−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Bhadrā)
ke-cit-svabhāvād-iti
varṇayanti śubhāśubhaṁ caiva bhavābhavau ca |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
svābhāvikaṁ
sarvam-idaṁ ca yasmād-ato 'pi mogho bhavati prayatnaḥ || 9.58
9.58
Naturally, others
explain, out of innate being
Arise the good and the
ugly, being and non-being.
And since this whole
world is the natural product of innate being,
Again therefore effort
is all in vain.
COMMENT:
“What's the point of
getting sober, when you're going to get drunk again?”
I don't know what
school of Western philosophy (presumably ending with an -ism) such
lazy-arsed sentiment belongs to.
I know even less what
branch, if any, of ancient Indian Sāṁkhya philosophy today's verse
belongs to.
But the basic gist is
clear enough, of today's verse as of the drunkard's refrain.
The Buddha never sang
the praises of no effort. But the Buddha, as Aśvaghoṣa records
him, and as quoted in yesterday's verse, did sing the praises of nivṛtti,
“non-doing”:
tasmāt pravṛttiṃ-parigaccha
duḥkhaṃ pravartakān-apy-avagaccha doṣān /
Comprehend, therefore,
that suffering is doing;
witness the faults
impelling it forward;
nivṛttim-āgaccha
ca tan-nirodhaṃ nivartakaṃ cāpy-avagaccha mārgam //SN16.42//
Realise its stopping as
non-doing; and know the path as a turning back.
Non-doing is, it can be
argued, a state of effortlessness, or a state of spontaneous flow,
that the Buddha knew was worth making an effort to realize.
When records of what
the Buddha taught passed into China, the Chinese took nivṛtti to be
synonymous with a teaching that was already familiar to them from
practice of the Tao, namely 無為
(wu
wei; Jap: MU-I), which also literally means “non-doing.”
In
Australia and England around the turn of the 19th
century, FM Alexander made some discoveries of his own, more or less
independently, which caused him also to sing the praises of
non-doing.
It
may be that in each of these three approaches, each of which affirms
the principle of non-doing, a common mistake is to confuse non-doing
with doing nothing, or making no effort. A common mistake, in other
words, is to confuse non-doing with “nothing doing.”
Incidentally,
while trying to glean what kind of -ism in Western philosophy
expresses the viewpoint of “No thanks, I cannot be bothered,” I
googled laissez-faire and was interested to read that the principle
of laissez-faire
in economics is postulated to have its origins in the oriental
researches of a French economist named François Quesnay.
Quesnay in 1767 wrote a book titled Le Despotisme de la Chine. “It
was Quesnay,” Wikipedia informs us, “who coined the
term laissez-faire, laissez-passer, laissez-faire being a
translation of the Chinese term 無為 wuwei.”
A further reflection
stimulated by today's verse, having slept and sat on the above
translation and comment, is Marjory Barlow addressing a room of
student teachers. “You,” said Marjory “are the most important
people in the world. Because you are the future of the Alexander
Technique.”
At the time, in my
mind, it was natural to see Marjory as the most important person in
the room, because she represented a one-to-one link with the work and
teaching of her uncle, FM Alexander himself.
But this morning, I do
see that Marjory was absolutely right. My work, setting aside work on
myself, is to help others not to make the same kind of mistakes that
I made when I was young and full of misdirected energy.
And the others who can
most constructively be taught to make effort in the right direction
are children and the young.
Can an old dog be
taught new tricks? Maybe he can, maybe he can't. But to pour a lot of
one's energy into trying to help an old dog, when the world is full
of young pups requiring right direction, might itself be a kind of
misdirection of energy, or a waste of time.
In conclusion, then, I
conclude, for my own benefit if for nobody else's, that the effort to
point children and young people in the right direction, providing
that it is done reasonably well, with somewhat skillful hands and
somewhat seeing eyes, is never effort done in vain.
VOCABULARY
ke-cit
(nom. pl. m.): some
svabhāvāt
(abl. sg.): m. native place; own condition or state of being ,
natural state or constitution , innate or inherent disposition ,
nature , impulse , spontaneity ; (°vāt from natural disposition ,
by nature , naturally , by one's self , spontaneously)
iti:
“...,” thus
varṇayanti
= 3rd pers. pl. varṇ: to depict , picture , write ,
describe , relate , tell , explain
śubhāśubham
(nom. sg. n.): weal and woe , good and evil
ca:
and
eva:
(emphatic)
bhavābhavau
(nom. dual m.): existence and non-existence ; prosperity and
adversity
bhava:
m. coming into existence , birth , production ; being , state of
being , existence , life ; well-being , prosperity , welfare ,
excellence
abhava:
m. non-existence ; destruction , end of the world
ca:
and
svābhāvikam
(nom. sg. n.): mfn. (fr. svabhāva) belonging to or arising from
one's own nature , natural , native , spontaneous , original ,
peculiar , inherent
sarvam
idam (nom. sg. n.): 'all this' ; this earthly world , this universe
ca:
and
yasmāt:
ind. from which, whence
ataḥ:
ind. hence, henceforth , from that time
api:
also
moghaḥ
(nom. sg. m.): mfn. vain , fruitless , useless
bhavati
= 3rd pers. sg. bhū: to be, become
prayatnaḥ
(nom. sg.): m. effort, perseverance
有説淨不淨 各從自性起
言可方便移 此則愚癡説
言可方便移 此則愚癡説
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