⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Premā)
tato babhāṣe sa ratha-praṇetā
kumāra sādhāraṇa eṣa doṣaḥ |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
evaṁ hi rogaiḥ paripīḍyamāno
rujāturo harṣam-upaiti lokaḥ || 3.44
3.44
Then the driver of that vehicle of joy
said:
“This fault, O Prince, is common to
all.
For, while thus pressed all around by
forces of disintegration,
People pained by disorder move towards
pleasure."
COMMENT:
Today's verse relates to the pleasure
principle that Nanda is described as recognizing in Saundara-nanda
Canto 17:
Insofar as a creature's industry, motivated by bond-making or bond-breaking impulse, / Is dependent on a prescription, named "pleasure," for counteracting pain, he saw, on that account, that existence is suffering. // SN17.19 //
That being so, in the 1st pāda two
meanings of ratha-praṇetā may be relevant, namely, driver of a
chariot, and guide to pleasure/joy. The suggestion is that the
Buddha, the tamer of men, is also a guide to pleasure, via the
reality of a means-whereby principle.
EBC translated today's verse thus: Then the charioteer answered, ‘O
prince, this evil is common to all; thus pressed round by diseases
men run to pleasure, though racked with pain.’
This sounds fine, but only because EBC
failed to translate hi (“for” or “because”) in the 3rd pāda.
EHJ has the great merit as a translator
of always endeavouring to be true to the original Sanskrit, even if
it makes the task of translation more awkward. Thus he refuses to
overlook hi, but dutifully translates it as “For,” and then
struggles to make sense of it: Then the chariot-driver said, “Prince,
this evil is shared by all. For men feast and yet they are thus
oppressed by disease and racked by pain.”
EHJ adds in a footnote that the
connexion in sense of the two lines [the connection between the first
and second yugapādas, i.e. the connection indicated by hi] is not
obvious at first, but the charioteer has in mind the festal crowds
around and explains how they too are subject to disease.
What EHJ failed to understand was that
eṣa doṣaḥ (“this fault”) is not the evil of disease but is
rather, as explained yesterday, the fault of being moved. The point
is, then, that we are all, through our common genetic inheritance –
from before the time when as crying babies we were guided by the suck
and root reflex to be soothed by the pleasure of feeding at our
mother's breast -- moved by the pleasure principle.
Only when eṣaḥ doṣaḥ is
understood like this does hi makes sense. This fault of being moved
is common to all. For/because (hi) we all instinctively recoil from pain
and are moved emotionally to move towards pleasure – until such
time as we realize, in terms of Freudian psychology, the reality
principle, or until such time as we acquire, in the symbolism of
Chinese Zen, black beads for eyes and bamboos for nostrils.
My teacher Gudo Nishijima was greatly
influenced by Sigmund Freud, and in particular by the writings of a
Freudian psychologist named Karl Menninger. Gudo said that if it were
not for Freud, he could never have understood the Buddha's teaching.
If, however, not necessarily accepting Freud's "reality
principle," we dig deeper, today's verse causes us to ask what the
relation is between eṣa doṣaḥ (this fault in here) and the
behaviour of people out there in the world who are governed by the
pleasure principle.
Eṣa doṣaḥ (this fault in here) in
my book is very much tied to feeling, and to what FM Alexander
identified as faulty sensory appreciation.
Alexander understood – much more
clearly than Gudo Nishijima ever understood – that when feeling is
faulty it is does not do to pursue any goal directly, even such a
worthy goal as living according to the reality principle. For a
person who is pained by disorder, for a person in other words who is
suffering from faulty sensory appreciation, the first practical step
is to do nothing. This means in practice giving up all idea of
realizing this or improving that. It doesn't mean sitting on a round
cushion with the idea of “keeping the spine straight vertically.”
It means giving up all idea of doing anything.
This is Alexander's principle of
inhibition, which is very different from what inhibition means in
Freudian psychology. According to Freudian psychology, inhibition
means something harmful associated with the suppression of desire.
In Alexander work, inhibition means giving up the idea that triggers
habitual movement in order to be truly free to move or not move.
The 3rd noble truth, in Gudo
Nishijima's teaching, is a philosophy of action. At least that
is what Gudo understood from reading Dogen's Shobogenzo, in which the
3rd phase generally relates to action. But in his actual
practice, and in what he taught, Gudo's 3rd phase was a
philosophy not of true, free action; it was a philosophy of doing.
For Gudo, Alexander's principle of
“inhibition” which required the practice of “thinking,” could
never be similar to the Buddha's 3rd noble truth which is a philosophy not of thinking but of action.
I also would say that Alexander's
teaching of inhibition and the Buddha's 3rd noble truth
are not similar. They are not two principles that are similar or
parallel to each other. For me, they are just one and the same
principle.
When people who are pained by disorder
are moving towards pleasure, and thereby redoubling the pain of their
disorder, the first step they need to be taught is not to follow the
reality principle, and no to try to keep the spine straight
vertically. The first step is simply to stop. Stop trying. Stop doing
the wrong thing, and give the right thing a chance to do itself.
I woke for my sins this morning earlier
than I would have liked and made my faulty way to the shed/cabin at
the end of field/garden. As I did so, I was accompanied by the shadow
of a crescent moon. After sitting I made a bonfire and a cup of
coffee, and sat drinking the coffee watching the morning sun glint on
frosty grass while leaves floated slowly down from tall ash trees. It
struck me that being as faulty as hell, as I undoubtedly am,
evidently need not stop a person from fully experiencing moments of
existence like this.
Under Gudo Nishijima I translated a
chapter of Shobogenzo called 有 時
U-JI, “Existence-Time,” and probably understood what Gudo
Nishijima wanted to say well enough to do a serviceable translation,
and a translation that Gudo felt was his own. But while, guided by a combination of my own faulty sensory appreciaton and Gudo's bad teaching around "right posture," I was pulling
my pelvis and legs in towards each other, lifting my chest, and
pulling my chin down towards my neck, I never really experienced a
single moment of real existence. Not until Marjory Barlow gave me the
golden key did I have any chance of finding my own way around the
problem of faulty sensory appreciation. What was the golden key?
“Being happy to be wrong,” Marjory said, “is the golden key.”
Eṣa doṣaḥ, “this fault,” does
not mean, as previous translators have understood it to mean, “the
evil of disease.” Eṣa doṣaḥ means “this fault in here, in
me.” Eṣa doṣaḥ are the words of a person who is holding the
golden key, even if he does not know it yet.
VOCABULARY
tataḥ: ind. then
babhāṣe = 3rd pers. sg.
perf. bhāṣ: to speak , talk , say , tell
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
ratha-praṇetā (nom. sg. m.): the
driver of the chariot / the guide to joy
ratha: m. ( √ ṛ) " goer "
, a chariot , car , esp. a two-wheeled war-chariot ; m. ( √ram)
pleasure , joy , delight
praṇetṛ: m. leader, guide
kumāra (voc.): O prince!
sādhāraṇah (nom. sg. m.): mfn. "
having or resting on the same support or basis " , belonging or
applicable to many or all , general , common to all , universal ,
common
eṣa (nom. sg. m.): this, this here
doṣaḥ (nom. sg.): m. fault
evaṁ: ind. thus, in such a manner
hi: for
rogaiḥ (inst. pl.): m. "
breaking up of strength " , disease , infirmity , sickness
paripīḍyamānaḥ = nom. sg. m.
passive pres. part. pari- √ pīḍ: to press all round , press
together , squeeze ; to torment , harass , vex
rujāturaḥ (nom. sg. m.): pained by
breakdown
rujā: f. breaking , fracture ; pain ,
sickness , disease
ātura: mfn. suffering , sick (in body
or mind); diseased or pained by (in comp.)
harṣam (acc. sg.): m. bristling ,
erection (esp. of the hair in a thrill of rapture or delight); joy ,
pleasure , happiness ; erection of the sexual organ , sexual
excitement , lustfulness
upaiti = 3rd pers. sg. pres.
upa- √i: to go or come or step near , approach , betake one's self
to , arrive at , meet with , turn towards
lokaḥ (nom. sg.): m. mankind, the
world
對曰此世間 一切倶亦然
有身必有患 愚癡樂朝歡
有身必有患 愚癡樂朝歡
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