SAUNDARANANDA 14.6: Each To His Own (Without Pride)

tasmaad abhyavahartavyaM
sva-shaktim anupashyataa
n' aatimaatraM na c' aatyalpaM
meyaM maana-vashaad api

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

14.6
So food is to be eaten,

Each reflecting on his own energy,

And none apportioning himself too much or too little

Under the influence of pride.

COMMENT:
A key word in this verse might be sva-shakti, one's own energy. It suggests to me the principle of the individual.

Other key words in this verse, as I read it, might be anupashyat (reflecting) and maana (pride).

Reflecting on one's own energy, i.e. an individual looking at, noticing, or listening to how he or she really is, has to do with seeing things in a true perspective.

A certain kind of pride has a distorting influence on how one sees things; it might be both a cause and an effect of seeing things out of perspective.

There may be other kinds of pride that are not distorting -- for example, a worker's pride in his work, or a parent's pride in his children, or a teacher's pride in her students.

The kind of pride that is distorted and distorting, i.e. self-pride, as I have struggled to understand it over the many years since I first entered a dojo, has to do with vestibular dysfunction. It has to do with how the ears prevent the eyes from truly seeing.

Thus, when a person with a high opinion of himself feels justified in taking more than his fair share, or when a person with a spiritual agenda deprives himself of his fair share, such pride may in many cases be rooted in faulty functioning of the vestibular system.

EH Johnston:
Therefore you should eat, carefully considering your requirements, and should not measure out to yourself too much or too little under the influence of pride.

Linda Covill:
Therefore you should take food with due consideration for your own capacity. Don't apportion yourself too much or too little even if you have a strong opinion on this subject,

VOCABULARY:
tasmaad: therefore
abhyavahartavyam = gerundive of abhy-ava-√hR: to take food, eat

sva-shaktim (acc.): f. own power or strength; own energy (of a god)
shakti: f. power , ability , strength , might , effort , energy , capability
anupashyataa = inst. of anupashyat (pres. part. of anu-pash): to look at , perceive , notice , discover ; to consider , reflect upon (acc.)

na: not
atimaatra: mfn. exceeding the proper measure
na ca: not either
atyalpa: very little

meya = gerundive of √3. maa: to measure out, mete out, apportion
maana: m. opinion , notion , conception , idea; purpose , wish , design; self-conceit , arrogance , pride
vashaat (ablative of vasha, will, desire; power, dominion): ifc. , " by command of , by force of , on account of , by means of , according to "
api: also

SAUNDARANANDA 14.5: Towards Balance

yathaa bhaareNa namate
laghun" onnamate tulaa
samaa tiShThati yuktena
bhojyen' eyam tathaa tanuH

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

14.5
Just as a weighing scale bends down with a heavy weight,

Bends upwards with a light one,

And stays in balance with the right one,

So does this body according to intake of food.

COMMENT:
The literal meanings of the word nam in the 1st line and its antonym unnam in the 2nd line, are to bend downwards vs to bend upwards.

Sometimes it seems to be worth sticking with the first word given in the Sanskrit-English dictionary, even if it does not sound quite right to an English ear on first listening. We would normally say that a weighing scale falls or rises, goes down or goes up. We would not normally use the word "bend" which might tend to imply structural distortion, rather than free movement, of the beam of the weighing scale.

But down, up, and balance are very loaded words for us human beings with our unreliable senses of weight, and of balance and movement within the gravitational field. So caution might be called for. The Buddha might be pointing to a fact of which we, in our ignorance, are generally unaware. We need to dig deeper.

When people who are bent downwards in a slump try to make themselves upright, what they generally do is send to their body a direction that FM Alexander called "back and down." They bend backwards into a posture that they feel is more up but which, to the enlightened eye, is another kind of down. True up is nothing postural. True up is balance.

So what relation might the Buddha have observed between food intake and postural distortion?

When a man eats a heavy meal, his parasympathetic nervous system is prone to assume the ascendancy. Conversely, as Bob Marley said it, a hungry man is an angry man: when a man's body is deprived of food, his sympathetic nervous system is liable to assume the ascendancy.

These imbalances of the autonomic nervous system each has its own characteristic posture -- the parasympathetic slump vs sympathetic hyper-extension. Whereas balance of the autonomic nervous system might be characterized by dropping off of posture.

Master Dogen exhorted us to sit with body, to sit with mind, and to sit as body and mind dropping off.

My teacher, Gudo Nishijima, taught me that sitting with the body means sitting when the parasympathetic nervous system is in the ascendancy, sitting with the mind means sitting when the sympathetic nervous system is in the ascendancy, and sitting as body and mind dropping off means sitting with the autonomic nervous system in balance.

For all my faults, my brain is pretty good at knowing when I have not yet truly solved a problem. I experience the unresolved problem as a kind of suffering -- like when you can't remember something, or can't solve a riddle. And so more than 20 years ago I knew that my teacher's interpretation didn't quite hit the target, and this continued to bother me until, with the benefit of Alexander's insights into the mind-body problem, I finally understood to my own satisfaction what Master Dogen really meant.

Master Dogen meant sit on the basis of body-feeling, wrong though it may be. And sit on the basis of that which is dialectically opposed to body-feeling, which is mind-thinking, the wish for integrity. And finally, on the basis of balance of the autonomic nervous system et cetera, let sitting do itself. "Go into movement without a care in the world," as Marjory used to say.

So Master Dogen's words are pointing in the same direction as Nanda's journey: from the lower good of sensuality, with confidence, to a higher good based in integrity, and onward and upward into freedom in action.

Regrettably, on the way to solving the koan of physical, mental and transcendent sitting, and subsequently in my efforts to let everybody know about my brilliant solution, I caused quite a lot of collateral damage. So whether, on balance, any real good will come of my efforts very much remains to be seen. The scales might tip either way -- always assuming that I was able to let go of them.

Earlier this week an Alexander pupil phoned me up just a few hours before a lesson to cancel the lesson. She affected a light and breezy tone, inquiring about my stay in France, and then casually mentioned that she wouldn't be able to make the lesson, due to some pressing engagement, so how about Thursday. I was enraged. Why? Because she totally omitted to apologize for inconvenience caused.

I sat in my shed at the bottom of the garden, reflecting on my rage. Sadly, the mirror principle never fails at all.

That afternoon I wrote a letter to somebody who I need to apologize to -- an Alexander teacher of mine to whom I had been incredibly rude, like a frightened animal (to use Jordan's excellent analogy) snapping at the one who was trying to set it free. I didn't find it an easy letter to write. Something within me doesn't like to admit that I had any responsibility for what went wrong. Something within me would rather fight to the death. "It is all part of the fixing," Marjory Barlow would say.

Yesterday I found myself in a similarly uncomfortable position of needing to apologize for hurting the feelings of a family member who shall remain nameless. I just about managed to wring the word "sorry" out of myself, like trying to get a rusty pivot to move.

If somebody used a nut and bolt to fix a weighing scale at its fulcrum, so that the beam was level, and took a photo, the scale would seem to be in balance. But it wouldn't truly be in balance. For the balance to be true balance, the fulcrum would have not to be fixed. And that is a metaphor that resonates on many levels.

EH Johnston:
As the scales fall with too heavy a weight, rise with too light a one and remain level with the proper one, so is it with the body and its nourishment.

Linda Covill:
Just as the scales go down with a heavy weight and up with a light one, but stay level with the correct weight, so does this body with its food.

VOCABULARY:
yathaa: just as
bhaareNa = inst. of bhaara: m. ( √ bhR) a burden , load , weight ; heavy work; a large quantity
namate = 3rd pers. sg. of nam: to bend or bow (either trans. or oftener intr. ) to bow to , subject or submit , one's self ; to yield or give way , keep quiet or be silent

laghunaa = inst. of laghu: light ; light in the stomach , easily digested

unnamate = 3rd pers. sg. of unnam (= ud, upwards + √nam, to bow): to bend upwards , raise one's self , rise , ascend
tulaa: f. a balance , weight

samaa: f. even , smooth , flat , plain , level ; equal ; constant ; having the right measure , regular , normal ; equally distant from extremes , ordinary , common , middling ; just , upright
tiShThati: it remains
yuktena = inst. of yukta: fit , suitable , appropriate , proper , right

bhojyena = inst. of bhojya: n. anything to be enjoyed or eaten , nourishment , food; n. the act of eating , a meal
iyam (nom. sg. f.): this
tathaa: so, likewise
tanuH (nom. sg.): f. the body , person , self

SAUNDARANANDA 14.4: Speaking from Experience

aacayaM dyutim utsaaham
prayogam balam eva ca
bhojanam kRtam atyalpaM
shariirasy' aapakarShati

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

14.4
Of substance, lustre, and stamina,

Of usefulness and of its very strength,

A meagre diet

Deprives the body.

COMMENT:
The essential elements of working on the self, as Marjory Barlow endeavored to teach them to me, are (1) inhibiting one's instinctive reaction to a stimulus to do something, (2) using thought directions (as opposed to reliance on feeling) to restore the integrity of one's whole organism, and (3) going into movement.

As every morning I sit with the ever-present question of what it means to work on the self, and at the same time with awareness of where I am in this process of translating Saundarananda, I see a definite parallel between the above three elements of working on the self, and the themes of Canto 12, 13, and 14.

To inhibit one's instinctive reaction is closely allied to confidence in a higher good -- a good that resides not on the instinctive plane, but on the plane of conscious control. At the same time, the practice of inhibition is just what allows a person to gain a foothold in work on the self.

The use of thought directions, again, is a means to thwart the power of the senses. (MB: "You can't help having feelings, only for God's sake, don't use them as a guide.")

And the title of the present Canto 14, aadi-prasthaana, could be translated as "Going Into Movement," or "Stepping Into Action."

So the tone of these verses is supremely practical. The Buddha is speaking of the practical aspect of practice, of stepping into action, on the basis of his own real experience.

Ashvaghosha has alluded to the experience in question in Saundarananda Canto 3:

3.4
When he mentally scoured the world, however,

For the most solid
among this and that tradition,

Certainty was not to be found out there.

He entered, after all, into ascetic practice
that was most severe.

3.5
Then, having ascertained that this was not the path,

He abandoned that extreme asceticism too.

He knew from past experience
that the realm of realisation was ascendant,

And so he ate most wholesome rice,
in readiness to realise the deathless.

In Buddhacarita Canto 12, Ashvaghosha will go into more detail regarding how the Buddha, based on past experience and by virtue of getting back in touch with his reason, decided to give up trying to subsist on the most meagre of diets.

A similarly practical man of more recent times who spoke on the basis of experience was FM Alexander. His niece Marjory Barlow relates: "He had a Nonconformist religious upbringing and everything was in moderation. He ate very little of anything, but an extremely varied diet, plenty of vegetables, plenty of fruit, little meat, little fish. He wasn't a big eater at all, and he wasn't a big drinker."

EH Johnston:
Deficiency of food drains away the substance of the body with its brilliance, energy, activity and strength.

Linda Covill:
Overly small meals drain the body of its solidity, its healthy glow, its energy, its usefulness and its strength.

VOCABULARY:
aacayam (acc.): m. collection , plenty (from √ci: to arrange in order , heap up , pile up)
dyutim (acc.): f. splendour, brightness , lustre , majesty , dignity.
utsaaham (acc.): m. power , strength ; strength of will , resolution ; effort , perseverance , strenuous and continuous exertion , energy ; firmness , fortitude ; joy , happiness

prayogam (acc.): m. application , employment, use
balam (acc.): n. power , strength , might , vigour , force
eva: (emphatic)
ca: and

bhojanam (nom. sg.): n. the act of eating; n. a meal , food
kRta: done, eaten, taken
atyalpa: very little

shariirasya (genitive): of the body, the body's
apakarShati = 3rd pers. sg. of apa-√kRSh: to draw off or aside , drag down , carry away , take away , remove

SAUNDARANANDA 14.3: ... and of Deprivation

yathaa c' aatyartham aahaaraH
kRto 'n-arthaaya kalpate
upayuktas tath" aatyalpo
na saamarthyaaya kalpate

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

14.3
And just as eating too much

Conduces to a dearth of value,

So eating too little

Makes for a lack of efficacy.

DUST & FLUFF:
The word artha -- whose meanings include worth, reason, value, aim, purpose, and utility -- features three times in this verse:
in line 1 aty-artham means "beyond the proper worth", to excess, too much;
in line 2 an-artha means "non-value";
and in line 4 sam-artha means "sameness of purpose," efficacy, effectiveness.

Perhaps the effect of using the same word artha in these three ways is to beg questions like: What is a valuable aim? And what is true effectiveness?

Thirty years ago while studying Accounting & Financial Management, I struggled with a kind of management accountancy koan -- What is organisational effectiveness?

In the academic literature, there were two main approaches to answering the question, a goals approach and a systems approach.

The deeper question I was struggling with was "How can I cause this life of mine to be effective?"

If I took that question to the Buddha, how might he answer?

For a start, the Buddha seems to be saying here, don't eat too much, and don't eat too little.

Or, in other words, don't be a big fat lazy good-for-nothing who has no valuable aim, but at the same time don't turn yourself needlessly into a hungry ghost who is living a life of deprivation in pursuit of some worthy abstraction.

Or, in other words, practice the Dharma as the dropping off of all mutually contradictory approaches.

Or, in other words, just sit, as the dropping off of mind and body, not trying too hard (because this trying voids the sitting of any higher good), and not failing to make the requisite effort (because this failing renders the sitting spineless, weak, ineffective).

So this verse also, when its deeper meaning is dug out, might be nothing but the lifeblood.

EH Johnston:
And as too much food conduces to disaster, so eating too little leads to loss of capacity.

Linda Covill:
And just as it is detrimental to eat too much, so is it incapacitating to eat too little.

VOCABULARY:
yathaa: just as
ca: and
ati: beyond, over
artha: purpose, reason, worth, etc.
atyartha: mfn. "beyond the proper worth", excessive
atyartham: ind. excessively
aahaaraH (nom.): m. taking food; m. food (e.g. aa-haaraM √kR , to take food , eat)

kRtaH: done, taken, eaten
an: not, non-, un- etc.
artha: purpose, reason, worth etc.
an-arthaaya = dative of an-artha: m. non-value , a worthless or useless object ; disappointing occurrence , reverse , evil
kalpate = 3rd pers. sing. of klRp: to be favourable to (with dative); to fix, settle, bring about

upayuktaH (nom.): mfn. enjoyed , eaten , consumed
tathaa: so, likewise
atyalpaH (nom.): very little

na: not
saamarthyaaya = dative of saamarthya: n. (from sam-artha) sameness of aim or object; agreeing together (in aim, object etc.); adequacy, fitness;
efficacy , power , strength , force
kalpate: (as above) it conduces to, it makes for

SAUNDARANANDA 14.2: Evils of Over-eating...

praaN'-aapaanau nigRhNaati
glaani-nidre prayacchati
kRto hy atyartham aahaaro
vihanti ca paraakramam

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

14.2
For it depresses in-breath and out-breath,

And brings tiredness and sleepiness,

When food is taken in excess;

It also destroys enterprise.

DUST & FLUFF:
In Canto 12, the Buddha spoke of confidence as the forerunner. In Canto 13, the Buddha spoke of integrity as the foundation. In this canto the Buddha is going to speak of very concrete practical fundamental steps for a practitioner; namely, eating, sleeping, being mindful in all one's actions, and living a solitary life in peace and quiet.

The title of this Canto is aadi-prasthaana. Aadi means beginning. Prasthaana (pra, forward + sthana, standing) means setting out, stepping forward.

The Buddha begins his consideration of first practical steps by dwelling for a remarkably long time on the eating of food. The number of verses devoted to this not very complicated subject seems to underline the Buddha's wish to emphasize the importance of not taking too lightly the matter of eating food.

And so, in beginning this consideration of the most practical of matters, that is, eating food, the Buddha begins by considering the most practical matter within the most practical of matters, that is, breathing.

Some human beings some of the time are optimistic, realistic, humanistic, fatalistic, pessimistic, idealistic, materialistic -- or they are not. But all human beings all of the time breathe -- or else we die.

Very often, it seems to me, a person's adherence to an -ism, is a fundamental cause of him not being as free as he could be in his breathing. That has certainly been true in my own case. But Alexander work is a wonderful antidote to the influence of -isms. To earn one's corn as an Alexander teacher one cannot regard any criterion as more important than a person's breathing. Breathing is the golden criterion, in comparision with which any -ism is just so much dust and fluff.

To breathe fully and freely is not an end that I can gain directly. My best hope is, by indirect and preventive means, to go in that direction. One such means is not to over-eat.

So in this verse the Buddha speaks of the relation between over-eating and breathing.

Guatama Buddha did not, as far as we know, speak in four-line Sanskrit verses each with eight syllables per line. And neither did some great Sanskrit poet called Ashvaghosha take it upon himself to put his own words in the mouth of Gautama Buddha. Rather, some time just less than two thousand years ago, the Buddha decided to give himself a pen-name, so that his verbal teaching might have more chance of being preserved for posterity, and that pen-name was Ashvaghosha.

EH Johnston:
For food taken in excessive quantities impedes the intake and outflow of the breath, induces lassitude and drowsiness and destroys enterprise.

Linda Covill:
Too much food restricts the in-breath and out-breath, brings fatigue and sleepiness, and destroys one's spirit of enterprise.

VOCABULARY:
praaNa: m. breath, air inhaled
apaanau = accusative, dual of apaana: m. (opposed to praaNa) , that of the five vital airs which goes downwards and out at the anus
nigRhNaati = 3rd person singular of ni-√grah: to hold down , lower , depress ; to keep or hold back

glaani: f. exhaustion , fatigue of the body , lassitude , languor , depression of mind , debility
nidre = accusative, dual of nidraa: f. sleep, sleepiness, sloth
prayacchati = 3rd pers. sg. of prayaa: to cause to go, to lead into (acc.)

kRtaH (nom.): done, taken, eaten
hi: for
atyartham mfn. " beyond the proper worth " , exorbitant , excessive ; ind. excessively , exceedingly
aahaaraH (nom.): m. taking food; m. food (e.g. aa-haaraM kR , to take food , eat)

vihanti = 3rd pers. sg. or vi-√han: to strike apart or asunder , disperse , shatter , break , destroy
ca: and
paraakramam (acc.): m. bold advance , attack , heroism , courage , power , strength , energy , exertion , enterprise

SAUNDARANANDA 14.1: Eating for Realisation & Health

atha smRti-kavaaTena
pidhaay' endriya-saMvaram
bhojane bhava maatraa-jNo
dhyaanaay' aan-aamayaaya ca

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

14.1
And so using the floodgate of mindfulness

To close a dam on the power of the senses,

Be aware, in eating food, of the measure

That conduces to realisation and to health.

COMMENT:
The first two lines, as in the opening verse of Canto 13, recap the content of the previous canto. Lines 3 and 4 introduce what will be the theme of the next twenty verses -- how to take food.

In line 4 no English word seems to quite hit the target as a translation of dhyaana (Chinese: ch'an; Japanese: Zen).

Contemplation, reflection, thinking practice, and meditative practice could be candidates for a literal translation.

I am not keen on meditation as a word on its own. Is avoidance of that word symptomatic of a remnant of fixing on my part? It could be. During my years in Japan, and beyond, I laboured under the fixed, one-sided conception that sitting-Zen is a physical practice, to do with keeping the spine straight vertically, and not a meditative one.

In the Nishijima-Cross translation of Shobogenzo the original word zazen is generally left untranslated or rendered as something like "sitting in Zazen." I have come to regard such abdication of the translator's job as a kind of laziness of thought, or, worse, as a symptom of a tendency towards eastern obfuscation of a teaching that originally came out of an aryan civilization.

Sitting-meditation, as a translation of the Japanese word zazen, I think is not a bad one. The hyphenated phrase suggests that the sitting is the meditation, and the meditation is to sit.

However dhyaana is translated, the substance of the practice of dhyaana, as elucidated in Canto 17, is evidently one instance after another of realising "No, not that."

The most fundamental realisation might be that if one stops doing the wrong thing, the right thing tends to do itself. So the first of the four realisations described in Canto 17 seems to have to do with not trying to be right, that is, realising that to taint one's sitting practice by end-gaining, by going directly for some specific result, is not it.

In that sense, realisation seems to me to fit. Through sustained daily practice of sitting-dhyaana, it seems to me, one is encouraged to realise (though a person can always resist) that whatever kind of fixing one has been engaging in, is not it. And the measure of food that conduces to such realisation might be the measure of food that conduces to good health -- not too much and not too little.

EH Johnston:
'Then, closing up the dam of the senses with the sluice-gate of attention, learn exact measure in the eating of food for the sake of mystic meditation and of freedom from disease.

Linda Covill:
"Next, having closed off the dam of the senses with the gate of mindfulness, be measured in your food intake, for the sake of meditation as well as good health.

VOCABULARY:
atha: (inceptive particle)
smRti: remembrance, mindfulness, attention
kavaaTena (inst): panel of a door, door

pidhaaya = apidhaaya = absolutive of apidhaa: to close
indriya: sense
saMvaram (accusative): m. a dam [see also 13.54]

bhojane = locative of bhojana: n. the act of eating ; n. a meal , food
bhava (imperative): be
maatraa: measure, quantity; correct measure
jNaH (nom.): knowing, one who knows

dhyaanaaya = dative of dhyaana (fr. √dhyai): n. meditation, thought, reflection
√dhyai: to think of , imagine , contemplate , meditate on , call to mind , recollect; (alone) to be thoughtful or meditative
an-aamayaaya = dative of an-aamaya: n. health, freedom from disease
ca: and

Canto 13: Thwarting the Power of the Senses through Practice of Integrity

13.1
And so Nanda was affirmed

By the great seer, in the matter of confidence;

He felt as if sprinkled with the nectar of immortality --

Filled with the deepest joy.

13.2
Like a finished article he seemed

To the Fully Awakened One,
by virtue of that confidence;

And like a gainer of higher good he seemed

To himself, one moulded by the Buddha.

13.3
Some in soothing tones,

Some with tough talk,

Some by both these means,

He the trainer trained.

13.4
Just as gold born from dirt

Is pure, spotless, gleaming,

And while lying in the dirt

Is not tarnished by the dirt's impurities,

13.5
And just as a lotus-leaf

Is born in water and remains in water,

But neither above nor below

Is sullied by the water,

13.6
So the sage, born in the world,

And acting for the benefit of the world,

Because of his state of action, and spotlessness,

Is not tainted by worldly things.

13.7
Joining and leaving, love and toughness,

Talking, as well as actual realisation,

He used during instruction for the purpose of healing,

Not to win a following for himself.

13.8
Thus did the benevolent one take on,

Out of that great compassion,

A form by which he might release from suffering

Fellow living beings.

13.9
And so now seeing that, by boosting Nanda,

He had made a receptacle,

The best of speakers spoke:

The process-knower spoke of the process
in all forms of higher good.

13.10
"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.

13.11
So that use of body and voice

Becomes simple for you,

Make it expansive, open yet guarded,

And free from disconnectedness --

13.12
Expansive from effecting your true condition;

Open from not hiding;

Guarded because aimed at prevention;

And unbroken through freedom from fault.

13.13
With regard for purity of body and voice,

And with regard also for the sevenfold
[prohibition on bodily and vocal] conduct,

A proper way of making a living

You should work on, on the grounds of integrity --

13.14
On the grounds of not indulging

The five faults, beginning with hypocrisy;

On the grounds of fleeing

The four predators of practice, such as astrology;

13.15
On the grounds of not accepting
living beings, grain, money, and so on,

As things to be avoided;

On the grounds of accepting
the established rules for begging,

With their definite limits;

13.16
As a person who is contented, pristine, pleasant,

Through making a living cleanly and well,

You can counteract suffering

All the way to liberation.

13.17
Separately from overt action, then,

And from the origin of use of body and voice,

I have spoken of making a living

Because it is so hard to make a pure one --

13.18
For hard to be washed clean
is the view of the househoulder

With his many and various concerns,

As too is the livelihood of the beggar

Whose subsistence depends on others.

13.19
Such is termed "practice of integrity."

In sum, it is conduct;

Without it there could truly be

No going forth, nor state of being at home.

13.20
Being steeped in good conduct, therefore,

Lead this wholesome life,

And in what is even minutely blameworthy

See danger, being firm in your purpose.

13.21
For founded on integrity unfurl

All actions in the sphere of higher good,

Just as events like standing unfold

When a force resists the earth.

13.22
Let it be grasped, my friend,

That release is seated in indifference,

Indifference in conscious awareness,

And conscious awareness in knowing and seeing.

13.23
And let it be experienced, again,

That the knowing is seated in a stillness

And that the seat of the stillness

Is a body-mind at ease.

13.24
An assurance on which sits ease of the body-mind

Is of the highest order,

And the assurance is seated in enjoyment.

Again, let this be realised in experience.

13.25
The enjoyment is seated in a great happiness which,

Similarly, is understood to be of the highest order;

And the happiness in a freedom from furrowing the heart

Over things done badly or not done.

13.26
But the freedom of the mind from remorse

Is seated in pristine practice of integrity.

Therefore, realising that integrity comes first,

Purify the practice of integrity.

13.27
Integrity is so called
because it comes from repeated practice;

Repeated practice comes from devotion;

Devotion to a thing comes from direction in it,

And direction from submitting to that direction.

13.28
For integrity, my friend, is the refuge:

It is like a guide in the wilderness,

It is friend, kinsman, and protector,

It is wealth, and it is strength.

13.29
Since integrity is such, my friend,

You should work on integrity.

This is the stance,
in their different endeavours for release,

Of those who practise.

13.30
On that basis, standing grounded in mindfulness,

The naturally impetuous senses

From the objects of those senses

You should hold back.

13.31
There is less to fear from an enemy

Or from fire, or from a snake, or from lightning,

Than there is from one's own senses;

For through them one is forever being smitten.

13.32
Some people are beleaguered by hateful enemies

Some of the time -- or they are not.

Everybody is besieged by the senses

Everywhere, all of the time.

13.33
Nor does one go to hell

When smitten by the likes of an enemy;

But meekly is one pulled there

When smitten by the impetuous senses.

13.34
The pain of being smitten by those others

May or may not occur as suffering in the heart.

The suffering of being oppressed by one's senses

Occurs in the heart, and throughout the body.

13.35
For smeared with the poison of ideas,

Are those arrows, produced from five senses,

Whose tails are anxiety, whose tips are thrills,

And whose range is the vast emptiness of objects.

13.36
They strike human fawns in the heart

Fired off by Desire, the hunter;

Unless they are warded away,

Men wounded by them duly fall.

13.37
Standing firm in the arena of inhibition,

And bearing the bow of resolve,

The mighty man, as they rain down, must fend them away,

Wearing the armour of mindfulness.

13.38
From ebbing of the power of the senses,

As if from subjugation of enemies,

One sleeps or sits at ease,

In joyful recreation, wherever one may be.

13.39
For in the constant hankering of those senses

After objects in the world,

There occurs out of the ignobleness
no more consciousness

Than there is in the hoping of hounds.

13.40
A cluster of sense organs

Is no more sated by objects,

Than, though constantly filled,

The ocean is by water.

13.41
It is necessarily through the senses,
each in its own sphere,

That one must function in this world.

But no impulse, in those circumstances, is to be held onto,

Nor any associated impression.

13.42
On seeing a form with your eye

You are contained in the sum of the elements:

That 'it is a woman' or 'it is a man'

You should not interpose.

13.43
If a notion of woman or man intrudes

At any time in relation to anyone,

Upon hair, teeth, and the rest, for their beauty,

You should not linger.

13.44
Nothing, then, is to be taken away

And nothing is to be added:

One must investigate the reality as it really is,

Whatever and however it is.

13.45
In your observing what is, like this,

Always in the territory of the senses,

There will be no foothold

For longing and dejection.

13.46
Longing, using cherished forms,

Smites the sensual masses:

A foe who has a friendly face,

She's fair of speech and foul of heart.

13.47
What is called dejectedness, conversely,

Is, in connection with an object, a contrary reaction

By going along with which, in one's ignorance,

One is smitten hereafter, and smitten here and now.

13.48
When, by getting and not getting his way,

A man is pained as if by cold or heat,

He finds no refuge; nor reaches higher good:

Hence the fluctuating sense-power of the masses.

13.49
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.

13.50
Where fuel and air co-exist,

Just as there a fire burns,

With an object and through fixing,

So a fire of affliction arises.

13.51
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.

13.52
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.

13.53
Thus, an object is not the cause

Of bondage or of liberation;

It is through a particular kind of fixing

That sticking occurs or does not.

13.54
Through effort of the highest order,

Therefore, contain the power of the senses;

For unguarded senses

Make for suffering and for becoming.

13.55
Like serpents coiled in sensual enjoyment
with eyes of selfish views,

Their many heads are heedlessness
and their flickering tongues are excitement:

The snaky senses lurk in mind-pits,
their venom eager desire,

And when they bite there is no cure,
save the antidote of cessation.

13.56
So towards those mischief-making foes --

Seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and feeling --

In every situation show a vigilance born of restraint.

You are not for an instant to be heedless in this matter.


The 13th Canto of the epic poem Handsome Nanda, titled 'Thwarting the Power of the Senses through Practice of Integrity'