SAUNDARANANDA 16.7 to 16.16: Suffering (In the Same Big Boat)

16.7
tasmaaj jar" aader vyasanasya muulaM
samaasato duHkham avaihi janma
sarv'-auShadhiinaam iva bhuur bhavaaya
sarv'-aapadaaM kShetram idaM hi janma

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16.7
Therefore, at the root of a tragedy like growing old

See, in short, that birth is suffering.

For, as the earth supports the life of all plants,

This birth is the field of all troubles.

16.8
yaj janma ruupasya hi s' endriyasya
duHkhasya tan n' aika-vidhasya janma
yaH sambhavash c'asya samucchrayasya
mRtyosh ca rogasya ca sambhavaH saH

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16.8
The birth of a sentient bodily form, again,

Is the birth of suffering in all its varieties;

And he who begets such an outgrowth

Is the begetter of death and of disease.

16.9
sad v" aapy aa-sad vaa viSha-mishram annaM
yathaa vinaashaaya na dhaaraNaaya
loke tathaa tiryag upary adho vaa
duHkhaasya sarvam na sukhaaya janma

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16.9
Good food or bad food, if mixed with poison,

Makes for ruin not for sustenance.

Likewise,
whether in a world on the flat or above or below,

All birth makes for hardship not for ease.

16.10
jar"-aadayo n'aika-vidhaaH prajaanaaM
satyaaM pravRttau prabhavanty an-arthaaH
pravaatsu ghoreShv api maaruteShu,
na hy a-prasuutaas taravash calanti

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16.10
The many and various disappointments of men,
like old age,

Occur as long as their doing goes on.

(For even when violent winds blow,

Trees do not shake that never sprouted.)

16.11
aakaasha-yoniH pavano yathaa hi
yathaa shamii-garbha-shayo hutaashaH
aapo yath” aantar-vasudhaa-shayaash ca
duHkhaM tathaa citta-shariira-yoni

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16.11
As wind is born from the air,

As fire sleeps in the womb of shami wood,

And as water gestates inside the earth,

So suffering is born from an expectant mind-body.

16.12
apaaM dravatvaM kaThinatvam urvyaa
vaayosh calatvam dhruvam auShNyam agneH
yathaa sva-bhaavo hi tathaa sva-bhaavo
duHkhaM shariirasya ca cetasash ca.

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16.12
Fluidity of water, solidity of earth,

Motion of wind, and constant heat of fire,

Are innate in them; as also it is in the nature

Of both the body and the mind to suffer.

16.13
kaaye sati vyaadhi-jar"-aadi duHkham
kShut-tarSha-varSh'-oShNa-himaaadhi c'aiva
ruup-aashrite cetasi s'-aanubandhe
shok-aarati-krodha-bhay'-aadi duHkham

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16.13
Insofar as there is a body,
there is the suffering of sickness, aging and the like;

And also of hunger and thirst,
and of the rains, and summer heat and winter cold.

Insofar as a mind is bonded, tied to phenomena,

There is the suffering of grief, discontent, anger, fear
and so on.

16.14
pratyakSham aalokya ca janma duHkhaM
duHkhaM tath" atiitam ap' iti viddhi
yathaa ca tad duHkham idaM ca duHkhaM
duHkham tath"aan-aagatam apy avehi.

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16.14
Seeing now before your eyes that birth is suffering,

Recognise that likewise in the past it was suffering.

And just as that was suffering and this is suffering,

Know that likewise in the future it will be suffering.

16.15
biija-svabhaavo hi yath" eha dRShTo
bhuuto 'pi bhavyo 'pi tath" aanumeyaH
pratyakShatash ca jvalano yath" oShNo
bhuuto 'pi bhavyo 'pi tath" oShNa eva

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16.15
For just as it is evident to us now
what kind of thing a seed is,

We can infer that it was so in the past
and that it will be so in the future.

And just as fire burning before us is hot,

So was it and so will it be, hot.

16.16
tan naama-ruupasya guN'-aanuruupaM
yatr" aiva nirvRttir udaara-vRtta
tatr' aiva duHkhaM na hi tad-vimuktaM
duHkhaM bhaviShyaty abhavad bhaved vaa

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16.16
In conformity with its kind, then,
a distinguishable bodily form

Develops, wherein, O man of noble conduct,

Suffering exists, right there -- for nowhere else

Will suffering exist or has it existed or could it exist.


COMMENT:
16.11 and 16.12 relate to the four elements of water, earth, wind, and fire, which, as I sat this morning, had for me to do with allowing flow, responding to the push and pull of the earth, allowing the back to breathe, and letting the legs out of the pelvis as if to feed a fire in the belly.

Aside from this piece of self-indulgence, this section brings to mind the words of my old Zen teacher that "Buddhism is an international religion" -- a typically bad use of words. Even if we said "The Buddha's teaching is universal," that still somehow wouldn't fit. Did the Buddha ever say "my teaching is universal"?

If I wanted to get on in the world I would never express anything on a public forum that sounded like a bigoted view of Jews or of Japanese -- two groups that I habitually use as mirrors for tendencies in myself. But this blog is not a means for me to get on in the world. It may be that I have used my blogs over the years precisely as a means for not getting on in the world. Ha! Well, in that case I seem to have succeeded, so far.

I've got into the habit of writing the bits in bold as more sincere work, as a kind of service, balanced by the comments which I write more self-indulgently, less responsibly, to please myself.

In that vein, I reflect here on the fact that I use a tendency which I perceive in Jewish culture as a mirror for some 'Jewish' tendencies that I would prefer not to see in myself: a tendency to be clever while lacking what Bruno Bettelheim called 'The Informed Heart;' a tendency to regard myself as special, as somehow chosen; and, dare I mention it, a tendency to be tight where money is concerned. At school in Birmingham in the 1970s, if we wanted to take the mickey out of a friend for being tight with money, we would call the friend Jewish. We used "Jewish" as an adjective meaning stingy. That is what we did. That is how our unenlightened minds worked. The school I went to produced in years gone by the empire-builders of Britain. Todays its old boys are civil servants, politicians, academics, bankers, accountants, lawyers and the like. I don't imagine that many of us would dream nowadays of using "Jewish" as a synonym for stingy, whether in public or in private. But is that because our minds have truly changed? Or is it because we have simply learnt the rules of how to get on in the world -- so-called 'political correctness'?

How many of us have truly succeeded in doing what the Buddha exhorted us to do -- to cleanse our own mind? None of us, I bet, myself included.

One of the things I hate about the Japanese, AS I SEE THEM (not necessarily as they really are), is a tendency to rigid formalism. The tendency attracted me in my early karate days, when I competed to be more rigidly formalistic than anybody, and the tendency was doubtless behind my record in 2009 of translating one verse per day every day. It is the same kind of rigidity which keeps me sitting four times a day every day.

Now, the most fundamental teaching of the Buddha, as discussed yesterday, is the relatively modest one of first cleansing one's own mind. Not first to go into the world and help America, or China, or whoever it will be next, to build a just empire, but first to take the backward step of cleansing one's own mind.

And so the Buddha invites Nanda in this section to contemplate the universality of suffering. He does not say "Go forth, my followers and establish Buddhism as the truly international religion." He encourages Nanda to see for himself that all birth -- whether of a Jew or of a Japanese or of a black, white or red American or of a Han or non-Han Chinese -- makes for suffering.

Reflecting on this truth, who can maintain for long the idea that me and my group, or you and your group, are so special?