Buddhist confessional poetry: Narratives of self-conversion

Part 4

It seems to me that one of the most productive optics through which we can approach the Theragatha and Thergatha is that of the concept of sublime. I wish to submit that what these poems have as their preferred destination is the attainment of a Buddhist sublime. The concept of sublime has a long history in Western culture beginning with the Greek theorist of rhetoric Longinus who lived somewhere between the 1st century and 3rd century A.D; it has evolved in complex ways into postmodern times with the glosses of Lyotard, Derrida and Jameson. Similarly, it has deep roots in Eastern cultures as well. For example, if we take the classical Indian tradition in its broadest sense, we can identify certain concepts such as’ chamathkara’ –‘ rasa’- ‘dhamma sanvega’ which have a kinship with it. Although there is not a single word in Sanskrit that captures the fund of meaning associated with the sublime as glossed by Western theorists, there are a number of words that capture facets of its meaning. Prof. Vijay Mishra has coined the term ‘atyuccha’ to convey the meaning of the English word sublime.

The term sublime has deep roots had in Western culture; it has been re-imagined at a number of key moments in the evolution of Western philosophy and aesthetics. Here, I would like to highlight four such moments. Clearly, there are others, which I have left out, that merit serious study. Owing to limitations of space, I will confine myself to four significant moments. The first is the work of the Greek thinker Longinus. His work On the Sublime has to be regarded as a text that opened up a new line of inquiry that was subsequently developed by later theorists, especially in the 18th century. In discussing the concept of the sublime, Longinus focused on the grandeur of the subject matter as well as the verbal registers deployed by the writer. Grandeur, nobility, elevation were indeed his watchwords.

Longinus was a Greek theorist who was deeply familiar with Greek works such as those of Homer but as well as the Bible, and he drew on them liberally .His work on the sublime, in terms of public reception, has had its up and downs; it was virtually ignored during certain periods. However during the 18th century, in England and other European countries, it acquired a new prestige and was able to frame productively the discourse on the sublime.

Indeed the great renewal of interest in this concept in Europe in the 18th century was largely due to the availability of different translations of Longinus’ text . Longinus was a thoughtful writer and a passage like the following by Longinus reflects his privileged interests and priorities as well as his tone.

‘Our persuasions we can usually control, but the influences of the sublime bring power and irresistible might to bear, and reign supreme over every hearer. Similarly, we see skill in invention and due order and arrangement of matter emerging as the hard-won resultant of one thing not of two, but of the while texture of the compositions, whereas sublimity flashing forth at the right moment scatters everything before it like a thunderbolt, and at once displays the power of the orator in all its plenitude.’

The concept of energy shapes Longinus’ idea of the sublime in interesting and complex ways. As he remarks, ‘that…..is grand and lofty, which the more we consider, the greater ideas we conceive of it; whose force we cannot possibly withstand; which immediately sinks deep, and makes such impressions on the mind as cannot be easily worn out or effaced.’ Longinus, of course, labors to make an important connection between art and the sublime. He says that, ‘in a word, you may pronounce that sublime, beautiful, and genuine, which always pleases, and ranks equally with all sorts of men.’

It is Longinus’ considered judgment that the natural ability to speak effectively with a sense of grandeur is at the root of all writings marked by the sublime. He says, ‘the first and most excellent of these is a boldness and grandeur in the thoughts. The second is called the pathetic, or the power of raising the passion to a violent and even enthusiastic degree; and the two being genuine constituents of the sublime, are gifts of nature, whereas the other sets depend in some measure upon it.’

Through out his writings on the sublime, Longinus sought to emphasize the importance of lofty thoughts. This in turn paved the way for a serious engagement with the role of the mind that produces works of art .It is this preoccupation with the mind of the artist that led subsequent thinkers who addressed the issue of the sublime, especially those living in the 18th century, to focus on the idea of emotion. The interconnections between the sublime and emotion assumed a great significance in later writings.

The second important moment in the growth of the concept of the sublime, it seems to me, is the writing of Edmund Burke, To be sure, there were other important writers on this subject who displayed their creative powers of thinking in the intervening years.

However, none mad a deep and palpable impression on the thought and imagination of his times as Burke did. Edmund Burke’s book, ‘Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of the Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful’ was published in 1775.It played a major role in shaping public discussion on this subject.

Burke introduced into the discussion the sublime the idea of terror, and it became a defining feature of his approach to the sublime. He remarked that,’ terror is in all cases whatsoever…..the ruling principle of the sublime’.

The idea of astonishment is central to Burke’s understanding of the sublime. Interestingly classical Sanskrit theorists thought that ‘chamathkara’ (astonishment) is at the heart of the experience of rasa.

He asserted that, ‘the passion caused by the great and sublime in nature…is astonishment; and astonishment is the stare of mind in which all its matters are suspended, with some degree of horror. In this case, the mind is so entirely filled with the object that it cannot entertain any other.’ A passage such as this clearly indicates the importance he attached to the idea of astonishment.

When discussing the nature and significance of the sublime, Burke emphasized greatly the response of the receivers, the way the beautiful and sublime objects generated mental images. In other words, he labored to distinguish between the beautiful and the sublime on the basis of the responses to them by the receivers. Another way of saying this is to assert that Edmund Burke was an empiricist when it came to the understanding of the sublime, and that his theory of the sublime is constructed on the basis of experience of the listeners and readers. As we explore further into Burke’s conjunction of experience and the sublime we begin to see that the beautiful is almost always linked to an individual who is an integral part of society and the sublime to an isolated individual who is at the still center of his own solitude.

In discussing Longinus approach to the sublime I said that he paid great attention to the loftiness of language; Burke carried this effort further investing language with greater powers in the construction of the sublime. Burke advanced a more complex notion of language and figuration than Longinus. His examination of work of poetry in his text Enquiry illustrates this predilection of his. He observed that, ‘there are words, and certain dispositions of words, which bring peculiarly devoted to passionate subjects, and always used by those who are under the influence of any passion; they touch and move us more than those which far more clearly and distinctly express the subject matter. We yield to sympathy what we refuse to description.’ It is evident from passages such as this that Burke is gesturing towards a wider discourse of feelings, sensations, emotions in which the language displays an unmistakable physical presence. Words such as ‘touch’ and ‘move’ index this bent of mind.

Distinction

It is clear that Edmund Burke sought to draw a distinction between the beautiful and the sublime and explain this difference in psychological terms. He connected pleasure with beauty and pain with the sublime; after all, as we pointed out earlier, terror, according to him, is a crucial ingredient of the sublime. Not only did Burke seek to bring in psychological issues to his discourse on the sublime but he also linked it to physiological factors. His notions of pleasure and pain have physiological aspects as well. As he pointed out beauty has the effect of inducing relaxation of body and sublime a tightening of the body.

Edmund Burke, then, drew a sharp distinction between the beautiful and the sublime and asserted that a deep understanding of one is a prerequisite for a deep understanding of the other. As he remarked, ‘The idea of the sublime and the beautiful stood on foundations so different that it is hard, I had said almost impossible, to think of recognizing them in the same subject, without considerably lessening the effect of the one or the other upon the passions.’

When we examine Edmund Burke’s discourse on the sublime, we see that he entertained two antithetical notions about the sublime that were in productive tension. The first is that he proposed an empirical approach to the beautiful and sublime that rested on the experiences of listeners and readers, the empirical foundations. How works of art exerted an influence on the receivers was important to him. The other is a kind of psychological idealism that he advanced. How these two approaches come together and move apart in his disquisitions is a phenomenon that merits closer study. Burke, then, was a thinker who had a profound influence on the evolutionary trajectories of the sublime in Western cultures and intellectual traditions.

The third important moment in the evolution of the discourse on the sublime in Western cultures, I submit, can be seen in the body of writing of Immanuel Kant. Kant (1724-1804) was one of the greatest philosophers. His philosophical woks Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgment published in 1781, 1788 and 1790 respectively, display his indubitable critical acumen and innovativeness as a thinker. When it comes to the question of the sublime, the two works that are most important are Critique of Judgment and Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime. What Kant did was to systematize the ideas that were in circulation at the time on the concept of the sublime within the framework of his own philosophy. Like Burke, he sought to draw a distinction between the beautiful and the sublime; clearly, he was reacting against the skepticism and naïve empiricism that was current at the time and focused on the supremacy of what philosopher term ‘a priori’ concepts

Immanuel Kant conceded that there were some points of affinity between the beautiful and the sublime; however, the differences far outweighed the similarities. He believed that beauty is concerned with limited forms and objects while the sublime is to be discerned in forms and objects that are limitless. The beautiful presupposes an effort at understanding; it activates the faculty of cognition. The sublime presupposes an effort of reason; it seeks an unconditioned totality. Kant asserted that the pleasure in the beautiful grows out of a ‘feeling of furtherance of life.’ it comports with delight and an imagination that is playful. According to him, the feeling of the sublime is induced by ‘a momentary check to the vital forces, followed at once by a discharge all the more powerful; for having being retained’. Hence it can be said that the pleasure that arises from the sublime is secondary; it can be termed a negative pleasure as opposed to the positive pleasure experienced in the beautiful

In numerous passages Kant highlights the distinction between the sublime and the beautiful. For example, in a memorable passage he says the following. ‘Finer feeling is of two kinds; the feeling of the sublime and that of the beautiful. The stirring of each is pleasant, but in different ways. The sight of a mountain whose snow-covered peak rises above the clouds, the description of a raging storm, or Milton’s portrayal of the infernal kingdom, arouse enjoyment but with horror. On the other hand, the sight of flower-strewn meadows, valleys with winding brooks and covered with gazing flocks, the description of Elysium or Homer’s portrayal of the girdle of Venus, also occasions pleasant sensations but one that is joyous and smiling….

Tall oaks and lonely shadows in a sacred grove are sublime. Flower beds, low hedges, and trees trimmed in figures are beautiful. Temperaments that possess a feeling for the sublime are drawn gradually, by the quiet stillness of a summer evening as the shimmering light of the stars are drawn gradually, as the shimmering light of the stars break through the brown shadows of nigh and the lonely moon rises into view, into high feeling of friendship, of disdain for the world, of eternity. The shining day stimulates busy fervor and a feeling of gaiety. The sublime moves, the beautiful charms. The mien of a man who is undergoing the full feeling of the sublime is earnest, sometimes rigid and astonished. On the other hand, the lively sensation of the beautiful proclaims itself through shining cheerfulness in the eyes, through smiling features, and often through audible mirth.’

Kant goes on to say that. ’The sublime must always be great; the beautiful can be small. The sublime must be simple; the beautiful can be adorned and ornamented….St. Peter’s in Rome is splendid; because is so distributed, for example, gold mosaic work, and so on. That the feeling if the sublime still strikes through with the greatest effect; hence the object is called splendid.’ the splendid is one of the categories of the sublime another being the noble. Kant said that, ’true virtue can be grafted only upon principles such the more general they are, the more sublime and noble it becomes. …..I believe that I sum it all up when I say that it is the feeling of the beauty and the dignity of human nature..’ According to Kant the feeling of beauty generates affection and the dignity of human nature, the facet of the sublime generates esteem. The human dignity and the moral imagination that human beings possess are vital to the production of the sublime.

Beauty and virtue

What we see here is the attempt by Kant to combine beauty and virtue, aesthetics and ethics, in formulating his concept of the sublime. The ideas of human dignity and moral worth are central pillars of Kantian philosophy. Hence it is scarcely surprising that he has sought to invoke these concepts in his discourse on the sublime. An interesting aspect of Kant’s notion of the sublime relates to ideas of representation, reason and imagination and this is one that has stirred a deep interest among postmodernist philosopher such as Jean Francois Lyotard who has commented perceptively on the sublime. In experiencing the sublime, Kant says that the imagination strives to represent what it lacks the power to represent, in view of the fact that the objects of sublimity, as I stated earlier, are limitless and therefore cannot be represented. The failure of the imagination is pivotal to the production of the sublime.

What Kant is saying is that the sublime represents an interplay between imagination and reason as a modern commentator has aptly stated, ‘imagination exchanges partners, foregoing the free play of beauty with the understanding in favor if what becomes a desperate struggle with reason which marks the sublime. In Critique of Judgment, imagination leaves the understanding behind and enters into conflict with reason. Kant once remarked that, ‘what happens is that our imagination strives to progress towards infinity, while our reason demands absolute totality as a real idea, and so the imagination, our power of estimating the magnitude of things in the world of sense, is inadequate to that idea. Yet this inadequacy itself is the arousal in us of the feeling that we have within us a supersensible power.’ Kant goes on to establish a distinction between what he calls mathematical sublime and dynamical sublime. The former alluded to our cognitive power while the latter to our power of desire.

Immanuel Kant turned the eighteenth century understandings of the sublime into a supremely important and nuanced concept. The following statement by Kant encapsulates well the central distinction he was seeking to enforce. ‘For the beautiful in nature we must seek a ground external to ourselves, but for the sublime one merely in ourselves and the attitude of mind that introduces sublimity into the representation of nature.’ As Kant expounded it, the sublime signifies the mind reflecting upon its own supersensible being. That is why he was moved to say, ‘the sublime is that, the mere capacity of thinking which evidences a faculty of mind transcending every standard of sense.’

The fourth important moment on the growth of the concept of the sublime in Western culture emerges with the writings of postmodern thinkers, most notably Lyotard. The formulations of Kant are vital for their discourses on the sublime. For example, Lyotard takes as his preferred point of departure the glosses of Kant and moves in a path that takes him closer to the thought-worlds of postmodernists with their privileged notions of uncertainty, ambiguity, unrepresentability, heterogeneity and multiplicity. Lyotad is a French philosopher who has written on politics and aesthetics, among others, from a postmodern perspective. He famously said that postmodern signifies the absence of meta-narratives (over-arching stories) and this has become an article of faith with card-carrying postmodernists.

The exegesis by Kant served to highlight a certain tension at the heart of the sublime, and critics like Lyotard have sought to exploit that. As was stared earlier, the feeling of the sublime is a negative pleasure. It is negative primarily due to the fact that the imagination undercuts itself in its futile attempt to present its understanding of the infinite. At the same time, it needs to be noted that it is also a pleasure because reason is strong enough to control the imagination. This has the effect of ushering in a sense of harmony amidst the chaos. Lyotard believes that, ‘the imagination does violence to itself in order to present a magnitude, which is a sign of the subjective absolute of magnitude (magnitude itself). Moreover, the imagination does violence to itself because reason has the strength to demand this of it.’ What Lyotard is doing in his interpretations is to challenge the supremacy of reason as an umpire of disputes and to question the capability of the unsettling power of the imagination in the sublime through a concordance of the faculties.

Lyotard defines the sublime in keeping with his postmodernist tenets, as ‘a strong and equivocal emotion.’ The equivocality of this emotion is a consequence of the rooting of the sublime in pain. As opposed to the judgments made in beauty which are achieved through consensus consequent upon the mind producing settled compromises, the sublime appears to be a sentiment of a different order. What Lyotard has sought to do is to take the existing body of opinions on the sublime, most notably that of Kant, and re-interpret it in terms of his preferred categories and vocabularies of analysis. These four moments, it seems to me, are highly significant in understanding the long historical unfolding of this concept.

I have discussed at length the concept of the sublime as it has been articulated in Western cultures over a long stretch of time. It might appear as if I have made too digressive a detour in my discussion of the Buddhist sublime as expressed in the Theragatha and Therigatha. But this is s indeed not the case; a good understanding of the concept of the sublime as it developed in the West is crucial to a proper understanding of the Buddhist sublime as I gloss it; we can, then, observe both the similarities and differences between them. The Buddhist sublime, as I interpret it, contain certain features which are also found in Longinus, Burke, Kant and Lyotard; at the same time there are distinct differences as well. First let us see how these confessional poems focus on the idea of sublime. These poems deal with the experience of monks and nuns who renounced the household life, entered the Buddhist order, practised meditation and achieved arahantship. These are the ways in which some of the poems end.

You are called Dhira, or
You have a firmness of mind,
A nun with subdued faculties,
Bear your final bodily form
You have vanquished
Mara and his retinue

I am released from the incessant
Rounds of birth and death.
The spinner of endless
Rounds of being has been defeated.

Having rooted out desire
I have achieved permanent stillness.

I have torn out all passion,
The burning fever is no more.
I have achieved stillness.

Spiritual victory

What we find in these poems is the triumphant declaration of spiritual victory. The self-awakening of these monks and nuns has led to self-knowledge and wisdom; the journey is done. The desire to put out desire has been achieved. It is the expression of this spiritual victory that gives rise to the sublime in these poems. And it is decidedly a Buddhist sublime. What is the nature of their Buddhist sublime? And how does it relate to literary textuality as represented in these Buddhist confessional poems? This is certainly an issue that invites detailed treatment and analysis. However, in the interests of space, let me present in outline what I think are its central features.

The idea of the sublime generated by these poems consists of an astonishment leading to wisdom and that in turn paving the way for a decisive tranquility and calmness. The sense of terror that Edmund Burke saw as being vital to the emergence of the sublime is totally absent; instead what we find is the triumph of calmness and inner stillness, the vibrancy of tranquility. The Buddhist sublime is one of placidity and lucidity and they are interconnected. I am using the word lucid in the way that Albert Camus used it – both as clarity and illumination. The defining feature of the Buddhist sublime as inscribed in the poems in the Theragatha and Therigatha is the power of calmness. This is indeed a different kind of sublime from that we discussed earlier in the Western tradition. At the same time, the question of unrepresentability that theorists such as Lyotard alluded to is clearly present in the Buddhist sublime.

As a matter of fact, what these poems by Buddhist monks and nuns demonstrate is the unrepresentability of the final existential victory, the ambiguous being-in-the-world that is beyond language. Derrida, commenting on the idea of the sublime and Kant’s interpretation of it said that, ‘the sublime is super-elevation beyond itself.’ This idea of unmeasurability is consonant with the Buddhist understanding of the sublime. Kant said that the sublime is unrepresentable to the mind because it is ‘an outrage to the imagination.’ This thought too falls within the perimeter of Buddhist sublime. On the other hand Kant sees the sublime as marked by continuous tension while the Buddhist sublime illustrates the opposite; it is a triumphant vindication of order and harmony. Hence, not only does the concept of the Buddhist sublime enable us to acquire a deeper understanding of the poems in the Theragatha and Therigatha, but it also serves to widen the discourse of the sublime in general.