kRt'-aartham iva taM mene
sambuddhaH shraddhayaa tayaa
mene praaptam iva shreyaH
sa ca buddhena saMskRtaH
- = - - - = = =
= = = = - = - =
= = = - - = = =
- - = = - = - =
13.2
As if the finished article he seemed
To the Fully Awakened One,
by virtue of that confidence;
And as if a gainer of higher good he seemed
To himself, one moulded by Buddha.
COMMENT:
As Ted reminded us in his apt comment of a couple of days ago, real happiness is to be had from simply listening to a four-line verse of true Dharma. The phrase I use to remind myself of the same is "The gold is in the bold."
Today's verse truly strikes me, in its original Sanskrit, as a golden one.
Simply listening to it is not the same as writing a comment on it on the basis of "the Buddhist viewpoint." Last night I wrote a long comment around today's verse, but there was too much of me in it; too much "Buddhist viewpoint" -- or, to be precise, too much of me reacting to the pretence of others in marketing their own "Buddhist viewpoint." It was another nasty case of the mirror principle at work, and has been consigned to the dustbin where it belongs. This morning I shall try again, with a more listening attitude.
The first half of this verse tells us how Nanda seemed to the Buddha, from the outside. The second half of the verse relates how Nanda felt from the inside.
For the Buddha, Ashvaghosha tells us again, what was of primary importance was confidence -- confidence in that higher good associated with non-doing. Looking at that confidence now growing in Nanda, the Buddha felt that his work was practically done. The phrase kRt'-aartham, which I have translated as "the finished article" means in other words "job done." So in this verse, as I read it, Ashvaghosha is reminding his descendants of future generations that their primary job, as teachers, is to inspire confidence in that higher good which is associated with the practice of non-doing.
From the inside, Nanda felt as if he had already reached that level of higher good. That level, as I understand it, is the level that FM Alexander called "the plane of conscious control," the level that top sportsmen sometimes call "the zone," and the level that Master Dogen called "body and mind spontaneously dropping off and one's original face emerging." Nanda felt he had reached that level not as a result of his own doing, and still less as a result of his own "Buddhist viewpoint," but as a result of being worked on, sculpted, moulded, fashioned, and finished (saMskRta) by Buddha.
Is this a real possibility for those of us, here and now, who all these years after the event are listening to this record of the Buddha's Dharma?
The human teacher who taught Nanda died about 2,500 years ago and his body was cremated. For us today to be moulded by the hands and voice of Gautama the Buddha is totally impossible. What is still possible, but ineffably difficult, for a person who is prepared to drop off his own view, is to be moulded by sitting-Buddha.
Alexander's principle of non-doing, applied by a follower of the Buddha's teaching to sitting practice, ultimately means just that: neither sitting with one's own body nor sitting with one's own mind, but allowing oneself to be moulded by sitting-Buddha.
EH Johnston:
The Enlightened One deemed that Nanda had, as it were, attained his goal through that faith and he, too, deemed that by the Buddha's initiation he had, as it were, already reached the highest good.
Linda Covill:
The perfectly enlightened one considered him to have virtually reached the goal by means of faith, while Nanda himself, brought to readiness by the Buddha, felt as though Excellence had already been attained.
VOCABULARY:
kRta: mfn. done , made , accomplished , performed
artham (accusative): aim, purpose, goal ; thing, substance
iva: like, as if
tam: him
mene = past of man: to regard or consider any one or anything (acc.) as (acc. with or without iva); to think one's self or be thought to be , appear as , pass for (nom. ; also with iva)
sambuddhaH = nominative of sambuddha: mfn. wide awake , clever , wise , prudent ; well perceived , perfectly known or understood
shraddhayaa = instrumental of shraddhaa: f. confidence, trust, belief
tayaa = instrumental of saa: f. that
mene: he thought himself to be
praaptam = accusative of praapta: mfn. mfn. attained to , reached , arrived at , met with , found , incurred , got , acquired , gained ; one who has attained to or reached &c (acc. or comp.)
iva: like, as if
shreyas: the better or best state, higher or highest good,
saH (nominative, singular, masculine): he
ca: and
buddhena (instrumental): by the Buddha
saMskRtaH (nominative, singular, masculine): a man who has been put together , constructed , well or completely formed , perfected ; made ready , prepared , completed , finished ; purified , consecrated , sanctified , hallowed , initiated
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label confidence. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.43: Towards Circumvention of the Senses
yaavat tattvam na bhavati hi dRShTaM shrutaM vaa
taavac chraddhaa na bhavati bala-sthaa sthiraa vaa
dRShTe tattve niyama-paribhuut'-endriyasya
shraddaa-vRkSho bhavati sa-phalash c'aashrayash ca
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = -
saundaranande mahaa-kaavye pratyavamarsho naama dvaadashaH sarghaH
= - - = = - = = = = - - = = = = = - = = =
12.43
For so long as the real truth is not seen or heard,
Confidence does not become strong or firm;
But when, through restraint,
the power of the senses is circumvented
and the real truth is realised,
The tree of confidence bears fruit and weight.
The 12th Canto of the epic poem Handsome Nanda, titled
'Gaining Hold.'
COMMENT:
What is the real truth?
My view of the real truth is not the real truth.
I came to England at the end of 1994 with the strong intention of getting to the bottom of the discoveries of FM Alexander, because initial experience of Alexander lessons in Tokyo awakened a shoot of confidence in me with regard to the real truth of Alexander work. Alexander work is a means of circumventing the senses and allowing the right to do itself, via inhibition of the wrong. In this work, I am confident, there is real truth.
I used to believe that my sitting practice was practically bursting with real truth. But Alexander work falsified my former belief. Alexander work showed me that there was not so much real truth in my sitting practice as I had believed there was. To put it another way, my sitting practice was much fuller of faults than I realised. Those faults, I have come to realise, are profoundly related with four vestibular reflexes which have to do with (1) fear, (2) balance, (3) side-to-side coordination (see above photo), and (4) top-to-bottom coordination. Because I was practising these faults unconsciously, my sitting practice was much fuller of faults than I realised.
To put it simply, in 7 words:
What I felt was up was down.
Or to put it in 13 words:
What I felt to be true uprightness
Turned out to be just uptightness.
Any confidence I have now to mine for Ashvaghosha's gold has grown from the clear realisation, which Alexander work practically forced upon me, of the distinction that exists between the fool's gold of uptightness and the true gold of uprightness. Alexander work gave me a shoot of confidence in the existence of true gold.
Before Alexander work, I sincerely believed in the truth of Master Dogen's teaching, but it was only belief, not confidence. I loved then as I have continued to love, Master Dogen's teaching of learning the backward step, so that body and mind drop off, and the original face appears. I appreciated the beauty of Master Dogen's words and sensed the truth in them, but I had not understood the meaning of those words as well as I believed I had.
To see and hear the real truth might be to really experience body and mind dropping off and one's original face emerging; in other words, to experience the right thing doing itself. But to express a view on it which one sincerely believes to be true, is not it.
There is, however, a criterion other than verbal expression by which to judge whether or not a person has seen and heard the real truth. That criterion, the Buddha tells us now, is confidence. Real experience of the real truth causes a person's confidence in the real truth to grow strong and firm, like a healthy sapling that grows over 10, 20, 30, 50 or 70 years into a great tree.
A protege of FM Alexander named Patrick Macdonald who was notorious for his wry sense of humour apparently used to say that the first 10 years were the worst. But as he got older he started saying that the first 20 years were the worst. Then he started saying that the first 40 years were the worst, and so on. Once in his old age Patrick Macdonald asked my teacher how long she had been teaching, and she told him: 35 years. "Oh, really?" Macdonald inquired, "Is that all?" I think he was making the same point that the Buddha is making with the metaphor of the tree: real confidence does not grow strong or firm in one or two summers.
Patrick Macdonald, they say, placed a great deal of emphasis on the importance of taking a pupil UP. But he famously remarked that for the first 30 years he himself was taking everybody down. He understood that despite his wish to leave his wrists totally open so that he might take his pupil up, some recalcitrant downward, depressive, or controlling tendency had remained in him which was not willing to partake in that wish.
To practice the real truth, it seems to me, is to say no to reliance on all such wayward depressing tendencies. Those tendencies have both intellectual and sensory roots.
Nanda had reached the point at the beginning of this Canto when he was able to retreat from his former thirst for heaven, which was sustained by a wrong intellectual conception about the satisfaction to be found among celestial nymphs. He had reached the point of giving up an idea that was putting him wrong.
Here at the end of the Canto, the challenge that still faces Nanda is to circumvent those senses of his which, Ashvaghosha tells us in 12.18, are still set against ultimate good. This circumvention is the subject of Canto 13.
In discussing the senses, sometimes Ashvaghosha cites the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch, which he calls in 13.56 a-kushala-karaaNaam ariiNaaM, "evil-causing enemies." But often in records of the Buddha's teaching, for example in the Heart Sutra, six senses are enumerated. This caused me often to wonder, when I was in Japan, how to understand and how to translate the sixth sense, called in Sanskrit manendriya. Those questions were answered, to my satisfaction at least, when I got into Alexander work and started hearing about proprioception, and what Alexander called "debauched kinaesthesia."
On its own man means to perceive, know, understand, or comprehend, so manendriya suggests the compound sense of proprioception, central to which is the vestibular sense. It was my Alexander head of training, Ray Evans, who when I met him in 1995 first alerted me to the primary importance, at the centre of all the senses, of the vestibular sense. The vestibular system, calibrated by the semi-circular canals of the inner ear, is central to our sense of the body as a structure in or out of balance, as the body remains still, or moves through space, as it floats weightlessly in water, or as the body stands on the earth, bearing weight.
EH Johnston:
For so long as the real path is not seen or heard, so long faith does not become strong or firm, but when a man by restraining his senses with self-control sees the real truth, the tree of his faith bears fruit and becomes the vehicle (of further advance).'
Linda Covill:
As long as reality is not seen or heard, faith is not firm or strongly fixed. But when a man's senses are governed by the rules of restraint and he sees reality, then the tree of faith is fruitful and supportive.
End of Canto 12: Comprehension.
VOCABULARY:
yaavat (correlative of taavat): insofar as
tattvam (accusative): what is, reality ; n. true or real state , truth , reality ; (in phil.) a true principle
na: not
bhavati: is, becomes
hi: for
dRShTa: seen, looked at
shruta: mfn. heard , listened to , heard about or of , taught , orally transmitted or communicated from age to age
vaa: or
taavat (correlative of yaavat): so
shraddhaa: confidence, trust, belief,
na: not
bhavati: is, becomes
bala-stha: mfn. " being in strength or power " , strong , powerful , vigorous
sthira: mfn. firm , hard , solid , compact , strong ; fixed , immovable , motionless , still , calm ; firm , not wavering or tottering , steady
vaa: or
dRShTe = locative of dRShTa: seen
tattve = locative of tattva: what is, reality
niyama: restraining, checking, holding back, preventing, controlling
paribhuuta: overpowered, conquered, slighted, disregarded, despised
indriyasya = genitive of indriya: sense, power of the senses
shraddhaa: confidence, trust, belief,
vRkShaH = nominative of vRkSha: tree
bhavati: is, becomes
sa-phalaH (nominative): fruitful, bearing fruit
ca: and
aashrayaH (nominative): something on which to rely, depend, or rest upon
ca: and
taavac chraddhaa na bhavati bala-sthaa sthiraa vaa
dRShTe tattve niyama-paribhuut'-endriyasya
shraddaa-vRkSho bhavati sa-phalash c'aashrayash ca
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = =
= = = = - - - - - = = - = -
saundaranande mahaa-kaavye pratyavamarsho naama dvaadashaH sarghaH
= - - = = - = = = = - - = = = = = - = = =
12.43
For so long as the real truth is not seen or heard,
Confidence does not become strong or firm;
But when, through restraint,
the power of the senses is circumvented
and the real truth is realised,
The tree of confidence bears fruit and weight.
The 12th Canto of the epic poem Handsome Nanda, titled
'Gaining Hold.'
COMMENT:
What is the real truth?
My view of the real truth is not the real truth.
I came to England at the end of 1994 with the strong intention of getting to the bottom of the discoveries of FM Alexander, because initial experience of Alexander lessons in Tokyo awakened a shoot of confidence in me with regard to the real truth of Alexander work. Alexander work is a means of circumventing the senses and allowing the right to do itself, via inhibition of the wrong. In this work, I am confident, there is real truth.
I used to believe that my sitting practice was practically bursting with real truth. But Alexander work falsified my former belief. Alexander work showed me that there was not so much real truth in my sitting practice as I had believed there was. To put it another way, my sitting practice was much fuller of faults than I realised. Those faults, I have come to realise, are profoundly related with four vestibular reflexes which have to do with (1) fear, (2) balance, (3) side-to-side coordination (see above photo), and (4) top-to-bottom coordination. Because I was practising these faults unconsciously, my sitting practice was much fuller of faults than I realised.
To put it simply, in 7 words:
What I felt was up was down.
Or to put it in 13 words:
What I felt to be true uprightness
Turned out to be just uptightness.
Any confidence I have now to mine for Ashvaghosha's gold has grown from the clear realisation, which Alexander work practically forced upon me, of the distinction that exists between the fool's gold of uptightness and the true gold of uprightness. Alexander work gave me a shoot of confidence in the existence of true gold.
Before Alexander work, I sincerely believed in the truth of Master Dogen's teaching, but it was only belief, not confidence. I loved then as I have continued to love, Master Dogen's teaching of learning the backward step, so that body and mind drop off, and the original face appears. I appreciated the beauty of Master Dogen's words and sensed the truth in them, but I had not understood the meaning of those words as well as I believed I had.
To see and hear the real truth might be to really experience body and mind dropping off and one's original face emerging; in other words, to experience the right thing doing itself. But to express a view on it which one sincerely believes to be true, is not it.
There is, however, a criterion other than verbal expression by which to judge whether or not a person has seen and heard the real truth. That criterion, the Buddha tells us now, is confidence. Real experience of the real truth causes a person's confidence in the real truth to grow strong and firm, like a healthy sapling that grows over 10, 20, 30, 50 or 70 years into a great tree.
A protege of FM Alexander named Patrick Macdonald who was notorious for his wry sense of humour apparently used to say that the first 10 years were the worst. But as he got older he started saying that the first 20 years were the worst. Then he started saying that the first 40 years were the worst, and so on. Once in his old age Patrick Macdonald asked my teacher how long she had been teaching, and she told him: 35 years. "Oh, really?" Macdonald inquired, "Is that all?" I think he was making the same point that the Buddha is making with the metaphor of the tree: real confidence does not grow strong or firm in one or two summers.
Patrick Macdonald, they say, placed a great deal of emphasis on the importance of taking a pupil UP. But he famously remarked that for the first 30 years he himself was taking everybody down. He understood that despite his wish to leave his wrists totally open so that he might take his pupil up, some recalcitrant downward, depressive, or controlling tendency had remained in him which was not willing to partake in that wish.
To practice the real truth, it seems to me, is to say no to reliance on all such wayward depressing tendencies. Those tendencies have both intellectual and sensory roots.
Nanda had reached the point at the beginning of this Canto when he was able to retreat from his former thirst for heaven, which was sustained by a wrong intellectual conception about the satisfaction to be found among celestial nymphs. He had reached the point of giving up an idea that was putting him wrong.
Here at the end of the Canto, the challenge that still faces Nanda is to circumvent those senses of his which, Ashvaghosha tells us in 12.18, are still set against ultimate good. This circumvention is the subject of Canto 13.
In discussing the senses, sometimes Ashvaghosha cites the five senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch, which he calls in 13.56 a-kushala-karaaNaam ariiNaaM, "evil-causing enemies." But often in records of the Buddha's teaching, for example in the Heart Sutra, six senses are enumerated. This caused me often to wonder, when I was in Japan, how to understand and how to translate the sixth sense, called in Sanskrit manendriya. Those questions were answered, to my satisfaction at least, when I got into Alexander work and started hearing about proprioception, and what Alexander called "debauched kinaesthesia."
On its own man means to perceive, know, understand, or comprehend, so manendriya suggests the compound sense of proprioception, central to which is the vestibular sense. It was my Alexander head of training, Ray Evans, who when I met him in 1995 first alerted me to the primary importance, at the centre of all the senses, of the vestibular sense. The vestibular system, calibrated by the semi-circular canals of the inner ear, is central to our sense of the body as a structure in or out of balance, as the body remains still, or moves through space, as it floats weightlessly in water, or as the body stands on the earth, bearing weight.
EH Johnston:
For so long as the real path is not seen or heard, so long faith does not become strong or firm, but when a man by restraining his senses with self-control sees the real truth, the tree of his faith bears fruit and becomes the vehicle (of further advance).'
Linda Covill:
As long as reality is not seen or heard, faith is not firm or strongly fixed. But when a man's senses are governed by the rules of restraint and he sees reality, then the tree of faith is fruitful and supportive.
End of Canto 12: Comprehension.
VOCABULARY:
yaavat (correlative of taavat): insofar as
tattvam (accusative): what is, reality ; n. true or real state , truth , reality ; (in phil.) a true principle
na: not
bhavati: is, becomes
hi: for
dRShTa: seen, looked at
shruta: mfn. heard , listened to , heard about or of , taught , orally transmitted or communicated from age to age
vaa: or
taavat (correlative of yaavat): so
shraddhaa: confidence, trust, belief,
na: not
bhavati: is, becomes
bala-stha: mfn. " being in strength or power " , strong , powerful , vigorous
sthira: mfn. firm , hard , solid , compact , strong ; fixed , immovable , motionless , still , calm ; firm , not wavering or tottering , steady
vaa: or
dRShTe = locative of dRShTa: seen
tattve = locative of tattva: what is, reality
niyama: restraining, checking, holding back, preventing, controlling
paribhuuta: overpowered, conquered, slighted, disregarded, despised
indriyasya = genitive of indriya: sense, power of the senses
shraddhaa: confidence, trust, belief,
vRkShaH = nominative of vRkSha: tree
bhavati: is, becomes
sa-phalaH (nominative): fruitful, bearing fruit
ca: and
aashrayaH (nominative): something on which to rely, depend, or rest upon
ca: and
Monday, June 8, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.16: Joy in Believing
atash ca nikhilaM lokaM
viditvaa sa-car'-aacaram
sarva-duHkha-kShaya-kare
tvad-dharme parame rame
12.16
And on the basis of this insight
into the total extent of the world of man,
With its changeability and its fixity,
It is the eradicator of all suffering,
Your most excellent teaching, that I rejoice in.
COMMENT:
What is Nanda expressing here about the world? The viewpoint of a know-all who has understood the whole universe? Or is he saying that he has seen quite enough of the world of man to know that freedom from suffering does not exist out there?
Worldly movements are, for example, broken promises, acts of betrayal. Worldly non-movements are, for example, fixed prejudices, rigid adherence to -isms. Those kinds of faults seem to arise when we are interested, either selfishly or altruistically, more in the gaining of some end than in actually being truthful.
Q. E. D.
In the third line, again, what is Nanda expressing? His own enlightenment? His own confidence? Or belief in the Buddha’s enlightenment? Or confidence in the Buddha himself? Or trust in a process?
When the Buddha begins his long monologue, from 12.19, he will emphasize the importance of shraddhaa, which the dictionary defines as “faith, trust, confidence.”
Religious people usually go on about faith -- especially faith in God. So I am suspicious of the word faith. It seems often to be used in connection with delusory belief in what might not exist at all. Being a lover of BBC Radio 4, I find myself increasingly irritated by a certain kind of bible-bashing that pops up at certain intervals, particularly during the 9.45 daily service. Why should I have £10 a month license fee payment debited from my bank account, for the privilege of having an extremely weird and unscientific Abrahamical doctrine preached to me over the airwaves?
Still, even having booted belief in biblical God into the long grass, I still believe in belief.
In Alexander work, which is nothing if not practical, when faced with an unduly nervous pupil the experienced teacher works in a manner that conduces to the building of confidence (as opposed to traditional methods of schooling which tend to excite students’ fear reflexes). To this end, it is important that the pupil should be able to trust the teacher. This trust in its truest form, as I see it, has neither to do with personality nor professionalism. I trust a teacher who I sense is herself truly given over to the work she is teaching -- so that there is no gap between what she preaches and what she practises. So this trust, in essence, is trusting a process. It is trusting a process which, as one continues with it, tends not always to feel good. Without trust in something other than feeling, how would we be able to continue with a process that made us feel bad?
What Nanda seems to be expressing here, then, to answer my own question, is belief that has nothing to do with whacko faith, but which has to do with confidence and trust. It is belief in the practical teaching of the Buddha to whose real voice, preaching freedom from suffering, Nanda now wishes to listen.
When mutual trust is broken
and confidence is shaken
there is joy in believing
still, in freedom
from faults
digging
deeper
EH Johnston:
And having obtained hence an understanding of the whole world with all it contains, I delight only in Thy supreme Law, the destroyer of all suffering.
Linda Covill:
Comprehending the entire world with its moving and unmoving parts, I find pleasure in your supreme teaching, which puts an end to all suffering.
VOCABULARY:
atas: from this, hence
ca: and
nikhila: complete , all , whole , entire
lokam (accusative): world ; the earth or world of human beings ; people , ordinary life, worldly affairs, common practice
viditvaa = absolutive of vid: to know , understand , perceive , learn , become or be acquainted with , be conscious of , have a correct notion of (with accusative)
sa: with its (possessive prefix)
cara: moving
acaram (accusative): not moving
sarva: all
duHkha: suffering
kShaya: loss, end, destruction
kare = locative of kara: a doer , maker , causer , doing , making , causing, producing (esp. ifc.); promoting, helping
tvad: your
dharme = locative of dharma: teaching, method
parama: best , most excellent
rame = 1st person singular of ram: to be glad or pleased , rejoice at , delight in , be fond of (locative).
viditvaa sa-car'-aacaram
sarva-duHkha-kShaya-kare
tvad-dharme parame rame
12.16
And on the basis of this insight
into the total extent of the world of man,
With its changeability and its fixity,
It is the eradicator of all suffering,
Your most excellent teaching, that I rejoice in.
COMMENT:
What is Nanda expressing here about the world? The viewpoint of a know-all who has understood the whole universe? Or is he saying that he has seen quite enough of the world of man to know that freedom from suffering does not exist out there?
Worldly movements are, for example, broken promises, acts of betrayal. Worldly non-movements are, for example, fixed prejudices, rigid adherence to -isms. Those kinds of faults seem to arise when we are interested, either selfishly or altruistically, more in the gaining of some end than in actually being truthful.
Q. E. D.
In the third line, again, what is Nanda expressing? His own enlightenment? His own confidence? Or belief in the Buddha’s enlightenment? Or confidence in the Buddha himself? Or trust in a process?
When the Buddha begins his long monologue, from 12.19, he will emphasize the importance of shraddhaa, which the dictionary defines as “faith, trust, confidence.”
Religious people usually go on about faith -- especially faith in God. So I am suspicious of the word faith. It seems often to be used in connection with delusory belief in what might not exist at all. Being a lover of BBC Radio 4, I find myself increasingly irritated by a certain kind of bible-bashing that pops up at certain intervals, particularly during the 9.45 daily service. Why should I have £10 a month license fee payment debited from my bank account, for the privilege of having an extremely weird and unscientific Abrahamical doctrine preached to me over the airwaves?
Still, even having booted belief in biblical God into the long grass, I still believe in belief.
In Alexander work, which is nothing if not practical, when faced with an unduly nervous pupil the experienced teacher works in a manner that conduces to the building of confidence (as opposed to traditional methods of schooling which tend to excite students’ fear reflexes). To this end, it is important that the pupil should be able to trust the teacher. This trust in its truest form, as I see it, has neither to do with personality nor professionalism. I trust a teacher who I sense is herself truly given over to the work she is teaching -- so that there is no gap between what she preaches and what she practises. So this trust, in essence, is trusting a process. It is trusting a process which, as one continues with it, tends not always to feel good. Without trust in something other than feeling, how would we be able to continue with a process that made us feel bad?
What Nanda seems to be expressing here, then, to answer my own question, is belief that has nothing to do with whacko faith, but which has to do with confidence and trust. It is belief in the practical teaching of the Buddha to whose real voice, preaching freedom from suffering, Nanda now wishes to listen.
When mutual trust is broken
and confidence is shaken
there is joy in believing
still, in freedom
from faults
digging
deeper
EH Johnston:
And having obtained hence an understanding of the whole world with all it contains, I delight only in Thy supreme Law, the destroyer of all suffering.
Linda Covill:
Comprehending the entire world with its moving and unmoving parts, I find pleasure in your supreme teaching, which puts an end to all suffering.
VOCABULARY:
atas: from this, hence
ca: and
nikhila: complete , all , whole , entire
lokam (accusative): world ; the earth or world of human beings ; people , ordinary life, worldly affairs, common practice
viditvaa = absolutive of vid: to know , understand , perceive , learn , become or be acquainted with , be conscious of , have a correct notion of (with accusative)
sa: with its (possessive prefix)
cara: moving
acaram (accusative): not moving
sarva: all
duHkha: suffering
kShaya: loss, end, destruction
kare = locative of kara: a doer , maker , causer , doing , making , causing, producing (esp. ifc.); promoting, helping
tvad: your
dharme = locative of dharma: teaching, method
parama: best , most excellent
rame = 1st person singular of ram: to be glad or pleased , rejoice at , delight in , be fond of (locative).
Sunday, March 29, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.45: Dropping Off a Duality
tayosh ca nandii-rajasoH kShayeNa
samyag vimuktam pravadaami cetaH
samyag vimuktir manasash ca taabhyaaM
na c' aasya bhuuyaH karaNiiyam asti
16.45
By the ending of the duality
which is optimism and pessimism,
I submit, his mind is fully set free.
And when his mind is fully liberated from that duality,
There is nothing further for him to do.
COMMENT:
I am fairly confident that previous translations, much as I appreciate them, missed the opposition which is at the centre of this verse.
The duality in question, as I see it, is the opposition between bright red optimism and black pessimism, between over-exuberance and gloom.
From the standpoint of mind, or psychology, the ending of this duality is the ultimate. But without being underpinned by matter, i.e. the flow of energy, the ultimate aim of psychology is only so much hot air.
FM Alexander understood this point clearly, as Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), together with his pack of dogs, also clearly understands it, as also a child with vestibular dysfunction clearly understands it, and a nervous swimmer who can't put her face in the water also understands it. It is no use showing an aggressive bulldog or an autistic child or an aqua-phobic your Ph. D. in psychology. But those guys are all interested in how your energy is and what direction it is flowing in.
So the mental understanding, awakening, insight, and freedom from duality that Buddha/Ashvaghosha have been describing in the last four verses are but one side of the story. When the mind is fully liberated from duality, we are told, there is nothing further for us to do. But no mind has ever been fully liberated from optimism, pessimism, and every other -ism, only through the means of reading psychology or any other -ology.
The great thing, the thing that we want to build, or re-build, is real confidence -- the kind of confidence that a very experienced Alexander teacher has in her teaching room, the kind of confidence that the Dog Whisperer has when introducing a troubled dog into his own balanced pack, the kind of confidence that my wife and brother have in the swimming pool when liberating a nervous swimmer from her fear of the water.
Real confidence in no way impedes humility, as humility in no way impedes real confidence. People who are really confident, when we observe their behaviour, are both humble and open-minded.
What seemed to be confidence, on the contrary, when examined closely over a long period of time in the mirrors of self and others, sometimes turns out to have been a kind of insecure optimism, leading inevitably to its opposite.
So it seems to me, on the basis of many failures, that dropping off optimism and pessimism is never such an easy thing.
Beware people of of scant experience and unreal understanding who write Buddhist books, blogs, et cetera expressing optimism. Beware especially those who market their peculiar brand of optimism as "realism."
VOCABULARY:
tayoH (genitive, dual of saH): of those two, of that duality
ca: and, moreover
nandii = joy, delight, happiness
rajasoH = genitive, dual of rajas: vapour , mist , clouds , gloom , dimness , darkness; the " darkening " quality , passion , emotion , affection
kShayeNa = instrumental of kShaya: ending
samyak: fully, truly
vimuktam (acc. sg. n.): unloosed , unharnessed; set free , liberated
pravadaami = 1st person singular of pra-√ vac: to proclaim , announce , praise , commend , mention , teach , impart , explain
cetaH = acc. sg. cetas: n. consciousness , intelligence , thinking soul , heart , mind
samyak: fully
vimuktiH = nominative, singular of vimukti: f. disjunction; release , deliverance , liberation
manasaH = gen. sg. manas: mind
ca: and
taabhyaam (ablative, dual of saH): from them, from those two, from that duality
na: not
ca: and
asya = genitive, singular of ayam: this, this one (sometimes used enclitically in place of the third personal pronoun)
bhuuyas: further, more, again
karaNiiyam = acc. sg. karaNi: doing, making
asti: there is
EH Johnston:
I lay down that by the destruction of complaisance and passion his mind is rightly liberated, and, if his mind is rightly liberated from these, he has nothing further to accomplish.
Linda Covill:
I declare that the mind is completely liberated by the ending of these two things -- passion, and pleasure in worldly objects. When the mind is perfectly free of these two things, there is nothing further that one must do.
samyag vimuktam pravadaami cetaH
samyag vimuktir manasash ca taabhyaaM
na c' aasya bhuuyaH karaNiiyam asti
16.45
By the ending of the duality
which is optimism and pessimism,
I submit, his mind is fully set free.
And when his mind is fully liberated from that duality,
There is nothing further for him to do.
COMMENT:
I am fairly confident that previous translations, much as I appreciate them, missed the opposition which is at the centre of this verse.
The duality in question, as I see it, is the opposition between bright red optimism and black pessimism, between over-exuberance and gloom.
From the standpoint of mind, or psychology, the ending of this duality is the ultimate. But without being underpinned by matter, i.e. the flow of energy, the ultimate aim of psychology is only so much hot air.
FM Alexander understood this point clearly, as Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer), together with his pack of dogs, also clearly understands it, as also a child with vestibular dysfunction clearly understands it, and a nervous swimmer who can't put her face in the water also understands it. It is no use showing an aggressive bulldog or an autistic child or an aqua-phobic your Ph. D. in psychology. But those guys are all interested in how your energy is and what direction it is flowing in.
So the mental understanding, awakening, insight, and freedom from duality that Buddha/Ashvaghosha have been describing in the last four verses are but one side of the story. When the mind is fully liberated from duality, we are told, there is nothing further for us to do. But no mind has ever been fully liberated from optimism, pessimism, and every other -ism, only through the means of reading psychology or any other -ology.
The great thing, the thing that we want to build, or re-build, is real confidence -- the kind of confidence that a very experienced Alexander teacher has in her teaching room, the kind of confidence that the Dog Whisperer has when introducing a troubled dog into his own balanced pack, the kind of confidence that my wife and brother have in the swimming pool when liberating a nervous swimmer from her fear of the water.
Real confidence in no way impedes humility, as humility in no way impedes real confidence. People who are really confident, when we observe their behaviour, are both humble and open-minded.
What seemed to be confidence, on the contrary, when examined closely over a long period of time in the mirrors of self and others, sometimes turns out to have been a kind of insecure optimism, leading inevitably to its opposite.
So it seems to me, on the basis of many failures, that dropping off optimism and pessimism is never such an easy thing.
Beware people of of scant experience and unreal understanding who write Buddhist books, blogs, et cetera expressing optimism. Beware especially those who market their peculiar brand of optimism as "realism."
VOCABULARY:
tayoH (genitive, dual of saH): of those two, of that duality
ca: and, moreover
nandii = joy, delight, happiness
rajasoH = genitive, dual of rajas: vapour , mist , clouds , gloom , dimness , darkness; the " darkening " quality , passion , emotion , affection
kShayeNa = instrumental of kShaya: ending
samyak: fully, truly
vimuktam (acc. sg. n.): unloosed , unharnessed; set free , liberated
pravadaami = 1st person singular of pra-√ vac: to proclaim , announce , praise , commend , mention , teach , impart , explain
cetaH = acc. sg. cetas: n. consciousness , intelligence , thinking soul , heart , mind
samyak: fully
vimuktiH = nominative, singular of vimukti: f. disjunction; release , deliverance , liberation
manasaH = gen. sg. manas: mind
ca: and
taabhyaam (ablative, dual of saH): from them, from those two, from that duality
na: not
ca: and
asya = genitive, singular of ayam: this, this one (sometimes used enclitically in place of the third personal pronoun)
bhuuyas: further, more, again
karaNiiyam = acc. sg. karaNi: doing, making
asti: there is
EH Johnston:
I lay down that by the destruction of complaisance and passion his mind is rightly liberated, and, if his mind is rightly liberated from these, he has nothing further to accomplish.
Linda Covill:
I declare that the mind is completely liberated by the ending of these two things -- passion, and pleasure in worldly objects. When the mind is perfectly free of these two things, there is nothing further that one must do.
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