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 Marjory Barlow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marjory Barlow. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.22: Rarity of Non-doing
loke 'sminn aalay'-aaraame
nivRttau dur-labhaa ratiH
vyathante hy a-punar-bhaavaat
prapaataad iva baalishaaH
12.22
In this world which likes what is close to home,
A fondness for non-doing is rare;
For men shrink from the end of becoming
Like the puerile from the edge of a cliff.
COMMENT:
Non-doing involves going against the habit of a lifetime, which we find uncomfortable, and it is a journey into the unknown, which we find fearful.
How rare is a fondness for non-doing? Maybe rarer than we realise.
Alexander work is supposed to be all about non-doing, but when one looks deeply into it, a lot of what passes for non-doing, both within and without the self, is actually a subtle form of doing.
Marjory Barlow said that the wrong inner patterns are the doing that has to be stopped. I think those ‘wrong inner patterns’ generally have to do with noise emanating from aberrant survival reflexes. If that noise had a voice, it might say: “What’s in it for me?”
Similarly, to work in service of the Buddha is to give up one’s own agenda, but again when one looks deeply into it, a lot of what passes for obedient service of the Buddha, both within and without the self, is actually more or less subtle pursuit of a personal agenda. A noisy trace too often remains of “What’s in it for me?”
I could easily criticize others at this point, following the mirror principle, but the only noise I have any hope of preventing is the noise in my own system. That, after all, is what I am here on my own in France for. To get to the end of becoming in myself.
When Zinadine Zidane dropped the nut on his opponent’s chest in a World Cup Final, I wrote in a blog post at the time that I saw great beauty in Zidane’s act. Zidane’s action, as I saw it, was tempered by compassion: if it had been an untrammelled act of brutal malevolence, Zidane would have gone for his opponent’s nose, or throat, or testicles. What I saw in Zidane’s action was a kind of total negation of “what is in it for me?” It was not the kind of puerile petulance to be seen among the pampered premiership prima donnas of today. In Zidane’s spontaneous release of energy there was a kind of full stop, a decisive expression of the end of becoming.
The phrase a-punar-bhaava, as I read it, is by no means lending any support to the dubious ancient idea of karma and rebirth, which has nothing to with true scientific pursuit, not being subject to empirical verification, but everything to do with maintaining a political status quo. The only end of becoming that I know is a moment of leaving it all on the pitch, or in the dojo, or in the garden, or on the round cushion. I think of Stuart Pearce, former left-back for England, going in for a tackle, with a certain manly commitment, without any trace of boyish shrinking back from the edge.
To have done my best to translate one verse per day, and to have spoken my mind on it without fear or favour, might be a kind of end of becoming. If I die tomorrow, so be it. I refuse to be in a hurry about this translation, or to worry about heaven or hell. If, aided by the wonderful natural energy of this place where I am, I could manage some time today to allow just one moment of true non-doing, that would be great.
Listening
From in the womb
The end of becoming
Is a stream flowing
And a bird singing
All out
EH Johnston:
In this world, which rejoices in attachment, it is hard to find delight in the cessation of active being ; for fools shrink back from release from rebirth as from a precipice.
Linda Covill:
In this world with its liking for the household life, it is hard to take pleasure in abstention from activity; for fools shrink from the prospect of the end of rebirth as from the edge of a cliff.
VOCABULARY:
loke = locative of loka: world
asmin = locative of ayam: this
aalaya (from aa-li): a house , dwelling
aa -li: to come close to ; to settle down upon ; a receptacle, asylum
aaraame = locative of aarama: m. delight , pleasure ; place of pleasure , a garden , grove
nivRttau = locative of nivRtti: abstention; ceasing from worldly acts , inactivity , rest , repose; antonym of pra-vRtti, end-gaining
dur-labhaa: difficult to be found, rare
ratiH (nominative): f. rest , repose ; pleasure , enjoyment , delight in , fondness for (loc.)
vyathante = 3rd person plural of vyath: to tremble , waver , go astray
hi: for
a-punar-bhaavaat (ablative): not again becoming
prapaataad = ablative of prapaata: a steep rock , cliff , precipice
iva: like, as if
baalishaaH = nominative, plural of baalisha: mf(A)n. young , childish , puerile , ignorant , simple , foolish; m. a fool , simpleton , blockhead
nivRttau dur-labhaa ratiH
vyathante hy a-punar-bhaavaat
prapaataad iva baalishaaH
12.22
In this world which likes what is close to home,
A fondness for non-doing is rare;
For men shrink from the end of becoming
Like the puerile from the edge of a cliff.
COMMENT:
Non-doing involves going against the habit of a lifetime, which we find uncomfortable, and it is a journey into the unknown, which we find fearful.
How rare is a fondness for non-doing? Maybe rarer than we realise.
Alexander work is supposed to be all about non-doing, but when one looks deeply into it, a lot of what passes for non-doing, both within and without the self, is actually a subtle form of doing.
Marjory Barlow said that the wrong inner patterns are the doing that has to be stopped. I think those ‘wrong inner patterns’ generally have to do with noise emanating from aberrant survival reflexes. If that noise had a voice, it might say: “What’s in it for me?”
Similarly, to work in service of the Buddha is to give up one’s own agenda, but again when one looks deeply into it, a lot of what passes for obedient service of the Buddha, both within and without the self, is actually more or less subtle pursuit of a personal agenda. A noisy trace too often remains of “What’s in it for me?”
I could easily criticize others at this point, following the mirror principle, but the only noise I have any hope of preventing is the noise in my own system. That, after all, is what I am here on my own in France for. To get to the end of becoming in myself.
When Zinadine Zidane dropped the nut on his opponent’s chest in a World Cup Final, I wrote in a blog post at the time that I saw great beauty in Zidane’s act. Zidane’s action, as I saw it, was tempered by compassion: if it had been an untrammelled act of brutal malevolence, Zidane would have gone for his opponent’s nose, or throat, or testicles. What I saw in Zidane’s action was a kind of total negation of “what is in it for me?” It was not the kind of puerile petulance to be seen among the pampered premiership prima donnas of today. In Zidane’s spontaneous release of energy there was a kind of full stop, a decisive expression of the end of becoming.
The phrase a-punar-bhaava, as I read it, is by no means lending any support to the dubious ancient idea of karma and rebirth, which has nothing to with true scientific pursuit, not being subject to empirical verification, but everything to do with maintaining a political status quo. The only end of becoming that I know is a moment of leaving it all on the pitch, or in the dojo, or in the garden, or on the round cushion. I think of Stuart Pearce, former left-back for England, going in for a tackle, with a certain manly commitment, without any trace of boyish shrinking back from the edge.
To have done my best to translate one verse per day, and to have spoken my mind on it without fear or favour, might be a kind of end of becoming. If I die tomorrow, so be it. I refuse to be in a hurry about this translation, or to worry about heaven or hell. If, aided by the wonderful natural energy of this place where I am, I could manage some time today to allow just one moment of true non-doing, that would be great.
Listening
From in the womb
The end of becoming
Is a stream flowing
And a bird singing
All out
EH Johnston:
In this world, which rejoices in attachment, it is hard to find delight in the cessation of active being ; for fools shrink back from release from rebirth as from a precipice.
Linda Covill:
In this world with its liking for the household life, it is hard to take pleasure in abstention from activity; for fools shrink from the prospect of the end of rebirth as from the edge of a cliff.
VOCABULARY:
loke = locative of loka: world
asmin = locative of ayam: this
aalaya (from aa-li): a house , dwelling
aa -li: to come close to ; to settle down upon ; a receptacle, asylum
aaraame = locative of aarama: m. delight , pleasure ; place of pleasure , a garden , grove
nivRttau = locative of nivRtti: abstention; ceasing from worldly acts , inactivity , rest , repose; antonym of pra-vRtti, end-gaining
dur-labhaa: difficult to be found, rare
ratiH (nominative): f. rest , repose ; pleasure , enjoyment , delight in , fondness for (loc.)
vyathante = 3rd person plural of vyath: to tremble , waver , go astray
hi: for
a-punar-bhaavaat (ablative): not again becoming
prapaataad = ablative of prapaata: a steep rock , cliff , precipice
iva: like, as if
baalishaaH = nominative, plural of baalisha: mf(A)n. young , childish , puerile , ignorant , simple , foolish; m. a fool , simpleton , blockhead
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
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.18: Ultimate Good Is Not Groped by Feeling
tatas tasy' aashayaM jNaatvaa
vipakShaan' indriyaaNi ca
shreyash c' aiv' aamukhii-bhuutaM
nijagaada TathaagataH
12.18
Then, knowing where he was coming from,
And that, though his senses were set against it,
Ultimate good was now emerging,
The realised one spoke:
COMMENT:
Apologies in advance that this comment will be too long, but the above verse counter-poses two elements about which much more could be written: indriyaaNi, the senses; and shreyas, Ultimate Good.
In seeking to understand this opposition, I am prejudiced by 27 years as a student and translator of Zen Master Dogen, by 15 years in Alexander work, and by 10 years in the work of primitive reflex inhibition, but from where I sit Ultimate Good can never be groped by the senses of balance, touch, hearing or sight.
In the autumn of 1984, with a head full of missionary zeal and with a hold-all full of copies of my teacher's book To Meet the Real Dragon, I set off from Tokyo to San Francisco. Staying there at the San Francisco Zen Centre I was struck during a one-day sitting retreat by the easy uprightness of a Danish practitioner. When I complimented him on his form in sitting, he simply said, "Ah, it is because I am a student of the Alexander Technique." It was another ten years before I got round to looking into the Alexander Technique myself. Shortly after that I ended up in Aylesbury at the training school run by late Ray Evans, who used to describe Alexander work as "vestibular re-education" and who emphasized the fundamental importance, in working towards understanding of the human condition, of primitive reflexes.
Following Ray's lead, after graduating from Ray's training school run, I trained at INPP (Institute of Neuro-Physiological Psychology), Chester under Peter Blythe and his wife Sally Goddard, in the diagnosis and remediation of aberrant primitive reflexes. A baby is born with very many of such primitive reflexes, the orderly emergence and inhibition of which helps the baby to survive and to develop. But in the course of my work over the past ten years, encouraged on since Ray's death by Ray's assistant Ron Colyer, guided by the ultra-practical Alexander teachers Marjory Barlow and Nelly Ben-Or, and motivated by my own wish for clarity and simplicity in working with the reflexes, my interest became more and more concentrated on just four vestibular reflexes. I see these reflexes as primary, and I see a direct correspondence between Alexander's four primary directions and these four reflexes.
So I think that Ultimate Good might be to sit shaven-headed in lotus while the body, wrapped in a Buddha-robe, liberates itself from disharmony between those four reflexes.
That might mean, in Master Dogen's words, to sit with the body, to sit with the mind, and to sit as body and mind dropping off.
Again, that might mean to sit in lotus allowing (1) the neck to be free, to allow (2) the head to go forward and up, to allow (3) the back to lengthen and widen, while allowing (4) the arms and legs to release out of the back.
Ultimate Good, then, from what I have experienced of what I believe it to be, is not something out there that comes into the range of our senses, whereupon we pursue it. It may rather be something that spontaneously emerges from within during those rare moments when we are able to get out of the way and allow it. FM Alexander put it more succinctly: "The right thing does itself."
Ultimate good does itself.
Our job is to allow it.
Then what does it mean to allow? I do not know. It does not mean to think about, to discuss endlessly, to intellectualise. But neither does it mean blindly to do, to pull the chin in, to push the knees down, to hyper-extend the back, and all that other nonsense which is pure doing based on feeling. To allow does not mean to feel. To feel, to rely on the senses, is to limit oneself to sitting with the body.
In general it is the job of the senses to feel something, as opposed to feeling nothing. In swaying left and right as Master Dogen instructs in his rules for sitting, for example, one has a fairly reliable sense that three or four inches left or right of the midline is to the left or to the right -- the vestibular system, with input from tactile senses (and visual senses too if the eyes are open), senses the imbalance. Such an imbalance, after all, might be dangerous in circumstances like walking a tightrope or riding a bike. To approach the midline, however, is to enter an area of uncertainty. The vestibular system seems better adapted to sensing something (an imbalance) as opposed to sensing nothing (the absence of imbalance).
This being so, insofar as Ultimate Good is a bit of nothing, a bit of freedom from the faults that cause suffering, a bit of absence of noise, and in the end a bit of body and mind dropping off, a bit of the right thing being allowed to do itself, then it may be not only Nanda's whose senses were set against it: it may be that everybody's senses are set against it.
Now the Knower of Ultimate Good, the Best of Listeners, is about to speak. That the Buddha was the best of listeners was not only a matter of his auditory sense: his listening was also a matter of what he intended to hear and, most importantly, what he was able to filter out. The Buddha's listening was a matter of how the whole of his ear processed sound. The whole of the ear means everything involved in inner and outer listening, right down to the auditory and vestibular nucleii in the brainstem, and on into the bones, and on into the internal organs through the circuitous route of the wandering vagabond which is the vagus nerve. When Buddha sits in what Paul Madaule calls a good listening posture, it may be that the whole body-mind is an ear -- an ear whose listening is body and mind dropping off.
Whatever understanding I have gleaned about what FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation," and the need to transcend it, I have gleaned from the standpoint of a person with a listening problem struggling to get round that problem. I myself am terribly bothered by noise. Two or three years ago, as I sat here by the stream, trying not to listen to engine noise, and being mindful of the mirror principle, I seriously asked myself what the problem was. The conclusion I came to was that the external noise that bothers me so much is a mirror for internal noise which I tend unconsciously to suppress, as it arises from my faulty vestibular system. I think that conclusion was true, and the conclusion is supported by everything Ashvaghosha records about the primary importance of eradicating the faults.
A couple of years ago a so-called Zen Master, a professed Dharma-brother of mine in the lineage of Zen Master Dogen, despite never actually having met me, recommended that, as a pre-condition for joining an organisation to which he belongs, I should undergo a course of psychological treatment. Aside from the personal affront, the shocking thing about this was the lack of insight it revealed into the teaching of Dogen, Ashvaghosha, and all the other ancestors. What Dogen and Ashvaghosha are telling us is that the faults which are the cause of suffering are primarily rooted, not in psychology, but in neuro-physiology.
Does anybody out there understand what I am banging on about -- what I have been banging on so clumsily through all these hundreds of blog posts? Does anybody understand why this verse has stimulated such a long comment from me? What this verse is saying is that what is opposing the emergence in Nanda of Ultimate Good is, primarily, his senses. Senses means balance, touch, hearing, vision, taste and smell, but most of all it means balance, because the vestibular system is the integrator of all sensory input.
When people with superficial understanding of the human condition look at behaviour that they don't understand, they attribute the behaviour they don't understand to psychological causes. But if people's primary problem were psychological, then what would be the point of crossing the legs and endeavouring to direct oneself upward?
No, what leads me astray, primarily, is my faulty vestibular system. It has led me so far astray in my life I would like to crawl back into the womb and start all over again. Fortunately, to sit all wrapped up in the lotus posture with rain pattering down on the roof and a cow mooing intermittently in the distance, is not a bad substitute.
I am a congenitally bad listener, the worst of listeners. Being the worst of listeners, I have sought out and am seeking to clarify the teaching of the Best of Listeners.
Now the Best of Listeners is about to open his mouth and speak. Will he voice a sound? Or will sound voice itself?
EH Johnston:
Then the Tathagata, knowing his disposition and that, while his senses were still contrary, the highest good was now within his range, spoke thus:--
Linda Covill:
The realized one understood his disposition, and that though his senses were still opposed to it, Excellence was now within his sight, and he spoke:
VOCABULARY:
tataH: then
tasya (genitive): of him
aashayam (accusative): m. resting-place , bed ; seat , place ; an asylum , abode or retreat ; a receptacle ; any recipient ; thought , meaning , intention ; disposition of mind , mode of thinking
jNaatvaa = absolutive of jNaa: to know
vipakShaaNi = accusative plural of vipakSha: m. " being on a different side " , an opponent , adversary , enemy (mfn. " counteracting ")
indriyaaNi = accusative plural of indriya: n. bodily power , power of the senses
ca: and
shreyas: n. the better state , the better fortune or condition; m. good (as opp. to " evil ") , welfare , bliss , fortune , happiness ; m. the bliss of final emancipation
ca: and
eva: (emphatic) now
aamukha: commencement
aamukhii-bhuu: to become visible
bhuuta: being, become
nijagaada = perfect of ni-√gad: to recite , proclaim , announce , declare , tell , speak
tathaagataH (nominative singular): the Thus-Come, the realised one
vipakShaan' indriyaaNi ca
shreyash c' aiv' aamukhii-bhuutaM
nijagaada TathaagataH
12.18
Then, knowing where he was coming from,
And that, though his senses were set against it,
Ultimate good was now emerging,
The realised one spoke:
COMMENT:
Apologies in advance that this comment will be too long, but the above verse counter-poses two elements about which much more could be written: indriyaaNi, the senses; and shreyas, Ultimate Good.
In seeking to understand this opposition, I am prejudiced by 27 years as a student and translator of Zen Master Dogen, by 15 years in Alexander work, and by 10 years in the work of primitive reflex inhibition, but from where I sit Ultimate Good can never be groped by the senses of balance, touch, hearing or sight.
In the autumn of 1984, with a head full of missionary zeal and with a hold-all full of copies of my teacher's book To Meet the Real Dragon, I set off from Tokyo to San Francisco. Staying there at the San Francisco Zen Centre I was struck during a one-day sitting retreat by the easy uprightness of a Danish practitioner. When I complimented him on his form in sitting, he simply said, "Ah, it is because I am a student of the Alexander Technique." It was another ten years before I got round to looking into the Alexander Technique myself. Shortly after that I ended up in Aylesbury at the training school run by late Ray Evans, who used to describe Alexander work as "vestibular re-education" and who emphasized the fundamental importance, in working towards understanding of the human condition, of primitive reflexes.
Following Ray's lead, after graduating from Ray's training school run, I trained at INPP (Institute of Neuro-Physiological Psychology), Chester under Peter Blythe and his wife Sally Goddard, in the diagnosis and remediation of aberrant primitive reflexes. A baby is born with very many of such primitive reflexes, the orderly emergence and inhibition of which helps the baby to survive and to develop. But in the course of my work over the past ten years, encouraged on since Ray's death by Ray's assistant Ron Colyer, guided by the ultra-practical Alexander teachers Marjory Barlow and Nelly Ben-Or, and motivated by my own wish for clarity and simplicity in working with the reflexes, my interest became more and more concentrated on just four vestibular reflexes. I see these reflexes as primary, and I see a direct correspondence between Alexander's four primary directions and these four reflexes.
So I think that Ultimate Good might be to sit shaven-headed in lotus while the body, wrapped in a Buddha-robe, liberates itself from disharmony between those four reflexes.
That might mean, in Master Dogen's words, to sit with the body, to sit with the mind, and to sit as body and mind dropping off.
Again, that might mean to sit in lotus allowing (1) the neck to be free, to allow (2) the head to go forward and up, to allow (3) the back to lengthen and widen, while allowing (4) the arms and legs to release out of the back.
Ultimate Good, then, from what I have experienced of what I believe it to be, is not something out there that comes into the range of our senses, whereupon we pursue it. It may rather be something that spontaneously emerges from within during those rare moments when we are able to get out of the way and allow it. FM Alexander put it more succinctly: "The right thing does itself."
Ultimate good does itself.
Our job is to allow it.
Then what does it mean to allow? I do not know. It does not mean to think about, to discuss endlessly, to intellectualise. But neither does it mean blindly to do, to pull the chin in, to push the knees down, to hyper-extend the back, and all that other nonsense which is pure doing based on feeling. To allow does not mean to feel. To feel, to rely on the senses, is to limit oneself to sitting with the body.
In general it is the job of the senses to feel something, as opposed to feeling nothing. In swaying left and right as Master Dogen instructs in his rules for sitting, for example, one has a fairly reliable sense that three or four inches left or right of the midline is to the left or to the right -- the vestibular system, with input from tactile senses (and visual senses too if the eyes are open), senses the imbalance. Such an imbalance, after all, might be dangerous in circumstances like walking a tightrope or riding a bike. To approach the midline, however, is to enter an area of uncertainty. The vestibular system seems better adapted to sensing something (an imbalance) as opposed to sensing nothing (the absence of imbalance).
This being so, insofar as Ultimate Good is a bit of nothing, a bit of freedom from the faults that cause suffering, a bit of absence of noise, and in the end a bit of body and mind dropping off, a bit of the right thing being allowed to do itself, then it may be not only Nanda's whose senses were set against it: it may be that everybody's senses are set against it.
Now the Knower of Ultimate Good, the Best of Listeners, is about to speak. That the Buddha was the best of listeners was not only a matter of his auditory sense: his listening was also a matter of what he intended to hear and, most importantly, what he was able to filter out. The Buddha's listening was a matter of how the whole of his ear processed sound. The whole of the ear means everything involved in inner and outer listening, right down to the auditory and vestibular nucleii in the brainstem, and on into the bones, and on into the internal organs through the circuitous route of the wandering vagabond which is the vagus nerve. When Buddha sits in what Paul Madaule calls a good listening posture, it may be that the whole body-mind is an ear -- an ear whose listening is body and mind dropping off.
Whatever understanding I have gleaned about what FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation," and the need to transcend it, I have gleaned from the standpoint of a person with a listening problem struggling to get round that problem. I myself am terribly bothered by noise. Two or three years ago, as I sat here by the stream, trying not to listen to engine noise, and being mindful of the mirror principle, I seriously asked myself what the problem was. The conclusion I came to was that the external noise that bothers me so much is a mirror for internal noise which I tend unconsciously to suppress, as it arises from my faulty vestibular system. I think that conclusion was true, and the conclusion is supported by everything Ashvaghosha records about the primary importance of eradicating the faults.
A couple of years ago a so-called Zen Master, a professed Dharma-brother of mine in the lineage of Zen Master Dogen, despite never actually having met me, recommended that, as a pre-condition for joining an organisation to which he belongs, I should undergo a course of psychological treatment. Aside from the personal affront, the shocking thing about this was the lack of insight it revealed into the teaching of Dogen, Ashvaghosha, and all the other ancestors. What Dogen and Ashvaghosha are telling us is that the faults which are the cause of suffering are primarily rooted, not in psychology, but in neuro-physiology.
Does anybody out there understand what I am banging on about -- what I have been banging on so clumsily through all these hundreds of blog posts? Does anybody understand why this verse has stimulated such a long comment from me? What this verse is saying is that what is opposing the emergence in Nanda of Ultimate Good is, primarily, his senses. Senses means balance, touch, hearing, vision, taste and smell, but most of all it means balance, because the vestibular system is the integrator of all sensory input.
When people with superficial understanding of the human condition look at behaviour that they don't understand, they attribute the behaviour they don't understand to psychological causes. But if people's primary problem were psychological, then what would be the point of crossing the legs and endeavouring to direct oneself upward?
No, what leads me astray, primarily, is my faulty vestibular system. It has led me so far astray in my life I would like to crawl back into the womb and start all over again. Fortunately, to sit all wrapped up in the lotus posture with rain pattering down on the roof and a cow mooing intermittently in the distance, is not a bad substitute.
I am a congenitally bad listener, the worst of listeners. Being the worst of listeners, I have sought out and am seeking to clarify the teaching of the Best of Listeners.
Now the Best of Listeners is about to open his mouth and speak. Will he voice a sound? Or will sound voice itself?
EH Johnston:
Then the Tathagata, knowing his disposition and that, while his senses were still contrary, the highest good was now within his range, spoke thus:--
Linda Covill:
The realized one understood his disposition, and that though his senses were still opposed to it, Excellence was now within his sight, and he spoke:
VOCABULARY:
tataH: then
tasya (genitive): of him
aashayam (accusative): m. resting-place , bed ; seat , place ; an asylum , abode or retreat ; a receptacle ; any recipient ; thought , meaning , intention ; disposition of mind , mode of thinking
jNaatvaa = absolutive of jNaa: to know
vipakShaaNi = accusative plural of vipakSha: m. " being on a different side " , an opponent , adversary , enemy (mfn. " counteracting ")
indriyaaNi = accusative plural of indriya: n. bodily power , power of the senses
ca: and
shreyas: n. the better state , the better fortune or condition; m. good (as opp. to " evil ") , welfare , bliss , fortune , happiness ; m. the bliss of final emancipation
ca: and
eva: (emphatic) now
aamukha: commencement
aamukhii-bhuu: to become visible
bhuuta: being, become
nijagaada = perfect of ni-√gad: to recite , proclaim , announce , declare , tell , speak
tathaagataH (nominative singular): the Thus-Come, the realised one
Monday, April 27, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.74: Not Reacting to a Noxious Stimulus
yathaa kShudh-aarto 'pi viSheNa pRktaM
jijiiviSur n'ecchati bhoktum annam
tath" aiva doSh-aavaham ity avetya
jahaati vidvaan a-shubham nimittam
16.74
Even a starving man when given poisoned food
Refuses to eat it, wishing to live.
Likewise, observing that it triggers a fault,
A wise person leaves alone a noxious stimulus.
COMMENT:
In this verse, as I read it, a fault (doSha) is synonymous with an imbalanced unconscious reaction, and a noxious stimulus (a-shubham nimittam) is any thought that is liable to trigger such a reaction.
The essence of the practice being described is inhibition of faulty unconscious reaction to a stimulus.
For several years now -- as a result of being introduced to Dogen's teaching by Gudo Nishijima, and as a result of the essence of the teaching being demonstrated to me in the very activity of sitting and standing by Ray Evans, Ron Colyer, Nelly Ben-Or, Marjory Barlow and others -- I have been fairly clear in seeing this as the mainspring of practice of the Buddha-Dharma.
Undeniably, however, I am not at all good at practicing it.
Q.E.D.
EH Johnston:
As the man who wishes to live, would not eat food infected with poison, however famished he were, so the wise man abandons an impure meditation, recognising that it brings about sin.
Linda Covill:
Just as a man who wants his life to continue avoids eating poisoned food even when he is starving, so too does a wise man leave aside an impure meditation, knowing that it brings corruption.
VOCABULARY:
yathaa: just as
kShudh: hunger
aartaH (nom. sg.): m. one who is afflicted
api: even
viSheNa (inst. sg.): with poison
pRktam (acc. sg. n.): mixed with, full of
jijiiviSuH (nom. sg. m.): desirous of life
na: not
icchati = 3rd person singular of iSh: wish, want, intend
bhoktum = infinitive of bhuj: to enjoy , use , possess , (esp.) enjoy a meal , eat
annam (acc. sg.): n. food or victuals , especially boiled rice
tathaa: likewise, in the same way
eva: emphatic
doSha: fault; damage , harm , bad consequence , detrimental effect
aavaham (acc. sg. n.): bringing , bringing to pass , producing
iti: that
avetya: seeing, knowing
jahaati = 3rd person singular of haa: to leave , abandon , give up , renounce , avoid , shun , abstain or refrain from ; disregard, neglect
vidvaan (nom. sg.) vidvas: m. one who knows, a wise man
ashubham (acc. sg. n.): impure, disagreeable, unlovely
nimittam (acc. sg.): n. a cause, stimulus
jijiiviSur n'ecchati bhoktum annam
tath" aiva doSh-aavaham ity avetya
jahaati vidvaan a-shubham nimittam
16.74
Even a starving man when given poisoned food
Refuses to eat it, wishing to live.
Likewise, observing that it triggers a fault,
A wise person leaves alone a noxious stimulus.
COMMENT:
In this verse, as I read it, a fault (doSha) is synonymous with an imbalanced unconscious reaction, and a noxious stimulus (a-shubham nimittam) is any thought that is liable to trigger such a reaction.
The essence of the practice being described is inhibition of faulty unconscious reaction to a stimulus.
For several years now -- as a result of being introduced to Dogen's teaching by Gudo Nishijima, and as a result of the essence of the teaching being demonstrated to me in the very activity of sitting and standing by Ray Evans, Ron Colyer, Nelly Ben-Or, Marjory Barlow and others -- I have been fairly clear in seeing this as the mainspring of practice of the Buddha-Dharma.
Undeniably, however, I am not at all good at practicing it.
Q.E.D.
EH Johnston:
As the man who wishes to live, would not eat food infected with poison, however famished he were, so the wise man abandons an impure meditation, recognising that it brings about sin.
Linda Covill:
Just as a man who wants his life to continue avoids eating poisoned food even when he is starving, so too does a wise man leave aside an impure meditation, knowing that it brings corruption.
VOCABULARY:
yathaa: just as
kShudh: hunger
aartaH (nom. sg.): m. one who is afflicted
api: even
viSheNa (inst. sg.): with poison
pRktam (acc. sg. n.): mixed with, full of
jijiiviSuH (nom. sg. m.): desirous of life
na: not
icchati = 3rd person singular of iSh: wish, want, intend
bhoktum = infinitive of bhuj: to enjoy , use , possess , (esp.) enjoy a meal , eat
annam (acc. sg.): n. food or victuals , especially boiled rice
tathaa: likewise, in the same way
eva: emphatic
doSha: fault; damage , harm , bad consequence , detrimental effect
aavaham (acc. sg. n.): bringing , bringing to pass , producing
iti: that
avetya: seeing, knowing
jahaati = 3rd person singular of haa: to leave , abandon , give up , renounce , avoid , shun , abstain or refrain from ; disregard, neglect
vidvaan (nom. sg.) vidvas: m. one who knows, a wise man
ashubham (acc. sg. n.): impure, disagreeable, unlovely
nimittam (acc. sg.): n. a cause, stimulus
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.62: Love as Antidote to Hate
vyaapaada-doSha kShubhite tu citte
sevyaa sva-pakSh'-opanayena maitrii
dvesh'-aatmano hi prashamaaya maitrii
pitt'-aatmanaH shiita iv' opacaaraH
16.62
When the mind is agitated by the fault of ill-will,
Love should be practised, through self-acceptance;
For love is calming to a hate-afflicted soul,
As cooling treatment is to a man of bilious nature.
COMMENT:
The 2nd line literally reads:
"Love/goodwill is to be practised with/by/through one's-own-side-bringing-near."
After a lot of thought about what this means since first reading Linda Covill's translation of it a few months ago, I provisionally concluded that it refers not so much to self-love, but more to love of friends who are fellow strugglers -- others in the same boat as me. So: "Love should be felt, through fellow-feeling;"
The spirit of the 2nd line, in that case, is similar to the spirit of verse 3.35:
Nobody showed any hostility towards the other,
In fact they looked on others with positive warmth,
As mother, father, child or friend:
For each person saw in the other himself.
But Linda Covill's translation "with reference to one's own position" still makes sense to me -- particularly in light of Marjory Barlows oft-repeated reminder that "Being wrong is the best friend you have got in this work."
So "Love should be practised, through self-acceptance," is a translation that also seems to work. But the love which is self-acceptance, I think, is more an antidote to trying to be right, whereas the love which is fellow-feeling is maybe a more effective antidote to target at ill-will or hatred.... unless one's hatred tends to be primarily self-directed.
In conclusion, then, what is the translation of sva-pakSh'-opanayena that hits the target?
(1) through self-acceptance i.e. "by the bringing near [of love] to/for oneself."
(2) through fellow-feeling i.e. "by the bringing near of [the memory/awareness of] friends / those on one's own side."
(3) another translation that hasn't occured to me yet, in which the question of whether to lean towars self or towards others is solved or transcended.
So far I cannot reach a clear decision, which is just a kind of delusion...
EH Johnston:
But when the mind is troubled by the vice of malevolence, practise thoughts of benevolence by considering the application (of hurt) to yourself ; for benevolence tends to tranquillising the nature full of hate, like cooling treatment the man of bilious temperament.
Linda Covill:
But when the mind is disturbed by the fault of malice, the loving-kindness meditation should be practiced with reference to one's own position; for loving-kindness calms a hate-filled man, like treatment with cooling remedies for a patient with a bile condition.
VOCABULARY:
vyaapaada: evil intent or design , malice
doSha: fault
kShubhite = locative of kShubhita: agitated , shaken, set in motion; agitated (mentally) , disturbed , frightened ; angry , enraged
tu: but
citte = locative of citta: mind, thinking mind, thinking
sevyaa = nom. sg. f. from gerundive of sev: to serve , wait or attend upon , honour , obey; to cherish , foster; cultivate , study , practise , use
svapakSha: m. one's own wings; one's own party; a man of one's own party , friend
sva: one's own
pakSha: wing; the flank or side or the half of anything
upanayena = instrumental of upanaya (from upa- nii: to bring near, bring, offer): m. the bringing near , procuring ; attaining , obtaining ; employment , application
upanayana: leading or drawing towards one's self
maitrii (nom. sg.): f. friendship , friendliness , benevolence , good will
dvesha: hatred
aatmanaH = genitive of aatman: the individual soul, the person; self, nature, character
hi: for
prashamaaya = dative of prashama: calmness , tranquillity (esp. of mind), quiet , rest , cessation , extinction , abatement
maitrii (nom. sg.): f. love, goodwill
pitt'aatmanaH (gen. sg.): to the bilious
shiitaH (nom. sg. m.): cold, coldness; camphour
iva: like
upacaaraH (nom. sg.): m. treatment
sevyaa sva-pakSh'-opanayena maitrii
dvesh'-aatmano hi prashamaaya maitrii
pitt'-aatmanaH shiita iv' opacaaraH
16.62
When the mind is agitated by the fault of ill-will,
Love should be practised, through self-acceptance;
For love is calming to a hate-afflicted soul,
As cooling treatment is to a man of bilious nature.
COMMENT:
The 2nd line literally reads:
"Love/goodwill is to be practised with/by/through one's-own-side-bringing-near."
After a lot of thought about what this means since first reading Linda Covill's translation of it a few months ago, I provisionally concluded that it refers not so much to self-love, but more to love of friends who are fellow strugglers -- others in the same boat as me. So: "Love should be felt, through fellow-feeling;"
The spirit of the 2nd line, in that case, is similar to the spirit of verse 3.35:
Nobody showed any hostility towards the other,
In fact they looked on others with positive warmth,
As mother, father, child or friend:
For each person saw in the other himself.
But Linda Covill's translation "with reference to one's own position" still makes sense to me -- particularly in light of Marjory Barlows oft-repeated reminder that "Being wrong is the best friend you have got in this work."
So "Love should be practised, through self-acceptance," is a translation that also seems to work. But the love which is self-acceptance, I think, is more an antidote to trying to be right, whereas the love which is fellow-feeling is maybe a more effective antidote to target at ill-will or hatred.... unless one's hatred tends to be primarily self-directed.
In conclusion, then, what is the translation of sva-pakSh'-opanayena that hits the target?
(1) through self-acceptance i.e. "by the bringing near [of love] to/for oneself."
(2) through fellow-feeling i.e. "by the bringing near of [the memory/awareness of] friends / those on one's own side."
(3) another translation that hasn't occured to me yet, in which the question of whether to lean towars self or towards others is solved or transcended.
So far I cannot reach a clear decision, which is just a kind of delusion...
EH Johnston:
But when the mind is troubled by the vice of malevolence, practise thoughts of benevolence by considering the application (of hurt) to yourself ; for benevolence tends to tranquillising the nature full of hate, like cooling treatment the man of bilious temperament.
Linda Covill:
But when the mind is disturbed by the fault of malice, the loving-kindness meditation should be practiced with reference to one's own position; for loving-kindness calms a hate-filled man, like treatment with cooling remedies for a patient with a bile condition.
VOCABULARY:
vyaapaada: evil intent or design , malice
doSha: fault
kShubhite = locative of kShubhita: agitated , shaken, set in motion; agitated (mentally) , disturbed , frightened ; angry , enraged
tu: but
citte = locative of citta: mind, thinking mind, thinking
sevyaa = nom. sg. f. from gerundive of sev: to serve , wait or attend upon , honour , obey; to cherish , foster; cultivate , study , practise , use
svapakSha: m. one's own wings; one's own party; a man of one's own party , friend
sva: one's own
pakSha: wing; the flank or side or the half of anything
upanayena = instrumental of upanaya (from upa- nii: to bring near, bring, offer): m. the bringing near , procuring ; attaining , obtaining ; employment , application
upanayana: leading or drawing towards one's self
maitrii (nom. sg.): f. friendship , friendliness , benevolence , good will
dvesha: hatred
aatmanaH = genitive of aatman: the individual soul, the person; self, nature, character
hi: for
prashamaaya = dative of prashama: calmness , tranquillity (esp. of mind), quiet , rest , cessation , extinction , abatement
maitrii (nom. sg.): f. love, goodwill
pitt'aatmanaH (gen. sg.): to the bilious
shiitaH (nom. sg. m.): cold, coldness; camphour
iva: like
upacaaraH (nom. sg.): m. treatment
Saturday, April 11, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.58: To Work, with Normal Mind
yat syaad upekShaa niyataM nimittaM
saamyaM gate cetasi tasya kaalaH
evaM hi kRtyaaya bhavet prayogo
ratho vidhey'-aashva iva prayaataH
16.58
What one has ascertained to be
a starting point of not interfering,
Has its time when one's mind is in its normal state;
For thus one can set about the work to be done,
Like a wagon setting off with well-trained horses.
COMMENT:
What kind of starting point can lead (in the words of FM Alexander) to "the right thing doing itself," or (in the words of Zen Master Dogen) to "body and mind naturally dropping off, and the original face appearing"?
When I asked my brother to ask his teacher Elizabeth Walker what, after 70+ years in the Alexander work, her starting point was, she replied, "How am I? Where am I?"
When I asked Marjory Barlow what, after 70+ years in the Alexander work, her starting point was, she replied "I start with the orders, because I know that works." (The orders means ordering the neck to be free, to allow the head to go forward and up, to allow the back to lengthen and widen, et cetera.)
When Marjory reciprocated by asking me what my starting point was, I said that I started by endeavouring to be clear about the distinction between end-gaining and the means-whereby. Marjory said, "Good!"
When I have the good sense to start again from scratch, in other words, I endeavour to be clear whether or not I am trying to milk a cow by the horn. Surprisingly often the answer is yes. That is what I have been trying to do for the best part of 30 years -- in which case, how can I take myself too seriously? How can I take my Japanese ancestry too seriously?
Another teacher with going on for 50 years experience in Alexander work, Nelly Ben-Or, speaks of going back to the drawing board and asking herself, "What does it mean to allow?" (The answer to this question, whenever I endeavoured to answer it in Nelly's presence, was invariably: Not that!)
So four people with the same aim of leaving oneself alone and allowing the right thing to do itself, can have four different starting points. And this is how I understand the word niyatam, ascertained or established, in the first line. Niyatam does not mean established by somebody else!
The starting point Buddha/Ashvaghosha are referring to is nothing that was revealed up a mountain and carved into clay tablets. It is up to each individual to ascertain, or to establish, for himself or for herself, what works for him or her as a starting point in working towards that condition of spontaneous flow which Chinese masters called "body and mind dropping off."
Master Dogen said, "Learn the backward step of turning light and shining. Body and mind will naturally drop off, and your original face will emerge."
So the direction in which the horses are ultimately to pull the wagon might be backwards.
But on that backward path, there may be bandits... such as lust, malice, and ignorance.
EH Johnston:
When the thoughts have attained equilibrium, then is the time for the subject of meditation inducing indifference; for thus there would be application to the duty in hand, like a chariot starting off with well-trained horses.
Linda Covill:
When the mind is in equilibrium, it is time for the meditation prescribed for equanimity, for thus it can apply itself to its job, like a chariot setting off with well-trained horses.
VOCABULARY:
yat (nom. sg. n.): [that] which
syaat = 3rd person singular, optative of as: to be
upekShaa (nominative, singular): f. overlooking , disregard , negligence , indifference , contempt , abandonment
niyatam (nom. sg. n.): determined, established
nimittam (nom. sg.): n. cause, stimulus, starting point
saamyam (acc. sg.): equality , evenness , equilibrium , equipoise , equal or normal state
gate = locative of gata: gone to, in the state of
cetasi = locative of cetas: mind
tasya (genitive): of it
kaalaH (nominative, singular): is the time
evam: thus
hi: for
kRtyaaya = dative of kRtya: to be done; thing to be done
bhavet (optative of bhuu): there might be
prayogaH (nominative, singular): undertaking , beginning , commencement; a design , contrivance , device , plan; application , employment, use; practice , experiment (opp. to , " theory ")
rathaH (nominative, singular): m. chariot, wagon, cart
vidheya: docile , compliant , submissive , liable to be ruled or governed or influenced by , subject or obedient to (gen. or comp.)
aashvaH (nom. sg. m.): drawn by horses (as a chariot)
iva: like
prayaataH (nom. sg. m.): set out , gone , advanced
saamyaM gate cetasi tasya kaalaH
evaM hi kRtyaaya bhavet prayogo
ratho vidhey'-aashva iva prayaataH
16.58
What one has ascertained to be
a starting point of not interfering,
Has its time when one's mind is in its normal state;
For thus one can set about the work to be done,
Like a wagon setting off with well-trained horses.
COMMENT:
What kind of starting point can lead (in the words of FM Alexander) to "the right thing doing itself," or (in the words of Zen Master Dogen) to "body and mind naturally dropping off, and the original face appearing"?
When I asked my brother to ask his teacher Elizabeth Walker what, after 70+ years in the Alexander work, her starting point was, she replied, "How am I? Where am I?"
When I asked Marjory Barlow what, after 70+ years in the Alexander work, her starting point was, she replied "I start with the orders, because I know that works." (The orders means ordering the neck to be free, to allow the head to go forward and up, to allow the back to lengthen and widen, et cetera.)
When Marjory reciprocated by asking me what my starting point was, I said that I started by endeavouring to be clear about the distinction between end-gaining and the means-whereby. Marjory said, "Good!"
When I have the good sense to start again from scratch, in other words, I endeavour to be clear whether or not I am trying to milk a cow by the horn. Surprisingly often the answer is yes. That is what I have been trying to do for the best part of 30 years -- in which case, how can I take myself too seriously? How can I take my Japanese ancestry too seriously?
Another teacher with going on for 50 years experience in Alexander work, Nelly Ben-Or, speaks of going back to the drawing board and asking herself, "What does it mean to allow?" (The answer to this question, whenever I endeavoured to answer it in Nelly's presence, was invariably: Not that!)
So four people with the same aim of leaving oneself alone and allowing the right thing to do itself, can have four different starting points. And this is how I understand the word niyatam, ascertained or established, in the first line. Niyatam does not mean established by somebody else!
The starting point Buddha/Ashvaghosha are referring to is nothing that was revealed up a mountain and carved into clay tablets. It is up to each individual to ascertain, or to establish, for himself or for herself, what works for him or her as a starting point in working towards that condition of spontaneous flow which Chinese masters called "body and mind dropping off."
Master Dogen said, "Learn the backward step of turning light and shining. Body and mind will naturally drop off, and your original face will emerge."
So the direction in which the horses are ultimately to pull the wagon might be backwards.
But on that backward path, there may be bandits... such as lust, malice, and ignorance.
EH Johnston:
When the thoughts have attained equilibrium, then is the time for the subject of meditation inducing indifference; for thus there would be application to the duty in hand, like a chariot starting off with well-trained horses.
Linda Covill:
When the mind is in equilibrium, it is time for the meditation prescribed for equanimity, for thus it can apply itself to its job, like a chariot setting off with well-trained horses.
VOCABULARY:
yat (nom. sg. n.): [that] which
syaat = 3rd person singular, optative of as: to be
upekShaa (nominative, singular): f. overlooking , disregard , negligence , indifference , contempt , abandonment
niyatam (nom. sg. n.): determined, established
nimittam (nom. sg.): n. cause, stimulus, starting point
saamyam (acc. sg.): equality , evenness , equilibrium , equipoise , equal or normal state
gate = locative of gata: gone to, in the state of
cetasi = locative of cetas: mind
tasya (genitive): of it
kaalaH (nominative, singular): is the time
evam: thus
hi: for
kRtyaaya = dative of kRtya: to be done; thing to be done
bhavet (optative of bhuu): there might be
prayogaH (nominative, singular): undertaking , beginning , commencement; a design , contrivance , device , plan; application , employment, use; practice , experiment (opp. to , " theory ")
rathaH (nominative, singular): m. chariot, wagon, cart
vidheya: docile , compliant , submissive , liable to be ruled or governed or influenced by , subject or obedient to (gen. or comp.)
aashvaH (nom. sg. m.): drawn by horses (as a chariot)
iva: like
prayaataH (nom. sg. m.): set out , gone , advanced
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.40: Appreciating One's Own Illness, Tended by Friends in the Know
yo vyaadhito vyaadhim avaiti samyag
vyaadher nidaanaM ca tad-auShadhaM ca
aarogyam aapnoti hi so 'cireNa
mitrair abhijNair upacaryamaaNaH
16.40
He who fully appreciates his illness,
as the illness it is,
Who sees the cause of the illness
and its remedy:
It is he who wins, before long,
freedom from disease --
Attended by friends in the know.
COMMENT:
Love sickness, sea sickness, glandular fever, and hay fever are four illnesses I have experienced, if not always fully appreciated -- mental sickness, physical sickness, a serious illness, and an illness that is real here and now, by whatever name it goes.
The cause in each case, as I see it, has to do with lack of inhibitory circuits in the brain and nervous system. Where there is a lack of inhibition, the consequence tends to be undue activity, or over-excitement, in the nervous system, which in turn tends to weaken the functioning of the immune system.
I sort of knew this on some level as a teenager when, not wishing to be seen as the kind of wimpy guy who suffered from hay-fever, or fear of girls, I used to drink large quantities of beer, lift weights to build myself up, and direct a lot of energy into playing rugby... but then when I was 17 I got glandular fever and stayed wimpishly in bed for weeks, growing thin.
Twenty years later, when I walked into the teaching room of Marjory Barlow, the niece of FM Alexander, she seemed to know all this background without ever being told. She then proceeded to demonstrate to me how she understood the practice of inhibition, as it had been demonstrated to her by her uncle FM Alexander. Marjory was indeed a true friend in the know.
I have another friend in the know, a homeopath by vocation, to whom also this verse might mean something.
VOCABULARY:
yaH: [he] who
vyaadhi: disorder , disease , ailment , sickness
-taH: (ablative suffix) "in accordance with," "in respect of"
vyaadhitaH: as disease, as the illness
vyaadhim = accusative vyaadhi: illness
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know
samyak: correctly , fully, truly , properly , fitly
vyaadheH (genitive): of the illness
nidaanaM (accusative): the cause
ca: and
tat: it, that
auShadham (accusative): n. herbs collectively, a herb; n. herbs used in medicine , a medicament , drug , medicine in general
ca: and
aarogyam (accusative): freedom from disease, health
aapnoti = 3rd person singular aap: obtain, gain
hi: for, because, on account of; (or emphatic) indeed , assuredly , surely , of course , certainly
saH: he
acireNa: not long, not for long
mitraiH (inst. pl.): with friends
abhijNaiH (inst. pl.): mfn. knowing, skilful, clever
upacaryamaaNaH = nom. sg. m. present passive participle upa-√car: to attend on (a patient)
EH Johnston:
For instance, he, who understands disease correctly as disease, its cause and its cure, quickly regains sound health, being treated by skilful friends.
Linda Covill:
The sick man who understands his disease correctly, and its cause and its remedy will, when tended by knowledgeable friends, soon win good health.
vyaadher nidaanaM ca tad-auShadhaM ca
aarogyam aapnoti hi so 'cireNa
mitrair abhijNair upacaryamaaNaH
16.40
He who fully appreciates his illness,
as the illness it is,
Who sees the cause of the illness
and its remedy:
It is he who wins, before long,
freedom from disease --
Attended by friends in the know.
COMMENT:
Love sickness, sea sickness, glandular fever, and hay fever are four illnesses I have experienced, if not always fully appreciated -- mental sickness, physical sickness, a serious illness, and an illness that is real here and now, by whatever name it goes.
The cause in each case, as I see it, has to do with lack of inhibitory circuits in the brain and nervous system. Where there is a lack of inhibition, the consequence tends to be undue activity, or over-excitement, in the nervous system, which in turn tends to weaken the functioning of the immune system.
I sort of knew this on some level as a teenager when, not wishing to be seen as the kind of wimpy guy who suffered from hay-fever, or fear of girls, I used to drink large quantities of beer, lift weights to build myself up, and direct a lot of energy into playing rugby... but then when I was 17 I got glandular fever and stayed wimpishly in bed for weeks, growing thin.
Twenty years later, when I walked into the teaching room of Marjory Barlow, the niece of FM Alexander, she seemed to know all this background without ever being told. She then proceeded to demonstrate to me how she understood the practice of inhibition, as it had been demonstrated to her by her uncle FM Alexander. Marjory was indeed a true friend in the know.
I have another friend in the know, a homeopath by vocation, to whom also this verse might mean something.
VOCABULARY:
yaH: [he] who
vyaadhi: disorder , disease , ailment , sickness
-taH: (ablative suffix) "in accordance with," "in respect of"
vyaadhitaH: as disease, as the illness
vyaadhim = accusative vyaadhi: illness
avaiti = 3rd person singular of ave: to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know
samyak: correctly , fully, truly , properly , fitly
vyaadheH (genitive): of the illness
nidaanaM (accusative): the cause
ca: and
tat: it, that
auShadham (accusative): n. herbs collectively, a herb; n. herbs used in medicine , a medicament , drug , medicine in general
ca: and
aarogyam (accusative): freedom from disease, health
aapnoti = 3rd person singular aap: obtain, gain
hi: for, because, on account of; (or emphatic) indeed , assuredly , surely , of course , certainly
saH: he
acireNa: not long, not for long
mitraiH (inst. pl.): with friends
abhijNaiH (inst. pl.): mfn. knowing, skilful, clever
upacaryamaaNaH = nom. sg. m. present passive participle upa-√car: to attend on (a patient)
EH Johnston:
For instance, he, who understands disease correctly as disease, its cause and its cure, quickly regains sound health, being treated by skilful friends.
Linda Covill:
The sick man who understands his disease correctly, and its cause and its remedy will, when tended by knowledgeable friends, soon win good health.
Monday, March 16, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.32: Getting Rid of Illusions
satyeShu duHkh'-aadiShu dRShTir aaryaa
samyag vitarkash ca paraakramash ca
idaM triyaM jNaana-vidhau pravRttam
prajN"-aasrayam klesha-parikShayaaya.
16.32
Nobility of insight into the truths,
beginning with the truth of suffering,
Along with thinking straight, and initiative:
These three, forming the protocol on knowing,
Are for dissolution, based on wisdom, of afflictions.
COMMENT:
An affliction, klesha, in the context of this verse seems to mean what obstructs us from truly seeing what is. In this sense the word is very profoundly related, as I understand it, with what FM Alexander called faulty sensory appreciation.
Because I know that Alexander work is real and true -- it works -- in endeavoring to understand the real meaning of the recorded words of ancestors like Dogen, Ashvaghosha, and Gautama, I am mindful of the reailty and truth of Alexander work.
A real instance of an affliction might be malice. In that case, what is the real meaning of (1) insight, (2) thinking straight, and (3)initiative? How do those three actually work to dissolve the affliction of malice?
Insight might be to see malice as malice.
Thinking straight might be to come back to clarity in regard to what one really wants, which is not to be poisoned by malice, but to be, along with all living beings, free from suffering. In Alexander work that wish is sometimes expressed by the words, "I wish to let the neck be free to let the head go forward and up."
Initiative seems to become a very great stumbling block. With too much of it, the practitioner ends up trying to make the head go forward and up, which only creates more tension. With too little initiative, the practitioner only thinks the word "let" but fails actually to allow anything, fails actually to direct the flow of his energy, fails either to piss or get off the pot. This, I think, is what Marjorie Barstow is discussing on this video clip.
Another kind of initiative which may be taken as an antidote to malice, as indicated by Ashvaghosha in verse 16.62, is consciously to introduce into the situation some goodwill that one genuinely feels for, say, a friend, teacher, or relative.
Again, my old teacher Marjory Barlow's oft-repeated exhortation that being ready to be wrong is "the golden key," is pointing the way to a kind of initiative. A positive will to see one's own faults, a genuine appetite for finding out where things tend to go wrong, is all part of initiative as I see it. (Religious and political groups, needless to say, tend in precisely the opposite direction of denial, cover-up, suppressing history, spin-doctoring, et cetera.)
One affliction in particular that I am acutely mindful of is a misconception about sitting posture that has invaded the world of Japanese Zen, arising from a certain rigidity of outlook, a certain formalism, a certain lack of capacity for originality and initiative, that has characterized Japanese culture since even before the time of Master Dogen.
That Japanese misconception about "correct sitting posture," I am afraid, is both a symptom and a cause of trouble. I was at fault ever to get involved in it in the first place, and I was stupid to expect people of scant initiative to be grateful to me for pointing out their cherished misconception.
A misconception is something that has no substance and yet it can really cause a lot of trouble. Even though it has no substance, it is not easy to get rid of.
As one truly wise person observed a long time ago:
"The most difficult things to get rid of are the ones that don't exist."
VOCABULARY:
satyeShu = locative, plural of satya: truth
duHkha: suffering
aadiShu = locative, plural of aadi: beginning with
dRShTiH = nominative, singular of dRShTi: (f.) seeing , viewing , beholding (also with the mental eye); sight , the faculty of seeing; the mind's eye , wisdom , intelligence; (with Buddhists) a wrong view
aaryaa (feminine, agreeing with drShti): noble; (with Buddhists, a man who has thought on the four chief truths of Buddhism and lives accordingly); behaving like an Aryan , worthy of one , honourable , respectable , noble;
samyak: true, full, straight
vitarkaH = nominative, singular of vitarka: thought, reasoning
ca: and
paraakramaH = nominative, singular of paraakrama: bold advance , attack , heroism , courage , power , strength , energy , exertion , enterprise
ca: and
idam (nom. sg. n.): this
triyam (nom. sg.): n. three, triad, threesome
jNana: knowing
vidhau (loc.): protocol
pravRttam(nom. sg. n.) : rolled out, produced, formed
prajNaa: wisdom; intuitive wisdom
aasrayam (nom. sg. n.): forming a basis
klesha: affliction ; worldly occupation , care , trouble
parikShayaaya = dative of parikShaya: disappearing, ceasing, dissolution, decay, destruction
EH Johnston:
The noble doctrine with respect to the Truths regarding suffering etc, right thought and exertion, these three, resting on intuitive wisdom should be practised in the department of knowledge for the abolition of the vices.
Linda Covill:
The noble doctrine concerning the Truths of suffering etc., as well as right thought and right effort -- these three occur in the ordinance on knowledge, and are a basis for wisdom in order that one's defilements may be annihilated.
samyag vitarkash ca paraakramash ca
idaM triyaM jNaana-vidhau pravRttam
prajN"-aasrayam klesha-parikShayaaya.
16.32
Nobility of insight into the truths,
beginning with the truth of suffering,
Along with thinking straight, and initiative:
These three, forming the protocol on knowing,
Are for dissolution, based on wisdom, of afflictions.
COMMENT:
An affliction, klesha, in the context of this verse seems to mean what obstructs us from truly seeing what is. In this sense the word is very profoundly related, as I understand it, with what FM Alexander called faulty sensory appreciation.
Because I know that Alexander work is real and true -- it works -- in endeavoring to understand the real meaning of the recorded words of ancestors like Dogen, Ashvaghosha, and Gautama, I am mindful of the reailty and truth of Alexander work.
A real instance of an affliction might be malice. In that case, what is the real meaning of (1) insight, (2) thinking straight, and (3)initiative? How do those three actually work to dissolve the affliction of malice?
Insight might be to see malice as malice.
Thinking straight might be to come back to clarity in regard to what one really wants, which is not to be poisoned by malice, but to be, along with all living beings, free from suffering. In Alexander work that wish is sometimes expressed by the words, "I wish to let the neck be free to let the head go forward and up."
Initiative seems to become a very great stumbling block. With too much of it, the practitioner ends up trying to make the head go forward and up, which only creates more tension. With too little initiative, the practitioner only thinks the word "let" but fails actually to allow anything, fails actually to direct the flow of his energy, fails either to piss or get off the pot. This, I think, is what Marjorie Barstow is discussing on this video clip.
Another kind of initiative which may be taken as an antidote to malice, as indicated by Ashvaghosha in verse 16.62, is consciously to introduce into the situation some goodwill that one genuinely feels for, say, a friend, teacher, or relative.
Again, my old teacher Marjory Barlow's oft-repeated exhortation that being ready to be wrong is "the golden key," is pointing the way to a kind of initiative. A positive will to see one's own faults, a genuine appetite for finding out where things tend to go wrong, is all part of initiative as I see it. (Religious and political groups, needless to say, tend in precisely the opposite direction of denial, cover-up, suppressing history, spin-doctoring, et cetera.)
One affliction in particular that I am acutely mindful of is a misconception about sitting posture that has invaded the world of Japanese Zen, arising from a certain rigidity of outlook, a certain formalism, a certain lack of capacity for originality and initiative, that has characterized Japanese culture since even before the time of Master Dogen.
That Japanese misconception about "correct sitting posture," I am afraid, is both a symptom and a cause of trouble. I was at fault ever to get involved in it in the first place, and I was stupid to expect people of scant initiative to be grateful to me for pointing out their cherished misconception.
A misconception is something that has no substance and yet it can really cause a lot of trouble. Even though it has no substance, it is not easy to get rid of.
As one truly wise person observed a long time ago:
"The most difficult things to get rid of are the ones that don't exist."
VOCABULARY:
satyeShu = locative, plural of satya: truth
duHkha: suffering
aadiShu = locative, plural of aadi: beginning with
dRShTiH = nominative, singular of dRShTi: (f.) seeing , viewing , beholding (also with the mental eye); sight , the faculty of seeing; the mind's eye , wisdom , intelligence; (with Buddhists) a wrong view
aaryaa (feminine, agreeing with drShti): noble; (with Buddhists, a man who has thought on the four chief truths of Buddhism and lives accordingly); behaving like an Aryan , worthy of one , honourable , respectable , noble;
samyak: true, full, straight
vitarkaH = nominative, singular of vitarka: thought, reasoning
ca: and
paraakramaH = nominative, singular of paraakrama: bold advance , attack , heroism , courage , power , strength , energy , exertion , enterprise
ca: and
idam (nom. sg. n.): this
triyam (nom. sg.): n. three, triad, threesome
jNana: knowing
vidhau (loc.): protocol
pravRttam(nom. sg. n.) : rolled out, produced, formed
prajNaa: wisdom; intuitive wisdom
aasrayam (nom. sg. n.): forming a basis
klesha: affliction ; worldly occupation , care , trouble
parikShayaaya = dative of parikShaya: disappearing, ceasing, dissolution, decay, destruction
EH Johnston:
The noble doctrine with respect to the Truths regarding suffering etc, right thought and exertion, these three, resting on intuitive wisdom should be practised in the department of knowledge for the abolition of the vices.
Linda Covill:
The noble doctrine concerning the Truths of suffering etc., as well as right thought and right effort -- these three occur in the ordinance on knowledge, and are a basis for wisdom in order that one's defilements may be annihilated.
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