viShayeShu tu doSha-darshinaH
parituShTasya shucer a-maaninaH
shama-karmasu yukta-cetasaH
kRta-buddher na ratir na vidyate
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.25
But the joy is not unknown to one
who sees the faults in objects of the senses,
Who is contented, pure, and unassuming,
Whose mind is versed in religious acts leading to peace
And whose understanding of those acts is formed.
COMMENT:
The striver's words, on the surface, sound somewhat similar to teaching the Buddha will deliver to Nanda in Canto 16:
Giving oneself to this path with its three divisions / And eight branches -- this straightforward, irremovable, noble path -- // One abandons the faults, which are the causes of suffering, / And comes to that step which is total well-being. // Attendant on it are constancy and straightness; / Modesty, attentiveness, and reclusiveness; // Wanting little, contentment, and freedom from forming attachments; / No fondness for worldly activity, and forbearance. [16.37 - 38]
The striver, like the Buddha, speaks of faults, and in the same breath praises unassuming virtues like peaceable action and contentment.
There are, however, some notable differences between the striver and the Buddha. For one thing, the Buddha never preaches what he does not practice, whereas can the striver be truly described as a-maanin, "unassuming, not conceited, modest"? And is the striver's mind truly given over to peaceable acts -- or is the striver's mind more steeped in excellent words? Do the striver's efforts actually in the end lead Nanda towards peace?
Again, when we examine the striver's words in detail, what is the striver actually saying about faults and objects?
I may be wrong, but... No, strike that. The one thing that my life has shown me for sure is that I am wrong, and so therefore I cannot think that the faults which the Buddha's calls on me to abandon are in the objects of my senses. It must be truer to say that the faults I am to abandon lie in the faulty inner patterns which are triggered by my striving for objects. Yes, those patterns are tied up with faulty sensory appreciation, along with wrong ideas, but to see the faults as existing primarily in the realm of sensory experience might be to miss the Buddha's fundamental point about faults, which start not from objects but from thirsting.
In this light, it may be instructive to compare and contrast the words of the striver in this verse with the Buddha's faultless analysis of faults in Canto 16:
And this, the suffering of doing, in the world, / Has its cause in clusters of faults which start with thirsting [16.17]
Again, you must understand how, due to this cause, / Because of men's faults, the cycle of doing goes on... [16.18]
So my friend, with regard to the many forms of becoming, / Know their causes to be [the faults] that start with thirsting / And cut out those [faults], if you wish to be freed from suffering; / For ending of the effect follows from eradication of the cause. [16.25]
Giving oneself to this path with its three divisions / And eight branches -- this straightforward, irremovable, noble path -- // One abandons the faults, which are the causes of suffering, / And comes to that step which is total well-being. // Attendant on it are constancy and straightness; / Modesty, attentiveness, and reclusiveness; // Wanting little, contentment, and freedom from forming attachments; / No fondness for worldly activity, and forbearance. [16.37 - 38]
Then comprehend that suffering is doing / And witness the faults moving it forward. / Realise its stopping as non-doing, /And know the path as a turning back. [16.42]
Because of the instinct-led accumulation, from time without beginning, / Of the powerful mass of afflictions, / And because true practice is so difficult to do, /The faults cannot be cut off all at once. [16.71]
For just as a man afraid of thieves in the night / Would not open his door even to friends, / So does a wise man withhold consent equally / To the doing of anything bad or anything good that involves the faults. [16.79]
Again, it may be instructive to compare what the striver says here about objects with what Ashvaghosha (e.g. in 3.2) and the Buddha (especially in Canto 13) say about objects:
In the approach to ascetic practice of the various traditions, / And in the attachment of sages to various restraints, / He observed the miseries of thirsting for an object. / Seeing asceticism to be unreliable, he turned away from it. [3.2]
And yet the power of the senses, though operative, / Need not become glued to an object, // So long as in the mind, with regard to that object, / No fixing goes on.// Where fuel and air co-exist,/ Just as there a fire burns, // With an object and through fixing, / So a fire of affliction arises. // For by the unreal means of fixing / One is bound to an object; // Seeing that very same object / As it really is, one is set free. // On seeing one and the same form / This man is enamoured, that man disgusted; // Somebody else remains indifferent; / While yet another feels thereto a human warmth. // Thus, an object is not the cause / Of bondage or of liberation; // It is due to specifically to fixing / That sticking occurs or does not.// [13.49 - 13.53]
This morning as I sat I had a sense that the whole of me was breathing in -- nothing to do with the diaphragm or the floating ribs or the dan t'ien or keeping the spine straight vertically, but just the whole of me expanding. If I hadn't met the teaching of FM Alexander, I would never have had this experience, not in a million years. Coming across Alexander work was, as I see it, my reward for serving Zen Master Dogen. Dogen's words somehow opened me up to be available to begin to see the truth of what Alexander discovered.
In the business of preventing the trouble that is caused by faults, fiddling around with objects, or with this and that body part, is futile. In other words, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves -- in the whole of ourselves. Wrong inner patterns within the self are the doing that has to be stopped.
EH Johnston:
But pleasure in it is indeed felt by the man who sees the evil of material objects and is contented, pure, humble and determined, and whose will is directed to actions leading to holy peace.
Linda Covill:
Yet no joy is inaccessible to a determined man who sees the flaws in sensory experience, who is contented, pure, unconceited, and who has enjoined his mind to actions which make for peace.
VOCABULARY:
viShayeShu (loc. pl.): m. object, object of sense ; anything perceptible by the senses , any object of affection or concern or attention , any special worldly object or aim or matter or business , (pl.) sensual enjoyments , sensuality
tu: but
doSha-darshinaH (gen. sg. m.): one who sees faults, a fault-finder
doSha: m. fault , vice , deficiency , want
darshin: mfn. ifc. seeing , looking at , observing , examining , finding
parituShTasya (gen. sg. m.): mfn. completely satisfied , delighted , very glad
shuceH (gen. sg. m.): mfn. clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.)
a-maaninaH (gen. sg. m.): mfn. not proud , modest
shama-karmasu (loc. pl.): actions that make for peace
shama: m. tranquillity , calmness , rest , equanimity ; peace
karman: n. act , action ; any religious act or rite (as sacrifice , oblation &c , esp. as originating in the hope of future recompense and as opposed to speculative religion or knowledge of spirit) ; former act as leading to inevitable results , fate (as the certain consequence of acts in a previous life)
yukta-cetasaH (gen. sg. m.): his mind intent upon/versed in
yukta: mfn. yoked or joined or fastened or attached or harnessed to (loc.) ; set to work , made use of , employed , occupied with , engaged in , intent upon (loc.); absorbed in abstract meditation , concentrated , attentive ; skilful , clever , experienced in , familiar with (loc.)
cetas: n. consciousness , intelligence , thinking soul , heart , mind
kRta-buddheH (gen. sg.): mfn. of formed mind , learned , wise ; one who has made a resolution , resolved ; informed of one's duty , one who knows how religious rites ought to be conducted
kRta: mfn. done, formed
buddhi: f. the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general notions , intelligence , reason , intellect , mind , discernment , judgement
ratiH (nom. sg.): f. pleasure , enjoyment , delight in , fondness for
na: not
vidyate = 3rd pers. sg. passive vid: to find , discover , meet or fall in with , obtain , get , acquire , partake of , possess (passive to be found, exist, be [esp. in later language] vidyate , " there is , there exists " , often with na , " there is not")
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