⏑−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−− Upajāti
(Kīrti)
tato 'bravīt-sārathir-asya
saumya dhātu-prakopa-prabhavaḥ pravṛddhaḥ |
−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−¦¦−−⏑−¦−⏑⏑¦−⏑−−
rogābhidhānaḥ sumahān-anarthaḥ
śakro 'pi yenaiṣa kṛto 'svatantraḥ || 3.42
3.42
Then spoke the leader who was in the
same chariot as him:
“O gentle moon-like man!
Stemming originally from excitement of
primitive elements
and now far advanced
Is the momentous reverse, known as a
breakdown,
That has rendered even this strong man
helpless.”
COMMENT:
My cumbersome translation of the 1st
pāda of today's verse derives from a sense that when Aśvaghoṣa
used the term sārathiḥ, “charioteer,” he was aware of its
derivation from sa-ratha, which means “riding in the same
chariot as,” or “together with.”
In Japan the distinction tends to be
unduly emphasized between 先生 ,
the sensei, the one who stands in front, and the others, the
students of the teacher, the patients of the doctor, the disciples of
the master. I found it quite disconcerting when I first came back to
England and started Alexander training in 1995 to be on first name
terms with the Alexander teachers who were training me. The reason I
was thus disconcerted was that during 13 years in Japan, searching
for my original mind, I had completely lost my original mind – and
the past nearly 20 years of sitting informed by Alexander work has
been a gradual process of recovering it. According to my wife's
perception, the tendency that I see and hate in Japanese sensei, a tendency that is said to have been particularly pronounced among
Meiji otoko (men born in the Meiji era from 1868 to 1912), is still
not entirely absent from yours truly. When she perceives me sitting on my high horse, my wife is liable to make an uuurgh! sound, as if she wished somebody to pass her the sick bag, and to remark "typical Meijo otoko."
Such regrettable episodes may be a sign of me
not yet having let my original features fully emerge. But one
teaching that I nonetheless do continue to treasure is Marjory Barlow's words that, in the matter of struggling to inhibit those ideas and desires that trigger undesirable unconscioius reactions, “we are
all in the same boat.”
From the standpoint of seeing each
verse of four pādas in four phases, also, sārathiḥ thus
understood, contains a sense of being together in our suffering.
So even though “Then spoke the leader
who was in the same chariot as him,” could be shortened for the
sake of elegance to “Then spoke the charioteer,” I prefer the
long-winded version.
In the 2nd pāda,
dhātu-prakopa-prabhavaḥ ostensibly describes sickness as arising
from an imbalance in the elemental humours, but what it suggests to me
is the fact that the evolution of a means-whereby for defeating (or
breaking [roga]) the sickness of faulty sensory appreciation
invariably starts with undue excitement of primitive fear reflexes.
That is what is being described in the present canto whose title
saṁvegotpattiḥ may be translated as “Becoming Flustered," or perhaps more literally as "The Arousal of Fear Reflexes." This also describes the genesis of the FM Alexander Technique,
Alexander having being born several weeks premature, before his Moro
reflex was ready.
In the 3rd pāda roga
(breakdown) ostensibly means sickness itself, but what it suggests to
me is the process whereby the compensatory mechanisms which sufferers
inevitably develop in childhood and adolescence to cope with immaturity of
primitive reflexes subsequently break down in adulthood, for better
or (much more probably) for worse. The hope is that, under a good
teacher, and working to a principle, the breakdown can be for the
better.
This photograph may be seen as
demonstrating the symptoms of such a consciously-directed breakdown
which has progressed to a very advanced stage.
By the time he was thirty, in around
1900, in his native Australia, the young Frederick Mathias Alexander
had earned himself a reputation among actors, singers and people with
respiratory problems, as a master of breath control. In 1904 he came
to the mother country to pass on his secret to those well-heeled bigwigs of the British Empire who could
afford lessons with him, which did not come cheap. What was his great
secret? It was, in a nutshell, to stop doing the wrong thing and
allow the right thing to do itself.
The great irony in Alexander work is
that the idea of grasping this secret of self-control just
stimulates the very wrong thing that is to be stopped - try to get the spine to lengthen in a controlling manner and the spine duly shortens. So real
Alexander work does not even begin until one learns to give up the
idea of being right, or of being in control. The kind of control that
Alexander realized over his breathing mechanism was thus an indirect
control, which is to say he learned to control his breathing by
giving up all idea of controlling what he could not directly control.
It is out of awareness of such irony
that Aśvaghoṣa's causes the charioteer in the 4th pāda
to describe a sick non-buddha using the ambiguous term a-sva-tantraḥ.
Ostensibly in today's verse
a-sva-tantraḥ is a pejorative which means “lacking autonomy,” “not
self-reliant” or “being out of control”; hence EBC/EHJ: “no
longer master of himself”; PO: “no longer self-reliant.”
But a-sva-tantra can also carry the positive sense of “not
being self-willed,” i.e. no longer being a control freak, being
helplessly resigned. A-sva-tantra can describe somebody, in other
words, who has become resigned to following circumstances, or
resigned to adapting to reality.
In Saundara-nanda Aśvaghoṣa plays on
this ambiguity of sva-tantra (being autonomous, self-reliant, pulling
one's own strings; or being willful, stiff-necked, self-willed) and
its antonym a-sva-tantra (being out of control; or not being willful,
being resigned, being helpless) when he speaks through the mouths of
Nanda, the striver, the Buddha, and then Nanda again:
And King 'Good Body' Śan-tanu, when separated from goddess Gaṅgā, shook like a śāla tree whose roots the Ganges was washing away: /The son of Pratipa and light of his family, he of the body beautiful, became uncontrollable (a-sva-tantraḥ)// SN7.41 // [Words of Nanda, before enlightenment]
Only a man who aspires to dependence on another, spurning autonomy and self-reliance (sva-tantra-tām), / Would yearn, while he was on the auspicious path to peace, for life at home with all its faults. // SN8.28 // [Words of the striver]
Therefore, knowing it to be darkness, you should not let sleep enshroud you / While the faults remain unquieted, like sword-wielding enemies. // SN14.31 // But having spent the first of the three night-watches actively engaged in practice, / You should, as one who is pulling his own strings, (sva-tantriṇā) go to bed to rest the body. // SN14.32 // [Words of the Buddha]
Since the throng of humanity is passive, not autonomous (a-sva-tantraṃ) and no one exercises direct control over the workings of the body, / But states of being arise dependent on this and that, he found, in that sense, that the world is devoid of self. // SN17.21 // [Words of Nanda, post-enlightenment]
In today's verse,
then, the ostentible meaning of a-sva-tantraḥ is as per the usage
of Nanda in Canto 7 ("uncontrollable") and the striver in
Canto 8 "([not] self-reliant"). But the real or hidden
meaning of a-sva-tantraḥ is as per the words of the Buddha in Canto
14 and Nanda in Canto 17. That is to say, the real meaning of
sva-tantrinā, "being one who pulls his own strings, who is truly in control of himself" is
expressed in today's verse by its antonym a-sva-tantraḥ "being
no longer self-willed, being helpless."
If you look at the
photo again of FM Alexander working on Margaret Goldie, she is a
strong woman who is using herself very well, letting her head go
forward and up out of a lengthening widening back while sending her
knees forwards and away and not caring two hoots whether or not she
conforms to people's expectations of ladylike sitting posture. So in
this sense of being a strong woman using herself well, Margaret
Goldie is conspicuously demonstrating the meaning of sva-tantrin
(being free, independent, self-controlled, pulling her own strings).
But at the same time, in her brain she is making a very clear
decision not to do anything, but to leave herself totally in the
hands of FM, not trying to help him or to help the process in any
way, but rather just remaining totally helpless. Being helpless like
this is the real meaning of a-sva-tantraḥ in today's verse, and it
is nowhere evidenced more clearly than in MG's use of her hands,
which are lying on her knees, palms facing upwards, expressing sheer helplessness.
VOCABULARY
tataḥ: ind. then
abravīt = 3rd pers. sg.
imperfect brū: to speak , say , tell
sārathiḥ (nom. sg.): m. (fr.
sa-ratha) a charioteer , driver of a car ; any leader or guide
sa-ratham: ind. on the same chariot
with , (or simply) together with , accompanied by
asya = gen. sg. m. ayam: this , this
here , referring to something near the speaker
saumya (voc. sg. m.): " resembling
the moon " , placid , gentle , mild (saumya voc. = " O
gentle Sir! " " O good Sir! " " O excellent man!
" as the proper mode of addressing a Brahman)
dhātu-prakopa-prabhavaḥ (nom. sg.
m.): springing from excitement of the elements/humours
dhātu: m. element , primitive matter
(= mahā-bhūta ) (usually reckoned as 5 , viz. kha or ākāśa ,
anila , tejas , jala , bhū ; to which is added brahma ; or vijñāna
Buddh. ); a constituent element or essential ingredient of the body
(distinct from the 5 mentioned above and conceived either as 3
humours [called also doṣa] phlegm , wind and bile ; or as the 5
organs of sense).
prakopa: m. effervescence , excitement
, raging (of diseases , war &c )
prabhava: m. production , source ,
origin , cause of existence (as father or mother , also " the
Creator ") , birthplace (often ifc. , with f(ā). , springing or
rising or derived from , belonging to)
pravṛddhaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn.
grown up , fully developed , increased , augmented , intense ,
vehement , great , numerous
rogābhidhānaḥ (nom. sg. m.): called
“disease”/”breakdown”
roga: m. ( √ruj) " breaking up
of strength " , disease , infirmity , sickness
abhidhāna: n. telling ; a name , title
, appellation
su-mahān (nom. sg. m.): mfn. very
great , huge , vast , abundant
an-arthaḥ (nom. sg.): m. non-value ,
a worthless or useless object ; disappointing occurrence , reverse ,
evil
śakraḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. strong ,
powerful , mighty (applied to various gods , but esp. to indra)
api: even
yena (inst. sg.): by which
eṣaḥ (nom. sg. m.): this one
kṛtaḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. done,
made
a-sva-tantraḥ (nom. sg. m.): mfn. not
self-willed , dependant , subject
sva-tantra: n. self-dependence ,
independence , self-will , freedom ; one's own system or school;
(with Buddh. ) a partic. doctrine of free-will or independence
sva-tantrin: mfn. free , independent ,
uncontrolled
對曰是病者 四大倶錯亂
羸劣無所堪 轉側恃仰人
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