⏑⏑−⏑¦⏑−−−¦¦−⏑−−¦⏑−⏑−
abhigamya
ca tās-tasmai vismayotphulla-locanāḥ |
−⏑−⏑¦⏑ −−−¦¦−⏑−⏑¦⏑−⏑−
cakrire
samudācāraṁ padma-kośa-nibhaiḥ karaiḥ || 4.2
4.2
And having approached
him,
Their peepers opened
wide in wonderment,
They made their
salutations
With hands like lotus
buds,
COMMENT:
Today's verse can again
be read as progressing through four phases concerned with (1)
direction, (2) physical manifestation of mind, (3) action, and (4)
suggestion of a beautiful reality through the use of metaphor.
Otherwise, if hidden
meaning is to be found in today's verse, it might be contained in the
hands which Aśvaghoṣa expresses at the end of the verse with the
word karaiḥ. Kara literally means “doer,” and hence the human
organ of doing, the hand.
The irony that
Aśvaghoṣa may intend, then, is that when wide-eyed women hold
their hands together in the shape of lotus buds, in welcoming
salutation, such hands might be conspicuously beautiful expressions
of non-doing.
I read a quote on
Facebook to the effect that the world doesn't need any more
successful people but we need more lovers, healers, et cetera.
The world certainly
doesn't need more end-gainers who blindly pursue success by harmful means. But neither does it need the kind of end-gainer who
manifests himself as a healer.
People praised FM
Alexander as a healer, but he wasn't having any of it. As far as he
was concerned, he taught people an indirect means of getting out of
the way, and healing was nature's job. “There are many miracles in
nature,” was FM's reply when people accused him of being a
miracle-worker.
To take a view that the
Buddha's teaching is anti-success, or anti-beauty, or anti anything
real, would be to take a wrong view.
The world needs
everybody to be more and more successful, and everybody to be more
and more beautiful, because of consciously following a
means-whereby.
The women in today's
verse are manifesting beautiful non-doing hands not because of
consciously following a means-whereby principle, but rather because
of being enthralled in unconscious open-mouthed and open-eyed
admiration for the prince.
What has this got to do
with sitting-meditation? And what has it got to do with the FM
Alexander Technique?
As Alexander said:
"When an investigation comes to be made it will be found that every single thing we do in the work is exactly what is done in Nature, where the conditions are right, the difference being that we are learning to do it consciously."
In the Lotus Sutra, the lotus is a symbol of the Buddha's true dharma. At the same time the lotus is a universal symbol of beauty. The Buddha's teaching, in my book, is never anti-beauty. The Buddha's teaching rather points to the pursuit of beauty by a conscious means. And if I am clear in my understanding on this point, the clarity comes via the Alexander teachers who have taught me a conscious means whereby the befouling faults associated with end-gaining may be eradicated (not that I am always sufficiently diligent or thorough in applying what I have been taught).
VOCABULARY
abhigamya = abs. abhi-
√ gam: to go near to, approach
ca: and
tāḥ (nom. pl. f.):
they
tasmai (dat. sg. m.):
him
vismayotphulla-locanāḥ
(nom. pl. f.):
vismaya: m. wonder ,
surprise , amazement
utphulla: mfn. blown
(as a flower); wide open (as the eyes)
locana: n. "
organ of sight " , the eye
cakrire = 3rd
pers. pl. perf. kṛ: to do, make
sam-udācāram (acc.
sg.): m. preset station , offering , entertainment (of a guest &c
); proper or right practice or usage or conduct or behaviour ;
salutation
padma-kośa-nibhaiḥ
(inst. pl. m.)
padma: a lotus
kośa: m. a cask; a bud
, flower-cup , seed-vessel
nibha: mfn. resembling
, like , similar (ifc.)
karaiḥ (inst. pl.):
m. " the doer " , the hand
各盡伎姿態 供侍隨所宜
或有執手足 或遍摩其身
或有執手足 或遍摩其身
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