SAUNDARANANDA 12.11: Intending to Listen

khela-gaamii mahaa-baahur
gaj'-endra iva nir-madaH
so 'bhyagacchad guruM kaale
vivakShur bhaavam aatmanaH

12.11
Trembling went he of mighty arm,

Like a top bull elephant, through with rut:

At a suitable moment, he approached the guru,

Wishing to communicate his intention.

COMMENT:
What Nanda wishes to communicate he communicates exactly in 12.16 and 12.17. What he communicates in those verses is his desire to listen. His desire to listen is not the desire to listen to any old rubbish, like somebody’s opinionated viewpoints on true Buddhism, realism, humanism, optimism, and the like. His desire is the desire to listen to the Best of Voices, belonging to the Best of Listeners.

A human being has a listening body. When I sit my skin, bones, nerves, and muscles are all an extension of my listening ear. Sadly, Nature endowed me with a particularly defective one. On the other hand, she compensated by giving me a top two inches that was relatively well adapted for thinking about my ear-centric problem. So year by year I am increasingly attentive to avoiding the stimulus of noise that I struggle to filter out. As I write, I am once more surveying greenery by the forest in France.

Because the human ear is intimately connected with human skin, flesh, bones and marrow, when a male of the species is in rut (or “in love” as we conventionally call it), the voice of a female of a species can churn our stomach and make our knees go weak -- at which time we are more or less deaf to the voice of Buddha.

It has taken Nanda the first eleven Cantos of this poem to get to the point where he is truly through with rutting. Rutting takes a lot of energy. A rutting stag, for example, loses a huge proportion of its body weight during the rutting season. A stag at the end of the rutting season is not conspicuously full of beans. Nanda, similarly, though a big strong bloke by nature, does not now approach the Buddha all full of himself. This verse, as I read it, does not describe a swaying or stately gait. The point may rather be that Nanda goes trembling, eyes filled with tears, mind filled with shame. But he is finally ready to listen to the voice of Buddha. Not only is he ready to listen; he intends to listen.

To listen to the Best of Listeners

Nanda intends.

His wrong inner patterns are the doing
that Buddha intends him to stop.

Negation of intention is not it.

EH Johnston:
Mighty in the arms and freed from conceit, with swaying gait like an elephant with mighty trunk and freed from rut, he went to the Guru at the proper time to explain his feelings.

Linda Covill:
With stately gait and strong in arm, like a princely elephant out of rut, he came to the guru at an appropriate time to tell him of his disposition.

VOCABULARY:
khela: moving , shaking , trembling
gaamii = nominative, singular of gaamin: going ; going or moving on or in or towards or in any peculiar manner
mahaa: great, large
baahuH (nominative, singular): the arm , (esp.) the fore-arm

gaja: an elephant
indra: ifc. best , excellent , the first , the chief (of any class of objects
iva: like
nirmada: mfn. unintoxicated , sober , quiet , humble , modest
nirmadaH (nominative, singular): [an elephant] not in rut

saH (nominative, singular): he
abhyagacchad = imperfect of abhi-√gam: to go near to , approach (with acc.)
gurum (accusative): to the guru
kaale (locative): at an appropriate time

vivakShuH (nominative, singular): mfn. wishing to speak to (acc.)
bhaavam = accusative of bhaava: being, state, condition; true condition or state , truth , reality; manner of being , nature , temperament , character ; any state of mind or body , way of thinking or feeling , sentiment , opinion , disposition , intention
aatmanaH (genitive): of himself

SAUNDARANANDA 16.2: One Most Magical and Four Lesser Powers of Knowing

Rddhi-pravekaM ca bahu-prakaaraM
parasya cetash-carit'-aavabodham
atiita-janma-smaraNam ca diirghaM
divye vishuddhe shruti-cakShuShii ca

16.2
The most magical feat of all, which is adaptability;

Then being awake to what others are thinking;

And remembering past lives from long ago;

And divine lucidity of ear; and of eye.

COMMENT:
Line 1 might more literally be translated: "The chief magic power, taking many forms." The first of the five powers is sometimes understood (as per the Monier-Williams definition of abhijnaa) as the super-human power of taking any form at will -- like Arnold Schwarzenneger’s Terminator; but I would prefer to understand it, if the Sanskrit permits, as the distinctly human ability of being versatile or adaptable, which, some say, is the secret of the success of our species. If the Sanskrit does not permit "adaptability" as a literal translation of bahu-prakaara in Line 1, I would be grateful as ever for the input of any pandit who may be reading this.

A fourfold progression, which I would like to identify in each verse insofar as one exists, can then be observed in the remaining four powers:
(1) knowing what is going on in another person’s MIND;
(2) remembering the CAUSAL/HISTORICAL FACTS of past lives;
(3) unimpeded, untainted functioning of the central organ of INHIBITION,
(4) and of the instrument of SEEING THE PATH.

In Shobogenzo, the eye, or eyeball -- in expressions like “gouging out Bodhidharma’s eyeball” -- means the eye as the instrument of seeing. What Bodhidharma’s eyeball represents, as I understand it, is not a viewpoint but sitting as an instrument of realisation.

VOCABULARY:
Rddhi: growth, success; accomplishment, feat, perfection, supernatural power; magic
pravekam = accusative of praveka (from √ vic): choicest, most excellent, principal, chief (always at the end of compounds).
vic: to sift, separate (esp. grain from chaff by winnowing); discern, discriminate
ca: and
bahu: much, many
prakaara (from pra +√kR): manner, kind, sort; a kind of (mostly at end of compounds; tri-prakAraH of three kinds; bahu-prakaaraH, of many kinds); similitude or difference
pra- √kR: to make, produce, accomplish, perform, achieve, effect; to enable to, make fit for
bahu-prakaaram = accusative of bahu-prakaara: of many kinds; taking many forms [hence, capable of taking many forms, adaptable, versatile (?)]

parasya (genitive): of others
cetaH (in compounds for cetas): consciousness, intelligence, thinking soul, heart, mind
carita: going, moving, course
avabodha: waking, being awake, knowing

atiita = ati + ita [gone beyond]: past
janma = in compouds for janman: birth, existence, life; production, origin; re-birth
smaraNam (accusative): remembering
ca: and
diirgha: long (in space and time)

divye = accusative, dual of divya: divine, heavenly, celestial; supernatural, wonderful, magical
vishuddhe = accusative, dual of vishuddha: completely cleansed or purified
shruti-cakSHuSHii = accusative, dual of shruti-cakSHus: hearing and seeing
shruti: hearing, listening, the ear
cakSHus: seeing, the eye
ca: and

EH Johnston:
To wit, the most excellent magic powers of many kinds, awareness of the motions of others' thoughts, remembrance of past births far back, pure and heavenly sight and hearing.

Linda Covill:
all manner of wonderful psychic powers, knowing the movements of the minds of other people, remembering past births from long ago, and divine, purified hearing and sight.