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

SAUNDARANANDA 16.25: Cutting Out the Causes of Suffering

taj janmano n'aika-vidhasya, saumya,
tRShN"adayo hetava ity avetya
taaMsh chindhi duHkhaad yadi nirmumukShaa
kaarya-kShayaH kaaraNa-saMkShayaadd hi

16.25
So my friend,
with regard to the many forms of becoming,

Know their causes to be [the faults]
that start with thirsting

And cut out those [faults],
if you wish to be freed from suffering;

For ending of the effect
follows from eradication of the cause.

COMMENT:
This verse expresses in a nutshell the 2nd and 3rd noble truths, and it represents in the context of this Canto the transition from one standpoint to the other.

Maybe the term of address, saumya, used between fellow Brahmans, conveys some sense of a shift in standpoint, from the standpoint of investigation and observation to the standpoint of practice itself.

The sense I get is that after really giving chapter and verse on suffering and its causes, the Buddha here puts a metaphorical arm around Nanda as if to say: "OK my friend, to work!"

Knowing the faults is one thing; cutting them out is another thing altogether. Books and blogs have rightly been written about what the faults are -- from the viewpoint of psychology both Western and abhidharmic, and from the viewpoint of neuro-physiology. But cutting out the faults may be more a matter of 'Now piss, or get off the pot.'

VOCABULARY:
tad: (connecting particle) so
janmanaH = nominative, plural of janman: birth, re-birth, becoming
naika: not one, manifold, numerous
vidhasya = genitive of vidha: form, kind
saumya (voc.): " resembling the moon " , placid , gentle , mild (vocative = " O gentle Sir! " " O good Sir! " " O excellent man! " as the proper mode of addressing a Brahman)

tRShNa: thirsting, avid desire
aadayaH = nominative, plural of aadi: beginning, beginning with, et cetera
hetavaH = nominative, plura of hetu: cause
iti: thus, that
avetya = absolutive of ave: to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know

taan (accusative, plural of sa): those
chindhi = imperative of chid: cut off, to cut off , amputate , cut through , hew , chop , split , pierce; to divide , separate; to destroy , annihilate
duHkhaad (ablative): from suffering
yadi: if, in case of
mumukShaa (nom. sg.): f. (fr. desiderative of muc) desire of liberation from
muc: to loose , let loose , free
nir = verbal prefix meaning "out, forth, away."
nirmumukShaa: desire to be set free from

kaarya: effect, result
kShayaH = nominative, singular of kShaya: destruction, end
kaaraNa: cause
saMkShayaad = ablative of saMkShaya: complete destruction
hi: for

EH Johnston:
Therefore, my friend, understand that the causes of birth in its many forms are desire etc., and eradicate them if you would be free from suffering. For an effect is abolished by abolishing the cause,

Linda Covill:
So be aware, my friend, of the causes -- desire, for example -- of the many types of birth, and if you seek freedom from suffering, cut them off. For the destruction of an effect follows from the utter destruction of its cause,

SAUNDARANANDA 16.5: One After Another & All Together

ity aarya-satyaany avabudhya buddhyaa
catvaari samyak pratividhya c' aiva
sarv'-aasravaan bhaavanay" abhibhuuya
na jaayate shaantim avaapya bhuuyaH

16.5
Understanding these noble truths,
by a process of reasoning

While also befriending the four as one,

He contains all energetic leaks,
through the means of directed thought,

And, on finding peace,
is no longer subject to becoming.

COMMENT:
Line 1, as I understand it, is an affirmation of knowing that 2 + 2 = 4, i.e. an affirmation of REASON.

Line 2 can be read as a NEGATION OF REASON. Reason deals in logical sequences of elements that come one after another, like 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10; or like (1) thesis vs (2) antithesis leading to (3) synthesis and (4) a real path transcending threefold dialectic . But reason cannot realise all things as part of one picture, which is the function of intuitive reflection. I know this paradox from Alexander work, where it is expressed in the phrase "all together, one after another." The four Alexandrian thought-directions, or orders, are to be given one after another in a certain order (which, as I see it, parallels the hierarchical development of four vestibular reflexes). The order of the orders is: (1) let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, (4) while releasing the limbs out. As verbal orders, however, these four orders cannot be thought all together. To think them all together requires an altogether different kind of thinking -- which might be called "non-thinking."

Line 3 describes the practice of INHIBITION, the truest form of which is direction of one's energy.

Line 4, following on from the previous verse, is an expression of a peaceable PATH.


VOCABULARY:
iti: thus, what precedes
aarya: noble, aryan
satyaani (accusative, plural of satya): truth, reality
avabudhya = absolutive of avabudh: become sensible or aware of, perceive, know
buddhyaa = instrumental of buddhi: the power of forming and retaining conceptions and general notions, intelligence, reason, intellect, mind, discernment , judgement; understanding; presence of mind, ready wit
buddhyaa: ind. with the intention of, designedly, deliberately

catvaari: four
samyak: in one or the same direction, in the same way, at the same time, together
pratividhya = absolutive of pratividh: to perceive, understand; to become acquainted with
ca: and
eva: [emphatic]

sarva: all
aasravaan (accusative, plural aasrava): leakage, affliction
bhaavanayaa = instrumental of bhaavana: forming in the mind, conception, apprehension, imagination, supposition, thought, meditation
bhaavanayaa: in thought, in imagination; (with locative) direct one's thoughts to
abhibhuuya = absolutive of abhibhuu: to overcome, overpower, conquer, overspread; defeat

na: not
jaayate = present indicative of jan: be born, arise, become
shaantim = accusative, shaanti: tranquillity, peace, quiet; cessation, abatement, inhibition
avaapya = absolutive, avaap: reach, gain, get, arrive at, attain
bhuuyaH = nominative/accusative, singular bhuuyas: becoming; the act of becoming; 'becoming in a greater degree' i.e. more, further, once more, again, anew.


EH Johnston:
Thus understanding with his intellect the four Noble Truths and penetrating to their core, he overcomes all the infections by the cultivation of meditation and, arriving at tranquility, he is not born again.

Linda Covill:
By using his intellect to understand and completely penetrate the Four Noble Truths, and by using meditation to overpower all the rebirth-producing tendencies, he attains peace and is not born again.