[Buddha-l] Batchelor

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Herman,

Thank you for all the links.

concerning 'jigs.pa.', "fear" :

>
> That concept may have a forerunner in the
> (sanskrit equivalent of the) pali notion of
> 'samvega' ('sa^mvega' in Velthuis code).
> That word denotes the emotion that is the effect
> of the full realization of suffering - old age,
> sickness and death and a host of minor troubles -
> and is crucial for wanting to turn away from samsara.
> Venerable dutch pali-translator Rob Janssen in a
> conversation some years ago playfully translated
> that term in french as 'nausée', no kidding.
>

Yes, that seems like a good translation, at least a thought provoking one.
In the eighteenth century French authors wrote quite a bit about "le
sentiment d'exister" (awareness of existing) in a positive way. One of the
experiences that Michel Hulin qualifies as "mystique sauvage" (natural
mystics, in the wild so to say). Oceanic feeling. That's the positive
outlook on "the feeling of existence". The negative outlook is excellently
described by Sartre in "La nausée" when suddenly for Roquentin there is an
awareness that he was like under a spell. "Et tout d'un coup, d'un seul
coup, le voile se déchire, j'ai compris, j'ai vu." "Et puis j'ai eu cette
révélation." Everything vanished, their individuality disappeared. Roquentin
experienced le sentiment d'exister negatively, as a loss of identity and a
loss of meaning as nothingness. "Moi, tout à l'heure, j'ai fait l'expérience
de l'absolu : l'absolu ou l'absurde".  A nothingness invading everything and
therefore nauseating. In spite of this, Roquentin still qualifies his
experience as a "atroce jouissance" (atrocious enjoyment).

So it would seem that there is a difference between existential anxiety,
where one doesn't know what is going on but senses that something is wrong,
and disgust (samvega), where one sees the terrifying relativity of one's
reality.

Joy