doShaaMsh ca kaayaad bhiShag ujjihiirShur
bhuuyo yathaa kleshayituM yateta
raagaM tathaa tasya munir jighaaMsur
bhuuyastaraM raagam upaaninaaya
= = - = = - - = - = =
= = - = = - - = - = -
= = - = = - - = - = =
= = - = = - - = - = -
10.43
Just as, wishing to draw faults from the body,
A healer would endeavour to aggravate them,
So, wishing to kill the red taint of passion in him,
The Sage brought about an even greater passion.
COMMENT:
EHJ records in the notes to his Sanskrit text that he accepted H.P. Shastri's emendations in line 1, with some hesitation. LC's Clay Sanskrit Library version follows EHJ's text, as does the transliteration of the Sanskrit Buddhist Input Project.
In the series of medical metaphors which are woven into Saundara-nanda, the Buddha is represented as a healer. And a healer is one who, by definition, is concerned with his patient as a whole -- in contrast to doctors in the prevalent Western medical paradigm who are generally good at intervening with drugs and surgery to treat symptoms of disease, without much regard for the truth that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Given my experience as an innocent victim in my youth of an end-gaining dentist who made his money from a "drill & fill" approach, and as a less innocent, more blameworthy victim in my 20s of end-gaining Zen teaching centred on the ugly concept of right posture, I should be more alive to the problem of end-gaining than I am. Sheer laziness is one obstacle. Pass the TV remote, would you, and make us a cup of tea?
The thing about end-gaining is it is so seductively simple. Just go for whatever important end you have in view, however limited it might be, and leave your mother or your wife or a nurse or an Alexander teacher or some other person of lesser rank than yourself to pick up the pieces and sort out the mess you have left behind.
End-gaining, if truth be told, is not really a way of simplicity. It is just an easy way, a way that seeks to deal with specific symptoms of a problem and in the process produces a whole complex of unintended undesirable consequences -- commonly known as "side effects" or as "collateral damage."
FM Alexander taught a means-whereby a person might learn to use himself more as a whole. He described this means-whereby as an approach that was diametrically opposed to end-gaining. End-gaining, Alexander thought, had become a habit of our civilization, like a drug.
Hello, my name is Mike. I've been an end-gainer for more than 50 years.
(But the last 30, since I went to Japan and bought into the idea of becoming a Zen Master, have been by far the worst.)
EH Johnston:
And as a physician who wishes to remove diseases of the body will set to work to cause it still greater pain, so the Sage in order to stamp out his passion led him into still greater passion.
Linda Covill:
And just as a doctor seeks to draw out humoral faults from the body by further paining it, so the sage, intending to destroy passion in him, first brought about a far greater passion.
VOCABULARY:
doShaan (acc. pl.): m. fault ; alteration , affection , morbid element , disease (esp. of the 3 humours of the body , viz. pitta , vaayu , and shleShman , applied also to the humours themselves)
ca: and
kaayaat (abl. sg.): from the body
bhiShak = nom. sg. bhiShaj: m. a healer , physician
ujjihiirShuH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. Desid. of ud + √hR), wishing to extricate
bhuuyaH: ind. more, further
yathaa: ind. just as
kleshayitum = inf. causative klish: to cause pain; torment , molest
yateta = 3rd pers. sg. optative yat: to endeavour to reach , strive after , be eager or anxious for (with inf.)
raagam (acc. sg.): m. colour , hue , tint , dye , (esp.) red colour , redness ; any feeling or passion , (esp.) love
tathaa: ind. so, similarly
tasya (gen. sg. m.): of/in him
munirH (nom. sg.): m. the Sage
jighaaMsuH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (fr. desid. √ han) desirous of destroying
han: to smite , slay , hit , kill , mar , destroy ; to put to death, execute
bhuuyastaram (acc. sg. m.): even greater
bhuuyas: ind. more, still more
-tara: an affix forming the compar. degree of adjectives
raagam (acc. sg.): m. redness, passion
upaaninaaya = 3rd pers. sg. perfect upaa - √ nii: to convey or bring or lead near
1 comment:
the trouble with zen is it uses exactly the same mechanisms as falling in love !
i haven't had any involvement with zen since about 1992, but it is only now i can see them for what they are, deluded and self deluded schizophrenic nutters !
it's
basically
a
one
way
trap !
one thing i have learnt is that you need to pay attention to your health because there's no justice and he who lives longest laughs loudest and last !
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