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).
Showing posts with label isms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label isms. Show all posts
Monday, June 8, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 12.15: In Praise of Giving Up
yadi praapya divaM yatnaan
niyamena damena ca
a-vitRptaaH patanty ante
svargaaya tyaagine namaH
12.15
If, after struggling to get to heaven,
Through self-restriction and self-restraint,
Men fall at last, unsatisfied,
Then homage to the heaven-bound
who give up on the way.
COMMENT:
At the centre of the teaching of FM Alexander, as FM’s niece Marjory Barlow communicated it to me, is the practice of giving up. Alexander work is a kind of exact, in-depth, scientific study of giving up, and the only laboratory you need to practice this science is yourself.
The first thing to give up is the idea of being right, because the idea of being right is the first thing that puts a person wrong.
This recognition is also implicit in Zen Master Dogen’s rules of sitting-dhyana, where he says: ZEN-AKU OMWAZU, ZE-HI O KANSURU KOTO NAKARE, “Don’t think good, bad; Don’t care right, wrong.”
The difficult thing is to completely give up the idea of being right, without giving up the effort to keep going in the right direction.
In order to go in the right direction, paradoxically, step one is to give up any idea of rightness as a destination.
A further step, another difficulty to be met, is to completely give up the idea of doing something -- a bow, for example -- in order to find the freedom in which actually to do, or not to do, a bow.
In the fourth line of this verse, as I read it, Nanda is paying homage to nobody if not FM Alexander. FM’s secret, as Marjory taught it to me, not as a theory but as a principle subject to exact verification in practice, is to give up an idea without giving up one’s direction.
Losers have stopped trying,
Winners never quit.
FM taught the two in one,
In true pursuit of It.
The Alexander teachers I have met who seem to have really deep understanding of and devotion to Alexander’s teaching, all without exception have reverence also, to the extent that they know it, for the Buddha’s teaching. Buddhist teachers I have met who do not revere Alexander’s teaching, are as they are, as I see it, because they have never seen the true essence of the Buddha’s teaching, even in a dream. The true essence of the Buddha’s teaching and the true essence of Alexander’s teaching is the same true essence. It has to do primarily with stopping wrong doing, and that stopping begins with giving up an idea. How can preachers of Buddhism, realism and the like understand this point, even in a dream?
If this comment confirms me as a non-Buddhist, so be it. I do not give a damn about true Buddhism. Ashvaghosha’s gold has got nothing to do with true Buddhism. Ashvaghosha’s gold is the truth.
EH Johnston:
If, after obtaining heaven through toil, abstinence and self-restraint, men fall again at the end with desires unappeased, what is the use of so fleeting a Paradise?
Linda Covill:
If men must eventually fall unfulfilled from a heaven so effortfully obtained through observance of the rules and through training, then homage to the man relinquishing heaven!
VOCABULARY:
yadi: if, when
praapya = absolultive of pra-√aap: to attain to ; reach , arrive at , meet with , find ; obtain
divam (accusative): heaven
yatnaat = ablative of yatna: effort , exertion , energy , zeal , trouble , pains
niyamena = instrumental of niyama: m. restraining , checking , holding back , preventing , controlling
damena = instrumental of dama: m. self-command , self-restraint , self-control
ca: and
avitRptaaH = nominative, plural of avitRpta: unsatisfied
patanti = 3rd person plural of pat: to fall down or off , alight , descend
ante (locative of anta): in the end, at last
svargaaya (dative of svarga): for heaven, [being bound] for heaven,
NB. The Clay Sanskrit Library version has svargasya (genitive of svarga)
tyaagine = locative of tyaagin: one who has given up
namas: n. bow , obeisance , reverential salutation , adoration
niyamena damena ca
a-vitRptaaH patanty ante
svargaaya tyaagine namaH
12.15
If, after struggling to get to heaven,
Through self-restriction and self-restraint,
Men fall at last, unsatisfied,
Then homage to the heaven-bound
who give up on the way.
COMMENT:
At the centre of the teaching of FM Alexander, as FM’s niece Marjory Barlow communicated it to me, is the practice of giving up. Alexander work is a kind of exact, in-depth, scientific study of giving up, and the only laboratory you need to practice this science is yourself.
The first thing to give up is the idea of being right, because the idea of being right is the first thing that puts a person wrong.
This recognition is also implicit in Zen Master Dogen’s rules of sitting-dhyana, where he says: ZEN-AKU OMWAZU, ZE-HI O KANSURU KOTO NAKARE, “Don’t think good, bad; Don’t care right, wrong.”
The difficult thing is to completely give up the idea of being right, without giving up the effort to keep going in the right direction.
In order to go in the right direction, paradoxically, step one is to give up any idea of rightness as a destination.
A further step, another difficulty to be met, is to completely give up the idea of doing something -- a bow, for example -- in order to find the freedom in which actually to do, or not to do, a bow.
In the fourth line of this verse, as I read it, Nanda is paying homage to nobody if not FM Alexander. FM’s secret, as Marjory taught it to me, not as a theory but as a principle subject to exact verification in practice, is to give up an idea without giving up one’s direction.
Losers have stopped trying,
Winners never quit.
FM taught the two in one,
In true pursuit of It.
The Alexander teachers I have met who seem to have really deep understanding of and devotion to Alexander’s teaching, all without exception have reverence also, to the extent that they know it, for the Buddha’s teaching. Buddhist teachers I have met who do not revere Alexander’s teaching, are as they are, as I see it, because they have never seen the true essence of the Buddha’s teaching, even in a dream. The true essence of the Buddha’s teaching and the true essence of Alexander’s teaching is the same true essence. It has to do primarily with stopping wrong doing, and that stopping begins with giving up an idea. How can preachers of Buddhism, realism and the like understand this point, even in a dream?
If this comment confirms me as a non-Buddhist, so be it. I do not give a damn about true Buddhism. Ashvaghosha’s gold has got nothing to do with true Buddhism. Ashvaghosha’s gold is the truth.
EH Johnston:
If, after obtaining heaven through toil, abstinence and self-restraint, men fall again at the end with desires unappeased, what is the use of so fleeting a Paradise?
Linda Covill:
If men must eventually fall unfulfilled from a heaven so effortfully obtained through observance of the rules and through training, then homage to the man relinquishing heaven!
VOCABULARY:
yadi: if, when
praapya = absolultive of pra-√aap: to attain to ; reach , arrive at , meet with , find ; obtain
divam (accusative): heaven
yatnaat = ablative of yatna: effort , exertion , energy , zeal , trouble , pains
niyamena = instrumental of niyama: m. restraining , checking , holding back , preventing , controlling
damena = instrumental of dama: m. self-command , self-restraint , self-control
ca: and
avitRptaaH = nominative, plural of avitRpta: unsatisfied
patanti = 3rd person plural of pat: to fall down or off , alight , descend
ante (locative of anta): in the end, at last
svargaaya (dative of svarga): for heaven, [being bound] for heaven,
NB. The Clay Sanskrit Library version has svargasya (genitive of svarga)
tyaagine = locative of tyaagin: one who has given up
namas: n. bow , obeisance , reverential salutation , adoration
Sunday, May 3, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.80: Not Too Precious, Please
evaM-prakaarair api yady upaayair
nivaaryamaaNaa na paraaN-mukhaaH syuH
tato yathaaa-sthuula-nibarhaNena
suvarNa-doShaa iva te praheyaaH
16.80
Even if hold off by such means
Faults might not turn back:
In that case, forcibly remove them,
in the order of their grossness,
As if ridding gold of impurities.
COMMENT:
While still strongly exhorting the listener to be rid of faults, this verse can be read as antithetical in its approach to the previous verse.
The previous verse upholds the preventive principle of non-endgaining. "By such means" in the first line equals "by preventive means."
In principle, there is no doubt that prevention is better than cure. But this verse, as I read it, reminds us that our fundamental aim is not to adhere to or to uphold -- in a pedantic, self-righteous, precious way -- the preventive principle. Our fundamental aim is to be free of the faults.
The principle of getting rid of faults in order of their grossness, like a man panning for gold, has already been introduced in verses 15.66 to 15.67.
One could argue, citing the preventive principle, that what is of primary importance for a gold-panner is how well he prevents the instigation of faults in himself during the activity of panning for gold -- that he should, in other words, primarily pay attention to the means, which his action of panning, rather than to the end, which is to get gold.
To illustrate the opposite side of the argument, I remember the story of how, when a bomb hit FM Alexander's London HQ at Ashley Place, leaving fragments of glass all over FM's precious Persian rugs, various of Alexander's students were clearing up the mess as a kind of Alexander exercise, moving very "mindfully." When FM came in, if I remember the story correctly, he was singularly unimpressed and told them all to get a bloody move on!
These verses come back so often to the metaphor of gold extraction and refining maybe because this branch of industry is, from mine to foundry, a dirty and sweaty process, requiring heavy raw materials to be hauled to the foundry and thrown into a raging furnace. A person who approached the process in too precious and "mindful" a manner, not wishing his hands to become dirtied and roughened by manual labour, or his face to become scorched by the furnace's glow, might end up without any gold to show for his efforts.
So I see this as the first in a series of four verses exhorting us, in the final analysis, having given due attention to the proper means, to get on with the hard work of freeing ourselves from the faults, doing whatever is necessary to gain that end, not shying away in the manner of a vegan pacifist from the use of requisite force, not pussy-footing around and not being too precious about it.
This Canto is going to conclude by singing the praises of viirya, which does not mean feminist ideology, any more than it means male chauvinism. Viirya means manly endeavour. Manly endeavour is required to get this body free of gross reptilian/mammalian faults and free of subtler human -isms, up to and including true Buddhism.
Free to suffer, free to grieve;
Free in freedom, to believe;
Free to stand up, free to leave;
Free to listen, free to breathe.
EH Johnston:
If they still do not turn away, though combated by such means, then they must be eliminated, like the impurities of gold, by driving them out in the order of their grossness.
Linda Covill:
If they are being restricted by these kinds of method, yet are not reversed, then they must be discarded, like the impurities in gold, by removing them according to their coarseness.
VOCABULARY:
evam: thus, such
prakaaraiH (inst. pl.): m. sort, kind, way, mode
api: even, though
yadi: if
upaayaiH (inst. pl.): m. approach, means, method
nivaaryamANaaH (nom. pl. m. of causitive pres. passive participle ni-√vR: to ward off , restrain): being held back, prohibited, prevented
na: not
paraaN-mukhaaH (nom. pl. m.): having the face turned away or averted , turning the back upon
syuH = 3rd person plural, optative of as: to be
tataH: then
yathaa: in accordance with
sthuula: coarse , gross , rough
nibarhaNena = instrumental of nibarhaNa: crushing , destroying , removing ; n. destruction , annihilation
suvarNa: gold
doShaaH (nom. pl.): m. fault, defect, impurity
iva: like
te (nom. pl.): they, those
praheyaaH = nom. pl. m. gerundive pra-√haa: (1) to drive off ; (2) to desert , quit , abandon , give up; to send off
): to be sent away or dispatched
nivaaryamaaNaa na paraaN-mukhaaH syuH
tato yathaaa-sthuula-nibarhaNena
suvarNa-doShaa iva te praheyaaH
16.80
Even if hold off by such means
Faults might not turn back:
In that case, forcibly remove them,
in the order of their grossness,
As if ridding gold of impurities.
COMMENT:
While still strongly exhorting the listener to be rid of faults, this verse can be read as antithetical in its approach to the previous verse.
The previous verse upholds the preventive principle of non-endgaining. "By such means" in the first line equals "by preventive means."
In principle, there is no doubt that prevention is better than cure. But this verse, as I read it, reminds us that our fundamental aim is not to adhere to or to uphold -- in a pedantic, self-righteous, precious way -- the preventive principle. Our fundamental aim is to be free of the faults.
The principle of getting rid of faults in order of their grossness, like a man panning for gold, has already been introduced in verses 15.66 to 15.67.
One could argue, citing the preventive principle, that what is of primary importance for a gold-panner is how well he prevents the instigation of faults in himself during the activity of panning for gold -- that he should, in other words, primarily pay attention to the means, which his action of panning, rather than to the end, which is to get gold.
To illustrate the opposite side of the argument, I remember the story of how, when a bomb hit FM Alexander's London HQ at Ashley Place, leaving fragments of glass all over FM's precious Persian rugs, various of Alexander's students were clearing up the mess as a kind of Alexander exercise, moving very "mindfully." When FM came in, if I remember the story correctly, he was singularly unimpressed and told them all to get a bloody move on!
These verses come back so often to the metaphor of gold extraction and refining maybe because this branch of industry is, from mine to foundry, a dirty and sweaty process, requiring heavy raw materials to be hauled to the foundry and thrown into a raging furnace. A person who approached the process in too precious and "mindful" a manner, not wishing his hands to become dirtied and roughened by manual labour, or his face to become scorched by the furnace's glow, might end up without any gold to show for his efforts.
So I see this as the first in a series of four verses exhorting us, in the final analysis, having given due attention to the proper means, to get on with the hard work of freeing ourselves from the faults, doing whatever is necessary to gain that end, not shying away in the manner of a vegan pacifist from the use of requisite force, not pussy-footing around and not being too precious about it.
This Canto is going to conclude by singing the praises of viirya, which does not mean feminist ideology, any more than it means male chauvinism. Viirya means manly endeavour. Manly endeavour is required to get this body free of gross reptilian/mammalian faults and free of subtler human -isms, up to and including true Buddhism.
Free to suffer, free to grieve;
Free in freedom, to believe;
Free to stand up, free to leave;
Free to listen, free to breathe.
EH Johnston:
If they still do not turn away, though combated by such means, then they must be eliminated, like the impurities of gold, by driving them out in the order of their grossness.
Linda Covill:
If they are being restricted by these kinds of method, yet are not reversed, then they must be discarded, like the impurities in gold, by removing them according to their coarseness.
VOCABULARY:
evam: thus, such
prakaaraiH (inst. pl.): m. sort, kind, way, mode
api: even, though
yadi: if
upaayaiH (inst. pl.): m. approach, means, method
nivaaryamANaaH (nom. pl. m. of causitive pres. passive participle ni-√vR: to ward off , restrain): being held back, prohibited, prevented
na: not
paraaN-mukhaaH (nom. pl. m.): having the face turned away or averted , turning the back upon
syuH = 3rd person plural, optative of as: to be
tataH: then
yathaa: in accordance with
sthuula: coarse , gross , rough
nibarhaNena = instrumental of nibarhaNa: crushing , destroying , removing ; n. destruction , annihilation
suvarNa: gold
doShaaH (nom. pl.): m. fault, defect, impurity
iva: like
te (nom. pl.): they, those
praheyaaH = nom. pl. m. gerundive pra-√haa: (1) to drive off ; (2) to desert , quit , abandon , give up; to send off
): to be sent away or dispatched
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)