Another Lojban prayer/meditation

[Robin Turner <robin@bilkent.edu.tr>]

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.