Friday, 29 May 2015

A Thai Emglish poem by Pompen Hantrakool Explicated


Text

Ttuth explores enlightenment
Truth evinces elucidation
When ignorance and desire come to the end
We shall understand Dharma thoroughly

Explication

This is the poem that clinches up the six poems that we have read. The seven poems together constitute the Striving for or Trying to Get out of.Wherefrom does the poet try or strive to get out?  Well  the poet wants to get out of the world where we circle tirelessly in love wrath greed and misperceiving. In fact our minds are never stable and tranquil. Our minds always shift from one emotion to another and we are tossed by the multitudes of emotion ever along a vicious circle .So does the body change from infancy to old age. Neither the body nor the mind is permanent. Desire wealth and prosperity are all that the mind ordinarily asks for. And thereby mind serves the body. The body consequently puffs up to the utmost. A funny sight.  A  body about to burst .But Pompen says that the starved soul cries in silence. Thus Pompen posits three levels of existence in physical mental and spiritual . Once Pompen takes the soul into account the imagery of the circling could mean circling  along birth and rebirth experiencing the same emotions like greed and wrath. Desire for happiness while moving along the circle is self defeating. People war over happiness at all costs. And too much of happiness  there is no peace any more. This is a grim portrayal of the life that we are born into. And turning and turning on the gyre of births and deaths joys and sorrows is

there no respite?Pompen says –Hope and don’t despair,This has a tonic effect on the readers. Pompen  exhorts—Fight to the end  of your energy and wisdom. This is striving or giving great efforts. In our minds eyes the figure of Pompen  shows up.The frail lady in her sixties , a historian, smiling at her physical infirmity will seek strive fight and never yield to the journey of life along vicious circle. She will not be a plaything in the hands of capricious world and time. Oh Life! Oh Time! She is our role model.She has told us that we have been the playthings of emotions only because of our misperceiving. We must not give in to the emotions but smile at them. Pompen has been a harsh critic of our perception of life.She has proved our desires to be hollow sham. But  truth is its own dowry.She uncovers the reality from the vestige of appearance. And this truth however bitter it might seem to us on the surface explains enlighten ment. What is enlightenment? It is the act or means of enlightening or the state of enlightenment. To explain the enlightenment means to give a reason to justify striving for enlightenment or be cause or motivating factor for striving for enlightenment. The notion enlightenment might  seem to us too difficult to understand. But Pompen says that the truths in the contingent that she has laid bare evinces elucidation. Leading a life in the light of the truths uncovered by Pompen  will reveal the content of enlightenment. The road prescribed by Pompen is  as killing as the razors edge. Who can walk along a razors edge? Because we must get rid of desire.Is that humanly possible? But it is desire alone that propels  us through different stages of life as well as through countless births and deaths. Once we get rid of our desires ignorance vanishes. Consequently the cup of our minds will be empty and dharma will shine in our minds on its own in its peerless effulgence. Pompen does not explain what dharma is . Like a deft narrator she keeps us in wait. We expect her to explain  what dharma is. Pompens poems  are  different. They  seek the road to freedom from worldly groans. That is not all. They make us think of life in an emergent way and motivates us to follow an emergent form of life.

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