SAUNDARANANDA 14.16: Parable of the Raft

plavaM yatnaad yathaa kash cid
badhniiyaad dhaarayed api
na tat-snehena yaavat tu
mah"-aaughasy' ottitiirShayaa

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14.16
Just as someone might take pains

To build and then carry a raft,

Not because he is so fond of it

But because he means to cross a great flood,

COMMENT:
This and the next verse bring to my mind a sentence in FM Alexander's writings that puzzled me greatly when I first read it. It has to do with getting means and end in proper perspective. Alexander's sentence is as follows:

I wish it to be understood that throughout my writings I use the term "conscious guidance and control" to indicate primarily a plane to be reached rather than a method of reaching it.

This sentence was written in the context of Alexander's singing the praises of the indirect means-whereby procedure, as opposed to direct end-gaining. So what was Alexander getting at?

Four essential elements of working on the self are:
(1) To have an intention to gain an end, e.g., standing up from a chair.
(2) To say no to acting on that intention on the basis of what feels right. This act of saying no, or inhibition, is the foundation stone of "thwarting the power of senses" (indriya-jaya).
(3) To think, to send directions from the brain to establish a better integration of the whole organism. E.g. "I wish to allow the neck to release, to let the head go forward and up, to let the back lengthen and widen, to let the limbs release out and lengthen."
(4) To keep thinking while giving consent to going ahead and gaining the end, i.e., going into movement.

When something goes wrong, insufficient attention has generally been paid to one of these four elements. And most often it is No. (2). When something goes wrong, it is generally a failure of inhibition. In general, what has happened when something goes wrong is that I have paid lip service to the principle of inhibition, while all the time at the back of my brain there was still an idea of doing something to gain an end.

Alexander said: It is not getting in and out of chairs, even under the best of conditions that is of any value: that is simply physical culture. It is what you have been doing in preparation that counts when it comes to making movements.

Conscientious students of Alexander, taking this on board, understanding that the secret is in the preparation, focus their attention on elements No. (2) and (3) -- inhibiting and directing.

In some instances, however, more attention needs to be paid to elements No. (1) and (4) -- really intending to move, and actually going into movement.

For example, as I sit, is it that I have truly given up the idea that puts me wrong, in order to be able to go into movement more freely? Or is it that I have simply given up all effort, and am on the verge of falling asleep?

In the case of the raft-builder in this verse, this question is clearly answered. It is with pains (yatnaat) that he builds his raft, and then carries it towards the waterfront, because he intends to cross a great flood. He intends to get across. He really means it.

So how can the parable of the raft help us who sit get a better perspective of means and end?

If one is intending to set sail across a great flood, it is not that the raft is not important. The raft is very important. The attention one pays to the job of binding together the raft and then carrying it safely to a suitable launching site may turn out to be a matter of life and death. So, at the preparatory stage of raft-building, it may be wise not to allow one's attention to be distracted by speculating about what may lie on the far shore, beyond the flood; it may be wise not even to worry about today's weather. It may be better just to give one's full attention to building and not dropping the raft.

Our tendency as subconsciously controlled human beings, however, is always to take things too far. As my grandmother tellingly remarked at a family get-together ten years ago, not long before she died, as if she were talking about a small child, "Michael always takes things too far."

Thus, stupid people who take things too far, when they hear how important the raft is, are liable to proclaim, "We are not interested in getting to the other side. Being interested in getting to the other side is end-gaining, or, to use the Japanese phrase, U-SHOTOKU. Whereas our practice is MU-SHOTOKU. We are only interested in raft-carrying."

What FM Alexander seems to be saying, and what the Buddha seems to be saying in this and the next verse, as I understand them, is something very different from the stupid view.

Though perhaps not as baffled by Alexander's statement as I once was, I think that I, in my daily ineptitude, am still very susceptible to the stupid view. A blinkered fondness for the familiarity of the raft offers a certain comfort to the inept, especially when a storm is blowing.

It is all too easy to take refuge in raft-building and raft-carrying, and to forget one's original intention to get to the far shore, by going into movement.

This translation work is just a raft-building exercise, as the Shobogenzo translation was also a raft-building exercise. But so far who is there that has used the raft to get to the far shore? Who is there that has truly made the nectar of immortality into their own possession?

I think that when the Buddha spoke of amrta, the nectar of immortality, the immortality of an acclaimed raft-builder was not the kind of immortality he had in mind. The true immortals, the eternal buddhas, are the ones who, after due preparation, dared to go into movement, and thereby made it to the other side.


EH Johnston:
As a man will construct a boat with great labour and even carry it, not because he loves it, but simply in order to cross a great flood,

Linda Covill:
Just as someone might effortfully construct a boat and even carry it, not because he is so fond of it but because he needs to cross a great flood,

VOCABULARY:
plavam (acc.): mn. a float , raft , boat , small ship
yatnaat = abl. yatna: effort, pains, trouble
yathaa: just as
kash cid: someone

badhniiyaad = 3rd pers. sg. optative of bandh: to bind; to form or produce in any way
dhaarayed = 3rd pers. sg. causative optative of dhR: to carry
api: and, also

na: not
tat: it
snehena = instr. of sneha: oiliness; blandness , tenderness , love , attachment to , fondness or affection for (loc. gen. , or comp.) ,
yaavat: ind. in as much as, insofar as
tu: but

mahaa: great
aaughasya = gen. of augha: m. flood , stream
uttitiirShayaa = instr. of uttitiirShaa (from uttRR, to cross): the wish to cross