc.); to spread or extend over (acc.)
vasundharaaM (accusative): f. the earth ; a country , kingdom ; the soil , the ground
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