Hearken, O Mādhava, what more can I say?
Nought can I find to compare with love:

Though the sun of the East should rise in the West,
Yet would not love be far from the worthy,

Or if I should write the stars of heaven on earth,
Or if I could pour from my hands the water of all the sea.

-- Vidyapati

I feel my body vanishing into the dust whereon my beloved walks.

I feel one with the water of the lake where he bathes.

Oh friend, my love crosses death's boundary when I meet him.

My heart melts in the light and merges in the mirror whereby he views his
face.

I move with the air to kiss him when he waves his fan, and wherever he
wanders I enclose him like the sky.

Govindadas says, “You are the gold-setting, fair maiden, he is the
emerald”

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows – then let your heart say in silence, “God rests in reason.”
And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, – then let your heart say in awe, “God moves in passion.”
And since you are a breath in God’s sphere, and a leaf in God’s forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

-- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Open your eyes ...

Open your eyes ...

Mirror-pond of stars …

Suddenly a summer

shower

Dimples the water.

-- Sesshi

He who has been instructed thus far in the things of love, and who has learned to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes toward the end will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty(and this, Socrates, is the final cause of all our former toils)—a nature which in the first place is everlasting, not growing and decaying, or waxing and waning; secondly, not fair in one point of view and foul in another, or at one time or in one relation or at one place fair, at another time or in another relation or at another place foul, as if fair to some and foul to others, or in the likeness of a face or hands or any other part of the bodily frame, or in any form of speech or knowledge, or existing in any other being, as for example, in an animal, or in heaven, or in earth, or in any other place; but beauty absolute, separate, simple, and everlasting, which without diminution and without increase, or any change, is imparted to the ever-growing and perishing beauties of all other things. He who from these ascending under the influence of true love, begins to perceive that beauty, is not far from the end. And the true order of going, or being led by another, to the things of love, is to begin from the beauties of earth and mount upwards for the sake of that other beauty, using these as steps only, and from one going on to two, and from two to all fair forms, and from fair forms to fair practices, and from fair practices to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and at last knows what the essence of beauty is.

“This, my dear Socrates”, said the stranger of Mantineia, “is that life above all others which man should live, in the contemplation of beauty absolute.... But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty—the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life—thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine? Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.Would that be an ignoble life?”

-- Plato, Symposium

Monday, March 29, 2021

The beautiful optimism & benevolence of Mencius ...

 

... from the James Legge translation of Chinese Classics, Volume 2, Chapter 6:-


“Mencius said,


All men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others.

The ancient kings had this commiserating mind, and they, as a matter of course, had likewise a commiserating government.

When with a commiserating mind was practised a commiserating government, to rule the kingdom was as easy a matter as to make anything go round in the palm.

When I say that all men have a mind which cannot bear to see the sufferings of others, my meaning may be illustrated thus:-- even now-a-days, if men suddenly see a child about to fall into a well, they will without exception experience a feeling of alarm & distress.

They will feel so, not as a ground on which they may gain the favour of the child’s parents, nor as a ground on which they may seek the praise of their neighbours & friends, nor from a dislike to the reputation of having been unmoved by such a thing.


‘From this case we may perceive

·        that the feeling of commiseration is essential to man,

·        that the feeling of shame & dislike is essential to man,

·        that the feeling of modesty & complaisance is essential to man, and

·        that the feeling of approving & disapproving is essential to man.


·        The feeling of commiseration is the principle of benevolence.

·        The feeling of shame & dislike is the principle of righteousness.

·        The feeling of modesty & complaisance is the principle of propriety.

·        The feeling of approving & disapproving is the principle of knowledge.


Men have these 4 principles just as they have their 4 limbs.


When men, having these 4 principles, yet say of themselves that they cannot develop them, they play the thief with themselves, and he who says of his prince that he cannot develop them plays the thief with his prince.


Since all men have these four principles in themselves, let them know to give them all their development and completion, and the issue will be like that of fire which has begun to burn, or that of a spring which has begun to find vent.


Let them have their complete development, and they will suffice to love and protect all within the four seas.


Let them be denied that development, and they will not suffice for a man to serve his parents with.’”



Could anything be more touchingly & poignantly benevolent, wise, helpful & affirmative?

Oriental wisdom is still profoundly underrated and misunderstood.

We are still inclined to cast it in the light of mysticism, magic, occultism, stuff that is exciting & sensational.

From flying-carpets to cloud-borne celestials, from dragons fighting in the midst of tempests wreathed with flashes of lightning to effulgent gems on the hoods of a mysterious serpent-race, Eastern wisdom is persistently misrepresented as full of ideas that do not pertain to everyday lives of men & women, & the regular, orderly, smooth & efficient functioning of society.


But it is overwhelmingly about GOOD LIVING & GOOD THINKING.


This needs to be understood, appreciated, and proclaimed loudly and proudly.











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