Facts and ideas are dead in themselves and it is the imagination that gives life to them. But dreams and speculations are idle fantasies unless reason turns them to useful purpose. Vague ideas captured on flights of fancy have to be reduced to specific propositions and hypotheses. W. I. B. Beveridge
I am given to flights of fancy, I inherited the practice from my mother. I know, and probably she knew, them for what they were. Vague ideas, dreams and speculations. It was good to be brought up short with this quote, and the article it came from, that specific propositions CAN come out of dreams. I tend to bin my flights. But not always I guess.
Thanks to Julius who unknowingly pointed me to this article on the site Brain Pickings. Just a mo while I bookmark.
I wrote this last night in an effort to describe what I mean by field of merit. How does it grab you?
Flowing unseen, unhindered by seeming limitations of time and space is that which benefits beings. A ‘field of spiritual merit’ which knows no bounds. This is simply the truth of existence.
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
William Blake
A couple of days ago I was listening to Poetry Please on Radio 4 as I drove to Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey. This poem stood out as one I’d want to link to here. It speaks to something we probably all do at some level.
When we are completely honest with ourselves does friend mean somebody like me and foe mean not like me?
The Dalai Lama has been speaking about his role as a spiritual leader and why it is important not to give up hope in times of hardship, in an interview (with Andrew Marr) during his tour of the UK.
Other subjects up for discussion on The Andrew Marr Show included his exile from Tibet and his encounters with the late Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao.
Toward the end of the interview Andrew Marr basically asks What teaching do you have for us in these difficult times? The response from the Dalai Lama was sane and accessible, as is usual. There are other clips from the interview which are worth watching.
The video linked to above was not working last time I looked. Probably there has been a lot of people wanting to watching it.
