"A thing of beauty is a joy forever"
A famous line from John Keats.
While this sounds so true on first reading,
most things of beauty do not last forever.
We may remember and cherish the joy the things of beauty gave us
and they may live on in our mind, heart and soul as a sweet dream.
But all too often we tend to weep over the demise or destruction
of the things of beauty in our life.
John Keats, a poet who died at age 26.
He may have not lived long enough to reach the wisdom
of William Blake, a poet who lived up to the age of seventy:
"He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."
When I had first heard and read this poem, I wrote in the comments
below the poem the following reflection (in 2010).
Upon reading this wonderful poem I was immediately carried along the thought path, to one experience. I am living near the sea and one day I noticed a wonderful branch of a casuarina tree hanging almost horizontally, framing an astonishing view of the blue South China Sea.
A thing of beauty that moved my soul. Almost every day I took a long look and swallowed the beauty. But not long after I had first noticed it, the wonderful branch had come down in a storm. A thing of beauty is not a joy forever. I realized that many of the wonderful things in our lives are only temporary. They are ours to enjoy, to kiss it while it passes by. At the same time it is good to realize that it is flying and not permanent. And after it is gone, it is our duty to go and find more and other things of beauty, sometimes looking alike but never the same, sometimes more beautiful, sometimes a little less.
Since the above mentioned branch came down, other branches have grown giving me similar delights.
This piece of wisdom is easy to apply to amazingly beautiful branches of trees. It makes me a bit nervous if we start to apply it to the babyhood of our children, than the toddlerhood and so on until they will be out of the house. It makes me shiver to think in these terms if it comes to our intensest of human relationships. I hope so much to be the first to die in my own small cluster family.
I can detach with quite some ease from beautiful things, and find others in their place, but I cannot get detached from my family members. I am not so sure whether at all this would be desirable. Even though some Buddhists believe we should be detached from everything and everyone? ? ?
I remember when my mother died I was heartbroken, completely. And 15 years later, the sadness of the loss is still with me. It is however not a bitter sadness, but one filled with grace and thankfulness, a sadness that somehow gave me meaning; a motivation to live according to the beautiful values that were so dear to her. If I had managed not to be attached to her, I think I would miss this dimension of my life.
What do you all feel?
A famous line from John Keats.
While this sounds so true on first reading,
most things of beauty do not last forever.
We may remember and cherish the joy the things of beauty gave us
and they may live on in our mind, heart and soul as a sweet dream.
But all too often we tend to weep over the demise or destruction
of the things of beauty in our life.
John Keats, a poet who died at age 26.
He may have not lived long enough to reach the wisdom
of William Blake, a poet who lived up to the age of seventy:
"He who binds himself to a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."
When I had first heard and read this poem, I wrote in the comments
below the poem the following reflection (in 2010).
Upon reading this wonderful poem I was immediately carried along the thought path, to one experience. I am living near the sea and one day I noticed a wonderful branch of a casuarina tree hanging almost horizontally, framing an astonishing view of the blue South China Sea.
A thing of beauty that moved my soul. Almost every day I took a long look and swallowed the beauty. But not long after I had first noticed it, the wonderful branch had come down in a storm. A thing of beauty is not a joy forever. I realized that many of the wonderful things in our lives are only temporary. They are ours to enjoy, to kiss it while it passes by. At the same time it is good to realize that it is flying and not permanent. And after it is gone, it is our duty to go and find more and other things of beauty, sometimes looking alike but never the same, sometimes more beautiful, sometimes a little less.
Since the above mentioned branch came down, other branches have grown giving me similar delights.
This piece of wisdom is easy to apply to amazingly beautiful branches of trees. It makes me a bit nervous if we start to apply it to the babyhood of our children, than the toddlerhood and so on until they will be out of the house. It makes me shiver to think in these terms if it comes to our intensest of human relationships. I hope so much to be the first to die in my own small cluster family.
I can detach with quite some ease from beautiful things, and find others in their place, but I cannot get detached from my family members. I am not so sure whether at all this would be desirable. Even though some Buddhists believe we should be detached from everything and everyone? ? ?
I remember when my mother died I was heartbroken, completely. And 15 years later, the sadness of the loss is still with me. It is however not a bitter sadness, but one filled with grace and thankfulness, a sadness that somehow gave me meaning; a motivation to live according to the beautiful values that were so dear to her. If I had managed not to be attached to her, I think I would miss this dimension of my life.
What do you all feel?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Do you agree, do you disagree, please comment...