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

SAUNDARANANDA 12.42: Unsteady Confidence & Errant Direction

vyaakulaM darshanam yasya
dur-balo yasya nishcayaH
tasya paariplavaa shraddhaa
na hi kRtyaaya vartate

= - = = - = = -
= - = = - = - =
= - = = - = = =
- - = = - = - =

12.42
When a person's seeing is disordered,

When a person's sense of purpose is weak:

The confidence of that person is unsteady,

For he is not veering in the direction he should.

COMMENT:
This verse, as I read it, is still clearer evidence that the Buddha is describing confidence as not primarily a psychological phenomenon but as primarily a physiological phenomenon, in particular as a function of the vestibular system.

If a child is suffering from primitive vestibular reflexes that have been retained in very immature form, that child will invariably have reading difficulties. Often the mother will sense that there is something wrong with her son's eyes and send him off to the optician, only to be told that the boy has got 20 : 20 vision. This prompted Jane Field, a fellow-trainee of the Institute of Neuro-Physiological Psychology in Chester to publish a pamphlet titled, "My vision is perfect. Why don't I see?"

In fact, the problem in such cases of disordered seeing is not in the child's eyes but in his ears. As Alfred Tomatis correctly observed "we sing with our ears." And not only that: we also read with our ears, and see with our ears. We interpret all sensory information that relates to the dynamic orientation of ourselves and all things in space, primarily through our vestibular system. When a person's seeing is disordered, the fundamental problem is always vestibular. The problem has to do, primarily, with the person's lack of ability to orient himself or herself within the gravitational field.

Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Adolf Hitler may be three of the best known Germanic/Austrian/Jewish figures in the history of 20th century ideas, but another Viennese Jew who deserves to be better known is Paul Schilder, to whom is attributed the phrase that "When we understand the vestibular system, we will understand neuroses."

The following is quoted from Chapter 13 of Paul Schilder: Mind Explorer (1985) by David G. Hubbard and Charles G. Wright:

Dr. Schilder appears to be the first pyschiatrist to view the human psyche as a physical phenomenon, suspended in space, and actively moving through it.

As a gifted neurologist, Schilder returned again and again to the cerebellar and vestibular systems, which are intimately concerned with body motion and spatial orientation. Most investigators have overlooked the role of gravity (as a linear accelerative force which constantly influences vestibular function) in connection with human development and behaviour. Paul Schilder did not.

Stimulated by Schilder's ideas regarding motion and space, the senior author began some time ago to consider the potential influence of gravity in relation to human personality development. Psychoanalysis teaches theories of oral, anal, and genital stages which decisively influence development. On the other hand, Schilder's work seems to suggest an additional pyschological stage (gravitational) which is operative over a lengthy period of personality development extending through and beyond the traditionally recognized stages. This gravitational stage appears to be more influential in orderly, sequential development of logic, of neurobiological reflexes, and of personality function than Freud's classical stages. We must, for example, bear in mind that a human infant spends the first years of life learning to move and orient its physical body against the ever-present force of gravity. The individual then spends much time and effort during the following 10 to 15 years developing motor skills which make possible coordinated movement despite that force. It would seem that this long process must play a part in molding the maturation of personality.

Surprisingly, however, a careful search of the literature both in psychiatry and neurobiology revealed almost no reference to the influence of gravity upon development.

Neither Gautama the Buddha nor FM Alexander would feature in such a search of literature in psychiatry and neurobiology. But both understood that confidence, at the deepest level, has to do with gravitational security or insecurity. It has to do with knowing or not knowing where one is going, relative to the vertical. It has to do, in short, with direction in life. Confidence, at the deepest level, has to do with veering in a direction which is not down.

FM Alexander was an unsurpassed genius of recent times in understanding the influence of gravity upon development. That is why he asked his students to ask themselves what it means to allow the head to go forward and UP.

The Buddha was 2000 years ahead of his time in understanding the influence of gravity upon development. That is why he transmitted as the one great matter the practice of UPright sitting -- with a physical effort, with an effort of the pysche, and with the sense of effortlessness which is experienced when the right thing doing itself.

Confidence that the right thing does itself comes from experience of the right thing doing itself. The job of an Alexander teacher is to give the Alexander pupil the experience of the right thing doing itself. The means to accomplish this is to stop the wrong thing from doing itself, using four preventive directions which, I have argued, correspond to four vestibular reflexes.

In conclusion, then, what is the relation between vestibular dysfunction and psychological insecurity? Is it the relation between seed and corn? Or is it the relation between H2O and water?

EH Johnston:
As for the man whose doctrinal sight is dim and resolution weak, his faith is unreliable ; for it does not work to the desired end.

Linda Covill:
When a man's vision is blurred and he is weak in resolve, his faith wavers, for it is not operating towards its proper outcome.

VOCABULARY:
vyaakula: bewildered , confounded , perplexed , troubled ; confused , disordered ; quivering (as lightning)
darshana: n. seeing , observing , looking , noticing , observation , perception
yasya (genitive): for [him] who

dur-bala: mfn. of little strength , weak , feeble
yasya (genitive): for [him] who
nishcaya: conviction , certainty , positiveness ; resolution , resolve, fixed intention , design , purpose , aim

tasya (correlative of yasya): of him
paariplava: swimming ; moving to and fro , agitated , unsteady , tremulous ; wavering , irresolute
shraddhaa: confidence

na: not
hi: for
kRtyaaya = dative of kRtya: "to be done" ; action, achievement ; what ought to be done ; what is proper or fit ; effect, result ; purpose, end, object
vartate = 3rd person singular of vRt: to turn, roll on; to move or go on , get along , advance , proceed ; to be intent on , attend to (dat.); to act , conduct one's self , behave towards (loc. dat. , or acc); follow a course of conduct, proceed, continue ; to tend or turn to , prove as (dat.)

SAUNDARANANDA 12.18: Ultimate Good Is Not Groped by Feeling

tatas tasy' aashayaM jNaatvaa
vipakShaan' indriyaaNi ca
shreyash c' aiv' aamukhii-bhuutaM
nijagaada TathaagataH

12.18
Then, knowing where he was coming from,

And that, though his senses were set against it,

Ultimate good was now emerging,

The realised one spoke:

COMMENT:
Apologies in advance that this comment will be too long, but the above verse counter-poses two elements about which much more could be written: indriyaaNi, the senses; and shreyas, Ultimate Good.

In seeking to understand this opposition, I am prejudiced by 27 years as a student and translator of Zen Master Dogen, by 15 years in Alexander work, and by 10 years in the work of primitive reflex inhibition, but from where I sit Ultimate Good can never be groped by the senses of balance, touch, hearing or sight.

In the autumn of 1984, with a head full of missionary zeal and with a hold-all full of copies of my teacher's book To Meet the Real Dragon, I set off from Tokyo to San Francisco. Staying there at the San Francisco Zen Centre I was struck during a one-day sitting retreat by the easy uprightness of a Danish practitioner. When I complimented him on his form in sitting, he simply said, "Ah, it is because I am a student of the Alexander Technique." It was another ten years before I got round to looking into the Alexander Technique myself. Shortly after that I ended up in Aylesbury at the training school run by late Ray Evans, who used to describe Alexander work as "vestibular re-education" and who emphasized the fundamental importance, in working towards understanding of the human condition, of primitive reflexes.

Following Ray's lead, after graduating from Ray's training school run, I trained at INPP (Institute of Neuro-Physiological Psychology), Chester under Peter Blythe and his wife Sally Goddard, in the diagnosis and remediation of aberrant primitive reflexes. A baby is born with very many of such primitive reflexes, the orderly emergence and inhibition of which helps the baby to survive and to develop. But in the course of my work over the past ten years, encouraged on since Ray's death by Ray's assistant Ron Colyer, guided by the ultra-practical Alexander teachers Marjory Barlow and Nelly Ben-Or, and motivated by my own wish for clarity and simplicity in working with the reflexes, my interest became more and more concentrated on just four vestibular reflexes. I see these reflexes as primary, and I see a direct correspondence between Alexander's four primary directions and these four reflexes.

So I think that Ultimate Good might be to sit shaven-headed in lotus while the body, wrapped in a Buddha-robe, liberates itself from disharmony between those four reflexes.

That might mean, in Master Dogen's words, to sit with the body, to sit with the mind, and to sit as body and mind dropping off.

Again, that might mean to sit in lotus allowing (1) the neck to be free, to allow (2) the head to go forward and up, to allow (3) the back to lengthen and widen, while allowing (4) the arms and legs to release out of the back.

Ultimate Good, then, from what I have experienced of what I believe it to be, is not something out there that comes into the range of our senses, whereupon we pursue it. It may rather be something that spontaneously emerges from within during those rare moments when we are able to get out of the way and allow it. FM Alexander put it more succinctly: "The right thing does itself."

Ultimate good does itself.
Our job is to allow it.

Then what does it mean to allow? I do not know. It does not mean to think about, to discuss endlessly, to intellectualise. But neither does it mean blindly to do, to pull the chin in, to push the knees down, to hyper-extend the back, and all that other nonsense which is pure doing based on feeling. To allow does not mean to feel. To feel, to rely on the senses, is to limit oneself to sitting with the body.

In general it is the job of the senses to feel something, as opposed to feeling nothing. In swaying left and right as Master Dogen instructs in his rules for sitting, for example, one has a fairly reliable sense that three or four inches left or right of the midline is to the left or to the right -- the vestibular system, with input from tactile senses (and visual senses too if the eyes are open), senses the imbalance. Such an imbalance, after all, might be dangerous in circumstances like walking a tightrope or riding a bike. To approach the midline, however, is to enter an area of uncertainty. The vestibular system seems better adapted to sensing something (an imbalance) as opposed to sensing nothing (the absence of imbalance).

This being so, insofar as Ultimate Good is a bit of nothing, a bit of freedom from the faults that cause suffering, a bit of absence of noise, and in the end a bit of body and mind dropping off, a bit of the right thing being allowed to do itself, then it may be not only Nanda's whose senses were set against it: it may be that everybody's senses are set against it.

Now the Knower of Ultimate Good, the Best of Listeners, is about to speak. That the Buddha was the best of listeners was not only a matter of his auditory sense: his listening was also a matter of what he intended to hear and, most importantly, what he was able to filter out. The Buddha's listening was a matter of how the whole of his ear processed sound. The whole of the ear means everything involved in inner and outer listening, right down to the auditory and vestibular nucleii in the brainstem, and on into the bones, and on into the internal organs through the circuitous route of the wandering vagabond which is the vagus nerve. When Buddha sits in what Paul Madaule calls a good listening posture, it may be that the whole body-mind is an ear -- an ear whose listening is body and mind dropping off.

Whatever understanding I have gleaned about what FM Alexander called "faulty sensory appreciation," and the need to transcend it, I have gleaned from the standpoint of a person with a listening problem struggling to get round that problem. I myself am terribly bothered by noise. Two or three years ago, as I sat here by the stream, trying not to listen to engine noise, and being mindful of the mirror principle, I seriously asked myself what the problem was. The conclusion I came to was that the external noise that bothers me so much is a mirror for internal noise which I tend unconsciously to suppress, as it arises from my faulty vestibular system. I think that conclusion was true, and the conclusion is supported by everything Ashvaghosha records about the primary importance of eradicating the faults.

A couple of years ago a so-called Zen Master, a professed Dharma-brother of mine in the lineage of Zen Master Dogen, despite never actually having met me, recommended that, as a pre-condition for joining an organisation to which he belongs, I should undergo a course of psychological treatment. Aside from the personal affront, the shocking thing about this was the lack of insight it revealed into the teaching of Dogen, Ashvaghosha, and all the other ancestors. What Dogen and Ashvaghosha are telling us is that the faults which are the cause of suffering are primarily rooted, not in psychology, but in neuro-physiology.

Does anybody out there understand what I am banging on about -- what I have been banging on so clumsily through all these hundreds of blog posts? Does anybody understand why this verse has stimulated such a long comment from me? What this verse is saying is that what is opposing the emergence in Nanda of Ultimate Good is, primarily, his senses. Senses means balance, touch, hearing, vision, taste and smell, but most of all it means balance, because the vestibular system is the integrator of all sensory input.

When people with superficial understanding of the human condition look at behaviour that they don't understand, they attribute the behaviour they don't understand to psychological causes. But if people's primary problem were psychological, then what would be the point of crossing the legs and endeavouring to direct oneself upward?

No, what leads me astray, primarily, is my faulty vestibular system. It has led me so far astray in my life I would like to crawl back into the womb and start all over again. Fortunately, to sit all wrapped up in the lotus posture with rain pattering down on the roof and a cow mooing intermittently in the distance, is not a bad substitute.

I am a congenitally bad listener, the worst of listeners. Being the worst of listeners, I have sought out and am seeking to clarify the teaching of the Best of Listeners.

Now the Best of Listeners is about to open his mouth and speak. Will he voice a sound? Or will sound voice itself?

EH Johnston:
Then the Tathagata, knowing his disposition and that, while his senses were still contrary, the highest good was now within his range, spoke thus:--

Linda Covill:
The realized one understood his disposition, and that though his senses were still opposed to it, Excellence was now within his sight, and he spoke:

VOCABULARY:
tataH: then
tasya (genitive): of him
aashayam (accusative): m. resting-place , bed ; seat , place ; an asylum , abode or retreat ; a receptacle ; any recipient ; thought , meaning , intention ; disposition of mind , mode of thinking
jNaatvaa = absolutive of jNaa: to know

vipakShaaNi = accusative plural of vipakSha: m. " being on a different side " , an opponent , adversary , enemy (mfn. " counteracting ")
indriyaaNi = accusative plural of indriya: n. bodily power , power of the senses
ca: and

shreyas: n. the better state , the better fortune or condition; m. good (as opp. to " evil ") , welfare , bliss , fortune , happiness ; m. the bliss of final emancipation
ca: and
eva: (emphatic) now
aamukha: commencement
aamukhii-bhuu: to become visible
bhuuta: being, become

nijagaada = perfect of ni-√gad: to recite , proclaim , announce , declare , tell , speak
tathaagataH (nominative singular): the Thus-Come, the realised one

SAUNDARANANDA 12.9: Existential Shock Leads to Growth

babhuuva sa hi saMvegaH
shreyasas tasya vRddhaye
dhaatur edhir iv' aakhyaate
paThito 'kShara-cintakaiH

12.9
The shock happened

For the growth in him of ultimate good --

Just as the verb "grow" is listed [after "happen"]

In the lexicon recited by grammarians.

COMMENT:
Linda Covill adds, in an extremely helpful footnote (without which I would be in the same mire as EH Johnston):
in the Dhatupath, Panini's lexicon of Sanskrit verbal roots, the root edh "to increase" occurs immediately after the root bhu, "to exist."

In general Ashvaghosha's writing, and particularly his use of metaphor, seems remarkably non-cultural-specific. This verse also, though at first sight the reference to Panini strikes us as a bit highbrow, is not so much specific to Indian culture as it is specific to formal study of the Sanskrit language. And that, surely, is fair enough. Sanskrit was and is a language that is studied, rather than a language whose music people begin to learn in their mother's womb. Ashvaghosha was writing in Sanskrit for students of Sanskrit, who might be expected to be familiar with Panini's lexicon of Sanskrit verbs -- even if only at one remove. Perhaps, indeed, this verse should be received by a translator of Ashvaghosha as a stimulus to study Panini's lexicon first hand, not taking anybody else's word for it.

In any event, what is truly close to home for all of us is the second line with its three pivotal words vRddhaye (for the growth), shreyasas (of the ultimate good), and tasya (of that individual).

Being concerned with that kind of growth, a couple of years ago my wife did a course with Alexander teacher and midwife Ilana Machover on using Alexander's discoveries to help the process of pregnancy and childbirth. After the course, she reported back with some information that I found awe-inspiring: As a baby emerges from a natural birth, its immune system is shocked into action by the stimulus of the smell of its mother's shit. Hearing for the first time this explanation of an event I had twice experienced with my own eyes, made me reflect on how very little -- practically nothing -- I understand of the wonders of the growth of a human individual.

Facts like that, alongside facts like the successive emergence and inhibition of the four main vestibular reflexes, it seems to me, are not a cause for pessimism or for optimism; but they are a cause for wonder.

EH Johnston:
For that agitation enured to increasing his tendency towards the highest good, just as the root edh is said by grammarians to take vRddhi in its verbal form.

Linda Covill:
For the shock existed for furthering the increase of Excellence in him, just as, for the grammarians, the root "to increase" is listed among the verbs after "to exist."

VOCABULARY:
babhuuva = perfect of bhuu: to be, exist, become, arise, happen
sa: that, the
hi: for
saMvegaH = nominative singular of saMvega: agitation, shock/panic

shreyasas = genitive of shreyas: n. the better state , the better fortune or condition; (= dharma)
tasya (genitive of sa): of him
vRddhaye = dative of vRddhi: f. growth , increase , augmentation ; the second modification or increase of vowels (to which they are subject under certain conditions e.g. aa is the vRddhi of the vowel a ; ai of i , ii , and e ; au of u , uu , and o)

dhaatuH = nominative, singular of dhaatu: element, grammatical or verbal root or stem
edhiH = nominative, singular from edh: to prosper , increase, gain ground, swell
iva: like
aakhyaate (passive of aa-√khyaa): to be named or enumerated

paThitaH = nominal, singular of paThita: recited , read , studied , mentioned
akShara: a syllable, letter, vowel, sound, words
cintakaiH = instrumental, plural of cintaka: mfn. ifc. one who thinks or reflects upon , familiar with; m. an overseer

SAUNDARANANDA 16.73: Watching Out for Wildlife

tath" aapy ath' aadhyaatma-nava-grahatvaan
n' aiv' opashaamyed a-shubho vitarkaH
heyaH sa tad-doSha-pariikShaNena
sa-shvaapado maarga iv' aadhvagena

16.73
Even then, stemming from
something inexperienced within the self,

A disagreeable thought might still not subside.

One should abandon the thought
by monitoring the fault therein,

As a traveller abandons a path
on which there is a wild beast.

COMMENT:
This verse raises the question of the inter-connection between a thought and a fault.

The point seems to be that the danger lies not so much in the disagreeable thought itself as in the deeper fault to which it is linked. A disagreeable thought may be seen as linked at the level of the reptilian brain with immature vestibular reflexes, and at the level of the mammalian brain with the three emotional poisons of greed, ill-will, and delusion.

As a general rule, it seems to me, optimistic thoughts tend to be tied up with greed; pessimistic thoughts tend to be tied up with ill-will, especially in regard to oneself; and the realistic thoughts of politicians, businessmen and the like tend to be tied up with delusion, ignorance and arrogance.

In this verse, the connection between a thought and a fault is represented by the metaphor of a path, and a wild beast of prey -- a man-eating tiger, say -- on that path.

The tiger can be seen as representing something unconscious, wild, not susceptible to suppression or inhibition from the top two inches of a human brain. For an extreme example, think of an out-of-control autistic child whose senses have been overloaded. Then remember that we are all somewhere along the autistic spectrum, which ranges from pervasive developmental disorder at the less normal end, to commonplace testosterone-induced behaviour at the more normal end.

FM Alexander spoke of the danger of being out of touch with one's reason, due to unduly excited fear reflexes and emotions. This is a condition which those with autistic tendencies are experiencing much of the time, but which even the coolest of cats is bound to encounter at least some of the time.

At such a time, disagreeable thoughts never subside but pile in one after another. Those thoughts all stem originally, I would suggest, from something which is imperfectly integrated and hence more or less out of control, deep within the self. That something seems to have to do with how one uses the head, neck and back in relation to each other, and seems also to do with the cluster of vestibular reflexes centred on the Moro reflex.

EH Johnston:
Or if nevertheless impure thoughts are not allayed owing to the inexperience of the mind, they should be eliminated by examining the faults inherent in them, as a traveller goes away from a road infested by wild beasts.

Linda Covill:
Even so, an impure thought might not subside because of the individual's inexperience; it should then be abandoned by an examination of its faults, like a traveler leaves a road beset by wild beasts.

VOCABULARY:
tath"aapi: even so, nevertheless,
atha: (connective particle) then, but
adhyaatma: own, belonging to self
nava: new , fresh , recent , young ; a young monk, novice
grahatvaat (ablative of grahatvam) = from grah: to grasp, to lay hold of

na: not
eva: (emphatic)
upashaamyet = optative of upa-√zam: to become calm or quiet ; to cease , become extinct
a-shubhaH (nom. sg. m.): impure, disagreeable, unlovely
vitarkaH (nom. sg.): m. idea, fancy, thought

heyaH (nom. sg. m.): to be left or quitted or abandoned or rejected or avoided
saH (nom. sg. m.): it, that [thought]
tad: it, its
doSha: fault, imbalance
pariikShaNena = inst. sg. pariikShaNa: trying , testing , experiment , investigation (from √pariikS: to look round , inspect carefully , try , examine , find out , observe , perceive)

sa: with, having, possessing
shvaapadaH (nom. sg.): m. a beast of prey , wild beast; a tiger
maargaH (nom. sg.): m. path, road
iva: like
adhvagena = instrumental of adhvaga: road-going , travelling; m. a traveller

SAUNDARANANDA 16.71: Time Is of the Essence of the Contract

an-aadi-kaal' opacit'-aatmakatvaad
baliiyasaH klesha-gaNasya c'aiva
samyak-prayogasya ca duSh-karatvaac
chettuM na shakyaaH sahasaa hi doShaaH

16.71
Because of the instinct-led accumulation,
from time without beginning,

Of the powerful mass of afflictions,

And because true practice is so difficult to do,

The faults cannot be cut off all at once.

COMMENT:
I would like to comment on this verse by quoting a passage that I think is relevant from the writings of FM Alexander, in which he uses the term “non-doing.” But before that I will describe my a priori experience of what non-doing means. (A priori means before I ever heard the Zen term “body and mind dropping off” or the Alexander term “non-doing.”)

Thirty years ago I began competing, at a very low level, in competition karate. I pretty much had only one technique -- a reverse counter-punch with my right fist. But I found myself able to use this technique to an effect that surprised me -- especially the first time I tried it out in earnest, when my opponent, a brown-belt from Leeds University whose disconcerting nickname was “killer,” went down like a deck of cards. Much to my own astonishment, I, an extremely nervous and lanky white-belt on his first outing, had winded him with a shot to the floating ribs. Having been keen on sports from an early age, I suppose that (in spite of congenital vestibular problems, received from my father, having been accumulated by his ancestors from time without beginning) my timing was not bad. I would wait and wait and wait for my opponent to leave himself open when he came in for an attack, ignoring his feints, waiting for a true opening. Then when the opening came I would sometimes experience my counter-punch doing itself, seemingly before I was even conscious of it, like a coiled spring suddenly freeing itself. The effect, I remember, was particularly strong when I was participating as the captain of a five-man competition team. And the effect was sufficiently strong to make me think that academic stuff that I was supposed to be studying at university was of zero importance in comparison. That’s why despite doing a degree in Accounting & Financial Management, I have ended up living such an alternative life, never really entering the corporate world but going instead to Japan with the intention of investigating Zen in the martial arts, and then coming back to England to investigate the discoveries of FM Alexander. Which brings me back to that quote:

I can assure my readers that anyone who will follow me through the experiences I have set down, especially with regard to 'non-doing', cannot fail to benefit; but I must emphasize that they will not be following me unless they recognize:
(1) that knowledge concerned with sensory experience cannot be conveyed by the written or spoken word, so that it means to the recipient what it means to the person who is trying to convey it:
(2) that they will need to depend upon new 'means - whereby' for the gaining of their ends, and that they will 'feel wrong' at first in carrying out the procedures because these will be unfamiliar:
(3) that that attempt to bring about change involving growth, development and progressive improvement in the use and functioning of the human organism, calls necessarily for the acceptance, yes, the welcoming of the unknown in sensory experience, and this 'unknown' cannot be associated with the sensory experiences that have hitherto 'felt right.'
(4) that to 'try and get it right' by direct 'doing' is to try and reproduce what is known, and cannot lead to the 'right', the as yet 'unknown.'

To anyone who accepts these points and sees the reason for keeping them in view whilst working to principle in employing the technique, I would say: 'Go ahead, but remember that time is of the essence of the contract.'

FM Alexander, Preface (1941) to The Use of the Self.

So what?

So, the key to understanding this section of the Canto, is not to fall at the stumbling block of nimitta -- a word which EH Johnston and Linda Covill have, quite forgivably, understood as having to do with meditation. I say quite forgivably, because people generally assume that Buddhist practice has to do with meditating. But what I have learned in the last 30 years of trying to make sense of a counter-punch that seemed miraculously to do itself, is that a moment of sitting-buddha has to do with a stimulus, the inhibition of one’s habitual reaction to that stimulus (not doing), and the allowing of action (non-doing). I still don’t claim to be more than a beginner in these matters -- because the true practice of allowing is so bloody difficult to do -- but this much at least I have understood. So my translation of the next verse, and of others verses in this section, will reflect my understanding that nimitta has nothing to do with meditation but nimitta means a stimulus, or starting point of action.

Thus, even though the faults cannot all be struck down at once, a deck of cards comes tumbling down, and those cards are on the table.

(But they are always liable to be reshuffled....)

EH Johnston:
For the faults cannot be extirpated all at once, partly because the troop of the vices are very strong, having from their nature accumulated from time without beginning, and partly because right practice is difficult.

Linda Covill:
The faults cannot be cut off all of a sudden, partly because the powerful mass of defilements has by nature been accumulating from beginningless time, and partly because the correct practice is so difficult to do.

VOCABULARY:
an-aadi: without beginning
kaalaH (nom. sg.): m. time
upacita: heaped up , increased; thriving , increasing , prospering , succeeding ; big , fat , thick
aatmakatvaat = ablative of aatmakatvam:
aatmaka: having or consisting of the nature or character of (in comp.); consisting or composed of
-tvam = suffix for abstract nouns

baliiyasaH = genitive of baliiyas: more or most powerful , or mighty or strong or important or efficacious
klesha: affliction
gaNasya = genitive of gaNa: a flock , troop , multitude
ca: and
eva: (emphatic)

samyak: true, proper, out and out
prayogasya = genitive of prayoga: practice
ca: and
duSh-karatvaat = ablative of duSh-karatvam: being hard to do

chettum = infinitive of chid: to cut off
na: not
shakyaaH (nom. pl. m.): able , possible , practicable , capable of being (with infinitive in passive sense)
sahasaa (instrumental of sahas, powerful): forcibly , vehemently , suddenly , quickly , precipitately , immediately , at once , unexpectedly , at random , fortuitously , in an unpremeditated manner
hi: for
doShaaH (nom. pl.): m. faults, imbalances

SAUNDARANANDA 16.35: Balance Holds Faults At Bay

kleshaaMs tu viShkambhayate samaadhir
vegaan iv' aadrir mahato nadiinaaM
sthite samaadhau hi na dharShayanti
doshaa bhujaMgaa iva mantra-baddhaaH

16.35
Then balance repels afflictions

Like a mountain the mighty torrents of rivers;

For, as long as a man remains in balance,
faults do not venture to attack him:

The faults, like charmed snakes, are spellbound.

COMMENT:
What is emerging clearly from this Canto is that the teaching of the four noble truths, for Ashvaghosha, all comes down to (1) preventing the growth of, (2) defending stoutly against, and (3) setting out to destroy, the faults like greed, anger, and ignorance that all begin with thirsting.

My head is befuddled this morning and my immune system is struggling -- whether against a virus or against tree pollen, or against a combination of both, I do not even know. But even in this befuddled state I cannot fail to notice the relevance of the order in which Ashvaghosha presents his strategy for combating the faults: (1) prevent, (2)defend, and (3) attack. The order of this progression seems to me, as I write this now, to be of very great importance.

It makes perfect sense -- of course it does -- that effort to maintain integrity, in using voice and body and in earning a living, belongs to the preventive stage, and that this stage should come first.

The progression to this verse is a progression from the preventive maintainance of integrity (shiila), a matter of use of the SELF, to the defensive allowing of balance (samaadhi), a condition of NATURE.

What is required of us in this verse, then, goes beyond our autonomous use of ourselves and enters into the area of allowing autonomic functioning, because that is what the balance or harmony of samaadhi basically is: a function of systems which operate wholly or mainly below the level of consciousness, in the cerebellar/vestibular system, in the action of stretch reflexes mediated at the level of the spinal chord, in the autonomic nervous system, in the endocrine/immune systems, and so on.

Part of the progression between the previous verse and this verse is less tolerance towards the faults. Still, the existence of balance, in the form of a mountain or in the form of a man abiding in samaadhi, does not preclude the co-existence of voilent rapids or of reptilian faults. The mountain/practitioner remains immune to the torrents/snakes, but the perilous rapids and poisonous snakes are still very much in the picture. The potentially harmful objects have no power to harm the subject who is defended and protected by his balanced state, but those dangerous objects still exist.

When autonomic functions related to balance are allowed to work, then, a practitioner becomes resilient to faults. But this resilience is not pro-active. No initiative is taken yet in the direction of setting out to destroy faults, which is the theme of the next verse.

Ashvaghosha thus seems to be guiding the reader to an understanding of what the Buddha's teaching requires of the practitioner, that I for one have never come across before so explicitly, either in Alexander work (where the emphasis is very much on restoring integrity through preventive means and thereby allowing the right thing to do itself), or in Zen practice as I was taught it (where everything was reduced to autonomic balance). Ashvaghosha's teaching seems to be on the point of affirming, in a definite order, not only (1) the preventive value of maintaining integrity and (2) the defensive value of allowing balance, but also (3) the destructive value of exercising aggressive intent towards the faults.

This threefold progression mirrors Nanda's progress in life, towards the exercise of greater initiative and assertiveness in his own combating of the faults. Ashvaghosha uses the military metaphor advisedly, because in the end Nanda's task is a destructive one -- requiring an aggressive attack on the obstacles to liberation. But before aggression there must be balance, and the proper route to balance is an indirect one, beginning with preventive means to maintain integrity in the use of the self.

If we take a direct approach to pursuing balance, for example, trying to keep "the correct posture" by doing this and that -- pulling the chin in, and the rest of it -- the whole enterprise will be doomed to failure. That much, brain befuddled or not, I really do know. I know because, very assiduously and zealously, for 13 years while living in Japan, I practised that mistake -- chest puffed up like a red-eyed bulldog. What my sitting practice in essence was, to tell the truth, was the very diligent practice of the fault of ignorance.

VOCABULARY:
kleshaan (accusative, plural): afflictions
tu: but, and, then
viShkambhayate = 3rd person, singular of viShkambh: to hurl, cast; escape
samaadhiH (nominative, singular): balance, coming together, union, harmony

vegaan = accusative, plural of vega: violent agitation; a stream , flood , current, torrent
iva: like
adriH = nominative, singular of adri: stone, rock, mountain
mahataH = accusative, plural of mahat: great, mighty
nadiinaam = genitive, plural of nadii: river

sthite = locative of sthita: standing, remaining, abiding
samaadhau = locative of samaadhi: balance
hi: for
na: not
dharShayanti = 3rd person plural of dhRSh: to dare or venture; to dare to attack, treat with indignity (acc.)

doShaaH: (nominative, plural): m. faults
bhujaMgaaH (nominative, plural): m. a serpent , snake , serpent-demon
iva: like
mantra: " instrument of thought " , speech , sacred text or speech , a prayer or song of praise;
a mystical verse or magical formula (sometimes personified) , incantation , charm , spell
baddhaaH (nom. pl. m): bound


EH Johnston:
But concentration of mind repels the vices like a mountain the mighty currents of rivers ; for the faults, like spellbound snakes, are unable to attack the man who abides in concentration of mind.

Linda Covill:
But concentration casts off the defilements like a mountain casts off the mighty torrents of rivers; for the faults, like snakes transfixed by a magic formula, do not venture to attack a man who is fixed in concentration.

SAUNDARANANDA 16.22: How the Three Poisons Develop

roSh'aadhike janmani tiivra-roSha
utpadyate raagiNi tiivra-raagaH
moh'-aadhike moha-bal'-aadhikash ca
tad-alpa-doShe ca tad-alpa-doShaH

16.22
In a life dominated by anger arises violent anger,

In the lover of passion arises burning passion,

And in the predominantly ignorant,
overwhelming ignorance.

In one who has a lesser fault, again,
the lesser fault develops.

COMMENT:
Anger/hatred, greed/lust and ignorance/delusion are the three root faults, sometimes called the three poisons. Lesser faults include being proud, jealous and opinionated.

The Buddha here is reminding Nanda that these basic afflictions, or fundamental faults, are the cause of suffering.

My efforts to get to the bottom of faults, and to understand what is truly basic and fundamental, always seem to lead me back to the vestibular reflexes, and in particular to the antagonism between fear paralysis and the infantile panic/grasp reflex.

For the how and the where of direction of human energy, whether unconsciously or consciously, the vestibular system is fundamental.

VOCABULARY:
roSha: anger , rage , wrath , passion , fury
adhike = locative of adhika: additional, extra-, super- ; surpassing (in number or quantity or quality); n. surplus , abundance , redundancy , hyperbole ; n. more.
janmani = locative janman: birth, existence, life; rebirth
tiivra: strong , severe , violent , intense , hot , pervading , excessive , ardent , sharp , acute , pungent , horrible
roShaH (nom. sg.): m. anger

utpadyate = 3rd person passive singular of utpad: to arise , rise , originate , be born or produced ; to come forth , become visible , appear; to cause to issue or come forth
raagiNi = locative of raagin: having a colour; of a red colour; red; impassioned , affectionate , enamoured; a lover, libertine; a wanton and intriguing woman
tiivra: strong, violent, intense, hot
raagaH = nominative, singular of raaga: colour, red colour; any feeling or passion , (esp.) love

moha: loss of consciousness , bewilderment , perplexity , distraction , infatuation , delusion , error , folly; (in phil.) darkness or delusion of mind (preventing the discernment of truth and leading men to believe in the reality of worldly objects) ; (with Buddhists) ignorance (one of the three roots of vice)
adhike = locative of adhika: surpassing, super, predominant
moha: ignorance, delusion, folly
bala: power, strength
adhikaH = nominative singular of adhika: surpassing, predominating
ca: and

tat: that, those [faults]
alpa: small, less than
doShe = locative of doSha: fault
ca: and
tat: that, those [faults]
alpa: small, less than
doShaH = nominative, singular of doSha: fault

EH Johnston:
In the (new) birth of one addicted to malevolence extreme malevolence is developed, of one possessed by passion excessive passion, of one in whom delusion predominates excessive store of delusion, and of one whose vices are less than this a lesser vice only.

Linda Covill:
Violent hatred arises in the future birth of someone given to hate, violent lust in someone who was lustful, a very powerful delusion in someone given to delusion, and a lesser fault in someone whose fault was less than these.

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.

SAUNDARANANDA 16.18: Red & Dark Roots of Striving

jNaatavyam etena ca kaaraNena
lokasya doShebhya iti pravRttiH
yasmaan mriyante sa-rajas-tamaskaa
na jaayate viita-rajas-tamaskaH

16.18
What you must understand, again,
is this process of causation

Whereby striving is driven by the faults of man,

So that those imbued with redness and darkness
succumb to death,

While one without redness and darkness
is not reborn.

COMMENT:
The references to death and rebirth may be understood in the light of the statement in 16.6 that man is hoisted in the swing of mass unconscious reaction, dying in one samsaric realm and being reborn in another. Such demise in one realm and rebirth in another can happen numerous times, it seems to me, in the course of a human lifetime.

In my effort to understand how the movement of the samsaric swing is driven by faults, I came to Alexander work, and an Alexander teacher named Ray Evans drew my attention to the importance of a hierarchy that exists in the development of primitive vestibular reflexes. These reflexes, as I endeavored to explain here, can be regarded as the cornerstones of human behaviour.

The most primitive of all vestibular reflexes is the Moro, or baby panic reflex, an early forerunner of the mature startle reflex. Anybody who is at all familiar with the function of the Moro reflex knows that its colour is the colour of panic, red, and also that this redness tends to be accompanied by its opposite whose colour is the pallour of shock.

Thirty-five years ago my mind was very much occupied with the problem of going red. In certain circumstances, especially in cramped social situations like sitting on the school bus I suffered from what is sometimes known as “chronic blushing.” I did not suffer in other social situations when my energy was being strongly directed into some task, such as lifting weights, or playing rugby, or when I was able to combine social interaction with the consumption of large volumes of beer. So these observations alerted me to the fact that my problem with going red was not merely pyschological but had to do with physical energy, and also to do with brain chemistry. When I started my Alexander teacher training under Ray Evans, from 1995, I began to understand that the problem was rooted in vestibular dysfunction.

At the root of all vestibular dysfunction, in my experience, is the Moro reflex -- also known on this blog as the Mara reflex. The Moro reflex is the infantile panic/grasp reflex. Its dark underbelly is passive, paralytic fear.

Yes, tamas , as the Monier-Williams dictionary indicates, means mental darkness, gloom, depression, the winter of the mind. Darkness as a psychological force is pessimism, worry -- "can't do" as opposed to the Moro compulsion of "must do." But darkness in this verse, as I understand it, is not only psychological. It is physiological. It has to do with the withholding or conservation of energy, as a deep survival mechanism.

As such, darkness is a very deep obstruction to the lucidity of seeing what really is, as it is. Darkness is shock. Darkness is denial. And darkness is ignorance.

The darkness of shock and denial is, speaking from experience of the behaviour of self and others, a kind of fear of the truth. And fear always has at least one foot in the vestibular system.

In short, the red and dark of endgaining behaviour is always rooted in faults in the vestibular system. This is what I was taught by my Alexander head of training Ray Evans and this, I think the Buddha is saying here, is what must be understood -- and not only in theory.

VOCABULARY:
jNaatavya (gerundive of jNaa): to be known or understood or investigated or inquired after
etena = instrumental of etat: this
kaaraNena = instrumental of kaaraNa: cause, reason, the cause of anything; instrument, means; motive; origin, principle

lokasya = genitive of loka: world, the world, mankind, humanity
doShebhya = ablative, plural of doSha: fault
iti: thus, because
pravRttiH (nominative, singular): rolling forwards; moving onwards , advance , progress; active (as opposed to contemplative) life.
[see above; also 16.10; 16.17] end-gaining as opposed to attending to the means-whereby; active striving after ends; going directly for ends, relying on unconscious means, as opposed to the contemplative attitude of one who thinks out conscious means.

yasmaat: from which , from which cause , since , as , because , in order that
mriyante = 3rd person plural, present of mR: to die
sa: with (possessive suffix)
rajas: colour, passion, redness
tamaskaaH = nominative, plural of tamaska: (at end of compounds for tamas): darkness, mental darkness; gloom; ignorance, illusion, error

na: not
jaayate = 2nd person singular, present of jan: be born
viita: gone away , departed , disappeared , vanished , lost (in the beginning of compounds = free or exempt from , without , -less)
rajas: colour, passion, redness
tamaska = (at end of compounds for tamas): darkness, mental darkness; gloom; ignorance, illusion, error

EH Johnston:
And for this reason it is to be known that the active being of the world proceeds from the vices, so that those who are subject to passion and to mental darkness are subject to death and he who is devoid of them is not born again.

Linda Covill:
You must understand thereby that man's active life continues because of its faults. It follows that people who are subject to passion and mental darkness die repeatedly, while someone free from passion and mental darkness is not born again.

SAUNDARANANDA 16.1: A Methodical Process

evaM mano-dhaaraNayaa krameNa
vyapohya kim cit samupohya kim cit
dhyaanaani catvaary adhigamya yogii
praapnoty abhijNaa niyamena paNca

16.1
"Thus, methodically, by an act of stilling the mind,

With a certain amount of negation
and a certain amount of integration,

The practitioner comes to the four realisations

And duly acquires the fivefold power of knowing:

COMMENT:
Line 1 describes an act of sitting-dhyana as the most MENTAL act there is -- not a doing that is accomplished solely by direct physical means.

Line 2, as I read it, has to do with regulation of ENERGY. What I have been struggling towards, in the very nearly 50 years since I was conceived, through a very slow and faltering process, is greater conscious control in directing the flow of that temporary concentration of energy which is me. So that's my basis for understanding Line 2. I think it expresses from a MATERIALISTIC standpoint what goes on in the sitting practitioner's brain and nervous system, through the re-direction of his ENERGY in sitting. The line can be understood as expressing, in even more explicitly neurological terms, the pruning out of certain circuits of neurones and the making of new connections between certain circuits of neurones. So the line could have been translated "Pruning bits here and connecting bits there." What this means in practice I endeavored to express, from the standpoint of a student of Master Dogen and FM Alexander, in this article. Energetic patterns to negate, or neuronal circuits to prune out, might be those associated with emotional clinging to relationships that belong to the past, or emotional grasping for outcomes that belong to the future -- together with all the other kinds of emotional habits associated with infantile fear reflexes. New connections to make, in the way of integration, might be those associated with a new and improved use of the head, neck and back. When this breaking and making of connections is investigated (as verse 17.50 says) "through experience, with the body," then (1) breaking away from unconscious reactions, and (2) making conscious connections between body parts, may turn out to be two ways of describing one process. Hence, "the truest form of inhibition is direction."

Line 3 describes what happens in PRACTICE.

Line 4 describes not the acquisition of knowledge but THE REAL power of knowing. The prefix abhi, which means "over" suggests what is transcendent, or real.

VOCABULARY:
evam: thus
mano = (in compounds) manas: mind
dhAraNayA = instrumental dhaaraNa: holding, bearing, keeping (in remembrance), retention, preserving, protecting, maintaining, possessing; the act of holding, bearing; keeping in remembrance, memory; immovable concentration of the mind upon (locative); restraining, keeping back
kramena = instrumental of krama: step, course, method

vyapohya = absolutive of vya + apa + hRi: to cut off, take away, remove, destroy
kimcit: something, somewhat, a little, a certain amount
samupohya = absolutive of sam + uuh: to sweep together, bring or gather together, collect, unite
kim cit: something, somewhat, a little, a certain amount

dhyAnAni (accusative, plural): realisations, stages of Zen
catvAri (nominative, neuter): four
adhigamya (absolutive of adhi + gam): on coming to, obtaining, accomplishing
yogI = nominative, singular of yogin: a practitioner of yoga, a devotee of bodymind work

prApnoti: he/she acquires
abhijNA: (nominative, singular, feminine): knowing; supernatural science or faculty of a buddha (of which five are enumerated , viz. 1. taking any form at will ; 2. hearing to any distance ; 3. seeing to any distance ; 4. penetrating men's thoughts ; 5. knowing their state and antecedents).
niyamena (instrumental of niyama): as a rule, necessarily, invariably, surely
niyama: any fixed rule or law, necessity, obligation
paNca: five, fivefold

EH Johnston:
'Thus in due course by subtracting something and adding something through immobility of the mind and by attaining the four trances, the Yogin spontaneously acquires the five supernatural powers.

Linda Covill:
"So by using mental concentration to gradually take a little away and to add a little, the practitioner attains the four meditative states, and then inevitably acquires the five supernormal faculties:

SAUNDARANANDA 17.47: Realisation of the Second Realisation

ath' aa-vitarkam kramasho '-vicaaram
ek'-aagra-bhaavaan manasaH prasannam,
samaadhi-jaM priiti-sukhaM-dvitiiyaM
dhyaanaM tad aadhyaatma-shivaM sa dadhyau

17.47
So gradually dropping thought and deliberation,

Mind calm and clear, because of his unity of purpose,

He realised a second level of joy and ease, born of balance:

He realised that realisation which is inner well-being.

COMMENT:
In Line 1, following on from the previous verse, the thought and deliberation that were advocated before, as an antidote to end-gaining and as a function of the first realisation, have now become something bothersome, synonymous with SUFFERING. Picture a father teaching his son to ride a bicycle: with a firm hold on the saddle, the father initially causes the boy to feel safe and secure, so that he is released from the grip of fear and into free movement; then, as the son starts to pedal, the father gradually withdraws his hands from the saddle so that the boy’s own sense of balance and direction can take over. In this metaphor, reliance on reason, as an antidote to fearful grasping for the security of feeling right (i.e. end-gaining), is represented by the father’s helping hands which, as they start to become a hindrance, are gradually taken away.

Line 2 again relates to causation, indirectly pointing to irresolution, or lack of a clear sense of direction, as a CAUSE OF SUFFERING. In developmental terms, a factor which is vital in determining a person's sense of direction, or lack of it, is integration of the baby fencer/pointing reflex, whose name in neurology is the asymmetrical tonic neck reflex (ATNR). I think that we are now at the point in the progression of Ashvaghosha's description where it may help to understand the importance of reflexes relating to balance and direction. At the beginning of the practice of sitting with the mind, what is vital in the first instance is to discern the difference between sitting based on feeling (end-gaining) and sitting based on thinking (following a means-whereby principle). Associated with this distinction is (a) honest examination of what is going on within oneself, in the way of end-gaining, along with (b) reliance on thought-directions to release oneself from the grip of end-gaining. Those thought-directions may initially take the form of words, for example, as "I wish for an unlocking of the head from deep within the body, so that the spine is released into length, and as the spine lengthens the back is released out in a widening direction, while the legs are released out of the pelvis, and the arms and shoulders are released out, while the wrists remain open, and fingers and thumbs release into length, and the jaw is free, and the muscles of the eyes... et cetera, et cetera." These words are expressing a multiplicity of thoughts, but with persistence, and on a good day, the thoughts can turn a silent function of the thinking mind, like the reflection on calm water, or like the reflection of a moon in a dewdrop. This silent function of the thinking mind can be described as a unified field of awareness (as opposed to the tunnel vision of the fearful), but at the same time it is characterised by unity of purpose (as opposed to the lack of clarity of direction of the irresolute).

In Line 3, the reason I have translated samadhi as balance, instead of, for example, harmony, or integration, is that I am mindful of the a priori developmental hierarchy (a hierarchy preceding even the Buddha’s elucidation of the four noble truths), of four vestibular reflexes. The first of the four, the Mara reflex, or Moro reflex, or infantile panic/grasp reflex, might equally be called “the end-gaining reflex.” This first reflex opposes reason and reason opposes it. So the first realisation described by Ashvaghosha, as I see it, has a lot to do with inhibition of the activity of this most primitive fear reflex. Closely related to the baby panic reflex are two other vestibular reflexes which emerge in the womb a few weeks after the panic reflex. One, the baby pointing reflex, as mentioned above, is the foundation stone of a clear sense of direction. Another is the baby balance reflex, called in neurology “the tonic labyrinthine reflex.” In children and adults who retain this primitive balance reflex in immature form, balance and the many psycho-physical functions which centre upon the sense of balance are compromised. So attainment of balance in all spheres of human functioning is ultimately dependent upon INHIBITION of the baby balance reflex. Success in inhibiting balance and fear reflexes are very interdependent on each other, as is demonstrated by the example of learning to ride a bike -- if the rider freezes in fear and stops pedalling, he will soon topple over; but equally, joyous and energetic pedalling will not remove any rider from the ever-present threat of sickness, aging, and death, if there is no sense of balance and direction.

The use in Line 4 of a verb (dadhyau) and an object (dhyaanam) from the same root is reminiscent of phrases like “a twirling flower is a twirling flower,” “mountains are mountains” and “sitting is sitting.” In writing from the standpoint of A MEANS which, for the purpose of inhibiting suffering, really works, Ashvagohsa described the realisation of a realisation. That is why the practise that I used to call Zazen, using a Japanese word for something that I had not made my own, and then began to call sitting-zen, using a term that is half English and half Japanese, I have now begun to call sitting/realisation. I would like to consign the use of all Japanese terms, beginning with sesshin and extending even to Zazen itself, to the dustbin.

That the well-being expressed by aadhyaatma-shiva is inner, or inherent, again points to the effortless functioning of unconscious mechanisms, including the vestibular reflexes. From the developmental perspective of the four vestibular reflexes, I think it is fair to see: (1) the first realisation in terms of fear and end-gaining centred on the Moro reflex vs joy and ease stemming from that use of reason which constitutes part of a means-whereby fear reactions may be inhibited; and (2) the second realisation in terms of reason and conscious effort gradually giving way to relatively effortless functioning of unconscious, reflex mechanisms -- what FM Alexander called "the right thing doing itself."


VOCABULARY:
atha: so, then
a-vitarka: without thought
kramashas (from kram, to step): gradually, by degrees, in steps
a-vicaara: without deliberation

eka: one
agra: tip, top, foremost point or part, summit
ekaagra: one-pointed, closely attentive, undisturbed, undivided in one's awareness
bhaava: state, state of being; -ness (when added to an abstract noun)
bhaavaat = ablative of bhaava: due to the state, because of being
ek'-aagra-bhaavaan: due to the one-pointedness, because of the being of one point (like an arrow)
manasaH (genitive of manas): of the mind
prasannam: clear, bright, pure, calm, placid, tranquil, serene

samaadhi: balance, coming together, harmony
jan: born
priiti: joy
sukham: ease
dvitiiyam: further, redoubled, the second

dhyaanam (accusative, singular): realisation, level or stage of meditation
tad: that
aadhyaatma: one's own, belonging to self, inner
shiva: auspicious, in good health; well-being, welfare, happiness; prosperity, bliss
sa: he
dadhyau (perfect of dhyai, which is also the verbal root of dhyaana): produced, called to mind, realised

EH Johnston:
Then in due course he produced the second trance in which initial and sustained reflections are absent, which is calm from the intentness of the mind, is born of concentration and has ecstasy, bliss and inward happiness.

Linda Covill:
Then he gradually entered the second level of meditation, which has no initial or sustained application of the mind to its object. Born of concentration and calm due to mental one-pointedness, it is joyfully blissful and endowed with inner delight.