dviShadbhiH shatrubhiH kash cit
kadaa cit piiDyate na vaa
indriyair baadhyate sarvaH
sarvatra ca sad" aaiva ca.
- = = = - = = =
- = = = - = - =
= - = = - = = =
= = - - - = - -
13.32
Some people are beleaguered by hateful enemies
Some of the time -- or they are not.
Everybody is besieged by the senses
Everywhere, all of the time.
DUST & FLUFF:
The Buddha's words, spoken out of full awakening, are traditionally described as golden. How can I know what they mean? I don't know. So every bit of dust & fluff served up here is prefaced by the unresolved question of what point there is in me saying anything in the way of commentary. I don't know what the Buddha means. All I really know is that the wrong views, rooted in faulty sensory appreciation, that I formerly thought were true, were in fact wrong. Chief among those wrong views, centred on feeling what is wrong to be right, is a wrong view about what correct posture is.
At an Alexander training school where I go to work once a week during term time, there is a noisy old fridge. Sometimes it is not until the fridge sends itself to sleep and clatters to a halt that I notice how much its noise was bothering me. What I experience then, when my vestibular-auditory system is no longer being besieged by the fridge's rattling and whining, is a sense of relief and enjoyment of what seems to me to be quietness.
My early experiences with Alexander work were very like somebody coming along and turning off a noisy fridge. Wow! I never realised it could be this quiet!
I think what the Buddha might be saying here is that what I thus experience as quietness is in fact only an easing of the sensory bombardment which is always going on, whether I am aware of it or not.
If this is the gist, moreover, the Buddha is not actually saying that something like the noise of the fridge is always bothering me. More exactly, he is saying that my own sense of the noise of the fridge is bothering me. In Alexander work we would say Don't blame the stimulus: the fault lies in your reaction to the stimulus.
Again, Marjory Barlow used to say, "We can't control our feelings. Our feelings control us." This kind of expression seems to imbue feelings with their own power. Similarly, the Sanskrit word indriya originally means "power, force, the quality which belongs especially to the mighty Indra."
So, in harmony with the whole tone of the epic poem of Saundarananda, another military metaphor is emerging. Integrity is our base; it is a refuge, it is wealth, and it is strength. Ranged against it as a besieging force is the power of the senses.
And, even though we may not be aware of it, when the fridge quietens down, or if we run away to the relative peace of the forest, we are still under constant siege from sensory bombardment. The Buddha is saying here, in no uncertain terms, that the bombardment is universal -- for everybody, everywhere, at all times.
Even though I can't feel the truth of what the Buddha is saying, I am listening to what the Buddha is saying and endeavouring to understand it on the basis of reason, on the basis of 2 + 2 = 4. Because, regardless of how I feel about it, 2 + 2 constantly equals 4. If the power of the senses is a besieging force, then the power of reason might be a reliable defensive weapon. So then, reasonably, let me ask:
How many other feelings might be bothering me, as my sense of the fridge was bothering me, below the level of my conscious awareness?
I don't know.
How many other feelings might be misleading me, as my faulty sense of uprightness was misleading me, below the level of my conscious awareness?
I don't know.
EH Johnston:
Rabid foes oppress some people sometimes or they may not do so, but everyone is always everywhere harassed by the senses.
Linda Covill:
Some people are sometimes persecuted by malevolent enemies -- or they are not; but at every moment everyone, everywhere, is harried by the senses.
VOCABULARY:
dviShadbhiH = instrumental, plural of dviShat: mfn. (from dviS, to hate) hating or detesting , hostile , unfriendly , foe , enemy
shatrubhiH = instrumental, plural of shatru: enemy, foe, rival
kash cit: someone, some people
kadaa cit: at some time or other , sometimes
piiDyate = 3rd person singular, passive of piiD: to press , squeeze; to hurt , harm , injure , oppress , pain , vex ; to beleaguer (a city)
na: not
vaa: or
indriyaiH (instrumental plural): by the senses
baadhyate = 3rd person sg., passive of baadh: , to press , force , drive away , repel , remove ; to harass , pain , trouble , grieve , vex ; to resist , oppose , check , stop , prevent
sarvaH (nom.): all, all people
sarvatra: ind. everywhere , in every case , always , at all times
ca: and
sadaa: ind. always , ever , every time , continually , perpetually
eva: (emphatic)
ca: and
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