Buddhist confessional poetry:

Narratives of self-conversion

[Part 8]

In my last few columns I sought to select a number of optics through which to observe and assess the significance of the Therigatha as a literary text. In today's column I wish to focus on the idea of the body as a way of making our way into the deeper layers of meaning encoded in these poems.

The body is central to the experiences refigured in the poems contained in the Therigatha. How the nuns who had resolved to abdicate household life faced up to, struggled with, and re-imagined the body is a vital aspect of the meaning-system of these poems. Hence the idea of the human body needs to be recognized as a site in which meanings are reflected, enacted and produced.

The body is primarily a physiological entity. However, to confine the body purely to this dimension, as is the general practice, is to rob it of its complex layers of meaning.

During the past two or three decades the body has been subject to an intense rethinking both in the humanities and the social sciences. It is no longer viewed as a purely natural object. The body as a cultural construct, a linguistic product, a discursive creation has gained wide recognition. The body needs to be understood as a representation and the role of language in shaping it deserves careful study. These newer ideas of the human body enable us to explore productively the linguistic fabric as well as the cultural and religious imperatives that guide the way the body has been represented by these ancient Buddhist nuns in their confessional poetry.

The narrative discourses of the poems gathered in the Therigatha are guided by the power of the body. In these literary texts we find the assertion of the body as both object and motive of narration.

This leads to what literary theorists refer to as the semioticization of the body – the way the body is converted into a complex signifying system. In these poems we see how the body functions as a site of emotion and sensation, a place of narcissism, a declared adversary of spiritual development.

It is indeed with these issues that the nuns struggle as they produce religious bodies and literary bodies in their verbal weaves.

The central experience of these poems relates to the transformation of the human body – how it is spiritualized. In order to understand the full force of this transformation we need to pay close attention to the ways by which – linguistic, cultural, religious- that the human body is being produced in the poetic texts contained in the Therigatha. A normal narrative constitutes a desire for another’s body or for one’s own. Indeed this desire is amply reflected in the poems in the Therigatha as well. What is interesting about these poems is that the body is antagonistic to the spiritual pursuits as it is supportive of such efforts.

Traditionally, the body has been ancillary to the mind in both humanistic and social scientific thinking. As recent as 1984 the eminent sociologist Bryan S Turner observed that, ‘contemporary sociology has little to say about the most obvious fact of human existence; namely, that human beings have and to some extent are bodies. There exists a theoretical prudery with respect to human corporeality which constitutes an ontological gap at the core of sociological enquiry.’

When we examine the writings of such distinguished social theorists as Hobbes, Weber, Durkheim, George Herbert Mead, we realize that they all subscribed to the notion that the human body is ancillary to the mind, and the natural rights are subservient to social norms. For example, Durkheim asserted that human beings consist of both biological and social being in a hierarchical relationship that privileges the latter.

In more recent times, the body has entered social scientific discourse in a more challenging and significant way. Here I wish to cite two scholars whose work played a crucial role in gaining visibility for the centrality of the concept of the body. They are the British anthropologist Mary Douglas and French thinker Michel Foucault.

They come out of different intellectual traditions; however, they both were instrumental in demonstrating the centrality of this concept in social analysis.

In Mary Douglas’ works such as Purity and Danger and Natural Symbols, the human body comes to signify the profoundest link between man, nature and society. She is deeply interested in the biological and corporeal foundations of our social construction of reality.

Following Marcel Mauss, Douglas underlined the need to recognize the human body as an image of society, arguing that there is no natural way of investigating the body that is available to us that does not implicate simultaneously a social dimension.

Michel Foucault can be described as one of the most seminal thinkers of modern times.

His formulations on madness and reason, sexuality, knowledge and power, the emergence of human sciences and the practice of medicine and the production of medial knowledge have cleared new and productive pathways for intellectual inquiry.

Foucault has been instrumental in placing the human body at the centre of intellectual investigations as no other modern theorists has. He regarded the body as a vital component of the power relations that exist in society, and in his various writings, he has pointed out how the body is located in a political sphere, invested with power relations that make it docile and productive, while being economically and politically valuable. His ambition was to demonstrate how the body has become a site in which the minute of social practices are connected to larger institutions of power.

The concept of the body has figured prominently in humanities as well from ancient times. Let us consider the ancient Indian situation. The image of the human body has played a very important role in Hindu religion, philosophy, literature, mythology and in culture in general. It assumed the status of a symbolic construct of great moment which served to define culture.

According to the Purusha hymn in the rig Veda, the cosmos and everything in it originated from the body of the Brahman. Memorably vivid imagery of the human body is frequently employed in the Upanishads.

In classical literature nature was represented in terms of the human body. One can multiply such examples. The salient point tt needs to be emphasized is that the image of the body is central to Indian thought, and it is intertwined with the loftiest philosophical thought and sublime poetry.

What is interesting about the Indian speculations is that there is an intimate link between self and body. Hence, if we are to comprehend the true nature of the Indian self in its manifold complexity we need to pay much closer attention to the idea of the body. For example, in the Upanishads one comes across a number of graphic images deployed to portray the way in which the self leaves the body at the point of death.

For example, it is maintained that just as a snake discards its slough, the atman discards the body as death. In another memorable passage it is pointed out that, ‘now as a caterpillar, when it has come to the end of a blade of grass, in taking the next step, draws itself towards it just so this self in taking the next step strikes down the body, dispels ignorance, and draws itself together for making the transition.’ The relationship between the inner self and the body and how it differs from the relationship between the inner self and the cosmic self is demonstrated in another striking passage.

‘Two birds, fast bound companions, clasp close the self-same tree of these two, the one eats sweet fruit; the other looks on without eating.’ Here the human body is the tree; the atman, the bird eating the sweet fruit; and Brahman, the other bird. As we read these passages it becomes evident that the Upanishads draw a distinction between self and body, and that at death the inner self discards the body and finds another. However, things are more complex and nuanced than this; in view of the fact that subsequent interpreters have striven to enforce a distinction between the empirical body or gross body and other forms of bodies.

The way that the concept of the body has figured in Buddhist thought is different from the way in which it makes its presence felt in Hindu thinking. It is important to bear in mind the fact that the Buddha recognized the human being as a psychophysical entity (namarupa). He studiously avoided the customary practice of dividing the human being into mind and matter. Instead, it was his intention to establish the interdependence, the interplay between the mind and the physical personality.

Personality

The mind is associated with the body and mental actions can occur only when it is located in physical personality. The Buddha’s desire to repudiate the idea of an immutable self (atman) and replace it with the concept of psychophysical entity can be seen as a way of addressing this problem. The Buddhist approach to the human being, it is evident, places a great emphasis in the human body.

The relationship between self and body in Indian Buddhism is complex and demands careful unpacking. At one level, it might appear as if the body was perceived as an adversary that needs to be shunned.

Indeed, as commentators like Edward Conze have pointed out, it is a fundamental conviction of the majority of Buddhist that the body is unclean, and that it is humiliating to have one. While we are so attached to it, taking care of it, beautifying it, it should be seen for what it is.

The passion that it ignites must be quenched the anxieties associated with it must be eliminated by facing it honestly and forcefully. For example, the meditational practices encouraged by Buddhism that dwell on the repulsive aspects of the human body are a strategy for achieving this objective.

In Buddhist meditation, in the early stages, a number of objects have been suggested as being especially appropriate for reinforcing mental concentration and getting rid of mental road blocks. For example, in the well-known Buddhist text ‘The Way of Purification’, of the forty objects recommended for meditational practices, ten are corpses in different stages of decomposition.

Corpses

‘And further, if the disciple sees

(1) a corpse, thrown on a charnel field, dead for one, two, or three days, swollen, bluish, and festering, he draws along his own body for comparison, and thinks; ‘verily, also this body of mine is subject to such a law, is going to be like that, and it has not gone beyond this.’

And he thinks the same when he sees

(2) a corpse eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals, or many kinds of worms;

(3) a chain of bones (skeleton) with some flesh and blood remaining, without flesh, but smeared with blood, held together through the tendons;

(4) a chain of bones, without flesh, but smeared with blood, held together through the tendons;

(5) a chain of bones from which both flesh and blood have departed, but still held together through the tendons;

(6) bones unconnected, scattered in all directions, - here a bone of the hand, and there a bone of the foot, a shin bone, a thigh bone, the pelvis, a vertebral bone, the skull; (7) bone white, similar in color to shells;

(8) bones, more than a year old, made into a heap;

(9) bones which have gone rotten and have become dust.’ It is evident that in Buddhist literature the body is generally reconfigured as an amalgamation of bones, skins, sinews and malodorous dirt.

Let us consider some representative example from the Therigatha. This poem is by the nun Abhirupa Nanda.

Nanda, see the body
Diseased, impure, rotten,
Cultivate the mind,
Intent and well-focused,
For meditation on
The unpleasant.

Similarly in another poem in the Therigatha it is said that to be attached to the body is futile.

Abhaya, the body is fragile,
And it is to which many
People are drawn.
With concentration and purposefulness
I will discard the body.

In the following poem by the nun Nanda, once gain we see the heavy emphasis placed on the repulsive nature of the human body.

See the body, Nanda,
Diseased, impure, rotten
Cultivate the mind
Intent and well-focused
For meditation on
The unpleasant

And this, so that,
As this, so this,
It exudes a rancid smell
It is the delight if fools

Observing it in this way
Not letting up day or night
And analyzing it through
My wisdom, I noted

Being vigilant, reflective, reasoned
I saw the body for what it was
Inside out

Then I became disgusted

With the body, I lost interest in it.
Vigilant, steadfast, I have become
Stilled and quenched.

In the following poem by the nun Vimala we see how the human body is being portrayed as an impediment to be overcome.

Thrilled by my good complexion
My figure, radiance, and fame
Arrogant because of my youth
I looked down upon other women.

Having adorned the body
Colorfully arrayed, snaring fools
I stood outside the door of the harlot
Like a hunter having set up a snare
I bared my body, displayed ornamentation
With manifold conjuring and mo teasing people

Today I have gone out for alms
With shaven head, clad in outer robe
I am seated at the foot of a tree
I have reached the spiritual heights

I have severed all bonds
Both divine and human
I have quenched the desires
I am stilled and tranquil

However, it needs to be underlined that the nexus between self and body in Theravada Buddhism operates at a number of different levels of apprehension.

It is said in the Majjhima Nikaya that, ‘this body of mine, formed, made, of the four elements originated from mother and father nourished on grovel and milk……and this consciousness of mine is fastened there, bound there.’ in the Anguttara Nikaya, it is said that ‘ In body but not in mind; the unsubdued in body but subdued in mind; he who is subdued in neither; he who is subdued in both.’

On the evidence of these examples, it is clear that on numerous occasions in Buddhist expositions, the body and the mind were treated as separate entities.

However, as we examine the corpus of Buddhist writings it becomes evident that this relationship is far more complex and nuanced that one would initially be led to believe.

The relationship between body and consciousness in Buddhism is as vital as it is complex. That the human body is an agglomeration of perceived processes, and hence consciousness, has been amply demonstrated by the Buddha.

Central tenets

As with everything else, in keeping with the central tenets of Buddhism, the body needs to be understood as a conditional existence and therefore is constantly constructed by consciousness. In this regard, the observation of R.E.A. Johansson is indeed interesting; he says that consciousness (vinnana) can give rise to a material body, because there is no difference between the objective, material body and the body perceived as a conscious process.

Consciousness may become conscious of body through stimulation, but it also can refashion body through mind or sensation. These lines of thought have important implications for understanding the poems contained in the Therigatha and how they reconfigure, enact, produce the body.

It is against this background of thinking that I wish to focus on the poetic texts in the Therigatha in order to uncover the centrality of the human body. In this regard, I would like to make seven points. First, many of the poems underline the fact the body is impermanent, it is subject to incessant change and decay.

Consequently, to be overly interested in the body is futile and counter-productive. The nuns who fathom this truth were able to achieve the highest levels of spiritual attainment. Second, there is in many of the poems such as those by the nun Kisagotami and Ambapali to de-valorize beauty – beauty as something wholly ephemeral. Hence the attachment to corporeal beauty can prove to be a serious impediment to realizing spiritual wisdom.

Third, these confessional poems by ancient Buddhist nuns display the power of self-empowerment through control of their own bodies. This is a strain of thinking that finds a ready echo in contemporary feminist thinking, ignoring the admonitions of parents and power-holders of society, these nuns were able to take charge of their bodies and their lives.

In this regard, the body becomes a site of self-assertion, resistance and liberation. This is indeed a facet of experience that is not commonly fund in classical Indian thought and practice. Fourth, we find how in these confessional poems by Buddhist nuns the body becoming a site of gaining new knowledge.

Through concentration on the body, its impermanence, its inevitable decay, its mode of knowledge production, the Buddhist nuns were able to extend their range of awareness and acquire new knowledge.

Fifth, unlike in classical Indian literature general, the female bodies are described, assessed, evaluated, textualized not by men but by women – the nuns themselves.

This is indeed a trait rarely found in traditional literatures both in the East and West. So what we find in these confessional poems is how women were successful in entering into discourses from which they were excluded and initiate the all too important process of self-representation.

Transition

Hence, these poems signify the transition from women as objects of another’s discourse to women as agents, women as subjects and activators, of their own discourses. This act of corporeal and discursive relocation is indeed significant. Sixth, the idea of dualism, the strict division of the mind and body into two separate entities, is challenged in some of the poems in the Therigatha. In these poems the body is presented as a linguistic and cultural construct and a signifying medium of intense complexity, and thereby erasing the easy division between mind and body.

Seventh, it is normally believed that the body is transparent however, as we begin to ponder the complex ways in which it is interwoven with diverse systems of meaning we begin to perceive that it is anything but transparent; it is multi-layered and opaque and carries within it densities of meaning.

Many of the poems collected in the Therigatha reinforce this point. A close reading of verses by nuns such as Isidasi and Subha serve to highlight this aspect.

What I have sought to do in today’s column is to focus on the concept of the human body as a way of gaining entry into the complex verbal fabric and meaning systems of the poems in the Therigatha.

The construction of subjectivity of the narrating nuns and the literary and religious productions of their bodies in these verses invite focused and sustained study. It is evident that in these Buddhist confessional poems the body is not only the motor of narrative advancement but also the site of production of truth and wisdom.

( To be continued)