SAUNDARANANDA 13.34: Sensing & Suffering

hanyamaanasya tair duHkhaM
haardaM bhavati vaa na vaa
indriyair baadhyamaanasya
haardaM shaariiram eva ca

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

13.34
The pain of being hit by those others

May or may not occur as suffering in the heart.

The suffering of being oppressed by one's senses

Occurs in the heart, and throughout the body.

DUST & FLUFF:
My life of 50 years, starting with a congenitally dodgy vestibular system, seems to have given me abundant raw material on which to draw for the purpose of understanding this verse.

The pain of being physically clobbered by others, as I know from being born to parents who were not averse to whacking me when I was a small child, can be felt both bodily and in the heart. There again, I know from experience in rugby and the martial arts that being painfully clobbered, by your mates in training or by the opposition in matches, doesn't have to be emotionally stressful: it can be good fun. And there are other ways too of being hit, by mates and non-mates, which do not involve physical clobbering but which can painfully wound the heart. So the first two lines, as I read them, are expressing this difference between simple pain and emotional suffering.

Incidentally, I have never physically clobbered my sons. All in all their mother and I have done a pretty good job of guiding their development, and that is something I draw confidence from. I am confident that those who have been abused, whether physically or emotionally, can stop the cycle of abuse in this life, by working on their own integrity. And if a man thinks himself too old to do this work, then he might as well be dead already. I was privileged to visit my Alexander head of training, Ray Evans, shortly before he died and he was evidently still working on himself in this way, still polishing a tile, never considering himself to be a finished article, but always a work in progress. Ray was a good and true father figure to me -- an 'enlightened witness' -- who put the means-whereby before any end.

The literal meaning of the 3rd line is "[the pain/suffering] of being pressed by the senses."

So what kind of pressing are we dealing with in the 3rd and 4th lines? I think we are dealing with a sensuality that can be oppressive and, on a level which is more difficult to understand, faulty sensory impulses whose action is suppressive.

Sensuality as an oppressive force, and one that can cause suffering to occur in the heart, is etched on my memory as the inside of a Japanese love hotel: a luxurious room, full of delights like much-fancied sexual partner, karaoke machine, video equipment, all kinds of bathroom fixtures and fittings, glittering chandeliers... but shuttered windows. I vividly remember more than 20 years ago stepping out of such a situation into the fresh morning air of a spring day, and listening to the birds. My heart absolutely sang, as if an oppressive burden had suddenly been lifted.

But this verse, again, strikes me as concerned with more than the potentially oppressive force of sensuality: I perceive a deeper meaning based on experiences in Alexander work. What FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation" is invariably a suppressive force, and not only a psychological/emotional one but one that is woven into the physical fabric of a person's whole being.

At the deepest level of suffering, I submit, faulty sensory appreciation is a suppressive force that most people do not even begin to suspect that they are suffering from. But when they try to adopt a correct upright posture, they invariably show that they are suffering from it.

If one's sensory appreciation of uprightness is faulty, effort aimed at uprightness is easily liable to result in a fixity that manifests itself both physically and -- in rigid adherence to some -ism or other -- mentally too. When one's sitting is poisoned by the idea of a correct "posture," which by definition is something more or less fixed or held, one is suppressing the natural mechanisms that have evolved to keep a human being easily balanced and upright. A true aim of sitting, I submit, is to stop suppressing these natural mechanisms, to release them, to let them sing, to let them play.

Let them be released like a non-monk being released from a love hotel!

(Not forgetting that release is founded in indifference, conscious awareness, knowing and seeing, stillness, psycho-physical ease, higher-order assurance, enjoyment, higher-order happiness, freedom from remorse, and, ultimately, pristine practice of integrity.)

EH Johnston:
The man who is struck down by the former may or may not suffer in soul, but the man who is harried by the senses suffers in body and soul alike.

Linda Covill:
One may suffer emotionally when struck by an enemy -- or one may not. Yet when harried by the senses, one suffers both emotionally and physically.

VOCABULARY:
hanyamaanasya = genitive of hanyamaana: mfn. (present participle passive of han) being struck, smitten, slain etc.
taiH: by them
duHkham (nom.): n. pain, suffering

haarda: mfn. relating to or being in the heart
bhavati = 3rd pers. sing of bhuu: to become, be, arise, happen, occur
vaa na vaa: either or not

indriyaiH (instrumental, plural): by the senses
baadhyamaanasya = genitive of baadhyamaana (present participle passive of baadh): being harassed, oppressed etc.

haarda: mfn. relating to or being in the heart
shaariira: mfn. bodily , corporeal , relating or belonging to or being in or produced from or connected with the body
eva: (emphatic)
ca: and