Nice and true indeed, there is poetry in those reflections whose beauty I love more than its helpfulness, at least for mind so prone to distractions like mine
Great. And indeed, poetry does give us good glimpses of what we cannot truly convey with words. Distractions are sometimes helpful. The trick is how to balance it out so it's nice you found a way to anchor it through the beauty of poetry.
Woah, this was great to read. Thank you for sharing it! I was particularly struck by the quote:
"To be empty means to be alive, to breathe in and to breathe out. Emptiness is impermanence; it is change. We should not be afraid of emptiness, impermanence, or change; we should celebrate them."
I was reading Plato's Symposium yesterday, and was reminded of it while reading your post (when you've got a hammer...). I cannot tell whether it agrees or disagrees!
"Even while each living thing is said to be alive and to be the same—as a person is said to be the same from childhood till he turns into an old man—even then he never consists of the same things, though he is called the same, but he is always being renewed and in other respects passing away, in his hair and flesh and bones and blood and his entire body. And it’s not just in his body, but in his soul, too, for none of his manners, customs, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains, or fears ever remains the same, but some are coming to be in him while others are passing away. And what is still far stranger than that is that not only does one branch of knowledge come to be in us while another passes away and that we are never the same even in respect of our knowledge, but that each single piece of knowledge has the same fate. For what we call studying exists because knowledge is leaving us, because forgetting is the departure of knowledge, while studying puts back a fresh memory in place of what went away, thereby preserving a piece of knowledge, so that it seems to be the same. And in that way everything mortal is preserved, not, like the divine, by always being the same in every way, but because what is departing and aging leaves behind something new, something such as it had been. By this device, Socrates,” she said,“what is mortal shares in immortality, whether it is a body or anything else, while the immortal has another way. So don’t be surprised if everything naturally values its own offspring, because it is for the sake of immortality that everything shows this zeal, which is Love.”
Here is what I am thinking: yes, how good it is that we do change, that there is no essence to ourselves, because so much good comes from our lack of permanance, and how we deal with it!
Powerful and thought provoking, Lucas! Thanks for sharing your readings and reflections here. The quotes you shared of Plato's Symposium reminded me of one of the very first question I got from my first philosophy teacher years ago - 'Are you really the same person who stepped in the river twice?'
I particularly like the following that you've shared. They ask us to look deeper and broader to expand our limited sense of self into something much more profound:
--"What is departing and aging leaves behind something new, something such as it had been." "What is mortal shares in immortality, whether it is a body or anything else".
Beautiful thank you. It reminds me I heard Susan Piver talk about her new book Inexplicable Joy which is about the heart sutra. A book I wanted to get.
Oooo adding “The Other Shore” to my heart sutra reading list - just finished the Red Pine and Kazuaki Tanahashi versions after reading Alex Kerr’s book “Finding the heart sutra” three times through. Only just memorized it last year but am so curious about what it was like to have encountered it first in high school - I wonder how your experience of it has changed over time - maybe a topic for a future post 😊
Alex, Thank you! I would really love to learn from your insights as you have been reading and comparing different commentaries of the Heart Sutra (how nice). It definitely feels very different connecting with the Heart Sutra across different seasons of my life.
During high school, I memorized it voluntarily, a time when I was first introduced to Zen Buddhism through my mom. I sort of "abandoned" the spiritual way after high school up until my recent move to Kyoto (so in total, for about 20+ years just focusing on the external world). Just feeling incredibly lucky that it found me again at the right time, this phase of my life. So now I would like to begin again. To recite it, to understand it with the lens of all I've experienced so far, and to truly live it!
such beautiful reflections! thank you for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for your feedback, Nadia!
Nice and true indeed, there is poetry in those reflections whose beauty I love more than its helpfulness, at least for mind so prone to distractions like mine
Great. And indeed, poetry does give us good glimpses of what we cannot truly convey with words. Distractions are sometimes helpful. The trick is how to balance it out so it's nice you found a way to anchor it through the beauty of poetry.
Just the words I needed to read today, thank you so much.
Pleased that the words found you and you could relate to them! Thanks for reading and for sharing your thoughts 🙏
Woah, this was great to read. Thank you for sharing it! I was particularly struck by the quote:
"To be empty means to be alive, to breathe in and to breathe out. Emptiness is impermanence; it is change. We should not be afraid of emptiness, impermanence, or change; we should celebrate them."
I was reading Plato's Symposium yesterday, and was reminded of it while reading your post (when you've got a hammer...). I cannot tell whether it agrees or disagrees!
"Even while each living thing is said to be alive and to be the same—as a person is said to be the same from childhood till he turns into an old man—even then he never consists of the same things, though he is called the same, but he is always being renewed and in other respects passing away, in his hair and flesh and bones and blood and his entire body. And it’s not just in his body, but in his soul, too, for none of his manners, customs, opinions, desires, pleasures, pains, or fears ever remains the same, but some are coming to be in him while others are passing away. And what is still far stranger than that is that not only does one branch of knowledge come to be in us while another passes away and that we are never the same even in respect of our knowledge, but that each single piece of knowledge has the same fate. For what we call studying exists because knowledge is leaving us, because forgetting is the departure of knowledge, while studying puts back a fresh memory in place of what went away, thereby preserving a piece of knowledge, so that it seems to be the same. And in that way everything mortal is preserved, not, like the divine, by always being the same in every way, but because what is departing and aging leaves behind something new, something such as it had been. By this device, Socrates,” she said,“what is mortal shares in immortality, whether it is a body or anything else, while the immortal has another way. So don’t be surprised if everything naturally values its own offspring, because it is for the sake of immortality that everything shows this zeal, which is Love.”
Here is what I am thinking: yes, how good it is that we do change, that there is no essence to ourselves, because so much good comes from our lack of permanance, and how we deal with it!
Powerful and thought provoking, Lucas! Thanks for sharing your readings and reflections here. The quotes you shared of Plato's Symposium reminded me of one of the very first question I got from my first philosophy teacher years ago - 'Are you really the same person who stepped in the river twice?'
I particularly like the following that you've shared. They ask us to look deeper and broader to expand our limited sense of self into something much more profound:
--"What is departing and aging leaves behind something new, something such as it had been." "What is mortal shares in immortality, whether it is a body or anything else".
Beautiful thank you. It reminds me I heard Susan Piver talk about her new book Inexplicable Joy which is about the heart sutra. A book I wanted to get.
Thanks so much and I'm glad! I appreciate you for sharing 'Inexplicable Joy' which I'll add to my list.
Oooo adding “The Other Shore” to my heart sutra reading list - just finished the Red Pine and Kazuaki Tanahashi versions after reading Alex Kerr’s book “Finding the heart sutra” three times through. Only just memorized it last year but am so curious about what it was like to have encountered it first in high school - I wonder how your experience of it has changed over time - maybe a topic for a future post 😊
Alex, Thank you! I would really love to learn from your insights as you have been reading and comparing different commentaries of the Heart Sutra (how nice). It definitely feels very different connecting with the Heart Sutra across different seasons of my life.
During high school, I memorized it voluntarily, a time when I was first introduced to Zen Buddhism through my mom. I sort of "abandoned" the spiritual way after high school up until my recent move to Kyoto (so in total, for about 20+ years just focusing on the external world). Just feeling incredibly lucky that it found me again at the right time, this phase of my life. So now I would like to begin again. To recite it, to understand it with the lens of all I've experienced so far, and to truly live it!
Thank you for this beautiful text ! It's a joy to read it this morning. And a great reminder !
Cécile, Thanks for taking the time to read and to comment. Happy to be able to share this reflective moment with you.