tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post8087363786611370003..comments2024-01-23T03:58:02.422-08:00Comments on oriana-poetry: THE HEAVEN OF NO DESIREUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-65105242934846867152015-09-04T10:59:44.764-07:002015-09-04T10:59:44.764-07:00Thank you! You stimulated me to slightly revise th...Thank you! You stimulated me to slightly revise the poem, making the lines simpler, but the content richer and darker, if we ponder that what really opened the third millennium was the barbarity of 9/11. Religious wars in the 21st century? Back in the last decades of the 20th century, when so much was opening up, who ever would have predicted that? But I wrote the poem before 9/11, and the "acceptance ending" fit perfectly then, and I still can't think of any other ending . . . <br /><br /><br />orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-53834126406761547852015-09-04T06:00:05.005-07:002015-09-04T06:00:05.005-07:00The idea of a 'sunset rainbow' is quite a ...The idea of a 'sunset rainbow' is quite a puzzling, overwhelming image, and I think that this poem really reflects that! Somerset Wedding Girlhttp://www.holbrookhouse.co.uk/weddingsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-7823687083536258042013-01-07T19:54:37.799-08:002013-01-07T19:54:37.799-08:00Interesting! But since you say "a long time a...Interesting! But since you say "a long time ago,"well, you were young, or at least "younger," and before a certain age it's tremendously difficult not to have desires and not to live in the future. But wait, I just remembered something: it's supposedly a mark of being middle class to have goals and use the future tense a lot. I once read an article that claimed the working class, or at least the bottom half of it, is all about the present. They don't use the future tense much. They don't imagine the future as anything wonderful. They don't imagine the future, period. Allegedly. When I taught, I never met a young student who didn't have some pretty wild expectations of the future -- they all saw themselves as pretty rich, for instance. It's only as we grow older that we begin to to have "diminished expectations" and learn about the role of circumstances and how relatively little we are in control. The consolation is that older people are happier -- every single study bears it out. They live in the present a lot more and are definitely happier. And richer too.<br />orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-8042661096633115022013-01-07T14:25:04.419-08:002013-01-07T14:25:04.419-08:00A long time ago I wrote a poem called "38 eas...A long time ago I wrote a poem called "38 easy steps to carlyle's everlasting yeah." The "yeah" was some form of transcendence I felt Carlyle was offering. In the earliest version of the poem, the key much repeated start to each line was "I want." It was a poem of desire.<br /><br />It didn't feel right, didn't feel convincing, didn't feel like I knew what I was talking about. The wanting was directed out there, toward tomorrow.<br /><br />The poem only came together for me when I changed the "I want" to "be." <br /><br />John Guzlowskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13052735138993479204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-71695542516044837912013-01-03T06:22:59.618-08:002013-01-03T06:22:59.618-08:00I absolutely love these 2 additions: "I want...I absolutely love these 2 additions: "I want nothing from X" and "May the best outcome manifest itself." These are especially relevant as you point out when it comes to eros (and eros and aging) and inestimably helpful (for me too) to allow these positions to inhabit mind.Leonard Kresshttp://www.leonardkress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-86405860357626937702013-01-02T20:34:40.923-08:002013-01-02T20:34:40.923-08:00I don't understand how I managed to omit my ma...I don't understand how I managed to omit my main non-attachment mantra: "May the best outcome manifest itself." In a lot of cases, we don't know what the best outcome would be, especially long-term. The mantra produces an instant surrender to that lack of knowledge. orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-13406367631229528462013-01-02T19:36:43.869-08:002013-01-02T19:36:43.869-08:00I guess you are saying something like, "Focus...I guess you are saying something like, "Focus on the work, not the outcome." And that's of course the best way. Even when submitting, try not to yearn for acceptance. This is fairly automatic when you have the clarity about po-biz and editors and the transience of recognition etc. <br /><br />I think erotic desire is still the problem no matter what: we have evolved to have it, and biology is not easily defeated -- though if a thin (body fat is a "third ovary") woman does not go on hormone replacement, she will get to the point of zero libido, a very peaceful condition. In my counseling years I discovered, to my surprise, that older men did not want testosterone because they feared it would increase their libido and they would find it a torture. I tried to instill a more "nuanced" understanding of libido, but not once (!!) did I succeed. <br /><br />For women, it's possibly even worse to keep waiting for the Prince. And I think there is something to the claim, "You never stop waiting, never." But the desire can be kept mild if there are other satisfactions in life. <br /><br />Altogether, this is a very complex issue. I don't think we can totally liberate ourselves from desire, and maybe that would not even be the best. But less intensity, across the board, indeed seems to lessen suffering. I use the mantras mentioned in this post, and "I want nothing from X" has saved me time and again.<br /><br />orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-7929241424876265912013-01-02T10:22:37.088-08:002013-01-02T10:22:37.088-08:00You pretty much cover it all here. I do wonder, t...You pretty much cover it all here. I do wonder, though, about a bit more nuanced understanding of desire, perhaps one that is, in the Buddhist end, a copout, though. Is desire the culprit or is it more the desire for a certain outcome of that desire? Here's something from a less rarified Buddhist source--basketball coach Phil Jackson--"What pollutes the mind in the Buddhist view is our desire to get life to conform to our peculiar notion of how things should be...." And more specifically, how it relates to basketball--which could not exist (could anything in this world exist) without the desire to win or play well...."As a basketball player this made a lot of sense to me. I knew from experience that I was far more effective when my mind was clear and I wasn’t playing with an agenda of some kind, like scoring a certain number of points or showing up one of my opponents. The more skilled I became at watching my thoughts in zazen practice, the more focused I became as a player. I also developed an intimate knowledge of my mental processes on the basketball court.<br /> Basketball happens at such a fast pace that your mind has a tendency to race as the same speed as your pounding heart. As the pressure builds, it’s easy to start thinking too much. But if you’re always trying to figure the game out, you won’t be able to respond creatively to what’s going on….The key is seeing and doing. If you’re focusing on anything other than reading the court and doing what needs to be done, the moment will pass you by."<br />Leonard Kresshttp://www.leonardkress.comnoreply@blogger.com