V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 460

[Ian Livingston]

Yes, good stuff!

Even though I am not certain of P's knowledge of Buddhism at the
writing of V. I wonder, too, if the Sahha contains a sort of punning
allusion to the Tibetan word, Soha (svaha), which is used as a part of
the closing of many mantras and prayers, such as the mantra for Green
Tara, who might easily align with Venus / Aphrodite in many ways: om
tare tutare ture soha. Wikipedia:

    * Om tare tuttare ture svaha, mantra of Green Arya Tara - Jetsun
Dolma or Tara, the Mother of the Buddhas: om represents Tara's sacred
body, speech, and mind. Tare means liberating from all discontent.
Tutare means liberating from the eight fears, the external dangers,
but mainly from the internal dangers, the delusions. Ture means
liberating from duality; it shows the "true" cessation of confusion.
Soha means "may the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind."

According to Tibetan Buddhism, this mantra (Om tare tutare ture soha)
can not only eliminate disease, troubles, disasters, and karma, but
will also bring believers blessings, longer life, and even the wisdom
to transcend one's circle of reincarnation. Tara representing long
life and health.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantra




On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 7:57 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> great f'in' stuff...thanks...
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
> To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sun, February 6, 2011 5:30:55 AM
> Subject: V2, Chap 15 (Sahha), I, p 460
>
> Getting started a day early....
>
> A few words about the chapter title ("Sahha" [Sic]).  The word is
> meant to represent the Maltese valedictory interjection ("Cheers";
> "Bye";"Health") and it is misspelled.  Pynchon almost certainly knows
> its misspelled for reasons I'm about to explain.
>
> Maltese is a language spelled with an alphabet of 30 letters, some of
> which are the conventional Latin letters with diacritical marks.  One
> of these letters represents the sound called the "voiceless pharyngeal
> fricative" - this letter (which I can't represent in this posting
> unfortunately; you'll have to follow one of the links below to see how
> it looks) is customarily called "h with stroke."  The "sahha" of the
> chapter title should actually be spelled: "s-a-h with stroke-h with
> stroke-a".
>
> However, "h with stroke" also appears, very significantly, in quantum
> mechanics, when it's called "h-bar" and where it represents the
> "reduced Planck constant."  In this guise, it's fundamental to the
> measurements of black body radiation, photoelectric effect, and most
> famously as a measure of uncertainty in quantum systems.  In other
> words, the title of this chapter when correctly spelled looks, to the
> eye of a trained physicist, like some unknown term of quantum
> dynamics.
>
> Here's how to pronounce the word:
> http://www.forvo.com/word/sahha/
>
> On the Maltese language:
> http://www.omniglot.com/writing/maltese.htm
>
> On "H with stroke":
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6
>
> On the "Reduced Planck constant":
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_Planck_constant#Reduced_Planck_constant
>
> --
> Richard Ryan
> New York and the World
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
>
>
>
>
>



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