SAUNDARANANDA 16.71: Time Is of the Essence of the Contract

an-aadi-kaal' opacit'-aatmakatvaad
baliiyasaH klesha-gaNasya c'aiva
samyak-prayogasya ca duSh-karatvaac
chettuM na shakyaaH sahasaa hi doShaaH

16.71
Because of the instinct-led accumulation,
from time without beginning,

Of the powerful mass of afflictions,

And because true practice is so difficult to do,

The faults cannot be cut off all at once.

COMMENT:
I would like to comment on this verse by quoting a passage that I think is relevant from the writings of FM Alexander, in which he uses the term “non-doing.” But before that I will describe my a priori experience of what non-doing means. (A priori means before I ever heard the Zen term “body and mind dropping off” or the Alexander term “non-doing.”)

Thirty years ago I began competing, at a very low level, in competition karate. I pretty much had only one technique -- a reverse counter-punch with my right fist. But I found myself able to use this technique to an effect that surprised me -- especially the first time I tried it out in earnest, when my opponent, a brown-belt from Leeds University whose disconcerting nickname was “killer,” went down like a deck of cards. Much to my own astonishment, I, an extremely nervous and lanky white-belt on his first outing, had winded him with a shot to the floating ribs. Having been keen on sports from an early age, I suppose that (in spite of congenital vestibular problems, received from my father, having been accumulated by his ancestors from time without beginning) my timing was not bad. I would wait and wait and wait for my opponent to leave himself open when he came in for an attack, ignoring his feints, waiting for a true opening. Then when the opening came I would sometimes experience my counter-punch doing itself, seemingly before I was even conscious of it, like a coiled spring suddenly freeing itself. The effect, I remember, was particularly strong when I was participating as the captain of a five-man competition team. And the effect was sufficiently strong to make me think that academic stuff that I was supposed to be studying at university was of zero importance in comparison. That’s why despite doing a degree in Accounting & Financial Management, I have ended up living such an alternative life, never really entering the corporate world but going instead to Japan with the intention of investigating Zen in the martial arts, and then coming back to England to investigate the discoveries of FM Alexander. Which brings me back to that quote:

I can assure my readers that anyone who will follow me through the experiences I have set down, especially with regard to 'non-doing', cannot fail to benefit; but I must emphasize that they will not be following me unless they recognize:
(1) that knowledge concerned with sensory experience cannot be conveyed by the written or spoken word, so that it means to the recipient what it means to the person who is trying to convey it:
(2) that they will need to depend upon new 'means - whereby' for the gaining of their ends, and that they will 'feel wrong' at first in carrying out the procedures because these will be unfamiliar:
(3) that that attempt to bring about change involving growth, development and progressive improvement in the use and functioning of the human organism, calls necessarily for the acceptance, yes, the welcoming of the unknown in sensory experience, and this 'unknown' cannot be associated with the sensory experiences that have hitherto 'felt right.'
(4) that to 'try and get it right' by direct 'doing' is to try and reproduce what is known, and cannot lead to the 'right', the as yet 'unknown.'

To anyone who accepts these points and sees the reason for keeping them in view whilst working to principle in employing the technique, I would say: 'Go ahead, but remember that time is of the essence of the contract.'

FM Alexander, Preface (1941) to The Use of the Self.

So what?

So, the key to understanding this section of the Canto, is not to fall at the stumbling block of nimitta -- a word which EH Johnston and Linda Covill have, quite forgivably, understood as having to do with meditation. I say quite forgivably, because people generally assume that Buddhist practice has to do with meditating. But what I have learned in the last 30 years of trying to make sense of a counter-punch that seemed miraculously to do itself, is that a moment of sitting-buddha has to do with a stimulus, the inhibition of one’s habitual reaction to that stimulus (not doing), and the allowing of action (non-doing). I still don’t claim to be more than a beginner in these matters -- because the true practice of allowing is so bloody difficult to do -- but this much at least I have understood. So my translation of the next verse, and of others verses in this section, will reflect my understanding that nimitta has nothing to do with meditation but nimitta means a stimulus, or starting point of action.

Thus, even though the faults cannot all be struck down at once, a deck of cards comes tumbling down, and those cards are on the table.

(But they are always liable to be reshuffled....)

EH Johnston:
For the faults cannot be extirpated all at once, partly because the troop of the vices are very strong, having from their nature accumulated from time without beginning, and partly because right practice is difficult.

Linda Covill:
The faults cannot be cut off all of a sudden, partly because the powerful mass of defilements has by nature been accumulating from beginningless time, and partly because the correct practice is so difficult to do.

VOCABULARY:
an-aadi: without beginning
kaalaH (nom. sg.): m. time
upacita: heaped up , increased; thriving , increasing , prospering , succeeding ; big , fat , thick
aatmakatvaat = ablative of aatmakatvam:
aatmaka: having or consisting of the nature or character of (in comp.); consisting or composed of
-tvam = suffix for abstract nouns

baliiyasaH = genitive of baliiyas: more or most powerful , or mighty or strong or important or efficacious
klesha: affliction
gaNasya = genitive of gaNa: a flock , troop , multitude
ca: and
eva: (emphatic)

samyak: true, proper, out and out
prayogasya = genitive of prayoga: practice
ca: and
duSh-karatvaat = ablative of duSh-karatvam: being hard to do

chettum = infinitive of chid: to cut off
na: not
shakyaaH (nom. pl. m.): able , possible , practicable , capable of being (with infinitive in passive sense)
sahasaa (instrumental of sahas, powerful): forcibly , vehemently , suddenly , quickly , precipitately , immediately , at once , unexpectedly , at random , fortuitously , in an unpremeditated manner
hi: for
doShaaH (nom. pl.): m. faults, imbalances

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.