ari-bhuuteShv a-nityeShu
satataM duHkha-hetuShu
kaam'-aadiShu jagat saktaM
na vetti sukham avyayam
- - = = - = - -
- - = = - - - -
= = - - - - - =
- = - - - = - -
12.24
Upon transient whims which are akin to enemies,
Being eternally the causes of suffering,
Upon whims like love, the world fixates.
It does not know
the happiness that is immune to change.
COMMENT
This verse is an encouragement to believe in, and thence to pursue, the kind of happiness that is always there, as opposed to the temporary ups that are invariably followed by downs.
The four elements of the four pada ('steps' or 'feet') of this verse, as I read it, are (1) the changeable, (2) the eternal, (3) the fixed, and (4) that which is neither fixed nor subject to change.
The verse seems to ask me to ask myself:
(1) What is transient?
(2) What is eternal?
(3) How, why, and upon what does the world fixate?
(4) Do I myself know, or at least believe in the existence of, this happiness of which the Buddha speaks, which is imperishable, or immune to change?
Here for what it is worth is my attempt to answer those questions:
(1) Things that we tend to presume to be permanent, like concrete floors, or mountains, or the strong chemistry between two human beings who fall in love, on further investigation turn out not to be permanent after all, but to be transient. Everything which has energy turns out to be transient, because sooner or later the energy dissipates. Thus, marine fossils defy our presumptions by turning up on top of the highest mountains, and the majority of marriages defy the sincerest of vows that "till death do us part," by ending up in divorce.
(2) If permanence is to be sought anywhere, it might be sought in certain laws of the universe, chief among which might be impermanence itself, a.k.a. "the 2nd law of thermodynamics." Another law that might be eternally valid, the 2nd line suggests, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering.
(3) "You all fix!" said FM Alexander to his student-teachers, and "Fixing is our greatest evil." Why is it that we cling irrationally to things from which we derive a false sense of security? It might have something to do with faulty sensory appreciation, and it might equally have something to do with the infantile panic/grasp reflex. Again, faulty sensory appreciation and the panic reflex might, in many cases, have a lot to do with each other.
(4) FM Alexander said to his niece Marjory Barlow, "You know, dear, I am always happy." And Marjory said how she treasured those words. So I quizzed on her on them: What did FM mean? From his biography FM clearly had plenty of troubles to contend with, not least the libel case that he decided to contest in his old age. So what did he mean by saying "I am always happy"? Marjory's answer was given not only in words. When I think back to how Marjory answered my question, and try to put Marjory's answer into a word or two of my own choosing, Marjory's answer was to point me back in the direction of learning the backward step.
I am impelled to keep writing about the backward step, like a person with failing memory writing out a list, because my mind is so fickle that I wake up every morning more or less lost, full of surface doubts and regrets, seemingly having forgotten everything. Then I get up and sit and remember and want to write it down and publish it for posterity (as if the blogosphere were eternal): The backward step. The backward step. The backward step.
Do I believe in the sukham avayayam, imperishable happiness, of the fourth line? Yes, I do. Do I know it? I don't know if I know it or not. I know that I don't understand it. Though I dare to judge that it must be profoundly related with acceptance of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, and with learning of the backward step of turning light and shining, I do not understand what it is. I do not understand imperishable happiness any more than a miner understands the sub-atomic particles that constitute gold. I only know that happiness for me, these days, lies in endeavouring to answer Ashvaghosha's call through the centuries to dig deeper for it.
What's Nirvana?
I don't know.
A loser losing
His will to flow?
Submariners say
When hurricanes blow
That it gets stiller
The deeper you go.
EH Johnston:
The world clings to love and the rest, which are perpetual causes of suffering, transitory, and in reality its enemies, and it does not know the pleasure which does not pass away.
Linda Covill:
The world fastens on lust and other desires, which are inimical to us, transitory, and an ongoing cause of suffering. It does not know imperishable bliss.
VOCABULARY:
ari: not liberal , envious , hostile ; an enemy
bhuuteShv = locative, plural of bhuuta: (ifc.) being or being like anything , consisting of
anityeShu = locative, plural of anitya: impermanent, transient
satatam: constantly , always , ever
duHkha: suffering
hetuShu = locative plural of hetu: cause
kaama: wish, desire; pleasure, enjoyment; love, especially sexual love or sensuality
aadiShu = locative, plural of aadi: beginning with, et cetera
jagat (nominal, singular): people, mankind; the world
saktam (accusative): clinging or adhering to , sticking in (loc); committed to; fixed or intent upon, addicted or devoted to (loc)
na: not
vetti = 3rd person singular of vid: to know
sukham (accusative): happiness, ease
avyayam (accusative): not liable to change , imperishable , undecaying
Showing posts with label 2nd Law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2nd Law. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.20: Vision that Can’t Be Clouded by Faulty Sensory Input
ciram unmaarga-vihRto
lolair indriya-vaajibhiH
avatiirNo 'si panthaanaM
diShTyaa dRShTy" aa-vimuuDhayaa
12.20
Long carried off course
By the restless horses of the senses,
You have now set foot on a path,
With clarity of vision, happily, that will not dim.
COMMENT:
In this verse, as I read it, the reactive stallions and errant mares of the senses, which pull us from one side to the other, are contrasted with the kind of detached, reasoned insight that is constant and irremovable, because it is cut off from the flux of sensory experience.
The late Marjory Barlow, niece of FM Alexander, memorably impressed on me that the four verbal directions "(1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, (4) sending the knees forwards and away," are constant. They express the direction of muscular release, all of the time, whatever activity one is engaged in, while breathing out and equally while breathing in.
This means that, however faulty is the functioning of one's vestibular system on a particular day, however hopeless is one's own sense of direction, one thing remains the same. Just as I did yesterday, I wish today (1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, while (4) sending the knees forwards and away. Even if I don't get what I wish for, even if the result is different, the central direction of the wish is always the same: it is the direction of growth. The four directions that Marjory taught in lesson one, and that I also teach in lesson one, are the same four directions that I return to after 15 years in the Alexander work, and they are the same four directions that Marjory returned to after 70 years in the Alexander work. The directions do not change because, the human condition being as it is, the causes of the noise that the directions are designed to prevent do not change. The human faults of the time of the seven ancient buddhas are the human faults of the Buddha’s time are the human faults of Ashvaghosha’s time are the human faults of Dogen’s time are the human faults of Alexander’s time are the human faults of our time.
So the directions are always the same; they do not change in any circumstance. After Marjory had impressed this point upon me, I remember feeling very happy. I left Marjory's teaching room with a spring in my step. It was not the spring one gets from a temporary sensory buzz, thanks to an Alexander teacher's magic hands. It was the kind of spring one gets on understanding something that one is never going to forget. It was indeed the gaining of a kind of foothold in this struggle towards... what? I do not know. In this struggle not to stop growing.
Nanda, in the same way, has seen something not only through his visual sense but with his mind’s eye. Optimism leads to disenchantment, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The bliss of union with a celestial nymph always proves to be impermanent, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The rules of the game of love never change. Again, falling in love turns the ordinary human world into an earthly paradise, but there is something unsatisfactory about paradise, even before it turns into its opposite, with the white of shock, denial, despair, and then the red of anger and the rest. The cycle of samsara is impermanence itself. There is no permanence to be found in it -- except that impermanence itself is a law, like the 2nd law of thermodynamics, or like 2 + 2 = 4, in which there is constancy. A person can always rely on that. And once a person has seen that clearly, no amount of confused input from a faulty visual system can dim that clarity of seeing.
To sit in the full lotus posture with head shaved and body wrapped in a robe is also a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, although there are many who do not like to think so. My teacher, Gudo Nishijima, was a teacher who, very unusually for a Japanese man of his generation, had highly developed powers of independent reasoning. But when I drew his attention to the wrongness of forcibly pulling in the chin in order to straighten the neck bones, he seemed to have too much invested emotionally in teaching the wrong thing that he could not recognize his mistake -- at least not in public. In Confucianist-influenced Japan it is rather scandalous to highlight the mistake of one’s benevolent teacher. But 2 + 2 = 4 in Japan just as 2 + 2 = 4 in England. If apologists for Japanese culture would have it any other way, they can stuff their cultural arguments up their jumper. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is not anybody’s culture. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is the truth of truly sitting upright.
The truth of sitting upright is a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, and a matter of much more than 2 + 2 = 4. It is a matter of not being able to do an undoing. It is a matter of up being up, not being down. However faulty my vestibular system may be on a particular day... and yesterday was a particularly bad day as my sleep (along with the sleep of my disgruntled French neighbours) was cut short by the howling through the night of my neighbour’s dog, whose keen sense of smell seems to have picked up, during our recent daily walks, the scent of a bitch on heat... however faulty my sense of up and down may be on a particular day, up is not down. Even if, with my “debauched kinesthesia” as FM put it, what I sense as up is actually down, the truth remains that up is not down. Up is always up. Up, happily, is always up.
EH Johnston:
What good fortune it is that you who have been carried away for so long down the wrong road by the restless horses of the senses have now entered the true path with unconfused gaze.
Linda Covill:
For a long time the frenzied horses of the senses have carried you the wrong way. How wonderful that with clear vision you have alighted on the right path!
VOCABULARY:
ciram: for a long time
unmaarga: taking a wrong way , going wrong or astray
vi-√hR: to carry away, remove
vihRtaH (nominative, singular): one who is carried away
lolaiH = instrumental, plural of lola: moving hither and thither , shaking , rolling , tossing , dangling , swinging , agitated , unsteady , restless
indriya: senses
vaajibhiH = instrumental, plural of vaajin: swift , spirited , impetuous , heroic , warlike RV. &c &c (with ratha m. a war-chariot); m. the steed of a war-chariot; m. a horse , stallion
avatiirNaH = nominative, singular of avatiirNa: mfn. alighted , descended
asi: you are
√panth: to go, move
panthaanam = accusative of panthan: path (??)
diShTyaa (instrumental of diShTi, good fortune): ‘by good fortune,’ used to express strong pleasure
dRShTyaa = instrumental of drShti: f. seeing , viewing , beholding (also with the mental eye) ; sight , the faculty of seeing ; the mind's eye , wisdom , intelligence
a: not
vimuuDhayaa = instrumental of vimUDhaa: (f) perplexed; foolish, stupid
lolair indriya-vaajibhiH
avatiirNo 'si panthaanaM
diShTyaa dRShTy" aa-vimuuDhayaa
12.20
Long carried off course
By the restless horses of the senses,
You have now set foot on a path,
With clarity of vision, happily, that will not dim.
COMMENT:
In this verse, as I read it, the reactive stallions and errant mares of the senses, which pull us from one side to the other, are contrasted with the kind of detached, reasoned insight that is constant and irremovable, because it is cut off from the flux of sensory experience.
The late Marjory Barlow, niece of FM Alexander, memorably impressed on me that the four verbal directions "(1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, (4) sending the knees forwards and away," are constant. They express the direction of muscular release, all of the time, whatever activity one is engaged in, while breathing out and equally while breathing in.
This means that, however faulty is the functioning of one's vestibular system on a particular day, however hopeless is one's own sense of direction, one thing remains the same. Just as I did yesterday, I wish today (1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, while (4) sending the knees forwards and away. Even if I don't get what I wish for, even if the result is different, the central direction of the wish is always the same: it is the direction of growth. The four directions that Marjory taught in lesson one, and that I also teach in lesson one, are the same four directions that I return to after 15 years in the Alexander work, and they are the same four directions that Marjory returned to after 70 years in the Alexander work. The directions do not change because, the human condition being as it is, the causes of the noise that the directions are designed to prevent do not change. The human faults of the time of the seven ancient buddhas are the human faults of the Buddha’s time are the human faults of Ashvaghosha’s time are the human faults of Dogen’s time are the human faults of Alexander’s time are the human faults of our time.
So the directions are always the same; they do not change in any circumstance. After Marjory had impressed this point upon me, I remember feeling very happy. I left Marjory's teaching room with a spring in my step. It was not the spring one gets from a temporary sensory buzz, thanks to an Alexander teacher's magic hands. It was the kind of spring one gets on understanding something that one is never going to forget. It was indeed the gaining of a kind of foothold in this struggle towards... what? I do not know. In this struggle not to stop growing.
Nanda, in the same way, has seen something not only through his visual sense but with his mind’s eye. Optimism leads to disenchantment, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The bliss of union with a celestial nymph always proves to be impermanent, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The rules of the game of love never change. Again, falling in love turns the ordinary human world into an earthly paradise, but there is something unsatisfactory about paradise, even before it turns into its opposite, with the white of shock, denial, despair, and then the red of anger and the rest. The cycle of samsara is impermanence itself. There is no permanence to be found in it -- except that impermanence itself is a law, like the 2nd law of thermodynamics, or like 2 + 2 = 4, in which there is constancy. A person can always rely on that. And once a person has seen that clearly, no amount of confused input from a faulty visual system can dim that clarity of seeing.
To sit in the full lotus posture with head shaved and body wrapped in a robe is also a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, although there are many who do not like to think so. My teacher, Gudo Nishijima, was a teacher who, very unusually for a Japanese man of his generation, had highly developed powers of independent reasoning. But when I drew his attention to the wrongness of forcibly pulling in the chin in order to straighten the neck bones, he seemed to have too much invested emotionally in teaching the wrong thing that he could not recognize his mistake -- at least not in public. In Confucianist-influenced Japan it is rather scandalous to highlight the mistake of one’s benevolent teacher. But 2 + 2 = 4 in Japan just as 2 + 2 = 4 in England. If apologists for Japanese culture would have it any other way, they can stuff their cultural arguments up their jumper. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is not anybody’s culture. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is the truth of truly sitting upright.
The truth of sitting upright is a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, and a matter of much more than 2 + 2 = 4. It is a matter of not being able to do an undoing. It is a matter of up being up, not being down. However faulty my vestibular system may be on a particular day... and yesterday was a particularly bad day as my sleep (along with the sleep of my disgruntled French neighbours) was cut short by the howling through the night of my neighbour’s dog, whose keen sense of smell seems to have picked up, during our recent daily walks, the scent of a bitch on heat... however faulty my sense of up and down may be on a particular day, up is not down. Even if, with my “debauched kinesthesia” as FM put it, what I sense as up is actually down, the truth remains that up is not down. Up is always up. Up, happily, is always up.
EH Johnston:
What good fortune it is that you who have been carried away for so long down the wrong road by the restless horses of the senses have now entered the true path with unconfused gaze.
Linda Covill:
For a long time the frenzied horses of the senses have carried you the wrong way. How wonderful that with clear vision you have alighted on the right path!
VOCABULARY:
ciram: for a long time
unmaarga: taking a wrong way , going wrong or astray
vi-√hR: to carry away, remove
vihRtaH (nominative, singular): one who is carried away
lolaiH = instrumental, plural of lola: moving hither and thither , shaking , rolling , tossing , dangling , swinging , agitated , unsteady , restless
indriya: senses
vaajibhiH = instrumental, plural of vaajin: swift , spirited , impetuous , heroic , warlike RV. &c &c (with ratha m. a war-chariot); m. the steed of a war-chariot; m. a horse , stallion
avatiirNaH = nominative, singular of avatiirNa: mfn. alighted , descended
asi: you are
√panth: to go, move
panthaanam = accusative of panthan: path (??)
diShTyaa (instrumental of diShTi, good fortune): ‘by good fortune,’ used to express strong pleasure
dRShTyaa = instrumental of drShti: f. seeing , viewing , beholding (also with the mental eye) ; sight , the faculty of seeing ; the mind's eye , wisdom , intelligence
a: not
vimuuDhayaa = instrumental of vimUDhaa: (f) perplexed; foolish, stupid
Thursday, June 11, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.19: A Foothold On the Way to Spontaneity
aho pratyavamarsho 'yaM
shreyasas te purojavaH
araNyaaM mathyamaanaayaam
agner dhuuma iva' otthitaH
12.19
"Aha! This gaining of a foothold
Is the harbinger of a higher good in you,
As, when a firestick is rubbed,
Rising smoke is the harbinger of fire.
COMMENT:
The spontaneous exclamation expressed in Sanskrit as aho we might render into English as Ah! or Oh! or Aha! It is a sound that doesn't mean anything. At the same time, it means a lot.
The pratyavamarsha of the first line I have translated as "gaining of a foothold." I understand it to mean Nanda's gaining of a foothold in his struggle to consciously direct his own energy, autonomously, instead of allowing energy to leak out here and there as happens when we are a slave to emotional reaction. This gaining of a foothold, equally, might be called an insight or a true conception: as described in 12.8, 12.14, and 12.16, Nanda has become acutely aware of, and shocked by the changeability of, the cycle of unconscious reaction.
The pratyavamarsha of the first line of this verse is also the chapter title. EH Johnston notes:
It is hard to determine the exact meaning of pratyavamarsha as it does not apparently occur in any other Buddhist work, Sanskrit or Pali... The original meaning of mRsh with pratyava seems to be 'lay hold of,' which suggests that it means the first step in the path of enlightenment, consisting of laying hold of the Law by faith in the Buddha.
The dictionary gives primacy to the mental aspect of pratyavamarsha, i.e., making contact mentally, forming a mental conception. But the more concrete original meaning that Johnston indicates also appeals. If we go with the more concrete meaning, that the kind of hold intended might be a foothold fits with the title of chapter 14 aadi-prasthaanaH, which carries a connotation of walking; e.g., "The First Steps" or "Initial Marching Out," and with the meta-metaphor of truth of a path, the fourth noble truth.
There is evidence to support both "gaining a foothold" and "touching mentally" in the next verse, where the Buddha tells Nanda he has set foot on a true path, with the kind of insight that does not become confused.
For the moment, as a title of this chapter, I am leaning towards "Gaining a Foothold," because this wording suggests in particular Nanda's readiness to stand on his own two feet. Whereas Nanda has hitherto shown a dependent attitude, from here he is deemed ready to assume responsibility for working on himself -- like a patient who has become well enough to take care of himself without medical supervision, or like a child ready to ride a bicycle without the stabilizing hand of a parent.
In the metaphor of the firestick, it is not that fire is created by twirling the firestick. The 2nd law of thermodynamics describes the tendency that wood always has to combust spontaneously, unless prevented from doing so by activation energy barriers. What the twirling of the firestick does is break down the activation energy barriers so that combustion can begin, whereupon combustion will tend to continue as a spontaneous process.
This, as I see it, is why twirling of the firestick to start a fire is such an excellent and recurrent metaphor. The point is that we have to persist with consciously directed effort, in order to initiate a spontaneous process of energy flow. That is the central irony of sitting practice: the need to make a great and sustained conscious effort in order to initiate a process that we wish in the end simply to allow, as a spontaneous flow of energy.
Sitting with the body is the breaking down of mental barriers, and sitting with the mind is the breaking down physical barriers. As physical and mental activation energy barriers are thus broken down, sitting tends to assert itself, so that body and mind spontaneously drop away and our original features emerge.
I am afraid this attempt to express spontaneity, by the worst of listeners, is too long-winded and convoluted. The Best of Listeners put it much better in a word:
aho!
EH Johnston:
' Ah! This discernment arises as the harbinger of the highest good for you, as the smoke, rising when the stick is rubbed, is the harbinger of the fire.
Linda Covill:
"Oh! This comprehension is the precursor of Excellence arising in you, just as when a firestick is rotated, smoke arises as a precursor of fire.
VOCABULARY:
aho: Ah! (expressing praise)
mRsh: to touch, stroke, handle ; to touch mentally, consider, reflect, deliberate
pratyava-mRsh: to touch; to reflect, to meditate
pratyava-marshaH (nominative, singular): inner contemplation, profound meditation; counter conclusion ; recollection ; consciousness
ayam: this
shreyasaH = genitive of shreyas: most excellent, the best ; the better state ; good (as opposed to evil)
te (genitive): of you, belonging to you, inherent in you
purojavaH (nominative, singular): m. one who goes before
araNyaam = locative of araNi: f. firestick
mathya: to be rubbed out of, to be extracted from
mathyamaana (present participle): being extracted by rubbing
agneH = ablative/genitive of agni: fire
dhuuma: smoke
iva: like
utthita: risen or rising
shreyasas te purojavaH
araNyaaM mathyamaanaayaam
agner dhuuma iva' otthitaH
12.19
"Aha! This gaining of a foothold
Is the harbinger of a higher good in you,
As, when a firestick is rubbed,
Rising smoke is the harbinger of fire.
COMMENT:
The spontaneous exclamation expressed in Sanskrit as aho we might render into English as Ah! or Oh! or Aha! It is a sound that doesn't mean anything. At the same time, it means a lot.
The pratyavamarsha of the first line I have translated as "gaining of a foothold." I understand it to mean Nanda's gaining of a foothold in his struggle to consciously direct his own energy, autonomously, instead of allowing energy to leak out here and there as happens when we are a slave to emotional reaction. This gaining of a foothold, equally, might be called an insight or a true conception: as described in 12.8, 12.14, and 12.16, Nanda has become acutely aware of, and shocked by the changeability of, the cycle of unconscious reaction.
The pratyavamarsha of the first line of this verse is also the chapter title. EH Johnston notes:
It is hard to determine the exact meaning of pratyavamarsha as it does not apparently occur in any other Buddhist work, Sanskrit or Pali... The original meaning of mRsh with pratyava seems to be 'lay hold of,' which suggests that it means the first step in the path of enlightenment, consisting of laying hold of the Law by faith in the Buddha.
The dictionary gives primacy to the mental aspect of pratyavamarsha, i.e., making contact mentally, forming a mental conception. But the more concrete original meaning that Johnston indicates also appeals. If we go with the more concrete meaning, that the kind of hold intended might be a foothold fits with the title of chapter 14 aadi-prasthaanaH, which carries a connotation of walking; e.g., "The First Steps" or "Initial Marching Out," and with the meta-metaphor of truth of a path, the fourth noble truth.
There is evidence to support both "gaining a foothold" and "touching mentally" in the next verse, where the Buddha tells Nanda he has set foot on a true path, with the kind of insight that does not become confused.
For the moment, as a title of this chapter, I am leaning towards "Gaining a Foothold," because this wording suggests in particular Nanda's readiness to stand on his own two feet. Whereas Nanda has hitherto shown a dependent attitude, from here he is deemed ready to assume responsibility for working on himself -- like a patient who has become well enough to take care of himself without medical supervision, or like a child ready to ride a bicycle without the stabilizing hand of a parent.
In the metaphor of the firestick, it is not that fire is created by twirling the firestick. The 2nd law of thermodynamics describes the tendency that wood always has to combust spontaneously, unless prevented from doing so by activation energy barriers. What the twirling of the firestick does is break down the activation energy barriers so that combustion can begin, whereupon combustion will tend to continue as a spontaneous process.
This, as I see it, is why twirling of the firestick to start a fire is such an excellent and recurrent metaphor. The point is that we have to persist with consciously directed effort, in order to initiate a spontaneous process of energy flow. That is the central irony of sitting practice: the need to make a great and sustained conscious effort in order to initiate a process that we wish in the end simply to allow, as a spontaneous flow of energy.
Sitting with the body is the breaking down of mental barriers, and sitting with the mind is the breaking down physical barriers. As physical and mental activation energy barriers are thus broken down, sitting tends to assert itself, so that body and mind spontaneously drop away and our original features emerge.
I am afraid this attempt to express spontaneity, by the worst of listeners, is too long-winded and convoluted. The Best of Listeners put it much better in a word:
aho!
EH Johnston:
' Ah! This discernment arises as the harbinger of the highest good for you, as the smoke, rising when the stick is rubbed, is the harbinger of the fire.
Linda Covill:
"Oh! This comprehension is the precursor of Excellence arising in you, just as when a firestick is rotated, smoke arises as a precursor of fire.
VOCABULARY:
aho: Ah! (expressing praise)
mRsh: to touch, stroke, handle ; to touch mentally, consider, reflect, deliberate
pratyava-mRsh: to touch; to reflect, to meditate
pratyava-marshaH (nominative, singular): inner contemplation, profound meditation; counter conclusion ; recollection ; consciousness
ayam: this
shreyasaH = genitive of shreyas: most excellent, the best ; the better state ; good (as opposed to evil)
te (genitive): of you, belonging to you, inherent in you
purojavaH (nominative, singular): m. one who goes before
araNyaam = locative of araNi: f. firestick
mathya: to be rubbed out of, to be extracted from
mathyamaana (present participle): being extracted by rubbing
agneH = ablative/genitive of agni: fire
dhuuma: smoke
iva: like
utthita: risen or rising
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.97: Studies in the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
a-nikShipt'-otsaaho yadi khanati gaaM vaari labhate
prasaktaM vyaamathnan jvalanam araNibhyaaM janayati
prayuktaa yoge tu dhruvam upalabhante shrama-phalaM
drutaM nityaM yaantyo girim api hi bhindanti saritaH
16.97
A man obtains water if he digs the ground
with dogged perseverance,
And produces fire from fire-sticks
by continuous twirling.
But those are sure to reap the fruit of their effort
whose energies are harnessed to practice,
For rivers that flow swiftly and constantly
cut through even a mountain.
COMMENT:
This verse is all about harnessing energy -- in accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics which describes the tendency that energy has to dissipate, unless prevented from doing so by activation energy barriers.
The four lines of this verse are four studies in the 2nd law, following a certain order of progression.
Getting water out of the ground is a physical process. Obtaining water by digging a well requires gross physical effort to dig up earth, and gross physical effort to draw up water. The digging and drawing up are purely mechanical processes, in which activation energy barriers are preventing chemical reactions from taking place. If a wooden bucket is used, activation energy barriers are preventing the water from reacting with the carbon atoms of the bucket. Activation energy barriers, moreover, are maintaining the integrity of the molecular structure of the sides and bottom of the bucket and thereby preventing the water from leaking away.
Fire is ovtained not only through physical means but also through chemical reaction. Getting fire by twirling firesticks again requires persistent effort, but it is effort of a subtler and more skilfull kind than digging, involving a certain amount of know-how, and a good deal of preparation in terms of procuring kindling, dry firewood, and so on. Then nonstop twirling is required to produce the initial flame that allows activation energy barriers to be overcome in the kindling, whose burning then allows activation energy barriers to be overcome in the firewood. Then, at last, the fire gets going, as carbon and oxygen atoms continue to bond spontaneously with each other, releasing heat and light energy as they form more energetically stable compounds of carbon dioxide.
The physical and mental harnessing of energy which is the purpose of formal practice (yoga) requires both these kinds of work on the self: not only gross muscular effort to do something, like digging, but also more subtle mental effort NOT to do. The false mental conceptions that we bring to practice -- the conception that causes us to try to do an undoing, for example -- are akin to activation energy barriers in chemistry in that they operate as blocks to the spontaneous flow of energy. Not by physical work alone can we remove those blocks. Removal of those blocks also requires mental work. Mental work, like fire, has to do with reaction. Mental work has to do with inhibiting or allowing certain reactions to certain stimuli. So Dogen wrote:
Sit with the body.
Sit with the mind.
Sitting with body and mind is effort, but the fruit of such effort is the enjoyment of effortlessness. The fruit of effort, in other words, is that spontaneous flow which is to...
Sit as the dropping off of body and mind.
In discussing the progression of these three lines with my 18-year old son who does not have any interest at all in "Buddhism" but who will be starting a university degree in Chemistry in October, I asked him what he thought the logical subject of the fourth line might be. He paused for a few seconds, looking much more interested in his chicken sandwich than in my attempts to draw him into this discussion. "Dunno. Water flowing down a mountain, I suppose."
Yes, because a mountain stream is the most conspicuous manifestation we see in the natural world of the spontaneous flow of energy, and rivers cutting gorges and canyons out of mountains are most magnificent examples of how the most massive barriers can be eroded, given time, by spontaneous flow of energy itself.
Among many wonderful and inspiring metaphors that cut through all cultural and language barriers to communicate to us exactly what the Buddha wanted to communicate, this verse contains my absolute favourites. Whether as a student and translator of the Buddha's teachings, or as a student and advocate of FM Alexander's teachings, direction of energy is the business I am in. Direction of energy, I submit, is in the final analysis what this Canto is all about.
EH Johnston:
A man obtains water if he digs the earth with unremitting energy ; he produces fire from the fire-sticks by continuous friction ; and the men who apply themselves to Yoga certainly obtain the fruit of their toil. For streams, by ever running swiftly, wear away even mountains.
Linda Covill:
A man obtains water when he digs the ground with unceasing perseverance, and he produces fire from fire-sticks by continually rubbing them together. And those who apply themselves to yogic discipline are sure to win the reward of their exertions; for rivers that run swiftly and continuously can erode even a mountain.
VOCABULARY:
a: not
nikShipta: thrown down or upon ; deposited , pawned , pledged ; rejected , abandoned
utsaahaH (nom. sg.): m. power , strength ; strength of will , resolution ; effort , perseverance , strenuous and continuous exertion , energy; firmness , fortitude
yadi: if, when
khanati = 3rd person singular of khan: to dig
gaaM = acc. sg. go: a cow; the earth (as the milk-cow of kings)
vaari (acc. sg.): n. water
labhate = 3rd person singular of labh: gain, obtain
prasaktam: ind. continually , incessantly
vyaamathnan = nom. sg. m. present participle of vyaa-math
math: to produce fire by rapidly whirling round or rotating a dry stick (araNi) in another dry stick prepared to receive it
jvalanam (acc. sg.): m. fire
araNibhyaam = abl. dual araNi: f. firestick
janayati = 3rd person singular of jan: to produce
prayukta: yoked , harnessed ; used , employed , practised , performed , done
prayuktaaH = nom. pl. m. prayukta: those who are harnessed
yoge = locative of yoga: practice, formal practice
tu: but, now, then (sometimes used as expletive)
dhruvam: ind. firmly , constantly , certainly , surely
upalabhante = 3rd person plural of upalabh: to seize , get possession of , acquire , receive , obtain , find
shrama-phalam (acc.): the fruit of exertion
shrama:fatigue; exertion , labour , toil , exercise , effort either bodily or mental , hard work of any kind
phala: fruit, result, benefit
drutam: ind. quickly , rapidly
nityam: ind. always , constantly
yaantyaH (nom. sg. m.): going
girim (acc. sg.): m. a mountain , hill , rock
api: even, also
hi: for
bhindanti = 3rd person plural of bhid: , to split , cleave , break , cut or rend asunder , pierce , destroy
saritaH = nom. pl. sarit: a river, stream
prasaktaM vyaamathnan jvalanam araNibhyaaM janayati
prayuktaa yoge tu dhruvam upalabhante shrama-phalaM
drutaM nityaM yaantyo girim api hi bhindanti saritaH
16.97
A man obtains water if he digs the ground
with dogged perseverance,
And produces fire from fire-sticks
by continuous twirling.
But those are sure to reap the fruit of their effort
whose energies are harnessed to practice,
For rivers that flow swiftly and constantly
cut through even a mountain.
COMMENT:
This verse is all about harnessing energy -- in accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics which describes the tendency that energy has to dissipate, unless prevented from doing so by activation energy barriers.
The four lines of this verse are four studies in the 2nd law, following a certain order of progression.
Getting water out of the ground is a physical process. Obtaining water by digging a well requires gross physical effort to dig up earth, and gross physical effort to draw up water. The digging and drawing up are purely mechanical processes, in which activation energy barriers are preventing chemical reactions from taking place. If a wooden bucket is used, activation energy barriers are preventing the water from reacting with the carbon atoms of the bucket. Activation energy barriers, moreover, are maintaining the integrity of the molecular structure of the sides and bottom of the bucket and thereby preventing the water from leaking away.
Fire is ovtained not only through physical means but also through chemical reaction. Getting fire by twirling firesticks again requires persistent effort, but it is effort of a subtler and more skilfull kind than digging, involving a certain amount of know-how, and a good deal of preparation in terms of procuring kindling, dry firewood, and so on. Then nonstop twirling is required to produce the initial flame that allows activation energy barriers to be overcome in the kindling, whose burning then allows activation energy barriers to be overcome in the firewood. Then, at last, the fire gets going, as carbon and oxygen atoms continue to bond spontaneously with each other, releasing heat and light energy as they form more energetically stable compounds of carbon dioxide.
The physical and mental harnessing of energy which is the purpose of formal practice (yoga) requires both these kinds of work on the self: not only gross muscular effort to do something, like digging, but also more subtle mental effort NOT to do. The false mental conceptions that we bring to practice -- the conception that causes us to try to do an undoing, for example -- are akin to activation energy barriers in chemistry in that they operate as blocks to the spontaneous flow of energy. Not by physical work alone can we remove those blocks. Removal of those blocks also requires mental work. Mental work, like fire, has to do with reaction. Mental work has to do with inhibiting or allowing certain reactions to certain stimuli. So Dogen wrote:
Sit with the body.
Sit with the mind.
Sitting with body and mind is effort, but the fruit of such effort is the enjoyment of effortlessness. The fruit of effort, in other words, is that spontaneous flow which is to...
Sit as the dropping off of body and mind.
In discussing the progression of these three lines with my 18-year old son who does not have any interest at all in "Buddhism" but who will be starting a university degree in Chemistry in October, I asked him what he thought the logical subject of the fourth line might be. He paused for a few seconds, looking much more interested in his chicken sandwich than in my attempts to draw him into this discussion. "Dunno. Water flowing down a mountain, I suppose."
Yes, because a mountain stream is the most conspicuous manifestation we see in the natural world of the spontaneous flow of energy, and rivers cutting gorges and canyons out of mountains are most magnificent examples of how the most massive barriers can be eroded, given time, by spontaneous flow of energy itself.
Among many wonderful and inspiring metaphors that cut through all cultural and language barriers to communicate to us exactly what the Buddha wanted to communicate, this verse contains my absolute favourites. Whether as a student and translator of the Buddha's teachings, or as a student and advocate of FM Alexander's teachings, direction of energy is the business I am in. Direction of energy, I submit, is in the final analysis what this Canto is all about.
EH Johnston:
A man obtains water if he digs the earth with unremitting energy ; he produces fire from the fire-sticks by continuous friction ; and the men who apply themselves to Yoga certainly obtain the fruit of their toil. For streams, by ever running swiftly, wear away even mountains.
Linda Covill:
A man obtains water when he digs the ground with unceasing perseverance, and he produces fire from fire-sticks by continually rubbing them together. And those who apply themselves to yogic discipline are sure to win the reward of their exertions; for rivers that run swiftly and continuously can erode even a mountain.
VOCABULARY:
a: not
nikShipta: thrown down or upon ; deposited , pawned , pledged ; rejected , abandoned
utsaahaH (nom. sg.): m. power , strength ; strength of will , resolution ; effort , perseverance , strenuous and continuous exertion , energy; firmness , fortitude
yadi: if, when
khanati = 3rd person singular of khan: to dig
gaaM = acc. sg. go: a cow; the earth (as the milk-cow of kings)
vaari (acc. sg.): n. water
labhate = 3rd person singular of labh: gain, obtain
prasaktam: ind. continually , incessantly
vyaamathnan = nom. sg. m. present participle of vyaa-math
math: to produce fire by rapidly whirling round or rotating a dry stick (araNi) in another dry stick prepared to receive it
jvalanam (acc. sg.): m. fire
araNibhyaam = abl. dual araNi: f. firestick
janayati = 3rd person singular of jan: to produce
prayukta: yoked , harnessed ; used , employed , practised , performed , done
prayuktaaH = nom. pl. m. prayukta: those who are harnessed
yoge = locative of yoga: practice, formal practice
tu: but, now, then (sometimes used as expletive)
dhruvam: ind. firmly , constantly , certainly , surely
upalabhante = 3rd person plural of upalabh: to seize , get possession of , acquire , receive , obtain , find
shrama-phalam (acc.): the fruit of exertion
shrama:fatigue; exertion , labour , toil , exercise , effort either bodily or mental , hard work of any kind
phala: fruit, result, benefit
drutam: ind. quickly , rapidly
nityam: ind. always , constantly
yaantyaH (nom. sg. m.): going
girim (acc. sg.): m. a mountain , hill , rock
api: even, also
hi: for
bhindanti = 3rd person plural of bhid: , to split , cleave , break , cut or rend asunder , pierce , destroy
saritaH = nom. pl. sarit: a river, stream
Saturday, April 4, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.51: Skilfull Ways to Start a Blaze
aardraac ca kaaShThaaj jvalan-abhikaamo
n' aiva prayatnaad api vanhim Rcchet
kaaShThaac ca shuShkaad api paatanena
n' aaiv' aagnim aapnoty an-upaaya-puurvaM
16.51
Again, one who wants fire from damp wood,
Try as he might, might not get fire.
And even if he lays down dry wood,
He won't get fire from that, with bad bushcraft.
COMMENT:
In this metaphor, the aim is to get fire. The end to be gained is fire. In order to gain the end, both the condition of the wood and the method of setting fire to it have to be right.
Why does wood burn less easily when it is damp? A chemist would say that the dampness of the wood raises "the activation energy barriers" which temporarily prevent the wood from dissipating its energy, via combustion or other means. This excellent series of web-pages will help you to understand, if you want to, that burning of wood is a process whereby energy is released as bonds are spontaneously formed between carbon in wood and oxygen in the air. The second law of thermodynamics, or "Time's Arrow," says that the energy that is relatively highly concentrated in the carbon atoms in wood has an inherent tendency to dissipate, by joining up with oxygen atoms through combustion or decay, and then floating away in the form of carbon dioxide. But the damper wood is, the greater are the barriers to the initation of the spontaneous process of a fire burning.
The aim of practice may be seen, like a bonfire, as a spontaneous process in which energy is released. Energies such as greed and anger, like the energy locked up in wood, are bound to dissipate in time. But again, Time's Arrow can be held in check, temporarily, by the taut bow of chemical kinetics. So when a baby is throwing a temper tantrum, for example, the energy of the baby's anger is bound to dissipate sooner or later; it is only a matter of time before a crying baby quietens down. But anger lasts longer in some babies than in others. In some adults too, the barriers which prevent the energy of anger from dissipating are higher than in other adults. In my experience of self and others, adults with blocked anger have in many cases developed compensatory mechanisms for dealing with an aberrant Moro reflex. Criticize it if you will, complain about it if you like, mock it if you must, but sometimes a person's suffering from blocked anger is a fact like firewood having become damp.
So what Ashvaghosha might be telling us with the metaphor of damp wood, as I understand him, is not to be surprised or downhearted by difficult periods of practice, during which body and mind do not spontaneously drop off, and the original face does not appear. Even though theoretically body and mind should tend to drop off, just as wood is supposed to burn, in fact activation energy barriers can get in the way. Sometimes activiation energy barriers are a fact, like having three heads and eight arms.
When one finds oneself in a difficult phase, out of the groove, unable to get going, when it just is not happening, then what else can one do but pass through it? When we are powerlessness to turn the wheel of the Lotus-Universe, what else can we do but leave the wheel to turn itself? Tomorrow will be another day, bringing another opportunity to sit, and another target to aim for -- which might be another verse of Saundarananda.
With regard to method, I borrowed the word "bushcraft" from Ray Mears, whose TV demonstrations of fire-lighting I have enjoyed over the years. Having spent many years very modestly studying the art of lighting fires under native peoples on several continents, Ray is a paragon of the kind of open-minded humility that goes with true confidence. You sense that he could get a fire going from the most unpromising of raw materials, like a very experienced Alexander teacher working with a deeply fixed person. Especially without the aid of modern technology, lighting a fire is a task that requires both the right approach and also a lot of persistence -- which may be why it is a recurrent metaphor in the golden speech of Buddha and in the golden writings of Ashvaghosha.
VOCABULARY:
aardraat = ablative of aardra: wet, damp
ca: and
kaaShThaat = ablative of kaaShta: piece of wood or timber
jvalan = in comp. for jvalat: blazing fire, flame
abhikaamaH (nom. sg. m.): one who is desirous
na: not
eva: (emphatic)
prayatnaad = ablative of prayatna: persevering effort , continued exertion or endeavour; great care
api: even
vanhim (accusative): the conveyer or bearer of oblations to the gods (esp. said of agni, " fire "); fire
Rccheta = 3rd person singular, present optative of √R: to go, send; reach, obtain
kaaShThaat = ablative of kaaShta: piece of wood or timber
ca: and
shuShkaad = ablative of shuShka: dry
api: even
paatanena = instrumental of paatana: n. the act of causing to fall, felling, lowering, humbling; the act of casting
na: not
eva; (emphatic)
agnim (accusative): fire
aapnoti = 3rd person singular of aap: to get, obtain
an: (negative prefix) wrong, bad
upaaya: that by which one reaches one's aim , a means or expedient (of any kind) , way , stratagem , craft
puurvam: (at the end of compounds) with
EH Johnston:
And a man who wants a fire will not obtain one from damp wood, however much he tries, nor because of using the wrong method will he obtain a fire even from dry wood, if he merely throws it down.
Linda Covill:
A man wanting a fire will not get one from damp wood, even if he tries; and even laying on dry wood, he won't get a fire if he uses the wrong method.
n' aiva prayatnaad api vanhim Rcchet
kaaShThaac ca shuShkaad api paatanena
n' aaiv' aagnim aapnoty an-upaaya-puurvaM
16.51
Again, one who wants fire from damp wood,
Try as he might, might not get fire.
And even if he lays down dry wood,
He won't get fire from that, with bad bushcraft.
COMMENT:
In this metaphor, the aim is to get fire. The end to be gained is fire. In order to gain the end, both the condition of the wood and the method of setting fire to it have to be right.
Why does wood burn less easily when it is damp? A chemist would say that the dampness of the wood raises "the activation energy barriers" which temporarily prevent the wood from dissipating its energy, via combustion or other means. This excellent series of web-pages will help you to understand, if you want to, that burning of wood is a process whereby energy is released as bonds are spontaneously formed between carbon in wood and oxygen in the air. The second law of thermodynamics, or "Time's Arrow," says that the energy that is relatively highly concentrated in the carbon atoms in wood has an inherent tendency to dissipate, by joining up with oxygen atoms through combustion or decay, and then floating away in the form of carbon dioxide. But the damper wood is, the greater are the barriers to the initation of the spontaneous process of a fire burning.
The aim of practice may be seen, like a bonfire, as a spontaneous process in which energy is released. Energies such as greed and anger, like the energy locked up in wood, are bound to dissipate in time. But again, Time's Arrow can be held in check, temporarily, by the taut bow of chemical kinetics. So when a baby is throwing a temper tantrum, for example, the energy of the baby's anger is bound to dissipate sooner or later; it is only a matter of time before a crying baby quietens down. But anger lasts longer in some babies than in others. In some adults too, the barriers which prevent the energy of anger from dissipating are higher than in other adults. In my experience of self and others, adults with blocked anger have in many cases developed compensatory mechanisms for dealing with an aberrant Moro reflex. Criticize it if you will, complain about it if you like, mock it if you must, but sometimes a person's suffering from blocked anger is a fact like firewood having become damp.
So what Ashvaghosha might be telling us with the metaphor of damp wood, as I understand him, is not to be surprised or downhearted by difficult periods of practice, during which body and mind do not spontaneously drop off, and the original face does not appear. Even though theoretically body and mind should tend to drop off, just as wood is supposed to burn, in fact activation energy barriers can get in the way. Sometimes activiation energy barriers are a fact, like having three heads and eight arms.
When one finds oneself in a difficult phase, out of the groove, unable to get going, when it just is not happening, then what else can one do but pass through it? When we are powerlessness to turn the wheel of the Lotus-Universe, what else can we do but leave the wheel to turn itself? Tomorrow will be another day, bringing another opportunity to sit, and another target to aim for -- which might be another verse of Saundarananda.
With regard to method, I borrowed the word "bushcraft" from Ray Mears, whose TV demonstrations of fire-lighting I have enjoyed over the years. Having spent many years very modestly studying the art of lighting fires under native peoples on several continents, Ray is a paragon of the kind of open-minded humility that goes with true confidence. You sense that he could get a fire going from the most unpromising of raw materials, like a very experienced Alexander teacher working with a deeply fixed person. Especially without the aid of modern technology, lighting a fire is a task that requires both the right approach and also a lot of persistence -- which may be why it is a recurrent metaphor in the golden speech of Buddha and in the golden writings of Ashvaghosha.
VOCABULARY:
aardraat = ablative of aardra: wet, damp
ca: and
kaaShThaat = ablative of kaaShta: piece of wood or timber
jvalan = in comp. for jvalat: blazing fire, flame
abhikaamaH (nom. sg. m.): one who is desirous
na: not
eva: (emphatic)
prayatnaad = ablative of prayatna: persevering effort , continued exertion or endeavour; great care
api: even
vanhim (accusative): the conveyer or bearer of oblations to the gods (esp. said of agni, " fire "); fire
Rccheta = 3rd person singular, present optative of √R: to go, send; reach, obtain
kaaShThaat = ablative of kaaShta: piece of wood or timber
ca: and
shuShkaad = ablative of shuShka: dry
api: even
paatanena = instrumental of paatana: n. the act of causing to fall, felling, lowering, humbling; the act of casting
na: not
eva; (emphatic)
agnim (accusative): fire
aapnoti = 3rd person singular of aap: to get, obtain
an: (negative prefix) wrong, bad
upaaya: that by which one reaches one's aim , a means or expedient (of any kind) , way , stratagem , craft
puurvam: (at the end of compounds) with
EH Johnston:
And a man who wants a fire will not obtain one from damp wood, however much he tries, nor because of using the wrong method will he obtain a fire even from dry wood, if he merely throws it down.
Linda Covill:
A man wanting a fire will not get one from damp wood, even if he tries; and even laying on dry wood, he won't get a fire if he uses the wrong method.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.48: Going Beyond Science, Scientifically
dhaatuun hi ShaD bhuu-salil-aanalaadiin
saamaanyataH svena ca lakShaNena
avaiti yo n'aanyam avaiti tebhyaH
so' tyantikaM mokSham avaiti tebhyaH
16.48
For in knowing the six elements
of earth, water, fire and the rest,
Generically, and each as specific to itself,
He who knows nothing else but them,
Knows total release from them.
COMMENT:
The six elements are the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, plus the sixth element of consciousness.
My sons are both continuing with the study of chemistry, biology, and maths, to 'A' level and beyond, and that suits me fine. I look forward to them filling me in on the 2nd law of thermodynamics, among other things. If biology led them into psychology, I would not be too disappointed. But if they had tended towards, say, film studies or -- God forbid -- religious studies, I might not have encouraged them in that direction.
This verse, as I read it, affirms a scientific approach to knowing, as opposed to religious belief in such supposed miraculous Hollywood/biblical phenomena as God, virgin birth, winged angels, et cetera.
Ashvaghosha's point, as I take it, is that there never has been nor ever will be any basis in religion from which to transcend science. Gold is got from earth, by digging. The basis for transcending science lies in scientific endeavour itself.
This kind of scientific endeavor, as John Dewey saw it, was what FM Alexander was involved in. Thus Dewey wrote in his introduction to Alexander's second book:
"After studying over a period of years Mr Alexander's method in actual operation, I would stake myself upon the fact that he has applied to our ideas and beliefs about ourselves, and about our acts, exactly the same method of experimentation, and of the production of new sensory observations as tests and means of developing thought, that have been the source of all progress in the physical sciences."
Even more pertinent to this verse is a paragraph that Dewey wrote in his introduction to Alexander's third book:
"As might be anticipated, the conclusions of Mr Alexander's experimental enquiries are in harmony with what physiologists know about the muscular and nervous structure. But they give a new significance to that knowledge; indeed, they make evident what knowledge itself really is. The anatomist may 'know' the exact function of each muscle, and conversely know what muscles come into play in the execution of any specified act. But if he is himself unable to co-ordinate all the muscular structures involved in, say, sitting down or in rising from a sitting position in a way which achieves the optimum and efficient performance of that act -- if in other words he misuses himself in what he does -- how can he be said to know in the full and vital sense of that word?"
After my own scientific education, followed by 30 years of work in the laboratory of a misused self, what, as a result of all my many failed and falsified hypotheses, do I truly know?
Sitting rigidly upright while pulling the chin back and down in order to stretch the back of the neck is very largely a matter of earth; whereas consciousness, if I know it at all, is basically a matter of sitting upright not like that.
VOCABULARY:
dhaatuun = accusative, plural of dhaatu: m. element , primitive matter (usually reckoned as 5 , viz. kha or aakaaza , anila , tejas , jala , bhuu ; to which is added brahma; or vijNaana Buddh. )
hi: for
ShaD: six
bhuu: earth
salila: water
anala: fire
aadiin = accusative, plural of aadi: et cetera
saamaanya: equal , alike; shared by others , joint ; whole , entire , universal , general , generic , not specific
-taH = ablative/adverbial suffix
svena = instrumental, singular (agreeing with lakShaNena) of sva: its own
ca: and
lakShaNena = instrumental, singular of lakShana: indicating , expressing indirectly; a mark , sign , symbol , token , characteristic , attribute, quality
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know
yaH: [he] who
na: not
anyam (accusative): other, else, apart
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know
tebhyaH (ablative, plural): from them
saH (nominative, singular): he
aatyantika: continual , uninterrupted , infinite , endless; entire , universal (as the world's destruction &c )
mokSham (accusative): emancipation , liberation , release from (ablative)
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know; to go to
tebhyaH (ablative, plural): from them
EH Johnston:
For he who understands the six elements, earth, water, fire etc., both in their general and their specific characteristics and understands that there is nothing other than them understands complete liberation from them.
Linda Covill:
For the man who understands the six elements of earth, water, fire and so on in their general and particular characteristics, and who understands that there is nothing else apart from them, attains utter freedom from them.
saamaanyataH svena ca lakShaNena
avaiti yo n'aanyam avaiti tebhyaH
so' tyantikaM mokSham avaiti tebhyaH
16.48
For in knowing the six elements
of earth, water, fire and the rest,
Generically, and each as specific to itself,
He who knows nothing else but them,
Knows total release from them.
COMMENT:
The six elements are the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, plus the sixth element of consciousness.
My sons are both continuing with the study of chemistry, biology, and maths, to 'A' level and beyond, and that suits me fine. I look forward to them filling me in on the 2nd law of thermodynamics, among other things. If biology led them into psychology, I would not be too disappointed. But if they had tended towards, say, film studies or -- God forbid -- religious studies, I might not have encouraged them in that direction.
This verse, as I read it, affirms a scientific approach to knowing, as opposed to religious belief in such supposed miraculous Hollywood/biblical phenomena as God, virgin birth, winged angels, et cetera.
Ashvaghosha's point, as I take it, is that there never has been nor ever will be any basis in religion from which to transcend science. Gold is got from earth, by digging. The basis for transcending science lies in scientific endeavour itself.
This kind of scientific endeavor, as John Dewey saw it, was what FM Alexander was involved in. Thus Dewey wrote in his introduction to Alexander's second book:
"After studying over a period of years Mr Alexander's method in actual operation, I would stake myself upon the fact that he has applied to our ideas and beliefs about ourselves, and about our acts, exactly the same method of experimentation, and of the production of new sensory observations as tests and means of developing thought, that have been the source of all progress in the physical sciences."
Even more pertinent to this verse is a paragraph that Dewey wrote in his introduction to Alexander's third book:
"As might be anticipated, the conclusions of Mr Alexander's experimental enquiries are in harmony with what physiologists know about the muscular and nervous structure. But they give a new significance to that knowledge; indeed, they make evident what knowledge itself really is. The anatomist may 'know' the exact function of each muscle, and conversely know what muscles come into play in the execution of any specified act. But if he is himself unable to co-ordinate all the muscular structures involved in, say, sitting down or in rising from a sitting position in a way which achieves the optimum and efficient performance of that act -- if in other words he misuses himself in what he does -- how can he be said to know in the full and vital sense of that word?"
After my own scientific education, followed by 30 years of work in the laboratory of a misused self, what, as a result of all my many failed and falsified hypotheses, do I truly know?
Sitting rigidly upright while pulling the chin back and down in order to stretch the back of the neck is very largely a matter of earth; whereas consciousness, if I know it at all, is basically a matter of sitting upright not like that.
VOCABULARY:
dhaatuun = accusative, plural of dhaatu: m. element , primitive matter (usually reckoned as 5 , viz. kha or aakaaza , anila , tejas , jala , bhuu ; to which is added brahma; or vijNaana Buddh. )
hi: for
ShaD: six
bhuu: earth
salila: water
anala: fire
aadiin = accusative, plural of aadi: et cetera
saamaanya: equal , alike; shared by others , joint ; whole , entire , universal , general , generic , not specific
-taH = ablative/adverbial suffix
svena = instrumental, singular (agreeing with lakShaNena) of sva: its own
ca: and
lakShaNena = instrumental, singular of lakShana: indicating , expressing indirectly; a mark , sign , symbol , token , characteristic , attribute, quality
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know
yaH: [he] who
na: not
anyam (accusative): other, else, apart
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know
tebhyaH (ablative, plural): from them
saH (nominative, singular): he
aatyantika: continual , uninterrupted , infinite , endless; entire , universal (as the world's destruction &c )
mokSham (accusative): emancipation , liberation , release from (ablative)
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to see, understand, know; to go to
tebhyaH (ablative, plural): from them
EH Johnston:
For he who understands the six elements, earth, water, fire etc., both in their general and their specific characteristics and understands that there is nothing other than them understands complete liberation from them.
Linda Covill:
For the man who understands the six elements of earth, water, fire and so on in their general and particular characteristics, and who understands that there is nothing else apart from them, attains utter freedom from them.
Friday, January 30, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 17.45: Thoughts vs Thinking
kSHobhaM prakurvanti yath" ormayo hi
dhiira-prasann'-aambu-vahasya sindhoH
ek'-aagra-bhuutasya tath" ormi-bhuutaash
citt'-aambhasaH kSHobha-karaa vitarkaaH
17.45
For, just as waves induce rippling
Upon a river bearing calm, clear water,
So too do thought waves, upon unitary awareness.
It is thoughts that cause ripples
upon the water of the thinking mind.
COMMENT:
Line 1 offers as a metaphor for SUFFERING the disturbance induced by waves.
In Line 2 a river of water is an ACCUMULATION OF MATTER/ENERGY, flowing in inexorable agreement with the prediction of the 2nd law of thermodynamics: that energy will spread out, unless prevented from doing so.
In Line 3 unitary awareness is INHIBITION and INHIBITION is awareness. It is a virtuous circle of stopping and becoming aware. In my final year of Alexander teacher-training, in 1997-98, I felt as if I was living inside this virtuous circle. That was the year in my Zazen life that bitter gourds became sweet melons. (And conversely, sweet melons turned into bitter gourds.) Alexander teachers like Ray Evans, Ron Colyer, Marjory Barlow and Nelly Ben-Or caused me to see for myself what had been demonstrated to them: that the flood of conscious awareness can only rise when we stop off at source our unconscious patterns of doing. And the more deeply and widely the flood of conscious awareness spreads, the deeper lies our own stillness and the less perturbed we are prone to be, by those habitual or reflex patterns. So it can be a viruous circle of stopping and becoming aware of what is to be stopped.
Line 4 highlights a vital distinction that I have been struggling for 15 years to clarify, for self and others. The distinction is between thoughts and what FM Alexander called 'thinking.' In discussing this distinction between thoughts and thinking, we run into a couple of serious problems. The first is that words express thoughts, but words cannot express thinking itself. The second problem is Alexander’s observation that “When you think you are thinking, you are actually feeling. And when you think you are feeling, you are doing." So I do not know what thinking is, cannot feel what thinking is, and cannot say what thinking is. But here, to give us at least a hint at what thinking is, Ashvaghosha uses the metaphor of water. Deeply ingrained in the brain and nervous system are patterns which are triggered by the tiniest thought and which generate suffering. As a MEANS for inhibiting those unconscious patterns, Ashvaghosha is telling us, thinking is like water.
VOCABULARY:
kSHobham (accusative, singular): undulation, disturbance, trembling, rippling
prakurvanti (from pra + kRi): make, produce, effect; induce, move
yathaa: just as...
uurmayaH (nominative, plural): waves, billows
hi: for
dhiira: steady, constant, calm
prasanna: clear, tranquil, placid
ambu: water
vahasya = genitive of vaha: carrying, flowing, bearing along (said of rivers)
sindhaH = genitive of sindhu: river (esp. Indus), stream, flood, sea
eka: one
agra: foremost point or part, tip:
ekaagra: one-pointed, having one point, fixing one's attention upon one point or object, closely attentive, intent, absorbed in; undisturbed, unperplexed
bhuutsaya = genitive of bhuuta: (at the end of a compound) being or being like anything
ekaagra-bhuutsaya: lit. “towards/upon being one-pointed/undivided”
tathaa: so too...
uurmi: wave
uurmi-bhuutaaH (nominative, plural): [thoughts] that are like waves
citta: ‘noticed’; thinking, reflecting; mind; intention; the thinking mind
ambhasaH = genitive of ambhas: water
kSHobha: rippling
kara: making, doing, causing
vitarkaaH (nominative, plural): thoughts
EH Johnston:
For as waves disturb a stream running with calm clear water, so thoughts are the waves of the water of the mind and disturb it when it is in a state of concentration.
Linda Covill:
For just as waves make ripples in a river bearing calm, limpid water, waves of thought make ripples in the waters of the one-pointed mind.
dhiira-prasann'-aambu-vahasya sindhoH
ek'-aagra-bhuutasya tath" ormi-bhuutaash
citt'-aambhasaH kSHobha-karaa vitarkaaH
17.45
For, just as waves induce rippling
Upon a river bearing calm, clear water,
So too do thought waves, upon unitary awareness.
It is thoughts that cause ripples
upon the water of the thinking mind.
COMMENT:
Line 1 offers as a metaphor for SUFFERING the disturbance induced by waves.
In Line 2 a river of water is an ACCUMULATION OF MATTER/ENERGY, flowing in inexorable agreement with the prediction of the 2nd law of thermodynamics: that energy will spread out, unless prevented from doing so.
In Line 3 unitary awareness is INHIBITION and INHIBITION is awareness. It is a virtuous circle of stopping and becoming aware. In my final year of Alexander teacher-training, in 1997-98, I felt as if I was living inside this virtuous circle. That was the year in my Zazen life that bitter gourds became sweet melons. (And conversely, sweet melons turned into bitter gourds.) Alexander teachers like Ray Evans, Ron Colyer, Marjory Barlow and Nelly Ben-Or caused me to see for myself what had been demonstrated to them: that the flood of conscious awareness can only rise when we stop off at source our unconscious patterns of doing. And the more deeply and widely the flood of conscious awareness spreads, the deeper lies our own stillness and the less perturbed we are prone to be, by those habitual or reflex patterns. So it can be a viruous circle of stopping and becoming aware of what is to be stopped.
Line 4 highlights a vital distinction that I have been struggling for 15 years to clarify, for self and others. The distinction is between thoughts and what FM Alexander called 'thinking.' In discussing this distinction between thoughts and thinking, we run into a couple of serious problems. The first is that words express thoughts, but words cannot express thinking itself. The second problem is Alexander’s observation that “When you think you are thinking, you are actually feeling. And when you think you are feeling, you are doing." So I do not know what thinking is, cannot feel what thinking is, and cannot say what thinking is. But here, to give us at least a hint at what thinking is, Ashvaghosha uses the metaphor of water. Deeply ingrained in the brain and nervous system are patterns which are triggered by the tiniest thought and which generate suffering. As a MEANS for inhibiting those unconscious patterns, Ashvaghosha is telling us, thinking is like water.
VOCABULARY:
kSHobham (accusative, singular): undulation, disturbance, trembling, rippling
prakurvanti (from pra + kRi): make, produce, effect; induce, move
yathaa: just as...
uurmayaH (nominative, plural): waves, billows
hi: for
dhiira: steady, constant, calm
prasanna: clear, tranquil, placid
ambu: water
vahasya = genitive of vaha: carrying, flowing, bearing along (said of rivers)
sindhaH = genitive of sindhu: river (esp. Indus), stream, flood, sea
eka: one
agra: foremost point or part, tip:
ekaagra: one-pointed, having one point, fixing one's attention upon one point or object, closely attentive, intent, absorbed in; undisturbed, unperplexed
bhuutsaya = genitive of bhuuta: (at the end of a compound) being or being like anything
ekaagra-bhuutsaya: lit. “towards/upon being one-pointed/undivided”
tathaa: so too...
uurmi: wave
uurmi-bhuutaaH (nominative, plural): [thoughts] that are like waves
citta: ‘noticed’; thinking, reflecting; mind; intention; the thinking mind
ambhasaH = genitive of ambhas: water
kSHobha: rippling
kara: making, doing, causing
vitarkaaH (nominative, plural): thoughts
EH Johnston:
For as waves disturb a stream running with calm clear water, so thoughts are the waves of the water of the mind and disturb it when it is in a state of concentration.
Linda Covill:
For just as waves make ripples in a river bearing calm, limpid water, waves of thought make ripples in the waters of the one-pointed mind.
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