X-Digest-Num: 120 Message-ID: <44114.120.673.959273824@eGroups.com> Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 19:58:34 +0300 From: Robin Turner Subject: Another Lojban prayer/meditation X-Yahoo-Message-Num: 673 Content-Length: 2081 Lines: 54 coi rodoi Since a couple of people liked the last prayer / meditation, here's the latest ... .i mi dunda lei selpencu le dertu .i mi dunda lei vrusi le djacu .i mi dunda lei selviska le fagri .i mi dunda lei selsumne le vacri .i mi dunda lei seltirna le canlu .i banro .i stodi .i fusra .i mi dunda roda le selpramrai The last line is a direct(ish) translation of the Sanskrit "Hrim srim krim paramesvari svaha" (not that I know Sanskrit, but this is what I'm told it means!). {canlu} is a substitute for "akasha", incorrectly believed to be the medium through which sound travels, and usually translated as "ether" which was incorrectly thought to be ... etc. etc. I have occasionally seen "space" used as a translation, which struck me as the least dubious. Theosophically-inspired stuff about "akashic records" and so on is just a lot of flim-flam grafted onto some already misunderstood Indian metaphysics. But what the hell, I needed a fifth element (shades of Luc Besson!). I noticed some incongruities in the gismu list while writing this. Compare {viska} etc. to {vrusi}, which has the place-structure reversed (and buggers up the metre into the bargain!). "Smell" has two gismu, while "feel" in the sense of "perceive through the sense of touch" has none. Speaking of incongruities, perceptive readers may notice that I use {fagri} in two different systems in (slightly) different ways. Don't blame me, I'm just following the Kaula tradition here, where fire is both one of the five elements and the three lights. I would guess the former is its property of heat, while the latter is its property of giving light. Or something like that. {.uanai.e'enai} As I said before, the aim of writing these pieces (apart from my personal use) is to try and extract the core of various "spiritual" practices while ditching the cultural baggage and some of the more dubious metaphysics ({.oiro'ese'i} - just noticed the mixed metaphor!). I usually find that straight translations into English sound either absurd, obscure or trite. co'o mi'e robin.