SAUNDARANANDA 6.28: To Be or Not to Be a Big Strong Bloke

na bhuuShaN' -aartho mama samprat' iiti
saa dikShu cikShepa vibhuuShaNaani
nir-bhuuShaNaa saa patitaa cakaashe
vishiirNa-puShpa-stabakaa lat" eva

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6.28
"I have no need of ornaments now!"

So saying, she hurled her jewels in all directions.

Unadorned and drooping, she resembled

A creeper shorn of its clusters of flowers.

COMMENT:
Big blokes in rugby scrums laugh at a fellow rugby player "throwing his toys out of the pram," or "spitting the dummy," when the bloke in question has had a bit of a temper tantrum.

That is what Sundari is doing now -- having a tantrum. On the positive side, she is not pretending to be "not bovverred;" she is not trying to be right. On the negative side, she is having a girly tantrum; she is behaving like a big girl's blouse.

At the beginning of Shobogenzo chap. 8, RAIHAI-TOKUZUI (Prostrating to What Has Got the Marrow), Dogen says that the most difficult thing is to find a guiding teacher, who, though beyond appearances such as those of a man or a woman, should be a big strong bloke (DAI-JO-BU).

Reading FM Alexander's book "The Use of the Self," when I was in Japan, I felt optimistic that the Alexander Technique was going to be the missing link by which I might finally succeed in turning myself truly into a big strong bloke -- not only on the outside, but also on the inside. Optimistic feelings, however, are ever liable to be falsified by reality.

Reading me like a book, FM Alexander's niece Marjory Barlow took pains to teach me "Being wrong is the best friend you have got in this work." In other words, what Marjory meant, was: instead of trying to be a big strong bloke for the sake of others, rather stop and really examine without fear or favour what is going on, warts and all, within your habitually worried self.

It's on that basis that I have been praising Sundari in this Canto. In showing her emotions so freely, she is providing us with a kind of laboratory for the kind of infantile fear patterns that we wish to be free from. Sundari is by no means being a big strong bloke. But neither is she compounding her sin by the common religious error of trying or pretending or aspiring to be something that she is not.

Marjory Barlow made a point of saying that she wasn't responsible for her students. "It's bad enough being responsible for myself!" she joked. In a similar way Kodo Sawaki (1880 - 1965) compared his efforts to the priming of a pump. After the pump had been primed, it was up each person to draw his or her own water by himself for himself.

While I was in Japan I visited two Zen teachers, both strong individuals, who both knew well the very strong individual who was Kodo Sawaki. The teacher I visited first and, by a long way, most often was Gudo Nishijima. I became deeply entangled with him as a Buddhist patriarch -- in many ways all too deeply entangled. The other teacher I visited, towards the end of my years in Japan, was Tsunemasa Abe, to whom I prostrated myself in a much more light-hearted manner (sometimes involving the odd drink of something stronger than water). The latter's father was an unorthodox character who apparently Kodo liked a lot. In his old age Kodo would spend the New Year, the traditional time for family gatherings, with the Abes -- so Kodo was like a beloved grandfather to the young Tsunemasa. Tsunemasa Abe told me, as I remember it, that in his old age Kodo used after sitting retreats to suffer terribly with neck pains. Young Tsunemasa would hold hot towels (O-SHIBORI) onto the old master's neck. Eventually, I was told, Master Kodo in his old age softened his attitude and modified his manner of sitting, taking account of Chinese understanding of the flow of vital energy (chi). This was just around the time I was starting to read Alexander's teaching and to have Alexander lessons in Tokyo, so this was all starting to make sense to me, after my own years of gross over-doing. Still, Tsunemasa Abe seemed to me at that time to be holding onto the idea of pulling in the chin, at least a bit, because otherwise, he said, KUBI WA NOBINAI, "the neck doesn't extend." Since our conversations were in Japanese, I might have misunderstood, but still I think he might have been wrong on that point; but he was certainly not wrong when he observed NINGEN WA KIBARU, "human beings strain themselves."

And because of Abe Sensei's great intimacy with Master Kodo, I was able to understand from him that Kodo's approach to sitting posture was not set in stone, but was characterized by a certain openness that allowed him to have a re-think about how to sit, in the final years of his life. One evening I sat watching Tsunemasa Abe giving a patient a session of what he called CHO-SHIN-HO a kind of very deep SHIATSU ("finger pressure") for which he mainly used not his fingers but his toes. I ventured as I watched him work on his patient that the point of his work and of his sitting, seemed to be to open up (HIRAKU). Yes, he enthusiastically replied, that was it.

But I was doubtless like the blind man who felt the elephant's leg and said it was like a tree -- so that the description was true as far as it went but was very far from describing the whole truth of the elephant.

Whatever criticisms I have of what I see as a Japanese cultural tendency to over-do in sitting, and to think too light of the role of thinking, both Gudo Nishijima and Tsunemasa Abe had obviously received something from Kodo Sawaki that was not in evidence among other Japanese. What exactly was it? If I try to put it into words, nothing is more sure than that I will miss the target. But below is a photo of Tsunemasa Abe that may give to you more of a hint than my words can.

Abe Sensei avoided being what he called "BUKKYO KUSAI" BUKKYO means "Buddhist" and "KUSAI" means smelly, stinking. So he avoided things that had the stink of Buddhism about them. For the centrepiece of his dojo, he preferred a well-shaped natural rock to a sculpted image of Buddha. At the same time, at his own shrine he had a hand-painted portrait of Kodo Sawaki sitting. Though he could be irreligious in outlook, his genuine reverence for and love of Kodo Sawaki obviously ran deep. For him, he told me, there was no other master at all.

The above reflections have been prompted by a letter received today, Thursday, from Reiko Abe, Tsunemasa Abe's wife, saying that Abe Sensei passed away, at the age of 68, on 19th September 2010.

Zen masters come and go. Now Abe Sensei has gone the way of Kodo, Dogen, Ashvaghosha and the Buddha, but to commemorate his passing in a religious ceremony might be to miss the point. The point might be that when we are open, not fixed, then something keeps flowing.

What is fixed cannot flow. But what is not fixed, once the pump has been primed, after just a little bit of effort, tends to flow spontaneously by itself ... gurgle, gloop, gloop, gloop gurgle ...



Tsunemasa Abe
(1942 - 2010)

EH Johnston:
'I have no need now for ornaments', so saying she threw them about in all directions. As she lay without ornaments, she looked like a creeper with its clusters of flowers torn off.

Linda Covill:
"I have no need of ornaments now," she cried, and threw them about in all directions. Unadorned, slumping, she seemed like a creeper whose clusters of blossoms are rent.

VOCABULARY:
na: not
bhuuShaN'-aarthaH (nom. sg. f.): a need of ornaments
bhuuShaNa: n. embellishment , ornament , decoration
artha: n. reason, use
mama (gen. sg.): of/for me
samprati: ind. now
iti: "..., " thus

saa (nom. sg. f.): she
dikShu (loc. pl. f.): in the directions, in all directions
cikShepa = 3rd pers. sg. perfect kSip: to throw , cast , send , despatch ; to throw away , cast away , get rid of
vibhuuShaNaani (acc. pl.): n. decoration , ornament

nir-bhuuShaNaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. unadorned
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
patitaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. fallen , dropped , descended , alighted
cakaashe = 3rd pers. sg. perfect kaash: to be visible , appear

vishiirNa-puShpa-stabakaa (nom. sg. f.): shorn of its flower-clusters
vishiirNa: mfn. broken , shattered &c ; scattered, fallen out
vi- √ shri : to set or put asunder , separate
puShpa: n. flower
stabaka: m. a cluster of blossoms
lataa (nom. sg.): f. creeper, climbing plant ; a slender woman , any woman
iva: like

SAUNDARANANDA 6.27: Thinking, Breathing, Movement

saMcintya saMcintya guNaamsh ca bhartur
diirghaM nishashvaasa tataama c'aiva
vibhuuShaNa-shrii-nihite prakoShThe
taamre kar'-aagre ca vinirdudhaava

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6.27
As she thought and she thought
of her husband's good points,

She heaved long sighs and she gasped;

The forearms that bore her gleaming jewellery,

And her hands with their reddened fingertips,
she flung outward.

COMMENT:
In the early years after the Buddha's death, they say there were no Buddha images. But by Ashvaghosha's time, people had begun to sculpt beautiful statues of the Buddha, which we can still see in museums, and Ashvagosha himself left us his verbal portrait of the Buddha.

So the idealized image of the Buddha sitting like the king of mountains is all very well, but here in this verse we have the very raw material of our own practice: obsessive thinking, emotional breathing, and an aberrant Moro reflex.


EH Johnston:
And ever reflecting on the virtue of her lord, she heaved deep sighs and swooned ; she flung her forearms about, the depositaries of glorious ornaments, and her reddened fingers.

Linda Covill:
Turning her husband's merits over and over in her mind, she gulped long breaths, choked, and jerked her forearms with their wealth of costly ornaments and her hennaed fingertips.


VOCABULARY:
saMcintya = abs. saM- √ cint : to think about , think over , consider carefully , reflect about (acc.)
guNaan (acc. pl.): a quality , peculiarity , attribute or property ; good quality , virtue , merit , excellence
ca: and
bhartuH (gen. sg.): of her husband

diirgham: ind. long , for a long time
nishashvaasa = 3rd pers. sg. perfect ni- √ shvas : to draw in the breath , inspire ; to hiss, snort, etc.
tataama: to gasp for breath (as one suffocating) , choke , be suffocated , faint away , be exhausted , perish , be distressed or disturbed or perplexed ; to stop (as breath) , become immovable or stiff
ca: and
eva: (emphatic)

vibhuuShaNa-shrii-nihite (acc. dual. n.): on which were deposited splendid ornaments
vibhuuShaNa: n. decoration , ornament
shrii: mfn. diffusing light or radiance , splendid , radiant , beautifying , adorning (ifc. ; agni- , adhvara- , kShatra- , gaNa- , jana-shrii &c )
nihita: mfn. ( √dhaa) laid , placed , deposited
ni -√dhaa: to put or lay down , deposit
prakoShThe = acc. dual prakoShTha: mn. the fore-arm

taamre (acc. dual n.): of a coppery red colour
kar'-aagre (acc. dual n.): the finger tips of her two hands
kara: m. "the doer"; hand
agra: n. foremost point or part, tip
ca: and
vinirdudhaava = 3rd pers. sg. perfect vi-nir- √ dhuu: to shake off , drive or blow away , scatter ; to shake about , agitate ; to reject , repudiate
vi: ind. apart, asunder
nir: ind. out, forth, away
√ dhuu: to shake , agitate , cause to tremble ; to shake off , remove , liberate one's self from (acc.)

SAUNDARANANDA 6.26: Withered Lotuses

saa padma-raagaM vasanaM vasaanaa
padm'-aananaa padma-dal'-aayat'-aakShii
padmaa vipadmaa patit" eva lakShmiiH
shushoSha padma-srag iv' aatapena

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6.26
Wearing clothes dyed in lotus colours,

With her lotus face and eyes as long as lotus petals,

She was like Lotus-Hued Lakshmi fallen from her lotus.

And she withered like a garland of lotuses in the sun.

COMMENT:
Aside from the many poetic allusions in this verse to lotuses, which come in beautiful colours, which symbolize beauty itself, which have petals shaped like beautiful eyes, and which are used to form pedestals for beautiful statues of the goddess of beauty (Lakshmi), what has this verse to say to somebody who is mainly interested not in poetry but in practice?

Energetically, having experienced a surge of energy that caused her to jump up, then clasp herself and scream, Sundari is now experiencing a kind of equal and opposite reaction -- she is withering or fading.

In terms of her direction, her direction is down. Briefly stimulated by the delusion that Nanda was on the stairs, she sprang up. And at the initial shock of receiving the bombshell, she again jumped up. But now she is down again. So her behaviour is a bit yo-yo-like.

Again, the counter-image might be the Buddha sitting like the king of mountains, or the ancestors Dogen described in Fukan-zazengi as passing away while sitting or standing (ZA-DATSU RYU-BO).

At time of writing I am on the road, in a French public library with fluorescent lighting and many distractions and irritations. My own state feels closer to that of restless Sundari than that of the steadfastly directed buddha.



EH Johnston:
Wearing lotus-coloured clothes, with lotus-face and eyes long like the petal of a lotus, lotus-coloured like a fallen (statue of) Laksmi without her lotus, she withered like a lotus-garland in the sun.

Linda Covill:
Clothed in garments of lotus hue, her face a lotus, her eyes extended like lotus-petals, she was like a fallen Padma Lakshmi without her lotus, like a lotus-wreath withered in the hot sun.


VOCABULARY:
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
padma-raagam (acc. sg. n.): lotus-coloured, dyed in lotus hues
padma: lotus
raaga: m. the act of colouring or dyeing
vasanam (acc. sg.): n. clothes, dress
vasaanaa = nom. sg. f. pres. part. vas: to wear

padm'-aananaa (nom. sg. f.): lotus-faced
padma: lotus
aanana: n. the mouth, the face
padma-dal'-aayat'-aakShii (nom. sg. f.): her lotus-petal-long eyes
padma: lotus
dala: n. " unfolding itself. " a small shoot , blade , petal , leaf (often ifc. in names of plants)
aayata: mfn. stretched , lengthened
akShi: n. eye

padmaa (nom. sg.): f. " the lotus-hued one " , N. of lakShmii
vi-padmaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. deprived of a lotus-flower
patitaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. fallen down
iva: like
lakShmiiH (nom. sg.): f. good sign; beauty , loveliness , grace , charm , splendour , lustre ; N. of the goddess of fortune and beauty

shushoSha = 3rd pers. sg. perfect shuSh: to dry , become dry or withered , fade , languish , decay
padma-srak: a garland of lotuses
padma: lotus
srak (nom. sg.): f. a wreath of flowers , garland
iva: like
aatapena (inst. sg.): m. heat (especially of the sun) , sunshine

SAUNDARANANDA 6.25: A Picture of Gaunt Distress

saa rodan'-aaroShita-rakta-dRShTiH
saMtaapa-saMkShobhita-gaatra-yaShTiH
papaata shiirN'-aakula-haara-yaShTiH
phal'-aatibhaaraad iva cuuta-yaShTiH

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6.25
Her eyes puffy and reddened by tears,

The slender trunk of her body shaking with anguish,

She fell, breaking and scattering strings of pearls,

Like a mango branch overburdened by fruit.

COMMENT:
In this verse Ashvaghosha paints a vivid picture of grief and at the same time seems to emphasize fragility by his triple play on the word yaaShTiH. yaaShTiH means a twig or branch, and by extension anything thin or slender, like a string for pearls, or Sundari's body.

A few years ago I spent a sleepless night in a caravan next to a field into which my neighbour farmer Louvelle had driven a herd of cows each of which was suckling a calf -- except for one cow who walked up and down constantly bellowing. When I went to investigate in the morning, I was struck above all by the calfless cow's eyes. How should I describe those eyes? They were bloodshot and in the cow's drawn face they seemed swollen -- like ripe mangoes.

Since that night being kept awake by the grieving cow, one thing I have made a point of not buying, even if it is on special offer, is veal. That said, I was struck at that time not only by the power of the cow's expression of its distress, but also by the rapidity with which it was all over. After a day or two of relentless bellowing, the bereaved mother cow looked the same as any other cow in the herd that was doing a cow's dharma-duty of chewing the cud.

The counter image to the memory of the distressed cow keeping me awake, or to the present image of the gaunt Sundari keeling over and causing clutter, might be the Buddha sitting upright like a mountain: Sitting there, mind made up, / As unmovingly stable as the king of mountains, / He overcame the grim army of Mara / And awoke to the step which is happy, irremovable, and irreducible. (3.7)

But it is no use trying to sit like a mountain in imitation of the Buddha. To go for that form directly is end-gaining... and end-gaining produces clutter, not stillness.

In the place of unconscious end-gaining what is required -- what I constantly require and have spent 30 years looking for -- is a conscious modus operandi, a systematic plan, a means-whereby.

In simple or general terms, we have Dogen's great guiding thought "learn the backward step of turning one's light and shining," (EKO HENSHO NO TAIHO); or Alexander's mantra, "stop doing the wrong thing and the right thing does itself."

Again, as a submariner friend of mine once reported "the deeper you go, the stiller it gets."

But for a more detailed blueprint for methodical pursuit of stillness, nothing I have encountered surpasses Ashvoghosha's description of the four sitting dhyanas in Canto 17.

Space has many dimensions, but at the level to which sitting-meditation constantly brings one back, the level of the first dhyana, space is absence of the clutter created by end-gaining.

In the news this morning we hear George W. Bush defending the use of "water-boarding" to extract information. Bush claims that such methods have saved lives. But this claim might not be true. Wiser men than George W. Bush say that the brutal methods of the Gestapo in WWII, quite aside from moral arguments, were much less effective than British methods of eliciting useful information. The biography of Michel Thomas ("The Test of Courage"), again, relates astonishing successes in gathering information from German war criminals, based on the subtlest and least violent of interrogation techniques. After the war, Michel Thomas went on to become a master of effective non-end-gaining in the sphere of language teaching.

The closer one gets to the heart of the Japanese system, it seems to me, the more form tends to be emphasized over function. But imitation of form without due consideration of inner processes, again, is just end-gaining. Recently I watched a you-tube video of a Japanese national competition between karate practitioners performing kata, or forms. Both finalists, at the beginning of their performance, yelled the name of their kata very aggressively at the top of their voices. In so doing, they both pulled their heads down into their body like frightened turtles. What was the point of that? Was that Bodhidharma's intention in coming from India? I don't think so.

Grief of the kind that Sundari is now experiencing, and the clutter produced from the power of such unconscious grief, might be inevitable in a human life. But to deliberately practice producing such clutter by violent end-gaining: that is insanity.

When those so-called Japanese karate experts scowl and pull their heads down into their bodies, they are expressing a kind of insanity. When swimmers tried to emulate Mark Spitz by imitating the movements of his hands through the water (instead of imitating his inner thought processes) they also were expressing a kind of insanity. And when George W. Bush defends the use of torture to force the victims of torture to tell the torturer what the torturer wishes to hear (e.g. "Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction"), Bush is conspicuously expressing insanity.

May all living beings, beginning with this living being here, be free of such insanity.

EH Johnston:
With eyes reddened with the salve of tears and slender body shaken with anguish she fell down, breaking and scattering her rope of pearls, like the bough of a mango-tree breaking from the excessive weight of its fruit.

Linda Covill:
Her eyes reddened and smeared with tears, and her thin limbs wracked with burning pain, she fell down with her strings of pearls broken and in disarray, like the branch of a mango-tree breaking due to its burden of fruit.

VOCABULARY:
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
rodan'-aaroShita-rakta-dRShTiH (nom. sg. f.): her eyes irritated and reddened with tears
rodana: n. a tear , tears
aaroShita: mfn. made furious
roShita: mfn. (fr. Caus. √ rush ) enraged , exasperated , irritated
√ rush : to hurt , injure , annoy
[LC notes that aroShita probably corresponds to the Pali rosita, "smeared, anointed."]
rakta: mfn. coloured , dyed , painted ; reddened
dRShTi: f. seeing, sight, view ; (with Buddhists) a wrong view ; eye , look , glance ; the pupil of the eye

saMtaapa-saMkShobhita-gaatra-yaShTiH (nom. sg. f.): the slender twig of her body shaken by anguish
saMtaapa: m. becoming very hot , great or burning heat , glow , fire ; affliction , pain , sorrow , anguish , distress
saMkShobhita: mfn. (fr. Caus. saM- √ kShubh ) shaken or tossed about
saM- √ kShubh : to shake about violently , agitate , toss , excite
gaatra: n. " instrument of moving " , a limb or member of the body; the body
yaShTi: a stalk , stem , branch , twig; (ifc.) anything thin or slender ; a thread , string (esp. of pearls)

papaata = 3rd pers. sg. perfect pat: to fall down
shiirN'-aakula-haara-yaShTiH (nom. sg. f.): her strings of pearls broken and disordered
shiirNa: mfn. broken or rent asunder , shivered , crushed , shattered , injured ; broken away , burst or overflowed (as river-water that has burst its banks)
aakula: mfn. confounded , confused , agitated , flurried ; confused (in order) , disordered
haara: m. a garland of pearls , necklace (accord. to some , one of 108 or 64 strings)
yaShTi: a stalk , stem , branch , twig; (ifc.) anything thin or slender ; a thread , string (esp. of pearls)

phal'-aatibhaaraad (abl. sg.): from an excessive burden of fruit
phala: fruit
atibhaaraat (abl. sg.): m. an excessive burden ,
iva: like
cuuta-yaShTiH (nom. sg. f.): the twig of a mango tree
cuuta: m. the mango tree
yaShTi: a stalk , stem , branch , twig; (ifc.) anything thin or slender ; a thread , string (esp. of pearls)

SAUNDARANANDA 6.24: Full-Blown Grief

shrutvaa tato bhartari taaM pravRttiM
sa-vepathuH saa sahas" otpapaata
pragRhya baahuu viruraava c' occair
hRd' iiva digdh'-aabhihataa kareNuH

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6.24
On hearing then what had happened to her husband

She immediately leapt up, shaking;

She clasped her arms and screamed out loud

Like a she-elephant
shot in the heart by a poisoned arrow.

COMMENT:
Here it is: full blow grief, just as if a baby had been dropped -- in which case the hands and arms, having flown upward and outward on a sharply taken in-breath, manifest an inward clasping response, accompanied by a loud cry on the out-breath.

The full awareness and indifference of the 4th dhyana can be understood as total freedom from the influence of this infantile fear reaction, which is at the root of the deepest grief and all other emotional states.

Going directly for this full awareness and indifference, however, by trying to take one's bombshells like a man -- in short by suppressing one's grief through trying to be right, is a kind of end-gaining whereby grief is liable to be bottled up to the detriment of internal organs.

So it comes back to what one really wants, what one really desires, and what is an effective principle, plan, or means by which to get there...

What do I want? If the answer is peace, then end-gaining is not going to get me there.

But the end-gaining habit -- particularly in a person in whom a Moro reflex remains more or less uninhibited -- tends to run very deep.

shreyas, which I translate as "higher good," is thought to derive either from the comparative of shrii, which means radiance, splendour, beauty, grace, welfare, success, riches; or from prashasya, which means eminent, praiseworthy.

So as an adjective form shreyas is given first in the dictionary as "more splendid or beautiful, more excellent or distinguished, superior, preferable, better"; and as a noun shreyas is given as "the better state."

So yes, higher, better, more excellent, but also, it occurs to me, reflecting on this verse, deeper.

"Stop doing the wrong thing," FM Alexander said, "and the right thing does itself."

Expression of grief is not necessarily the wrong thing -- though too often one acts as if it was. The wrong thing might be the suppression, the deeply ingrained habit, deeply rooted in fear, that prevents the grief from expressing itself.

So is Sundari right or wrong to express her grief like this? I don't know. What strikes me is that she seems conspicuously free of the tangled net of conceptions and compensatory habits that prevent some of us from emoting as freely as might be good for our health.


EH Johnston:
Then on hearing what had happened to her husband, she jumped up straightaway trembling, and, throwing her arms into the air, screamed loudly like a cow-elephant stricken to the heart with a poisoned dart.

Linda Covill:
Hearing this news of her husband she immediately leaped up, shaking; she clutched at her arms and screamed piercingly, like a she-elephant struck in the heart with a poisoned arrow.

VOCABULARY:
shrutvaa (abs.): on hearing
tataH: ind. then
bhartari (loc.): to her husband
taam (acc. sg. f.): that
pravRttim (acc. sg.): f. moving onwards , advance , progress ; active life (as opp. to ni-vRtti, non-doing) ; fate , lot , destiny ; news , tidings

sa-vepathuH (nom. sg. f.): mfn. having tremor , tremulous
vepathu: m. quivering , trembling , tremor
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
sahasaa: ind. (= instr. sahas) forcibly , vehemently , suddenly , quickly , precipitately , immediately , at once , unexpectedly , at random , fortuitously , in an unpremeditated manner
utpapaata = 3rd pers. sg. perfect ut- √ pat: to fly or jump up

pragRhya = abs. pra- √ grah: to seize , grasp , take hold of , take
baahuu = acc. dual. baahu: m. arm
viruraava = 3rd pers. sg. perfect vi- √ ru: to roar aloud , cry , buzz , hum , yell , sing , lament , &c
ca: and
uccaiH: ind. high, loud, accentuated

hRdi (loc. sg.): into the heart
iva: like
digdh'-aabhihataa (nom. sg. f.): shot by a poisoned arrow
digdha: m. a poisoned arrow
abhihata: mfn. struck , smitten , killed
kareNuH (nom. sg. f.): a female elephant

SAUNDARANANDA 6.23: The Bombshell

sa tu tvad-arthaM gRha-vaasam iipsan
jijiiviShus tvat-paritoSha-hetoH
bhraatraa kil' aaryeNa tathaagatena
pravraajito netra-jal'-aardra-vaktraH

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6.23
While wishing to stay at home for you, however,

While wanting to live for your happiness,

He has been banished, his face wet with tears,

By his noble brother the Tathagata, so they say,
into the wandering life."

COMMENT:
Here is the bombshell. Will its delivery in romantic wrapping paper soften Sundari's grief? How do you suppose she will respond?

When I have received a bombshell (and a couple of memorable ones stand out) my main response seems to have been one of numbness -- a trace of the fear paralysis response, as exhibited by Nanda himself in Canto 12: "Even the greatest beings / Are subject to return!" So he reflected, / And from his shock, though given to redness, / He seemed to blanch. / The shock happened / For the growth in him of a higher good (12.8 - 12.9).

Have you ever received such a bombshell, some surprising news that signalled the end of a significant relationship as you had known it and expected it to continue? How did you respond? Did you take it like a man? Or did you respond more like a woman? Was the response mainly conscious or mainly unconscious?

And what have all these personal questions got to do, in the end, with the one great matter of sitting-meditation and its four stages?

Buddhist scholars in the past, as LC documents in her book, have proferred different views in regard to the relation between what they see as the two halves of Saundarananda: the personal first part, and the 'Buddhist' or 'doctrinal' second part. But -- and here I am speaking from the heart -- what the fuck do Buddhist scholars know about it?


EH Johnston:
But he whose one wish is to dwell at home for your sake, who wishes to live only to please you, has, so it is said, been initiated with face streaming with tears into the mendicant's life by his noble brother, the Tathagata.'

Linda Covill:
He wished to stay at home for your sake, he wanted to live only to make you happy; but they say that he has been ordained, his face wet with tears, by his noble brother the realized one."


VOCABULARY:
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
tu: but
tvad-artham (acc. sg. n.): for your sake
gRha-vaasam (acc. sg.): m. living in one's own house , office of a householder
gRha: house, home
vaasa: ifc. = having one's abode in , dwelling or living in
iipsan = nom. sg. m. desiderative pres. part. aap: to reach, undergo, realise

jijiiviShuH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (from desid √ jiiv) wishing to live, being desirous of life
tvat-paritoSha-hetoH (gen. sg.): in order to make you happy
tvad: you
paritoSha: m. delight (= parituShTi f. complete satisfaction , contentment , delight)
hetu: cause, reason

bhraatraa (inst. sg.): m. brother
kila: ind. (a particle of asseveration or emphasis) indeed , verily , assuredly ; " so said " " so reported "
aaryeNa (inst. sg. m.): mfn. noble
tathaagatena (inst. sg. m.): mfn. being in such a state or condition , of such a quality or nature ; the Thus-Come ; the Thus-Gone, etc.

pravraajitaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. (from causative pra- √ vraj ) sent into exile , banished ; compelled to wander forth as an ascetic mendicant
netra-jal'-aardra-vaktraH (nom. sg. m.): his face wet from tears
netra: n. the eye (as the guiding organ)
jala: n. (also pl.) water , any fluid
aardra: mfn. wet , moist , damp
vaktra: n. " organ of speech " , the mouth , face ,

SAUNDARANANDA 6.22: Two Little Ducks

maa svaaminam svaamini doShato gaaH
priyaM priy'-aarhaM priya-kaariNaM taM
na sa tvad-anyaaM pramadaam avaiti
sva-cakravaakyaa iva cakravaakaH

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

6.22
Ma'am! Do not accuse your beloved husband,

A doer of loving deeds who is deserving of your love;

He has eyes for no woman other than you,

Like a chakra-vaka drake with its chakra-vaka duck.

COMMENT:
LC notes that doShato gaaH is a conjecture, but one that is supported as idiomatically authentic by RaamaayaNa 6.93.13 (a modern adaptation of which, by the way, is currently being serialized on BBC Radio 4).

maa doShato gaaH tam seems to mean "do not go to him from a fault;" i.e. "do not act towards him on the basis of a fault," and hence, "do not accuse him [of infidelity]."

What is going on here? A silly person of superficial understanding (see my comment to 6.19) is liable to think that Sundari's main problem is a romantic one. That being so, so long as Sundari is assured that on a romantic level Nanda's heart is still hers alone -- so long as she is able to maintain her romantic idea -- then she might not react too badly, in practice, to the news that Nanda has gone forth into the wandering life.... We will see shortly.

Speaking of silliness, can it only be coincidence that verse 22 of this canto features two little ducks?

And speaking of the antidote to silliness, one-pointedness, it is more than thirty years ago that I first heard, in the context of karate training, the teaching of concentrating one's power in "the cinnabar field" (Japanese: tanden. Chinese: dan t'ien). But I still have no idea how to do that. If I know anything about it, I know what such concentration of power is not. It is not shortening and narrowing the back and pulling the legs into the pelvis.


EH Johnston:
Do not, mistress, blame your beloved master, who is worthy of affection and ever acted out of love to you. He never looks at any woman except you, like the ruddy sheldrake with its mate.

Linda Covill:
Madam, do not accuse your dear husband, who is worthy of your love, and who always acts lovingly. He never notices any other woman except you, like a chakra-vaka bird with its mate.


VOCABULARY:
maa: ind. a particle of prohibition or negation
svaaminam (acc. sg.): m. (fr. sva + min) an owner , proprietor , master , lord ; a husband , lover
svaamini (voc. sg.): f. a proprietress , mistress , lady (used in addressing a queen or a king's favourite wife)
doSha-taH: ind. from a fault or defect
gaaH = 2nd pers. sg. injunctive gaa: to go , go towards , come , approach

priyam (acc. sg. m.): mfn. beloved, dear
priy'-aarham (acc. sg. m.): worthy of love, deserving of your love
priya-kaariNam (acc. sg. m.): who acts out of love/kindness
priya: mfn. fond of attached or devoted to (in comp. , either ibc. or ifc.); n. love , kindness , favour , pleasure
kaarin: mfn. doing , making , effecting , producing , acting
tam (acc. sg. m.): him

na: not
sa (nom. sg. m.): he
tvad-anyaam (acc. sg. f.): other than you
pramadaam (acc. sg. f.): a woman
avaiti = 3rd pers. sg. pres. ava- √i: to go down, go to ; to look upon , consider ; to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know

sva-cakravaakyaa (inst. sg. f.): with a chakra duck of its own
sva: mfn. his own, its own ; m. a man of one's own people or tribe , a kinsman
cakravaakii: f. the female of the chakra(-vaka) bird
iva: like
cakravaakaH (nom. sg. m.): m. the chakra bird (Anas Casarca, ruddy sheldrake ; the couples are supposed to be separated and to mourn during night)