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.

SAUNDARANANDA 17.49: Sweet Melons, Bitter Gourds

priitiH paraa vastuni yatra yasya
viparyayaat tasya hi tatra duHkham
priitaav ataH prekSHya sa tatra doSHaan
priiti-kSHaye yogam upaaruroha

17.49
For when a man finds extreme joy in something,

Paradoxically, suffering for him is right there.

So seeing the pitfalls there, in joy,

He continued on an upward path
with practice directed beyond joy.

COMMENT:
Line 1 describes a particular form of SUFFERING, which is great joy in something. In philosophy, the Monier-Williams dictionary tells us, vastu means the real, as opposed to a-vastu, that which does not really exist, the unreal. The distinction calls to mind Master Dogen's discussion of 'existence as' (U) and 'being without' (MU), the Buddha-nature. For Master Dogen the latter is the ultimate. For Ashvaghosha similarly, it may be that the ultimate goal towards which the Buddha has pointed Nanda is not so much something as a bit of nothing.

Line 2 identifies, as a CAUSE OF SUFFERING, the paradoxical tendency that all things have to turn into their opposite, and in particular the inexorable tendency that extreme joy has to turn into its opposite. In his commentary on suffering in the four abodes of mindfulness, Master Dogen writes of sweet melons turning into bitter gourds. Nanda’s former misery in being separated from his lovely sweetheart Sundari, described at length by Ashvaghosha in the earlier Cantos, and beatifully translated by Linda Covill, was a case in point of sweet melons turning.

Line 3 again relates to the virtuous circle of INHIBITION and awareness, awarness and INHIBITION -- i.e. seeing faults and not practising them, seeing pitfalls and avoiding them.

A more literal translation of Line 4 would be “He ascended to practice [directed] at ending of joy.” I think the point, though, is that Nanda was simply continuing on a PATH with heart, regardless of any joy and suffering it brought with it -- more in the spirit of a climber than in the spirit of a killjoy. For the same reason, I think the richest seam of gold in this verse might be buried in the final word: upaaruroha. In context, the word means entered on or undertook [yogic practice]. But its vital connotation, as I read it, is of the continuing upwardness of A PATH of non-buddha.

VOCABULARY:
priitiH (nominative, singluar, feminine): joy
paraa (feminine): exceeding, extreme, superlative, highest, greatest, deepest
vastuni (locative, singular of vastu): in a thing
yatra (used to express locative of ya): in which case, wherein, wherever
yasya (genitive): of whom

viparyayaat (ablative of viparyaya): because of turning round, reversal, turning into its opposite
tasya (genitive; correlative of yasya): to/of/for him
hi: for [moved to previous line]
tatra: in that, there
duHkham: suffering, unsatisfactoriness

pritau (locative): in joy
ataH: therefore, from this, hence
prekSHya (absolutive of prekSH): on seeing; having seen, noticed, discerned, observed
sa: he
tatra: in that, there
doSHaan (accusative, plural): faults, defects, drawbacks, pitfalls

priiti: joy
kSHaye = locative, kSHaya: loss, waste, wane, diminution, destruction, decay, wasting or wearing away; abatement; end, termination
yogam = accusative, yoga: the act of yoking [body and mind]; practice, yogic practice; means, expedient, method
upaaruroha = perfect upaa + ruh: to ascend or go up to, mount, arrive at, reach

EH Johnston:
For by the law of opposites suffering is present in any matter in which the highest ecstasy is experienced by man; therefore seeing the defects ensuing at this stage from ecstasy, he entered on Yoga for its abolition.

Linda Covill:
For he who takes profound joy in anything will also find unsatisfactoriness in it, because of the possibility of its alteration; so noticing the flaws in joy, he undertook yogic practice to destroy joy.