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Friday, October 19, 2007

An interlude, and some word derivations

While I was involved with this project, I met and worked with Ted Lebar. Ted has spent a number of years doing research on the meaning of many of the unique words contained in the book. I asked him whether he could offer us any insight into some of the specific meanings of the words used for the descriptions of the society of Akhldanns.

His response is below, edited a bit, but otherwise essentially intact. Thanks to Ted for sharing some of his work with us.

"Akhldanns"
Akhl, means wise, learned. Dan at the end, means ending to something like "belonging to a particular person, place, order or profession". This is Persian. This word exists also in Turkomen, and Armenian. It can also mean morality. So, sounds like "Society of wise or learned people, where morals are part of it.

"Sovor"
(Armenian) accustomed, used to, inured, trained, usual and customary. Also, ordinary.

"Fokhsovors"
Fahs (for foh), means examining, investigating, inquiring.

"Strassovors"
Stratosovors, would they be studying something in the stratosphere?

"Metrosovors"
(Ted did not have derivation for this word.)

"Psychosovors"
Psychsovors sounds like a study of Psyche?

"Harnosovors"
Harnosovors, in Armenian for harnosovors "
Harnuadz" means mixture, composition, temper or tempering, consanguity, relationship.

"Mistessovors"
Mistesovors, are they studying mysteries of some kind?

"Gezpoodjnisovors"
Gez (Turkmen), means measure of distance. In Armenian, Gazmuti (for gezpadji) means construction, organization, order, formation, structure.

As to the word "Silkurnano," (means something akin to mathematics) there is nothing in any of the dictionaries in my possession.

Tomorrow we'll return to a discussion of the seven divisions of the society.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Der Tod in Hong Kong

Those of you familiar with Thomas Mann will no doubt recognize the title reference to the famous short story "Death in Venice" (Der Tod in Venedig.).

About a year ago, the husband of a very old friend who did sourcing over here was on a business trip, when he suddenly dropped stone dead of a heart attack. He was young- in his 40's.

Now I can't help thinking of John every time I come over here.

Yesterday, walking along the waterfront, I watched a cat stalking birds in the underbrush around the HK art museum. Death- or the inference of it- was there, lurking in the midst of all the money, commerce, and architecture.

I got into the museum, and lo and behold, the big event was a display of "treasures" from the British museum. Among them, a complete, perfectly preserved mummy from Egypt.

Death again, ...on public display for every gawking gawker. I wondered to myself how the woman wrapped in shroud would have felt while she was alive, had she been told her body would be on public display on the other side of the world two thousand years later. ...Is this simply pornography, renamed "science?"

In the midst of this egocentric frenzy we call "life," we all forget- completely- how absolutely temporary life is. Caught up in our pursuit of personal aims and goals- all the "desires" that religions warn us against- we don't see that we need to be preparing ourselves to face death. And no matter who we are, we're all absolutely equal in the eyes of death.

Perhaps Dogen understood just how imminent death is for every single one of us. Why else would he have advised us to "practice as though extinguishing flames from around our head?" And of course we have Gurdjieff's Beelzebub remarking that the only remaining factor that might yet serve to spur man to a real spiritual effort in his life would be to develop an irrevocable, organic sense of his own mortality.

The absolute paradigm for this level of existence is the organism. The lessons we are here to learn can't be learned without it. And one of those lessons-perhaps the greatest one of all- is death.

Where is our humility in the midst of our mortality? Can we touch that, even if just for a moment?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Esoterica from Dogen

Perhaps I am a bad person for being willing to interpret; after all, so many people I know and respect (sometimes) insist we should not do these things. Even I myself agree, forked tongue firmly in mouth, that we shouldn't do these things.

Nonetheless, sometimes all of us do these things, don't we?

All the quotations in today's posting are taken from Nishijima and Cross' translation of the Shobogenzo, Dogen Sangha press, book 3, chapter 65, "Ryugin-The moaning of Dragons." And, as usual, I recommend that the reader get the book and read the entire chapter. It's better than Burger King.

I am going to offer you an idiosyncratic interpretation of some Buddhist terms here. Be forewarned, they probably depart from traditional Buddhist philosophical explanations.

This particular chapter begins with a story about Master Jisai of Tosu-zan Mountain in Joshu. Asked by a monk, "Among withered trees does the moaning of dragons exist or not?", he replies "I say that inside of skulls exists the Lion's roar."

The translators of the Shobogenzo claim that withered trees symbolize "the vivid state of non-emotion."

Well... I don't agree with them. The withered tree represents the human body where there is no connection within the centers.

Dogen says, "The withered trees of which the Buddhist patriarchs speak are in the learning in practice of the sea having dried." In other words, the water in the body is not flowing, and the learning of how we lack ourselves in this manner is a physical practice, not a learning of the mind.

"The Sea having dried is a tree having withered, and a tree having withered is [the vivid state of] meeting spring." Here we see that recognition of the state we are in -- one in which the inner energy does not flow properly -- brings us to a new beginning.

"Even a sprouting bud is the moaning of dragons among withered trees." The very first taste of energy flowing within the body is the moaning of dragons.

All of the experience of energy flowing within the body is, in fact, the moaning of dragons.

Opening each flower is the moaning of dragons.

Discovering the connections between the flowers is the moaning of dragons.

..."Leaves spread out from the roots: we call this state "a Buddhist patriarch."

So you see, when the dragons moan, when the water begins to flow, it is spring, and the leaves spread out from the roots. A connection between the body and the mind is formed.

"Root and branch should return to the fundamental: this is just learning of the state." Upon finding a new connection within ourselves, we return again and again to the beginning.

Here is what is, to me, one of the most interesting quotes from the passage: "At the same time, do, re, mi, fa, and so(l) are two or three former and latter instances of the moaning of dragons." Here Dogen connects the idea of the movement of energy within the body directly to the octave--specifically, to what we would call the development of the octave up through the first conscious shock, to the point where it meets five, or, the heart.

Coincidence?

It gets better.

"A trace of joy still being retained is horns growing further on a head." This reference, reminiscent of the moment in Gurdjieff's literature where Beelzebub re acquires his horns and attain the sacred Anklad, pertains to the act of tending the ox, which is an inner work, not a metaphor.

"I wonder what words the dragons moan," he says a bit later. "We should ask this question. Moaning dragons are naturally a sound being voiced, or a matter being taken up, in the mud. They are the passing of the air inside the nostrils. We do not know what these words are describes the existence, in words, of dragons. Those who hear all share the loss: how sorrowful it is! The moaning of dragons and has now been realized by Kyogen, Sekiso, Sozan, and the others, becomes clouds and becomes water."

Here Dogen describes the rising of energy from the root; the attention to breath as it enters the body; the deep and sorrowful experience of becoming aware of ourselves through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Dragon. And within this awareness, we discover the gifts of clouds and water, we discover the material that will cause our withered inner tree to sprout new leaves.

And where does this lead us? It leads us here: "A trace of joy still being retained is the croaking of bullfrogs. A trace of consciousness still being retained is the singing of earthworms."

In other words, it leads us back to the earth, back to a magnificent, joyous, and fundamental experience of life that ties us into every other living organism.

Those of you who are tired of reading the wish that I post at the end of each essay--I'm sure that by now it appears to be an affectation to some of you-- might want to consider the meaning of the words in light of this set of passages from Dogen. They are chosen intentionally as a wish for each reader; they have a specific meaning; and my deepest wish for each one of you is that you discover for yourself what that meaning is.

Tomorrow I will try to steer us back in the direction of the society. Stay tuned.

May your trees bear fruit, and your wells yield water.