April 22
Third Teaching – Discipline of Action
Arjuna begins by begging for clarification, if understanding is better than action, why is Krishna telling him to fight?
Krishna explains that no one can live and not perform actions. It is nature, the quality of life itself. He mentions – source for Easwaran – how in meditation one's senses still supply information, and if you utterly withdraw, like in a sensory deprivation chamber, your mind will recreate sense objects. Through disciplined practice, one can control the senses, and not allow them to control you.
We have to act, so we should make every action a sacrifice to God. Only then can we be free from attachment. Perform actions with detachment. But that doesn't mean sloppy work, because each action should be good enough to offer as sacrifice. Krishna reminds Arjuna that there is nothing to be attained, yet Krishna himself keeps acting. If he did not "these worlds would collapse."
No wise man disturbs the understanding
Of ignorant men attached to action;
He should inspire them
Performing all acts with diligence.
Does this mean it is better for people to act, attached to action, than it is not to act at all? It does keep the world turning, ar a least all shook up. So the ignorant soldier who kills for glory is more useful to the universe than a secluded, solitary monk who tries very hard not to hurt anything? Wow.
The next stanza seems really important, but difficult for me to unravel. First we have to remember that the Sanskrit word "guna" means "qualities of nature," which are lucidity, passion, and dark inertia.
Actions are all effected
By the qualities of nature;
But deluded by individuality,
The self thinks "I am the actor."
When he can discriminate
The actions of nature's qualities
And think "the qualities depend
On other qualities," he is detached.
At first I read it as "affected," not "effected." So I didn't see that he is saying all actions, the things we do, are really done by guna, by nature. Following the rest of the passage, I believe he's saying that our senses and our desires which cause us to be attached are separate from our deep selves – Self. Maybe?
Since we are in bodies, we are all affected by nature, "creatures all conform to nature; what can one do to restrain them? (33)" Kind of like what I've said before, that our "sin" is our bodies, the desires that rise out of our bodies, like hunger/gluttony, softness/sloth, etc. and come out of our evolutionary history.
Attraction and hatred are poised
In the object of every sense experience;
A man must not fall prey
To these two brigands lurking on his path.
Everything that provides a sensory experience – every smell, feel, sound, taste, and sight invites or compels us to have preferences. To say "I like that" or "Yuck! Get it away!" These preferences get in the way of seeing things as they are. And they bind us further to our egos. I like, I hate, etc. We keep making self stronger, the illusion of self, each time we say something or think it, about sense objects.
The goal isn't to close oneself off from senses, but to appreciate all objects equally. A "bad smell" isn't bad in itself. I have to make that judgment and if I do, I'm not really appreciating the meaning or existence of the smell in itself, which is after all just another part of my Self (as brahman). Arjuna asks why we act against our wills, and Krishna verifies the above interpretation by saying desire and anger arise out of guna:
Know it here as the enemy;
Voracious and very evil!
As fire is obscured by smoke,
And a mirror by dirt,
As an embryo is veiled by its caul,
So is knowledge obscured by this.
And he goes on in detail about how desire, arisen from nature (our bodies?) makes it impossible to see the Truth. He exhorts Arjuna to "know the self beyond understanding, sustain the self with the self, and . . . kill the enemy menacing you in the form of desire."
Okay. Well. Where to start? So many places. But aren't we back to the lesson to not label things good or evil? To allow things (and people) to be what they are without making a division, not sorting into like and dislike?
I can start with the sound of the highway, which often really annoys me. The pain I'm already working on. People? That is really hard. To be able to NOT label Karl Rove, to feel neither pain nor pleasure at his name . . . that is going to take some big time practice.
April 23
Knowing I didn't fully explore all of the meaning or application of the 3rd teaching, I'm still moving on.
Fourth Teaching
Arjuna hasn't understood yet who Krishna is, as he questions how Krishna could have taught the ancient discipline to the sun. So Krishna begins to tell him, and here is where it says he will come in every dark age. Oh! I just had a thought! We tend to speak of Buddha, Confucious, or at least Lao Tzu, Krishna and Jesus as possibly being divine incarnations that come at different dark moments to light the way – but in fact, all of them came at the same time – about 500 BCE, give or take 50 years (and maybe we should throw in Aristotle?). Except Jesus, who is off by half a millenium. So perhaps God comes all over the world when he comes? And other peoples have their own versions, their traditons that we never hear of. Like recently I read about the !Kung healers, some of them old and very wise and compassionate, the same quality of person as the mystics of better known traditions, who have stories about their own ancient sages.
Ok, so God reveals itself to us in many diverse ways, but it really suggests that 500 BCE was either a very dark time in the cosmos, or a really EXCITING time in human cultures!
Though myself unborn, undying,
The lord of creatures, I fashion nature,
Which is mine, and I come into being
Through my own play [lila]
Whenever sacred duty decays
And chaos prevails,
Then I create
Myself, Arjuna
To protect men of virtue
And desroy men who do evil,
To set the standard of sacred duty,
I appear in age after age.
Aren't things terrible enough yet? Perhaps everyone feels their own age is the darkest, but I think I could make a darn good case for ours. Though there were things like the awful 14th century in Europe of course, with the Black Death and the Inquisition, the Crusades. The 20th century was pretty terrible, with both World Wars and the carnage in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America following colonization and neo-colonialism, and then our involvement. Okay. It's been bad a long, long time. So when is 'bad' bad enough? I guess we'll see.
In the meantime, we do have the words of the previous incarnations. Krishna promises that whoever knows him will escape rebirth when he abandons the body.
Free from attraction, fear and anger,
Filled with me, dependent on me,
Purified by the fire of my knowledge,
Many come into my presence.
I like the "many." It isn't as hard as some people indicate – like the Buddha. But it isn't just a blanket promise to any who mouth a few words.
As they seek refuge in me,
I devote myself to them,
Arjuna, men retrace
My path in every way.
Doesn't it seem right there that Krishna is pointing out that he himself was just a human, who through discipline and knowledge and devotion came to know who He really is (who we all are) and realized His godliness? To me this feels like the best of both worlds, of both Christianity and its brother religions, and Buddhism.
Yes, one gets to the path and moves along it thru one-pointed discipline, to be a sort of god. And yes, a divine being loves you, is waiting for you, will help and comfort you. Both are true. If I take refuge in Krishna, devote myself to him, remain loyal to him, he says right here he will "devote himself" to me.
I feel as if my mantra is helping me learn to take refuge in this way, though I haven't been using it as much as I was. Will pick that back up again today, on this whole idea of taking refuge. That is exactly what I feel I need.
April 24
I did feel closer to God yesterday, was seeing Krishna more as a personal deity, not savior exactly, but one who cares and will help. I may be weak, unable to stand on my own, but I have a lifetime of training, of wanting to turn my self toward a God, to turn over my burdens, give thanks, seek comfort, give service. I don't believe it's wrong . . . god understands how we humans need personal figures to whom we can relate – and has provided them. I kind of see Krishna and Jesus superimposed on one another, morphing into one another.
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