Moments of Understanding

[heartfelt7]

When I posted the Tagore quote a moment ago, it reminded me of how I used to "try" to read him and others like Krishnamurti or Castenada, (or Moseley) and they would go right over my head. One time I was in a book store with my son and found a small little book by Krishnamurti that I actually understood what he was saying. I loved it and bought it and brought it home to read it word for word. And when I was all done, I found that it was a book of mainly questions and answers that Krishnamurti did for some grade school students in India. Talk about a lesson in humility. I always try to remember that book whenever I think I know something. (ha)

[anirbas]

That's the beauty of poetry. One must not always understand what the poet is conveying. Reading poetry is as much about the tone, the rhythm, the colors and emotion the piece conveys. Poems, are literal canvases. Each person that looks at a painting sees different things, from different angles. So, it is with poetry, as well...In my humble opinion...lol

[glenn]

I remember going to the bookstore to order a book written by Tagore. This would have been back in the '80s, if memory serves. The clerk looked at me ruefully and said it could be quite some time before the book came in...she didn't recognize the publisher as anyone she had dealt with before. No problem, I replied. I just had to have that book.

Fast forward two years, occupied largely with pestering the clerk to see if the book had finally come in. Phone rings. Voice at other end says to me, "Guess what? It is finally here."

All the way from Bombay, India. I book I still own and treasure. Well worth the wait.

I believe I held the record at the bookstore for ordering the book that took the longest to come in.

I must admit it was not until I began to read up a little on Hinduism and Buddhism that I began to have the odd moment of understanding of what Tagore meant. A lot of it is still way beyond me.

Still fun to read, though. Takes me to places that are interesting, in spiritual ways if you know what I mean....

[heartfelt7]

Yes, I know what you mean. What is funny is that there always seems to be two, a great Hindu thinker like Tagore, but then the simple words of someone like Swami Paramananda (both saints I'm sure). The same with Sufi - the great teacher Hazrat Inayat-Khan, and the love poems of Rumi or Hafiz. The mystical words of Christ that need "ears to hear" and the simple love of Mother Teresa that did hear. Spinoza called it the intellectual Love of God, and I guess that is for the intellectuals. But I can only comprehend the simpler version, and that's okay with me.