shiilaM hi sharaNam saumya
kaantaara iva daishikaH
mitraM bandhush ca rakShaa ca
dhanam ca balam eva ca
= = - - - = = -
= = - - - = - =
= = = = - = = -
- = - - - = - -
13.28
For integrity, my friend, is the refuge:
It is like a guide in the wilderness,
It is friend, kinsman, and protector,
It is wealth, and it is strength.
COMMENT:
When a stimulus comes, if I react unconsciously to the idea of doing something about it, then my faulty sensory appreciation comes into play and my behaviour is liable to be characterised by a lack of harmony between parts. This is not "Alexander theory." This is what FM Alexander observed happening, and he called this kind of behaviour end-gaining; in Saundarananda, as I read it, this approach is expressed as pravRtti, or "onward cycle of doing." PravRtti has a connotation of forward movement, progression, advance.
To learn the backward step of turning light and shining is to consciously go back in the opposite direction. To take the backward step is to return to a more integrated state of being, in which the neck releases, the head is released forward and up from the depths of one's being, the back lengthens and widens, while the legs and arms lengthen out of the expanding torso. This is the opposite of end-gaining; this is nivRtti, or "non-doing." NivRtti has a connotation of backward movement, regression, retreat.
If integrity is the refuge, the refuge is within, and non-doing is the path that leads back to it. If integrity is a guide, friend, kinsman, and protector, that person does not exist out there; he exists within me and non-doing is the way to bring him out. If integrity is wealth and power, it is not the wealth and power sought out there in the world; it is the wherewithal within me, and power along the lines of what my old karate teacher used to call "karate power." This is not the power of the body-builder but inner strength, centred around the pelvis/hips, and accompanied by a sense of indomitable resilience in the face of any shock that life might throw at one. This kind of power is an elusive commodity: it seems to come and go, but when it is there it makes all struggles hitherto seem worthwhile.
Here we are on this blog, writer and reader, both interested in the Buddha's teaching of integrity. But when that moment comes that forces us to choose, which way will we go? Will we decide to seek refuge in the inner wealth and power of integrity? Or will we grasp for the end, sell out, go for the money?
Thirty years ago I was doing a degree in Accounting & Financial Management. Just because I turned away from a career in business and went to Japan to seek enlightenment doesn't mean that I became immunized from going for the money and power. It is an ongoing struggle.
All my struggles through the past 30-odd years, from traditional karate-do through sitting-dhyaana and Alexander work and investigation of the vestibular reflexes, have all been inner questing for integrity. They all point in the end not primarily to doing or being something on the outside but primarily to inhibiting something within.
When all come together in one moment of sitting, so that while seated in full lotus the head is being projected forward and up from the vital centre of karate power as the legs being directed out of the hips inhibits any remaining vestige of the symmetrical tonic neck reflex... then what?
Throw it away, have breakfast and do some gardening (while listening to the cricket on Radio 4 long wave).
Master Dogen wrote that there should be both backward step and forward step.
I want to make a lavender hedge along the path that leads to my bodhi-manda (awakening-seat) at the end of the garden. Sadly, I tried to harden off my lavender seedlings too early, but never mind. I will make a better job of it next time.
EH Johnston:
For discipline is the refuge, the guide as it were in the wilderness, the friend, the kinsman, the protector, wealth and strength.
Linda Covill:
For moral self-restraint is a refuge, my friend, like a guide in the wilderness; it is friend, kinsman, protection, wealth and strength.
VOCABULARY:
shiilam: good conduct, integrity
hi: for
sharaNam (nom.) n. refuge , protection
saumya: my friend
kaantaaraH (nom.): mn. a large wood , forest , wilderness ; a difficult road through a forest , forest-path
iva: like
daishikaH (nom.): knowing a place , a guide
mitram (nom.): n. a friend , companion
bandhuH: m. a kinsman (esp. on the mother's side) , relative
ca... ca: both... and
rakShaa (nom.): f. the act of protecting or guarding , protection , care , preservation , security ; a guard , watch , sentinel
dhanam (nom.): n. any valued object , (esp.) wealth , riches , (movable) property , money , treasure , gift
ca ca
balam (nom.) n. power , strength , might
eva: (emphatic)
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