Tuesday, February 23, 2010

SAUNDARANANDA 17.42: The First Stage of Sitting-Meditation

kaamair viviktaM malinaish ca dharmair
vitarkavac c' aapi vicaaravac ca
viveka-jaM priiti-sukh'-opapannaM
dhyaanaM tataH sa prathamaM prapede

= = - = = - - = - = =
- = - = = - - = - = -
- = - = = - - = - = =
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17.42
Free from desires and tainted things,

Containing ideas and containing thoughts,

Born of discrimination and possessed of joy and ease,

Is the first stage of meditation, which he then entered.

COMMENT:
Meditation here means sitting-meditation.

Dhyaana means sitting-dhyaana.

Zen practice is sitting-zen.

This translation is a work in progress, and the translator is a work in progress, but on this particular point I haven't got anything to discuss.

EH Johnston:
Then he reached the first trance which is dissociated from (the various forms of) love and the impure elements of existence, has initial and sustained reflection, is born of discrimination and is endowed with ecstasy and bliss.

Linda Covill:
Then he entered the first level of meditation, in which passion and the tainted constituents of reality are absent. It consists of an initial and a sustained application of the mind to its object, is born of discernment, and is imbued with happiness and bliss.


VOCABULARY:
kaamaiH (inst. pl.): desires, longings, loves, passions; objects of desire
viviktam (acc. sg. m.): separated, kept apart, dissociated; (with inst.) free from
malinaiH: (inst. pl. m.): mfn. dirty , filthy , impure , soiled , tarnished (lit. and fig.)
ca: and
dharmaiH (inst. pl.): m. dharmas, practices, ways of practice, elements, things

vitarkavat: mfn. (speech) 'containing a conjecture or supposition'
vitarka: m. conjecture , supposition , guess , fancy , imagination , opinion; reasoning , deliberation , consideration ; purpose , intention -vat: suffix indicating presence, possession etc.
ca: and
api: also, even, but
vicaaravat: mfn. proceeding with consideration , considerate , prudent
vicaara: m. mode of acting or proceeding, consideration, pondering, deliberation, investigation
vi- √ car: to move in different directions , spread , expand , be diffused; to rove , ramble about or through ; to act , proceed ; to graze upon , feed upon (a pasture); Causative: to move hither and thither (in the mind) , ponder , reflect , consider ; to doubt , hesitate ; to examine , investigate , ascertain
-vat: suffix indicating presence, possession etc.

viveka: (from vi + vic, to sift, divide, analyse, distinguish) discernment, discrimination, right judgement; the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties
-jan: born of
priiti: f. joy
sukha: n. ease, happiness, going well
upapannam (acc. sg. m.): obtained or reached, gained, endowed with, possessed of

dhyaanam (acc. sg.): n. (from dhyai) n. meditation , thought , reflection , (esp.) profound and abstract religious meditation; (with Buddhists divided into 4 stages)
dhyai: to think of, imagine, contemplate, meditate on, call to mind, recollect; (alone) to be thoughtful or meditative; to let the head hang down (said of an animal)
tataH: thence
saH (nom. sg. m.): he
prathamaM (acc. sg. m.): the first
prapede = 3rd pers. perfect. pra + pad: entered, reached, came to a particular state or condition

2 comments:

Malcolm M said...

If I may say so, Mike -
Very nicely done.

Mike Cross said...

Many thanks, jiblet.
Hopefully by degrees the translations are becoming simpler.