ciram unmaarga-vihRto
lolair indriya-vaajibhiH
avatiirNo 'si panthaanaM
diShTyaa dRShTy" aa-vimuuDhayaa
12.20
Long carried off course
By the restless horses of the senses,
You have now set foot on a path,
With clarity of vision, happily, that will not dim.
COMMENT:
In this verse, as I read it, the reactive stallions and errant mares of the senses, which pull us from one side to the other, are contrasted with the kind of detached, reasoned insight that is constant and irremovable, because it is cut off from the flux of sensory experience.
The late Marjory Barlow, niece of FM Alexander, memorably impressed on me that the four verbal directions "(1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, (4) sending the knees forwards and away," are constant. They express the direction of muscular release, all of the time, whatever activity one is engaged in, while breathing out and equally while breathing in.
This means that, however faulty is the functioning of one's vestibular system on a particular day, however hopeless is one's own sense of direction, one thing remains the same. Just as I did yesterday, I wish today (1) to let the neck be free, (2) to let the head go forward and up, (3) to let the back lengthen and widen, while (4) sending the knees forwards and away. Even if I don't get what I wish for, even if the result is different, the central direction of the wish is always the same: it is the direction of growth. The four directions that Marjory taught in lesson one, and that I also teach in lesson one, are the same four directions that I return to after 15 years in the Alexander work, and they are the same four directions that Marjory returned to after 70 years in the Alexander work. The directions do not change because, the human condition being as it is, the causes of the noise that the directions are designed to prevent do not change. The human faults of the time of the seven ancient buddhas are the human faults of the Buddha’s time are the human faults of Ashvaghosha’s time are the human faults of Dogen’s time are the human faults of Alexander’s time are the human faults of our time.
So the directions are always the same; they do not change in any circumstance. After Marjory had impressed this point upon me, I remember feeling very happy. I left Marjory's teaching room with a spring in my step. It was not the spring one gets from a temporary sensory buzz, thanks to an Alexander teacher's magic hands. It was the kind of spring one gets on understanding something that one is never going to forget. It was indeed the gaining of a kind of foothold in this struggle towards... what? I do not know. In this struggle not to stop growing.
Nanda, in the same way, has seen something not only through his visual sense but with his mind’s eye. Optimism leads to disenchantment, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The bliss of union with a celestial nymph always proves to be impermanent, just as surely as 2 + 2 = 4. The rules of the game of love never change. Again, falling in love turns the ordinary human world into an earthly paradise, but there is something unsatisfactory about paradise, even before it turns into its opposite, with the white of shock, denial, despair, and then the red of anger and the rest. The cycle of samsara is impermanence itself. There is no permanence to be found in it -- except that impermanence itself is a law, like the 2nd law of thermodynamics, or like 2 + 2 = 4, in which there is constancy. A person can always rely on that. And once a person has seen that clearly, no amount of confused input from a faulty visual system can dim that clarity of seeing.
To sit in the full lotus posture with head shaved and body wrapped in a robe is also a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, although there are many who do not like to think so. My teacher, Gudo Nishijima, was a teacher who, very unusually for a Japanese man of his generation, had highly developed powers of independent reasoning. But when I drew his attention to the wrongness of forcibly pulling in the chin in order to straighten the neck bones, he seemed to have too much invested emotionally in teaching the wrong thing that he could not recognize his mistake -- at least not in public. In Confucianist-influenced Japan it is rather scandalous to highlight the mistake of one’s benevolent teacher. But 2 + 2 = 4 in Japan just as 2 + 2 = 4 in England. If apologists for Japanese culture would have it any other way, they can stuff their cultural arguments up their jumper. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is not anybody’s culture. What is supreme in the Buddha’s teaching is the truth of truly sitting upright.
The truth of sitting upright is a matter of 2 + 2 = 4, and a matter of much more than 2 + 2 = 4. It is a matter of not being able to do an undoing. It is a matter of up being up, not being down. However faulty my vestibular system may be on a particular day... and yesterday was a particularly bad day as my sleep (along with the sleep of my disgruntled French neighbours) was cut short by the howling through the night of my neighbour’s dog, whose keen sense of smell seems to have picked up, during our recent daily walks, the scent of a bitch on heat... however faulty my sense of up and down may be on a particular day, up is not down. Even if, with my “debauched kinesthesia” as FM put it, what I sense as up is actually down, the truth remains that up is not down. Up is always up. Up, happily, is always up.
EH Johnston:
What good fortune it is that you who have been carried away for so long down the wrong road by the restless horses of the senses have now entered the true path with unconfused gaze.
Linda Covill:
For a long time the frenzied horses of the senses have carried you the wrong way. How wonderful that with clear vision you have alighted on the right path!
VOCABULARY:
ciram: for a long time
unmaarga: taking a wrong way , going wrong or astray
vi-√hR: to carry away, remove
vihRtaH (nominative, singular): one who is carried away
lolaiH = instrumental, plural of lola: moving hither and thither , shaking , rolling , tossing , dangling , swinging , agitated , unsteady , restless
indriya: senses
vaajibhiH = instrumental, plural of vaajin: swift , spirited , impetuous , heroic , warlike RV. &c &c (with ratha m. a war-chariot); m. the steed of a war-chariot; m. a horse , stallion
avatiirNaH = nominative, singular of avatiirNa: mfn. alighted , descended
asi: you are
√panth: to go, move
panthaanam = accusative of panthan: path (??)
diShTyaa (instrumental of diShTi, good fortune): ‘by good fortune,’ used to express strong pleasure
dRShTyaa = instrumental of drShti: f. seeing , viewing , beholding (also with the mental eye) ; sight , the faculty of seeing ; the mind's eye , wisdom , intelligence
a: not
vimuuDhayaa = instrumental of vimUDhaa: (f) perplexed; foolish, stupid
Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reason. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
SAUNDARANANDA 16.21: Afflictions Develop Personality, Life by Life
krodha-praharSh'aadibhir aashrayaaNaam
utpadyate c'eha yathaa visheShah
tath" aiva janmasv api n'aika-ruupo
nirvartate klesha-kRto visheShaH
16.21
Just as the anger, lust, and so on
of sufferers of those afflictions
Give rise in the present to a personality trait,
So too in new lives, in various manifestations,
Does the affliction-created trait develop:
COMMENT:
Ain't it funny how your new life didn't change things?
You're still suffering from the same old affliction you used to have.
It somehow doesn't scan as well as the old Eagles lyric, but I think it makes Ashvaghosha's point here.
As a translation of klesha, I like "affliction" because it means both SUFFERING itself and also a delusory tendency that CAUSES SUFFERING.
To be grumpy, to return to that example, is not only to suffer from grumpiness (suffering itself) but also to see the world as if through grumpiness-tainted spectacles (a cause of suffering to self and others).
And here again, a bit of knowledge about early vestibular reflexes may help to deepen our understanding of how afflictions afflict us.
If the Moro, or infantile panic/grasp reflex, fails to be INHIBITED during the initial window of inhibition lasting till around 6 months after birth, the reflex will tend to remain stuck in the system of the child and adult as a big obstacle to enlightened behaviour.
The affliction of an immature Moro reflex directly brings suffering itself, in the form of irrational fear, anger, over-excitement and hypersensitivity. But more than that, because of its wide-ranging effects on the functioning of the ears, eyes, vestibular/proprioceptive and other senses, an immature Moro reflex plays a big role in what FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation." Faulty sensory appreciation is the antithesis of lucidity; it is akin to seeing the world through coloured and distorted lenses, and is thus the indirect cause of suffering.
FM Alexander was way ahead of his time in understanding the importance of the afflictions he termed "unduly excited fear reflexes and emotions" and "faulty sensory appreciation." Not only did he see the problem clearly, he also devised a MEANS-WHEREBY the misuse of the self associated with an immature Moro reflex might be inhibited, and the faulty sensory appreciation associated with it might be by-passed. Thus Alexander's MEANS-WHEREBY involved, as also the realisation of the four dhyaana as described by Ashvaghosha involved, at least in the early stages of their application, reliance on reason.
Specifically, Alexander taught verbal directions which point precisely away from the stiffening of the neck, holding of the head, narrowing and arching of the back, and holding in of the limbs, which characterizes the Moro pattern. Those verbal directions go something like this:
"I wish to let my neck be free,
To let the head go forward and up,
To let the back lengthen and widen,
Sending the legs and the arms out of the back...."
VOCABULARY:
krodha: anger
praharSha: erection (or greater erection) of the male organ; erection of the hair, extreme joy , thrill of delight , rapture
aadibhiH = instrumental [indicating agent of passive construction], plural of aadi: beginning with, and so on
aashrayaaNaam = genitive, plural of aashraya: that to which anything is annexed or with which anything is closely connected or on which anything depends or rests ; a recipient , the person or thing in which any quality or article is inherent or retained or received
utpadyate = 3rd person singular passive utpad: to arise , rise , originate , be born or produced ; to come forth , become visible , appear ; to be ready ; to take place , begin ; to produce , beget , generate ; to cause , effect ; to cause to issue or come forth , bring forward
ca: and; (sometimes emphatic = eva) , even , indeed , certainly , just
iha: in this place , here ; to this place ; in this world; now
yathaa: (correlative of tathaa in the following sentence) just as
visheShah = nominative singular of visheSha: distinction , difference between ; characteristic difference, peculiar mark, special property, speciality, peculiarity ; a kind , species , individual
tathaa: similarly, in the same manner
eva: just so
janmasu = locative plural of janman: birth, production; origin; existence , life
api: and , also , moreover , besides
n'aika: not one, many, various
ruupaH = nominative, singular of ruupa: form, shape, figure
nirvartate = 3rd person singluar of nir- √ vRt: to cause to roll out or cast (as dice); to take place , happen ; to come forth , originate , develop , become; to be accomplished or effected or finished, come off ;
klesha: pain , affliction , distress , pain from disease , anguish; (the Buddhists reckon ten , viz. three of the body [murder , theft , adultery] , four of speech [lying , slander , abuse , unprofitable conversation] , three of the mind [covetousness , malice , scepticism])
kRtaH: done, made, created
visheShaH (see above): peculiarity, personality trait
EH Johnston:
And as the special character of the bodily constitution in this existence is brought about by anger, joy, etc., similarly a special character, effected by the vices, is developed in various forms in their (new) births also.
Linda Covill:
Just as the distinctive character of embodied individuals arises because of their anger, joy and so on, so does their distinctive defilement-created character develop in various formats in future births too.
utpadyate c'eha yathaa visheShah
tath" aiva janmasv api n'aika-ruupo
nirvartate klesha-kRto visheShaH
16.21
Just as the anger, lust, and so on
of sufferers of those afflictions
Give rise in the present to a personality trait,
So too in new lives, in various manifestations,
Does the affliction-created trait develop:
COMMENT:
Ain't it funny how your new life didn't change things?
You're still suffering from the same old affliction you used to have.
It somehow doesn't scan as well as the old Eagles lyric, but I think it makes Ashvaghosha's point here.
As a translation of klesha, I like "affliction" because it means both SUFFERING itself and also a delusory tendency that CAUSES SUFFERING.
To be grumpy, to return to that example, is not only to suffer from grumpiness (suffering itself) but also to see the world as if through grumpiness-tainted spectacles (a cause of suffering to self and others).
And here again, a bit of knowledge about early vestibular reflexes may help to deepen our understanding of how afflictions afflict us.
If the Moro, or infantile panic/grasp reflex, fails to be INHIBITED during the initial window of inhibition lasting till around 6 months after birth, the reflex will tend to remain stuck in the system of the child and adult as a big obstacle to enlightened behaviour.
The affliction of an immature Moro reflex directly brings suffering itself, in the form of irrational fear, anger, over-excitement and hypersensitivity. But more than that, because of its wide-ranging effects on the functioning of the ears, eyes, vestibular/proprioceptive and other senses, an immature Moro reflex plays a big role in what FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation." Faulty sensory appreciation is the antithesis of lucidity; it is akin to seeing the world through coloured and distorted lenses, and is thus the indirect cause of suffering.
FM Alexander was way ahead of his time in understanding the importance of the afflictions he termed "unduly excited fear reflexes and emotions" and "faulty sensory appreciation." Not only did he see the problem clearly, he also devised a MEANS-WHEREBY the misuse of the self associated with an immature Moro reflex might be inhibited, and the faulty sensory appreciation associated with it might be by-passed. Thus Alexander's MEANS-WHEREBY involved, as also the realisation of the four dhyaana as described by Ashvaghosha involved, at least in the early stages of their application, reliance on reason.
Specifically, Alexander taught verbal directions which point precisely away from the stiffening of the neck, holding of the head, narrowing and arching of the back, and holding in of the limbs, which characterizes the Moro pattern. Those verbal directions go something like this:
"I wish to let my neck be free,
To let the head go forward and up,
To let the back lengthen and widen,
Sending the legs and the arms out of the back...."
VOCABULARY:
krodha: anger
praharSha: erection (or greater erection) of the male organ; erection of the hair, extreme joy , thrill of delight , rapture
aadibhiH = instrumental [indicating agent of passive construction], plural of aadi: beginning with, and so on
aashrayaaNaam = genitive, plural of aashraya: that to which anything is annexed or with which anything is closely connected or on which anything depends or rests ; a recipient , the person or thing in which any quality or article is inherent or retained or received
utpadyate = 3rd person singular passive utpad: to arise , rise , originate , be born or produced ; to come forth , become visible , appear ; to be ready ; to take place , begin ; to produce , beget , generate ; to cause , effect ; to cause to issue or come forth , bring forward
ca: and; (sometimes emphatic = eva) , even , indeed , certainly , just
iha: in this place , here ; to this place ; in this world; now
yathaa: (correlative of tathaa in the following sentence) just as
visheShah = nominative singular of visheSha: distinction , difference between ; characteristic difference, peculiar mark, special property, speciality, peculiarity ; a kind , species , individual
tathaa: similarly, in the same manner
eva: just so
janmasu = locative plural of janman: birth, production; origin; existence , life
api: and , also , moreover , besides
n'aika: not one, many, various
ruupaH = nominative, singular of ruupa: form, shape, figure
nirvartate = 3rd person singluar of nir- √ vRt: to cause to roll out or cast (as dice); to take place , happen ; to come forth , originate , develop , become; to be accomplished or effected or finished, come off ;
klesha: pain , affliction , distress , pain from disease , anguish; (the Buddhists reckon ten , viz. three of the body [murder , theft , adultery] , four of speech [lying , slander , abuse , unprofitable conversation] , three of the mind [covetousness , malice , scepticism])
kRtaH: done, made, created
visheShaH (see above): peculiarity, personality trait
EH Johnston:
And as the special character of the bodily constitution in this existence is brought about by anger, joy, etc., similarly a special character, effected by the vices, is developed in various forms in their (new) births also.
Linda Covill:
Just as the distinctive character of embodied individuals arises because of their anger, joy and so on, so does their distinctive defilement-created character develop in various formats in future births too.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)