shrutavaan matimaan kul'-odgataH
paramasya prashamasya bhaajanaM
upagamya yathaa tathaa punar
na hi bhettuM niyamaM tvam arhasi
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - -
8.56
You are educated, intelligent, and well-bred --
A fitting vessel for supreme tranquillity;
As such, you ought not in any way to break
The contract into which you have entered.
COMMENT:
I went to King Edwards School Birmingham which, in England in the 1970s was by some measures the top school in the country.
Well, bully for me. Did that make me a fitting vessel for supreme tranquillity?
How about Daikan Eno, the sixth-generation descendant of Bodhidharma in China? He was a woodcutter who had never read a book in his life. Did that make him not a fitting vessel for supreme tranquillity?
The work of inhibition as FM Alexander practised it, at least as I understood from his niece Marjory Barlow, brought about a condition of true tranquillity -- of stillness without fixity -- primarily through the giving up of an end-gaining idea. But an education in Britain, much as it continues to be a highly prized commodity around the world, is never about giving up an idea. (On the contrary, most doyens of British universities have risen to prominence by submitting their own unique idea in the form of a thesis, which, if accepted, may result in them being awarded a doctorate in, say, Buddhist studies.) This is the background against which FM Alexander once famously remarked, "A child of three can understand this work. But give me a man who has been educated and God help me!"
Speaking of being a vessel for the Buddha's teaching, at what point in the story of Handsome Nanda does the Buddha affirm that Nanda is a fitting vessel for the teaching?
If the striver's idea was right, then the Buddha should have affirmed Nanda as a fitting vessel in Canto 5, when he caused Nanda to go forth into the wandering life -- at which time Nanda was already well-educated, smart, and of posh pedigree.
In fact, no such affirmation appears in Canto 5. What the Buddha says to Nanda in Canto 5 begins and ends not with any kind of affirmation of where Nanda is, but rather with the exhortation of what direction to go in. Hence:
While murderous Time has yet to come calling, set your mind, my friend, in the direction of extinction. / Operating in all situations in this world, using all manner of attacks, Death kills. // [5.22]
Therefore, while you are meeting the present moment, while death has yet to come, / So long as you have the energy for practice, set your heart on a better way. // [5.49]
The Buddha, Ashvaghosha informs us, only recognizes Nanda to be a receptacle after such time as the Buddha had succeeded in boosting Nanda's confidence in the existence of a better way, not as an end to be gained, but rather as a process. Hence:
And so now seeing that, by boosting Nanda, he had made a receptacle, / The best of speakers spoke: The process-knower spoke of better ways as a process. // "Starting afresh from here, my friend, with the power of confidence leading you forward, / In order to get to the nectar of deathlessness, you should watch the manner of your action..." // [13.9 - 13.10]
EH Johnston:
For you who know the sacred tradition, who are intelligent and of good family and a proper vessel for the supreme tranquillity, ought not to break the covenant again in any way after having undertaken it.
Linda Covill:
You are learned, you are intelligent, you are nobly-born, you are a worthy recipient of supreme peace; as such you mustn't in any way break the observances which you have undertaken.
VOCABULARY:
shrutavaan (nom. sg. m.): mfn. one who has heard &c ; possessing (sacred) knowledge , learned , pious
matimaan (nom. sg. m.): mfn. clever , intelligent , wise
mati: f. the mind , perception , understanding , intelligence , sense , judgement
kul'-odgataH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. sprung from a noble family
kula: n. a race , family , community , tribe , caste ; the residence of a family , seat of a community ; a noble or eminent family or race
udgata: mfn. gone up , risen , ascended ; come forth
paramasya (gen. sg. m.): the highest, best, supreme
prashamasya (gen. sg.): m. calmness , tranquillity (esp. of mind) , quiet , rest , cessation , extinction , abatement
bhaajanam (nom. sg. m.): n. " partaker of " , a recipient , receptacle , (esp.) a vessel , pot ; n. a place or person in which anything is collected or in whom any quality is conspicuous , any fit object or clever or deserving person
upagamya = abs. upa- √ gam: to go near to , arrive at ; to undertake , begin ; to enter any state or relation , undergo , obtain , participate in , make choice of , suffer ; to admit , agree to , allow , confess
yathaa tathaa: ind. in whatever manner, in any way
punar: ind. again
na: not
hi: for
bhettum = infinitive bhid: to split , cleave , break , cut or rend asunder , pierce , destroy
niyamam (acc. sg.): m. restraining , checking , holding back , preventing , controlling ; limitation , restriction ; any fixed rule or law , necessity , obligation ; agreement , contract , promise , vow ;
tvam (nom. sg. m.): you
arhasi = 2nd pers. sg. arh: to deserve, ought
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.55: The Striver's Dual Pessimism
tad avetya manaH-sariirayor
vanitaa doShavatiir visheShataH
capalaM bhavan'-otsukaM manaH
pratisaMkhyaana-balena vaaryataaM
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.55
So reckon women, in mind and in body,
To be singularly implicated with faults;
And hold back, using this arithmetic,
Your impulsively homeward-straining mind.
COMMENT:
Having considered firstly the putative faults of women’s minds and secondly the putative faults of women’s bodies, now the striver brings together the two strands of his dualistic argument. In so doing, he is appealing primarily (though hardly with unimpeachable logic) to Nanda’s intellect or his reason -- i.e. that part of Nanda’s mind that is able to compute 2 + 2 = 4.
The striver’s approach, which does not have the desired effect, is different from the Buddha’s ultimately successful approach in at least two ways. Firstly, the Buddha relies on more than words and reason: he is able to give Nanda an eye-opening experience. Secondly, when the Buddha does appeal to Nanda’s reason, the Buddha’s reasoning is unimpeachable, not flawed like the striver's.
In line 2, when the striver describes women as doShavatiir visheShataH, "singularly implicated with faults," how does the striver's logic add up? How is his thinking reasonable? Why does he think that women are more implicated with faults than men?
Truly speaking, what is singularly implicated with faults? Ashvaghosha's joke, which the striver singularly fails to get, is that what is singularly implicated with faults is striving itself.
The main purpose of all my blogging these past several years has been to let fellow strivers know that there is an antidote to striving, which is allowing. I practise it (albeit not very well) primarily by sitting in lotus on a round cushion. But there are many other ways -- my brother, for example, practises and teaches it in the water, calling his practice Swimming Without Stress.
One can sit on a round cushion holding oneself up forcibly. This approach may result in the kind of posture that feels good and strikes the slumping masses as impressively good, but it is liable to cause the respiratory mechanism to be held back or restricted. So one can practise abdominal breathing as a counter-measure, keeping one's ribs relatively fixed and moving the diaphragm up and down deliberately. That is how I used to sit. It is a kind of striving, or straining -- different from truly allowing.
Truly to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils is not a function only of the nostrils, nor is it a function only of the respiratory mechanism. Truly to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils is to allow every part of the body to expand away from every other part, like every star in the sky expanding away from its neighbour in accordance with the true Law, the original Buddha-Dharma, aka the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
In Japanese Zen Buddhism, striving is the usual way. Kodo Sawaki's youngest disciple, the late Tsunemasa Abe, used to say NINGEN WA KIBARU, "Human beings strain" -- but to tell the truth Abe Sensei himself was also a bit of a striver. And my original teacher Gudo Nishijima was even more of a striver. That's for damn sure, with his pulling in the chin to keep the neck-bones straight, and all the rest of it.
In religions generally, striving is the usual way. Fixing is the usual way.
Allowing is a better way. For this reason, I think, the Buddha spoke to Nanda of shreyas, "a better way." So far I have been translating shreyas as "higher good." But a better way might be to translate shreyas as "a better way."
EH Johnston:
Therefore you should understand women to be especially full of faults of mind and body, and should restrain by the force of insight your hasty mind which yearns to go home.
Linda Covill:
So understand women to be especially flawed in mind and body, and use the strength of this recollection to hold back your roving mind which longs for home!
VOCABULARY:
tad: ind. so, therefore
avetya = gerundive ava-√i: to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know
manaH-sariirayoH (gen. dual. n.): mind and body
manas: n. mind
sariira: n. the body
vanitaaH (acc. pl.): f. women
doShavatiiH (acc. pl. f.): mfn. having faults , faulty , defective , blemished ; connected with crime or guilt , sinful , wicked ; noxious , dangerous
visheShataH: ind. especially , particularly , above all
capalam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. moving to and fro , shaking , trembling , unsteady , wavering ; wanton , fickle , inconstant
bhavan'-otsukam (acc. sg. n.): eager for home
bhavana: n. a place of abode , mansion , home , house
utsuka: mfn. anxiously desirous , zealously active , striving or making exertions for any object ; eager for ; attached to
manaH (acc. sg.): n. mind
pratisaMkhyaana-balena (inst. sg.): by dint of this arithmetic
pratisaMkhyaana: n. the tranquil consideration of a matter
prati-saM- √ khyaa to count or reckon up , number
bala: n. power, force, strength (balena ifc. by force , by the power or on the strength or in virtue or by means of , by)
vaaryataam = 3rd pers. sg. imperative causative vR: to stop , check , restrain , suppress , hinder , prevent , withold
vanitaa doShavatiir visheShataH
capalaM bhavan'-otsukaM manaH
pratisaMkhyaana-balena vaaryataaM
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.55
So reckon women, in mind and in body,
To be singularly implicated with faults;
And hold back, using this arithmetic,
Your impulsively homeward-straining mind.
COMMENT:
Having considered firstly the putative faults of women’s minds and secondly the putative faults of women’s bodies, now the striver brings together the two strands of his dualistic argument. In so doing, he is appealing primarily (though hardly with unimpeachable logic) to Nanda’s intellect or his reason -- i.e. that part of Nanda’s mind that is able to compute 2 + 2 = 4.
The striver’s approach, which does not have the desired effect, is different from the Buddha’s ultimately successful approach in at least two ways. Firstly, the Buddha relies on more than words and reason: he is able to give Nanda an eye-opening experience. Secondly, when the Buddha does appeal to Nanda’s reason, the Buddha’s reasoning is unimpeachable, not flawed like the striver's.
In line 2, when the striver describes women as doShavatiir visheShataH, "singularly implicated with faults," how does the striver's logic add up? How is his thinking reasonable? Why does he think that women are more implicated with faults than men?
Truly speaking, what is singularly implicated with faults? Ashvaghosha's joke, which the striver singularly fails to get, is that what is singularly implicated with faults is striving itself.
The main purpose of all my blogging these past several years has been to let fellow strivers know that there is an antidote to striving, which is allowing. I practise it (albeit not very well) primarily by sitting in lotus on a round cushion. But there are many other ways -- my brother, for example, practises and teaches it in the water, calling his practice Swimming Without Stress.
One can sit on a round cushion holding oneself up forcibly. This approach may result in the kind of posture that feels good and strikes the slumping masses as impressively good, but it is liable to cause the respiratory mechanism to be held back or restricted. So one can practise abdominal breathing as a counter-measure, keeping one's ribs relatively fixed and moving the diaphragm up and down deliberately. That is how I used to sit. It is a kind of striving, or straining -- different from truly allowing.
Truly to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils is not a function only of the nostrils, nor is it a function only of the respiratory mechanism. Truly to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils is to allow every part of the body to expand away from every other part, like every star in the sky expanding away from its neighbour in accordance with the true Law, the original Buddha-Dharma, aka the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
In Japanese Zen Buddhism, striving is the usual way. Kodo Sawaki's youngest disciple, the late Tsunemasa Abe, used to say NINGEN WA KIBARU, "Human beings strain" -- but to tell the truth Abe Sensei himself was also a bit of a striver. And my original teacher Gudo Nishijima was even more of a striver. That's for damn sure, with his pulling in the chin to keep the neck-bones straight, and all the rest of it.
In religions generally, striving is the usual way. Fixing is the usual way.
Allowing is a better way. For this reason, I think, the Buddha spoke to Nanda of shreyas, "a better way." So far I have been translating shreyas as "higher good." But a better way might be to translate shreyas as "a better way."
EH Johnston:
Therefore you should understand women to be especially full of faults of mind and body, and should restrain by the force of insight your hasty mind which yearns to go home.
Linda Covill:
So understand women to be especially flawed in mind and body, and use the strength of this recollection to hold back your roving mind which longs for home!
VOCABULARY:
tad: ind. so, therefore
avetya = gerundive ava-√i: to perceive , conceive , understand , learn , know
manaH-sariirayoH (gen. dual. n.): mind and body
manas: n. mind
sariira: n. the body
vanitaaH (acc. pl.): f. women
doShavatiiH (acc. pl. f.): mfn. having faults , faulty , defective , blemished ; connected with crime or guilt , sinful , wicked ; noxious , dangerous
visheShataH: ind. especially , particularly , above all
capalam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. moving to and fro , shaking , trembling , unsteady , wavering ; wanton , fickle , inconstant
bhavan'-otsukam (acc. sg. n.): eager for home
bhavana: n. a place of abode , mansion , home , house
utsuka: mfn. anxiously desirous , zealously active , striving or making exertions for any object ; eager for ; attached to
manaH (acc. sg.): n. mind
pratisaMkhyaana-balena (inst. sg.): by dint of this arithmetic
pratisaMkhyaana: n. the tranquil consideration of a matter
prati-saM- √ khyaa to count or reckon up , number
bala: n. power, force, strength (balena ifc. by force , by the power or on the strength or in virtue or by means of , by)
vaaryataam = 3rd pers. sg. imperative causative vR: to stop , check , restrain , suppress , hinder , prevent , withold
Monday, March 21, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.54: Failing to See a Woman's Original Nature
shubhataam ashubeShu kalpayan
nakha-danta-tvaca-kesha-romasu
avicakShaNa kiM na pashyasi
prakRtiM ca prabhavaM ca yoShitaaM
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - -
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.54
You are inventing beauty
In nails, teeth, skin, and hair long and short,
which are not beautiful.
Dullard! Do you not see
What women originally are made of
and what they originally are?
COMMENT:
The striver's use here of the causative kalpayat from the root √klRp appears to be connected with the Buddha's use in Canto 13 of parikalpa, also from the root √klRp.
In five pivotal verses in Canto 13 I have translated parikalpa using the first definition of the word that the dictionary gives, which is fixing. Hence:
And yet the power of the senses, though operative, need not become glued to an object, / So long as in the mind, with regard to that object, no fixing goes on. // Where fuel and air co-exist, just as there a fire burns, / With an object and through fixing, so a fire of affliction arises. //For by the unreal means of fixing, one is bound to an object; / Seeing that very same object as it really is, one is set free. // On seeing one and the same form, this man is enamoured, that man disgusted; / Somebody else remains indifferent; while yet another feels thereto a human warmth. // Thus, an object is not the cause of bondage or of liberation; / It is due to specifically to fixing that sticking occurs or does not.// [13.49 - 13.54]
The dictionary also defines parikalpa (as a technical Buddhist term) as illusion, i.e. imagining, inventing. Hence:
And yet the power of the senses, though operative, need not become glued to an object, / So long as in the mind, with regard to that object, no imagining goes on. // Where fuel and air co-exist, just as there a fire burns, / With an object and through imagining, so a fire of affliction arises. // For by the unreal means of imagining, one is bound to an object; / Seeing that very same object as it really is, one is set free. // On seeing one and the same form, this man is enamoured, that man disgusted; / Somebody else remains indifferent; while yet another feels thereto a human warmth. // Thus, an object is not the cause of bondage or of liberation; / It is due to specifically to imagining that sticking occurs or does not.// [13.49 - 13.54]
Either of these versions makes sense. But which one is better?
Regular watchers of Harry Hill's TV Burp will at this point be inwardly shouting "FIGHT!"
In order to decide which version is better, one needs to sit back and reflect on the story of Saundara-nanda as a whole. By taking Nanda to see the most delectable nymphs in heaven, is it that the Buddha causes Nanda to stop imagining women to be beautiful and instead to see women as inherently ugly? Or is it rather that the Buddha causes Nanda to give up an idea about heaven?
Again, when a man gives up an idea, is the giving up a function of the imaginative aspect of his being, his top two inches? Or is the giving up a function of his whole being?
And before a person gives up an idea, how does a person get stuck? How does a person become bound to an object?
Is getting stuck a function of the whole being? Or is getting stuck a function of the imaginative part of the brain, the top-two inches?
Speaking for myself, when I get stuck I don't do it by half measures. I get well and truly stuck with my whole being.
So on the basis of that oft-repeated experience, which may be rooted in immature fear reflexes, I think that even if the striver seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet as the Buddha, he truly isn't.
In the striver's teaching, the original stuff of a woman is something ugly. In the Buddha's teaching, the original stuff of a woman is the Buddha-nature.
Fight?
Nah. It wouldn't be any kind of contest.
EH Johnston:
The purity you see in nails, teeth, skin and hair which are impure is nothing but imagination on your part. Do you not see, you simpleton, the real nature and origin of woman?
Linda Covill:
You are imagining a pure beauty in impure nails, teeth, skin and long hair. You blind fool, can't you see the natural state of women and what they come from?
VOCABULARY:
shubhataam (acc. sg. f.): beauty, purity
shubha: mfn. splendid , bright , beautiful ; auspicious ; agreeable ; pure
- taa: (abstract noun suffix)
ashubeShu (loc. pl. n.): mfn. not beautiful or agreeable , disagreeable ; inauspicious ; impure
kalpayat = nom./acc. sg. m. causative pres. part. klRp: to set in order; to fix ; to frame , form , invent , compose (as a poem &c ) , imagine
nakha-danta-tvaca-kesha-romasu (loc. pl.): in nails, teeth, skin, and hair long and short
nakha: nails
danta: teeth
tvaca: skin
kesha: m. the hair of the head
roman: n. the hair on the body of men and animals , (esp.) short hair , bristles , wool , down , nap &c (less properly applicable to the long hair on the head and beard of men , and to that of the mane and tail of animals)
avicakShaNa (voc. sg.): mfn. not discerning , not clever , ignorant
vicakShaNa: mfn. bright; clear-sighted (lit. and fig.) , sagacious , clever , wise , experienced
kiM na: how not?
pashyasi = 2nd pers. sg. pash: to see
prakRtim (acc. sg.): f. " making or placing before or at first " , the original or natural form or condition of anything ; nature , character , constitution , temper , disposition
ca: and
prabhavam (acc. sg.): m. production , source , origin , cause of existence, birthplace
ca: and
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. woman
nakha-danta-tvaca-kesha-romasu
avicakShaNa kiM na pashyasi
prakRtiM ca prabhavaM ca yoShitaaM
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - -
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.54
You are inventing beauty
In nails, teeth, skin, and hair long and short,
which are not beautiful.
Dullard! Do you not see
What women originally are made of
and what they originally are?
COMMENT:
The striver's use here of the causative kalpayat from the root √klRp appears to be connected with the Buddha's use in Canto 13 of parikalpa, also from the root √klRp.
In five pivotal verses in Canto 13 I have translated parikalpa using the first definition of the word that the dictionary gives, which is fixing. Hence:
And yet the power of the senses, though operative, need not become glued to an object, / So long as in the mind, with regard to that object, no fixing goes on. // Where fuel and air co-exist, just as there a fire burns, / With an object and through fixing, so a fire of affliction arises. //For by the unreal means of fixing, one is bound to an object; / Seeing that very same object as it really is, one is set free. // On seeing one and the same form, this man is enamoured, that man disgusted; / Somebody else remains indifferent; while yet another feels thereto a human warmth. // Thus, an object is not the cause of bondage or of liberation; / It is due to specifically to fixing that sticking occurs or does not.// [13.49 - 13.54]
The dictionary also defines parikalpa (as a technical Buddhist term) as illusion, i.e. imagining, inventing. Hence:
And yet the power of the senses, though operative, need not become glued to an object, / So long as in the mind, with regard to that object, no imagining goes on. // Where fuel and air co-exist, just as there a fire burns, / With an object and through imagining, so a fire of affliction arises. // For by the unreal means of imagining, one is bound to an object; / Seeing that very same object as it really is, one is set free. // On seeing one and the same form, this man is enamoured, that man disgusted; / Somebody else remains indifferent; while yet another feels thereto a human warmth. // Thus, an object is not the cause of bondage or of liberation; / It is due to specifically to imagining that sticking occurs or does not.// [13.49 - 13.54]
Either of these versions makes sense. But which one is better?
Regular watchers of Harry Hill's TV Burp will at this point be inwardly shouting "FIGHT!"
In order to decide which version is better, one needs to sit back and reflect on the story of Saundara-nanda as a whole. By taking Nanda to see the most delectable nymphs in heaven, is it that the Buddha causes Nanda to stop imagining women to be beautiful and instead to see women as inherently ugly? Or is it rather that the Buddha causes Nanda to give up an idea about heaven?
Again, when a man gives up an idea, is the giving up a function of the imaginative aspect of his being, his top two inches? Or is the giving up a function of his whole being?
And before a person gives up an idea, how does a person get stuck? How does a person become bound to an object?
Is getting stuck a function of the whole being? Or is getting stuck a function of the imaginative part of the brain, the top-two inches?
Speaking for myself, when I get stuck I don't do it by half measures. I get well and truly stuck with my whole being.
So on the basis of that oft-repeated experience, which may be rooted in immature fear reflexes, I think that even if the striver seems to be singing from the same hymn sheet as the Buddha, he truly isn't.
In the striver's teaching, the original stuff of a woman is something ugly. In the Buddha's teaching, the original stuff of a woman is the Buddha-nature.
Fight?
Nah. It wouldn't be any kind of contest.
EH Johnston:
The purity you see in nails, teeth, skin and hair which are impure is nothing but imagination on your part. Do you not see, you simpleton, the real nature and origin of woman?
Linda Covill:
You are imagining a pure beauty in impure nails, teeth, skin and long hair. You blind fool, can't you see the natural state of women and what they come from?
VOCABULARY:
shubhataam (acc. sg. f.): beauty, purity
shubha: mfn. splendid , bright , beautiful ; auspicious ; agreeable ; pure
- taa: (abstract noun suffix)
ashubeShu (loc. pl. n.): mfn. not beautiful or agreeable , disagreeable ; inauspicious ; impure
kalpayat = nom./acc. sg. m. causative pres. part. klRp: to set in order; to fix ; to frame , form , invent , compose (as a poem &c ) , imagine
nakha-danta-tvaca-kesha-romasu (loc. pl.): in nails, teeth, skin, and hair long and short
nakha: nails
danta: teeth
tvaca: skin
kesha: m. the hair of the head
roman: n. the hair on the body of men and animals , (esp.) short hair , bristles , wool , down , nap &c (less properly applicable to the long hair on the head and beard of men , and to that of the mane and tail of animals)
avicakShaNa (voc. sg.): mfn. not discerning , not clever , ignorant
vicakShaNa: mfn. bright; clear-sighted (lit. and fig.) , sagacious , clever , wise , experienced
kiM na: how not?
pashyasi = 2nd pers. sg. pash: to see
prakRtim (acc. sg.): f. " making or placing before or at first " , the original or natural form or condition of anything ; nature , character , constitution , temper , disposition
ca: and
prabhavam (acc. sg.): m. production , source , origin , cause of existence, birthplace
ca: and
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. woman
Sunday, March 20, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.53: The Striver Rabbits On about Bags of Skin and Bone
tvaca-veShTitaM asthi-paNjaraM
yadi kaayaM samavaiShi yoShitaaM
madanena ca kRShyase balaad
aghRNaH khalv a-dhRtish ca manmathaH
- - = - = = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.53
If you see women's bodies to be bony skeletons
Wrapped around with skin
And yet you are forcibly drawn by passion,
Then, truly,
Love is immune to disgust and lacking in restraint.
COMMENT:
Thirty years ago when, in preparation for going to Japan, I was doing an RSA Tefl course (on how to teach English as a foreign language), we were taught not to engage in a practice known as "rabbitting." The origin of the term was an incident when a trainee teacher had asked a young Japanese bloke to repeat the word "rabbit."
"Labbit," said the Japanese youngster.
"Rrrabbit" intoned the trainee teacher, rolling the R.
"Labbit" repeated the student, undaunted.
"Rrrrrabbit!!" the teacher persevered.
"Labbit" repeated the unfortunate young man.
"Rrrrrrabbit!!!" the exasperated teacher continued... and so on.
The teacher was following the time-honoured method of one who, on seeing that his efforts are not bearing fruit, simply tries harder. What the teacher needed to understand was the principle that the voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear, and since there is no distinction between L and R in Japanese, the pupil could not hear what he was being asked to repeat. A more enlightened teacher would not therefore have persevered with the direct method, but would have considered a more skillful means -- for example, playing a game to help the pupil discriminate between grass and glass, loving and rubbing, crown and clown, and so on...
"Give me all your loving, all your hugs and kisses too"?
Or
"Give me all your rubbing, all your hugs and kisses too"?
To a Japanese ear, there isn't any difference... But I am in danger of digressing frivolously.
The serious point is that what the striver is doing in this verse, as I hear him, is rabbitting. Nanda has no ears to hear what the striver is saying, but the striver is carrying on regardless.
This kind of unenlightened striving is not the kind of mistake I myself would ever make -- at least not for more than ten or twenty years.
The Buddha's teaching requires us to learn to re-direct our energy -- in Dogen's words "to learn the backward step of turning our light and letting it shine." This is not a task for a faint-hearted or (note to self) silly person. It requires a lot of effort, persistent effort.
But the kind of effort required is not the relentless grim determination of the striver.
This morning, as every morning, I sit in lotus on a round cushion for an hour, and it is an excellent space to come back to the question of what it means to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils.
What does it mean to allow?
It is impossible to say what it means to allow.
But counting the breaths, or abdominal breathing, or any kind of effort to control the breathing directly, or any other kind of striving for a result, is not it.
So let it not be said that this Canto is irrelevant to the one great matter. If we truly understand the character of Ashvaghosha's striver, we understand exactly how not to sit. And that might be understanding worth having. That might be understanding worth making into one's own possession.
EH Johnston:
If you understand the body of a woman to be a framework of bones enveloped in skin and yet you are forcibly attracted by love, then indeed love is incapable of disgust and lacking in steadfastness.
Linda Covill:
If you know in theory that women's bodies are cages of bone wrapped round with skin, but are still strongly moved by lust, then Passion must indeed lack delicacy and constancy.
VOCABULARY:
tvaca-veShTitam (acc. sg. m.): wrapped round with skin
tvaca: n. skin
veShTita: mfn. enveloped , bound round , wrapped up , enclosed; covered with
asthi-paNjaram (acc. sg. n.): a bony skeleton
asthi: n. a bone
paNjara: n. a cage , aviary , dove-cot , net ; a skeleton , the ribs
yadi: if
kaayam (acc. sg.): m. the body
samavaiShi = 2nd pers. sg. sam-ava-√i: to regard, see
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. woman
madanena (inst. sg.): m. passion , love or the god of love
ca: and
kRShyase = 2nd pers. sg. passive kRSh: to draw , draw to one's self , drag
balaat (= abl. baala, strength): forcibly , against one's will , without being able to help it
aghRNaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. lacking in compassion or disgust
ghRNaa: f. a warm feeling towards others , compassion , tenderness ; horror, disgust
khalu: ind. (as a particle of asseveration) indeed , verily , certainly , truly
a-dhRtiH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. unsteady, irregular
dhRti: f. holding , seizing , keeping , supporting , firmness , constancy , resolution ;
a-dhRti: f. want of firmness or fortitude ; laxity , absence of control or restraint ; incontinence
ca: and
manmathaH (nom. sg.): m. love or the god of love , amorous passion or desire
yadi kaayaM samavaiShi yoShitaaM
madanena ca kRShyase balaad
aghRNaH khalv a-dhRtish ca manmathaH
- - = - = = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.53
If you see women's bodies to be bony skeletons
Wrapped around with skin
And yet you are forcibly drawn by passion,
Then, truly,
Love is immune to disgust and lacking in restraint.
COMMENT:
Thirty years ago when, in preparation for going to Japan, I was doing an RSA Tefl course (on how to teach English as a foreign language), we were taught not to engage in a practice known as "rabbitting." The origin of the term was an incident when a trainee teacher had asked a young Japanese bloke to repeat the word "rabbit."
"Labbit," said the Japanese youngster.
"Rrrabbit" intoned the trainee teacher, rolling the R.
"Labbit" repeated the student, undaunted.
"Rrrrrabbit!!" the teacher persevered.
"Labbit" repeated the unfortunate young man.
"Rrrrrrabbit!!!" the exasperated teacher continued... and so on.
The teacher was following the time-honoured method of one who, on seeing that his efforts are not bearing fruit, simply tries harder. What the teacher needed to understand was the principle that the voice can only reproduce what the ear can hear, and since there is no distinction between L and R in Japanese, the pupil could not hear what he was being asked to repeat. A more enlightened teacher would not therefore have persevered with the direct method, but would have considered a more skillful means -- for example, playing a game to help the pupil discriminate between grass and glass, loving and rubbing, crown and clown, and so on...
"Give me all your loving, all your hugs and kisses too"?
Or
"Give me all your rubbing, all your hugs and kisses too"?
To a Japanese ear, there isn't any difference... But I am in danger of digressing frivolously.
The serious point is that what the striver is doing in this verse, as I hear him, is rabbitting. Nanda has no ears to hear what the striver is saying, but the striver is carrying on regardless.
This kind of unenlightened striving is not the kind of mistake I myself would ever make -- at least not for more than ten or twenty years.
The Buddha's teaching requires us to learn to re-direct our energy -- in Dogen's words "to learn the backward step of turning our light and letting it shine." This is not a task for a faint-hearted or (note to self) silly person. It requires a lot of effort, persistent effort.
But the kind of effort required is not the relentless grim determination of the striver.
This morning, as every morning, I sit in lotus on a round cushion for an hour, and it is an excellent space to come back to the question of what it means to allow the breath to pass through the nostrils.
What does it mean to allow?
It is impossible to say what it means to allow.
But counting the breaths, or abdominal breathing, or any kind of effort to control the breathing directly, or any other kind of striving for a result, is not it.
So let it not be said that this Canto is irrelevant to the one great matter. If we truly understand the character of Ashvaghosha's striver, we understand exactly how not to sit. And that might be understanding worth having. That might be understanding worth making into one's own possession.
EH Johnston:
If you understand the body of a woman to be a framework of bones enveloped in skin and yet you are forcibly attracted by love, then indeed love is incapable of disgust and lacking in steadfastness.
Linda Covill:
If you know in theory that women's bodies are cages of bone wrapped round with skin, but are still strongly moved by lust, then Passion must indeed lack delicacy and constancy.
VOCABULARY:
tvaca-veShTitam (acc. sg. m.): wrapped round with skin
tvaca: n. skin
veShTita: mfn. enveloped , bound round , wrapped up , enclosed; covered with
asthi-paNjaram (acc. sg. n.): a bony skeleton
asthi: n. a bone
paNjara: n. a cage , aviary , dove-cot , net ; a skeleton , the ribs
yadi: if
kaayam (acc. sg.): m. the body
samavaiShi = 2nd pers. sg. sam-ava-√i: to regard, see
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. woman
madanena (inst. sg.): m. passion , love or the god of love
ca: and
kRShyase = 2nd pers. sg. passive kRSh: to draw , draw to one's self , drag
balaat (= abl. baala, strength): forcibly , against one's will , without being able to help it
aghRNaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. lacking in compassion or disgust
ghRNaa: f. a warm feeling towards others , compassion , tenderness ; horror, disgust
khalu: ind. (as a particle of asseveration) indeed , verily , certainly , truly
a-dhRtiH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. unsteady, irregular
dhRti: f. holding , seizing , keeping , supporting , firmness , constancy , resolution ;
a-dhRti: f. want of firmness or fortitude ; laxity , absence of control or restraint ; incontinence
ca: and
manmathaH (nom. sg.): m. love or the god of love , amorous passion or desire
Saturday, March 19, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.52: Like a Scantily Clad Old Bucket
sravatiim ashuciM spRshec ca kaH
saghRNo jarjara-bhaaNDavat striyaM
yadi kevalayaa tvac" aavRtaa
na bhaven makShika-pattra-maatrayaa
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.52
What man capable of disgust would touch a woman,
Leaking and unclean like an old bucket,
If she were not scantily clad
In skin as thin as a flying insect's wing?
COMMENT:
There's something about the striver's way with words -- something of the gruff old Yorkshireman -- that one can't help smiling at. One can imagine a story-teller reciting Ashvaghosha's epic tale to families gathered around a fire in an ancient Indian village, as menfolk suppress sniggers and guffaws and some among the assembled women roll their eyes.
Good though the striver's words may sound, however, his logic when it is examined does not stand up to scrutiny. Who would touch a beautiful woman if she had no skin? One might as well ask, about any old master painting, who would want to look at it if its paint were scratched off. Or, about a piece of music by Mozart, who would want to listen to it if it were played by a drunk blowing an out of tune mouth organ. Or, about a delicious meal, who would want to eat it if it were served on a filthy plate.
The striver is striving to kill Nanda's passion by direct means. But these unskillful means of the striver do not have the desired effect on Nanda's mind.
The Buddha, in contrast, as Ashvaghosha describes in Canto 10, actively foments passion in Nanda's mind -- just as, in washing our laundry we add to our dirty clothes an impure substance like Daz, not in order to make the clothes dirtier but in order to encourage any dirt on clothes to come out in the wash. These are the indirect, skillful means of the Buddha, which pass the pragmatic test of truth: they work.
When Buddha thus intuits what is to be done, and does it, the essence of Buddha is the absence of something which is present in striving.
Striving is tainted by some agenda which prevents action from having an easy, effortless quality. Thus, on the physical level, striving hampers good coordination. On the emotional level, because it is tied up with a desire to feel right, or a desire to get things right, striving tends to manifest itself in emotional criticism of others or indeed blaming of oneself.
The very excellent mirror of the striver is one of the jewels in the crowning glory which is Saundara-nanda. Considering how truly excellent Ashvaghosha's teaching is, I wonder why this blog doesn't attract more visitors. Is it perhaps because, I can't help wondering, I am making a pig's ear of translating it and commenting on it -- like an unmusical person striving to play Mozart on a mouth organ?
In order fully to enjoy the samadhi of accepting and using the self it might not always be necessary to feel disgusted by women's bodies. But it might be necessary, for some of us, to make friends with the striver.
EH Johnston:
What man capable of feeling disgust would touch a woman, oozing and foul like a broken pot, if it were not for the mere covering of skin no thicker than a fly's wing?
Linda Covill:
What sensitive man would touch a woman, leaking and unclean like an old box, if she were not covered in skin, thin as a fly's wing though it is?
VOCABULARY:
sravatiim = acc. sg. f. pres. part. sru: to flow , stream , gush forth , issue ; to leak , trickle
ashucim (acc. sg. f.): mfn. impure, foul
spRshet = 3rd pers. sg. optative spRsh: to touch , feel with the hand , lay the hand on
ca: and
kaH (nom. sg. m.): who? what man?
sa-ghRNaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. full of pity , compassionate ; tender of feeling , delicate , scrupulous ; disliking , abhorring
ghRNaa: f. a warm feeling towards others , compassion , tenderness ; aversion ; disgust
jarjara-bhaaNDa-vat: ind. like an old box
jarjara: mfn. infirm , decrepit , decayed , torn or broken in pieces , perforated
bhaaNDa: n. any vessel , pot , dish , pail , vat , box , case
vat: (affix expressing resemblance) like
striyam (acc. sg. f.): a woman
yadi: if
kevalayaa (inst. sg. f.): mfn. alone , only , mere , sole , one , excluding others; simple , pure , uncompounded , unmingled ; entire, whole
tvacaa (inst. sg.): f. skin
aavRtaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. covered , concealed , hid ; screened ; enclosed ; overspread
na: not
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. optative bhuu: to be
makShika-pattra-maatrayaa (inst. sg. f.): as thin as a fly's wing
makShika: a fly , bee
pattra: n. wing
maatra: mfn. (ifc.) having the measure of i.e. as large or high or long or broad or deep
saghRNo jarjara-bhaaNDavat striyaM
yadi kevalayaa tvac" aavRtaa
na bhaven makShika-pattra-maatrayaa
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.52
What man capable of disgust would touch a woman,
Leaking and unclean like an old bucket,
If she were not scantily clad
In skin as thin as a flying insect's wing?
COMMENT:
There's something about the striver's way with words -- something of the gruff old Yorkshireman -- that one can't help smiling at. One can imagine a story-teller reciting Ashvaghosha's epic tale to families gathered around a fire in an ancient Indian village, as menfolk suppress sniggers and guffaws and some among the assembled women roll their eyes.
Good though the striver's words may sound, however, his logic when it is examined does not stand up to scrutiny. Who would touch a beautiful woman if she had no skin? One might as well ask, about any old master painting, who would want to look at it if its paint were scratched off. Or, about a piece of music by Mozart, who would want to listen to it if it were played by a drunk blowing an out of tune mouth organ. Or, about a delicious meal, who would want to eat it if it were served on a filthy plate.
The striver is striving to kill Nanda's passion by direct means. But these unskillful means of the striver do not have the desired effect on Nanda's mind.
The Buddha, in contrast, as Ashvaghosha describes in Canto 10, actively foments passion in Nanda's mind -- just as, in washing our laundry we add to our dirty clothes an impure substance like Daz, not in order to make the clothes dirtier but in order to encourage any dirt on clothes to come out in the wash. These are the indirect, skillful means of the Buddha, which pass the pragmatic test of truth: they work.
When Buddha thus intuits what is to be done, and does it, the essence of Buddha is the absence of something which is present in striving.
Striving is tainted by some agenda which prevents action from having an easy, effortless quality. Thus, on the physical level, striving hampers good coordination. On the emotional level, because it is tied up with a desire to feel right, or a desire to get things right, striving tends to manifest itself in emotional criticism of others or indeed blaming of oneself.
The very excellent mirror of the striver is one of the jewels in the crowning glory which is Saundara-nanda. Considering how truly excellent Ashvaghosha's teaching is, I wonder why this blog doesn't attract more visitors. Is it perhaps because, I can't help wondering, I am making a pig's ear of translating it and commenting on it -- like an unmusical person striving to play Mozart on a mouth organ?
In order fully to enjoy the samadhi of accepting and using the self it might not always be necessary to feel disgusted by women's bodies. But it might be necessary, for some of us, to make friends with the striver.
EH Johnston:
What man capable of feeling disgust would touch a woman, oozing and foul like a broken pot, if it were not for the mere covering of skin no thicker than a fly's wing?
Linda Covill:
What sensitive man would touch a woman, leaking and unclean like an old box, if she were not covered in skin, thin as a fly's wing though it is?
VOCABULARY:
sravatiim = acc. sg. f. pres. part. sru: to flow , stream , gush forth , issue ; to leak , trickle
ashucim (acc. sg. f.): mfn. impure, foul
spRshet = 3rd pers. sg. optative spRsh: to touch , feel with the hand , lay the hand on
ca: and
kaH (nom. sg. m.): who? what man?
sa-ghRNaH (nom. sg. m.): mfn. full of pity , compassionate ; tender of feeling , delicate , scrupulous ; disliking , abhorring
ghRNaa: f. a warm feeling towards others , compassion , tenderness ; aversion ; disgust
jarjara-bhaaNDa-vat: ind. like an old box
jarjara: mfn. infirm , decrepit , decayed , torn or broken in pieces , perforated
bhaaNDa: n. any vessel , pot , dish , pail , vat , box , case
vat: (affix expressing resemblance) like
striyam (acc. sg. f.): a woman
yadi: if
kevalayaa (inst. sg. f.): mfn. alone , only , mere , sole , one , excluding others; simple , pure , uncompounded , unmingled ; entire, whole
tvacaa (inst. sg.): f. skin
aavRtaa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. covered , concealed , hid ; screened ; enclosed ; overspread
na: not
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. optative bhuu: to be
makShika-pattra-maatrayaa (inst. sg. f.): as thin as a fly's wing
makShika: a fly , bee
pattra: n. wing
maatra: mfn. (ifc.) having the measure of i.e. as large or high or long or broad or deep
Friday, March 18, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.51: A Striver Doubts the Beauty of Beauty
malapaNka-dharaa dig-ambaraa
prakRti-sthair nakha-danta-romabhiH
yadi saa tava sundarii bhaven
niyataM te' dya na sundarii bhavet
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.51
Dirty and unclothed,
With nails, teeth and body-hair in their natural state:
If your 'Beautiful Woman' Sundari were like that now,
She surely would not be to you such a beautiful woman.
COMMENT:
What the striver is trying now might somehow be related to the instruction that the Buddha gives Nanda in Canto 16 about how a practitioner is to respond when his or her mind is inflamed by sexual desire:
Steadiness lies, when one's mind is stirred up by passion, in coming back to a disagreeable stimulus; / For thus a passionate type obtains relief, like a phlegmatic type taking an astringent. // [16.60]
What is or isn't disagreeable, however, is very much an individual matter. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When it comes to what is beautiful or disagreeable, we cannot draw general conclusions. But what we can say in relation to the striver's efforts in today's verse, which are aimed specifically at Nanda, is that the striver's tactic did not work. Hence:
Though the beggar reproached him thus, he in no way attained tranquility with regard to his beloved; / Nanda thought of her so much that he did not hear, as if he were unconscious, a word the other said.// [9.1]
For Nanda, no thought of Sundari was disagreeable. Sometimes, when we stop striving to batter the Buddha's teaching as we understand it into every problem, and look at the reality, the reality of a man's mind is like that.
For Nanda what was really disagreeable was the impermanence of heaven. So the Buddha, using skillful means, showed Nanda how impermanent heaven was. Nanda was really shocked, and out of this shock a period of real growth began.
Many people in Japan right now are in real trouble. In this situation, what has the Buddha's teaching got to offer them?
One Zen teacher I know has said it would be good if Soto Zen temples were opened to the public and people given instruction in how to practise Zazen. Sadly, this teacher does not know much about the reality of Japan and his idea, as I hear it, is on the same level as the striver's idea.
Japanese people are extremely good at being told what to do, so long as they trust the Sensei ("the one who stands before them") who is doing the telling. A true Sensei, however, doesn't just tell his followers en masse what to do; he causes each of them, as an individual, to think for themselves. And sadly, there has been no such Sensei in Japan for a very long time -- maybe 800 years. Maybe never.
When I compare the teaching of Ashvaghosha and Dogen, in some sense there is nothing to compare -- the two teachers don't represent two schools of teaching, but just one lineage that goes back to the Buddha. At the same time, Dogen was Japanese, whereas Ashvaghosha -- geographically, and also as I read his teaching -- was much further towards the west.
On an individual level, many Japanese individuals are really kind, generous, loveable, orderly, reserved, modest, hard-working, and so on. But the Japanese System -- as brilliantly exposed 25 years ago in Karel von Wolferen's book The Enigma of Japanese Power -- leaves a lot to be desired.
Sadly, neither the teaching of Ashvaghosha nor of Dogen can help the Japanese people in their current predicament. But I wonder if it might be possible that one or two individual Japanese could be shocked into starting really to think things out for themselves, and really starting to help themselves.
Then the kind of movement towards greater democracy that we have seen developing in northern Africa we might also see in Japan. But some great Buddha figure dictating to the Japanese what they should do -- much as they might want that -- is not what they need.
EH Johnston:
Your Sundari certainly would not appear fair to you to-day if you were to see her covered with stains and mud, unclothed, with nails, teeth and hair in their natural (unadorned) state.
Linda Covill:
If your Sundari were naked, covered only by dust and mud, with her nails, teeth and hair in their natural state, she definitely wouldn't be beautiful Sundari for you then.
VOCABULARY:
malapaNka-dharaa: bearing filth and dirt
mala-paNka: m. dirt
mala: n. dirt , filth , dust , impurity (physical and moral)
paNka: m. mud , mire , dirt
dhara: mfn. ifc. holding , bearing , carrying , wearing , possessing , having
dig-ambaraa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. " sky clothed " i.e. quite naked
dish: f. quarter or region pointed at , direction ; place ; space ; sky
ambara: n. clothes , apparel , garment
prakRti-sthaiH (inst. spl.): in their natural state
prakRti: f. " making or placing before or at first " , the original or natural form or condition of anything
stha: mfn. (only ifc.) standing , staying , abiding , being situated in , existing or being in
nakha-danta-romabhiH (inst. spl.): nails, teeth, and body-hair
nakha: nails
danta: teeth
roman: n. the hair on the body of men and animals , (esp.) short hair , bristles
yadi: if
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
tava (gen. sg.): your
sundarii (nom. sg.): f. a beautiful woman , any woman; Sundari
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. opt. bhuu: to be
niyatam: ind. always , constantly , decidedly , inevitably , surely
te (gen. sg.): of/to you
adya: ind. now, today
na: not
sundarii (nom. sg.): f. a beautiful woman , any woman; Sundari
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. opt. bhuu: to be
prakRti-sthair nakha-danta-romabhiH
yadi saa tava sundarii bhaven
niyataM te' dya na sundarii bhavet
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
8.51
Dirty and unclothed,
With nails, teeth and body-hair in their natural state:
If your 'Beautiful Woman' Sundari were like that now,
She surely would not be to you such a beautiful woman.
COMMENT:
What the striver is trying now might somehow be related to the instruction that the Buddha gives Nanda in Canto 16 about how a practitioner is to respond when his or her mind is inflamed by sexual desire:
Steadiness lies, when one's mind is stirred up by passion, in coming back to a disagreeable stimulus; / For thus a passionate type obtains relief, like a phlegmatic type taking an astringent. // [16.60]
What is or isn't disagreeable, however, is very much an individual matter. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When it comes to what is beautiful or disagreeable, we cannot draw general conclusions. But what we can say in relation to the striver's efforts in today's verse, which are aimed specifically at Nanda, is that the striver's tactic did not work. Hence:
Though the beggar reproached him thus, he in no way attained tranquility with regard to his beloved; / Nanda thought of her so much that he did not hear, as if he were unconscious, a word the other said.// [9.1]
For Nanda, no thought of Sundari was disagreeable. Sometimes, when we stop striving to batter the Buddha's teaching as we understand it into every problem, and look at the reality, the reality of a man's mind is like that.
For Nanda what was really disagreeable was the impermanence of heaven. So the Buddha, using skillful means, showed Nanda how impermanent heaven was. Nanda was really shocked, and out of this shock a period of real growth began.
Many people in Japan right now are in real trouble. In this situation, what has the Buddha's teaching got to offer them?
One Zen teacher I know has said it would be good if Soto Zen temples were opened to the public and people given instruction in how to practise Zazen. Sadly, this teacher does not know much about the reality of Japan and his idea, as I hear it, is on the same level as the striver's idea.
Japanese people are extremely good at being told what to do, so long as they trust the Sensei ("the one who stands before them") who is doing the telling. A true Sensei, however, doesn't just tell his followers en masse what to do; he causes each of them, as an individual, to think for themselves. And sadly, there has been no such Sensei in Japan for a very long time -- maybe 800 years. Maybe never.
When I compare the teaching of Ashvaghosha and Dogen, in some sense there is nothing to compare -- the two teachers don't represent two schools of teaching, but just one lineage that goes back to the Buddha. At the same time, Dogen was Japanese, whereas Ashvaghosha -- geographically, and also as I read his teaching -- was much further towards the west.
On an individual level, many Japanese individuals are really kind, generous, loveable, orderly, reserved, modest, hard-working, and so on. But the Japanese System -- as brilliantly exposed 25 years ago in Karel von Wolferen's book The Enigma of Japanese Power -- leaves a lot to be desired.
Sadly, neither the teaching of Ashvaghosha nor of Dogen can help the Japanese people in their current predicament. But I wonder if it might be possible that one or two individual Japanese could be shocked into starting really to think things out for themselves, and really starting to help themselves.
Then the kind of movement towards greater democracy that we have seen developing in northern Africa we might also see in Japan. But some great Buddha figure dictating to the Japanese what they should do -- much as they might want that -- is not what they need.
EH Johnston:
Your Sundari certainly would not appear fair to you to-day if you were to see her covered with stains and mud, unclothed, with nails, teeth and hair in their natural (unadorned) state.
Linda Covill:
If your Sundari were naked, covered only by dust and mud, with her nails, teeth and hair in their natural state, she definitely wouldn't be beautiful Sundari for you then.
VOCABULARY:
malapaNka-dharaa: bearing filth and dirt
mala-paNka: m. dirt
mala: n. dirt , filth , dust , impurity (physical and moral)
paNka: m. mud , mire , dirt
dhara: mfn. ifc. holding , bearing , carrying , wearing , possessing , having
dig-ambaraa (nom. sg. f.): mfn. " sky clothed " i.e. quite naked
dish: f. quarter or region pointed at , direction ; place ; space ; sky
ambara: n. clothes , apparel , garment
prakRti-sthaiH (inst. spl.): in their natural state
prakRti: f. " making or placing before or at first " , the original or natural form or condition of anything
stha: mfn. (only ifc.) standing , staying , abiding , being situated in , existing or being in
nakha-danta-romabhiH (inst. spl.): nails, teeth, and body-hair
nakha: nails
danta: teeth
roman: n. the hair on the body of men and animals , (esp.) short hair , bristles
yadi: if
saa (nom. sg. f.): she
tava (gen. sg.): your
sundarii (nom. sg.): f. a beautiful woman , any woman; Sundari
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. opt. bhuu: to be
niyatam: ind. always , constantly , decidedly , inevitably , surely
te (gen. sg.): of/to you
adya: ind. now, today
na: not
sundarii (nom. sg.): f. a beautiful woman , any woman; Sundari
bhavet = 3rd pers. sg. opt. bhuu: to be
Thursday, March 17, 2011
SAUNDARANANDA 8.50: A Striver Doubts Original Purity
anulepanam aNjanaM srajo
maNi-muktaa-tapaniiyam aMshukaM
yadi saadhu kim atra yoShitaaM
sahajaM taasu viciiyataaM shuci
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - -
8.50
Cosmetic paste and powder, garlands,
Gems, pearls, gold, fine fabric:
If these are good, what have they to do with women?
Let us examine what in women is originally pure.
COMMENT:
Zen Master Dogen begins his rules for sitting-zen by asking, rhetorically:
Now when we investigate it, the truth is all around: how could it depend on practice and experience? The vehicle for the fundamental exists naturally: how is it necessary to strive?
According to my old Zen teacher, in these opening sentences Dogen expresses the fundamentally optimistic nature of Buddhism.
Nowadays I would take issue with that choice of words, including as it does the two -isms of optimism and Buddhism.
But I take my old teacher's fundamental point, which is that the Buddha's teaching is not pessimistic.
The striver, in contrast, is doggedly pessimistic, in his view of a woman's body no less than in his view of a woman's mind. In the striver's view, it seems, the original state of women's bodies is a dirty and unkempt state -- a state which women generally take pains to conceal.
The striver thus has a judgemental view of purity and impurity which is a function of his intellect, and not a function of practice.
Speaking from the standpoint of practice, Dogen observed that when we wash dirty clothes, we do so with dirty water. If you want to wash your dirty laundry in perfectly clean water, good luck to you, but you may find that as soon as you actually start washing, your clean water has already become impure, dirty water.
Similarly, we can use impure water like this to wash the face. Using impure water like this we can practice and experience washing as pure action -- whether our face is golden or white or red. Even if we do not know what colour face we have got this morning, it may be that just in a moment of waking up, as we wash the face in refreshing cold water, there is no impurity to get rid of.
The irony of today's verse, then, may be that the striver is asking us to investigate what we should investigate. And yet, in asking us to investigate what we should investigate, the striver seems to be almost totally ignorant of what he is asking.
When Gensa Shibi said that the whole Universe in ten directions was one bright pearl, he wasn't submitting a scientific hypothesis, still less a thesis for a Ph. D. in Buddhist studies. He was expressing, as a fact like the existence of the moon in the sky, his own attainment of what Ashvaghosha calls the nectar of deathlessness.
Evidently those of us who are still striving, and Gensa, are not on the same level at all. That being so, we needn't -- in the same breath as we discuss adjusting our posture in Zazen, and our concern for people in Japan suffering in the after-effects of earthquake and tsunami -- manifest fake Zen laughter as if we were Zen masters. Looking at old photos of Kodo Sawaki over the years, one thing I have never seen on his face is fake Zen laughter.
EH Johnston:
You may say that salves, ointments, garlands, jewels, pearls, gold and clothes are good, but what have they really to do with women? Consider what there is innate in them that is pure.
Linda Covill:
Ointments, cosmetics, garlands, jewels, pearls and gold, fine silks -- if these are good, what have they to do with women? Let's analyze their inherent purity:
VOCABULARY:
anulepanam (nom. sg.): n. anointing the body ; unguent so used ; oily or emollient application
anu- √ lip: to anoint, besmear
aNjanam (nom. sg.): n. act of applying an ointment or pigment , embellishing , &c , black pigment or collyrium applied to the eyelashes or the inner coat of the eyelids; n. a special kind of this pigment , as lamp-black , Antimony , extract of Ammonium
aNj: to apply an ointment or pigment , smear with , anoint
srajaH (nom. pl. f.): f. a wreath of flowers , garland , chaplet worn on the head
maNi-muktaa-tapaniiyam (nom. sg. n.): gems, pearls, and gold
maNi: m. a jewel , gem , pearl (also fig.) , any ornament or amulet , globule , crystal
mukta: m. a pearl (as loosened from the pearl-oyster shell)
muktaa: f. of mukta , in comp.
tapaniiya: mfn. to be heated ; to be suffered (as self-mortification) ; n. gold purified with fire
aMshukam (nom. sg.): n. fine or white cloth , muslin
yadi: ind. if
saadhu (nom. sg. n.): mfn. straight, right ; leading straight to a goal , hitting the mark , unerring ; successful , effective , efficient (as a hymn or prayer) ; good
kim atra: how in this matter?
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. women
saha-jam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. born or produced together ; congenital , innate , hereditary , original , natural
taasu (loc. pl. f.): them
viciiyataam = 3rd pers. sg. imperative passive vi- √ ci: to segregate , select , pick out , cull ; to discern , distinguish ; to make anything discernible or clear , cause to appear , illumine ; to search through , investigate , inspect , examine
shuci (acc. sg. n.): mfn. clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.)
maNi-muktaa-tapaniiyam aMshukaM
yadi saadhu kim atra yoShitaaM
sahajaM taasu viciiyataaM shuci
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - =
- - = - - = - = - =
- - = = - - = - = - -
8.50
Cosmetic paste and powder, garlands,
Gems, pearls, gold, fine fabric:
If these are good, what have they to do with women?
Let us examine what in women is originally pure.
COMMENT:
Zen Master Dogen begins his rules for sitting-zen by asking, rhetorically:
Now when we investigate it, the truth is all around: how could it depend on practice and experience? The vehicle for the fundamental exists naturally: how is it necessary to strive?
According to my old Zen teacher, in these opening sentences Dogen expresses the fundamentally optimistic nature of Buddhism.
Nowadays I would take issue with that choice of words, including as it does the two -isms of optimism and Buddhism.
But I take my old teacher's fundamental point, which is that the Buddha's teaching is not pessimistic.
The striver, in contrast, is doggedly pessimistic, in his view of a woman's body no less than in his view of a woman's mind. In the striver's view, it seems, the original state of women's bodies is a dirty and unkempt state -- a state which women generally take pains to conceal.
The striver thus has a judgemental view of purity and impurity which is a function of his intellect, and not a function of practice.
Speaking from the standpoint of practice, Dogen observed that when we wash dirty clothes, we do so with dirty water. If you want to wash your dirty laundry in perfectly clean water, good luck to you, but you may find that as soon as you actually start washing, your clean water has already become impure, dirty water.
Similarly, we can use impure water like this to wash the face. Using impure water like this we can practice and experience washing as pure action -- whether our face is golden or white or red. Even if we do not know what colour face we have got this morning, it may be that just in a moment of waking up, as we wash the face in refreshing cold water, there is no impurity to get rid of.
The irony of today's verse, then, may be that the striver is asking us to investigate what we should investigate. And yet, in asking us to investigate what we should investigate, the striver seems to be almost totally ignorant of what he is asking.
When Gensa Shibi said that the whole Universe in ten directions was one bright pearl, he wasn't submitting a scientific hypothesis, still less a thesis for a Ph. D. in Buddhist studies. He was expressing, as a fact like the existence of the moon in the sky, his own attainment of what Ashvaghosha calls the nectar of deathlessness.
Evidently those of us who are still striving, and Gensa, are not on the same level at all. That being so, we needn't -- in the same breath as we discuss adjusting our posture in Zazen, and our concern for people in Japan suffering in the after-effects of earthquake and tsunami -- manifest fake Zen laughter as if we were Zen masters. Looking at old photos of Kodo Sawaki over the years, one thing I have never seen on his face is fake Zen laughter.
EH Johnston:
You may say that salves, ointments, garlands, jewels, pearls, gold and clothes are good, but what have they really to do with women? Consider what there is innate in them that is pure.
Linda Covill:
Ointments, cosmetics, garlands, jewels, pearls and gold, fine silks -- if these are good, what have they to do with women? Let's analyze their inherent purity:
VOCABULARY:
anulepanam (nom. sg.): n. anointing the body ; unguent so used ; oily or emollient application
anu- √ lip: to anoint, besmear
aNjanam (nom. sg.): n. act of applying an ointment or pigment , embellishing , &c , black pigment or collyrium applied to the eyelashes or the inner coat of the eyelids; n. a special kind of this pigment , as lamp-black , Antimony , extract of Ammonium
aNj: to apply an ointment or pigment , smear with , anoint
srajaH (nom. pl. f.): f. a wreath of flowers , garland , chaplet worn on the head
maNi-muktaa-tapaniiyam (nom. sg. n.): gems, pearls, and gold
maNi: m. a jewel , gem , pearl (also fig.) , any ornament or amulet , globule , crystal
mukta: m. a pearl (as loosened from the pearl-oyster shell)
muktaa: f. of mukta , in comp.
tapaniiya: mfn. to be heated ; to be suffered (as self-mortification) ; n. gold purified with fire
aMshukam (nom. sg.): n. fine or white cloth , muslin
yadi: ind. if
saadhu (nom. sg. n.): mfn. straight, right ; leading straight to a goal , hitting the mark , unerring ; successful , effective , efficient (as a hymn or prayer) ; good
kim atra: how in this matter?
yoShitaam (gen. pl.): f. women
saha-jam (acc. sg. n.): mfn. born or produced together ; congenital , innate , hereditary , original , natural
taasu (loc. pl. f.): them
viciiyataam = 3rd pers. sg. imperative passive vi- √ ci: to segregate , select , pick out , cull ; to discern , distinguish ; to make anything discernible or clear , cause to appear , illumine ; to search through , investigate , inspect , examine
shuci (acc. sg. n.): mfn. clear , clean , pure (lit. and fig.)
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