If you have built your castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.
Thoreau
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Hello Mark
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Every great achievement of the human being has begun with a dream, a magical day dream, an impossible dream, a castle in the air, a "pie in the sky." And along with the dream sometimes comes hope. The unfortunate thing is that often it stops with hope, with a big maybe, but with the depressing idea that whatever it is isn't possible, so forget it.
When all the blather, bluster, ideologies and idiocies have passed into history and basically forgotten, what will be known to be the really important description of the 20th Century? I think it will be space travel. In the last hundred years we have witnessed the emergence of aircraft as the most popular form of transportation for long trips in short periods of time. And the hundred years were topped off by space travel, men and women flying into outer space, and living there. The International Space Station - the castle in the sky, as Thoreau put it.
We have seen men walking on the moon. It was an impossible dream for many centuries. That is something, I think, should be considered and never forgotten about. How many millions of people. for thousands of years, have stared up at the moon and wondered what it would be like to be there. All of it was accomplished by those with the intelligence and imagination to build the foundations under it. Many said it was impossible for man to go to the moon. If we can walk on the moon we can walk on other planets. Anything is possible to the one who, like Don Quixote, puts his armor on, takes his spear, saddles up and chases after the star.
To dream the impossible dream ...
To fight the unbeatable foe ...
To bear with unbearable sorrow ...
To run where the brave dare not go ...
To right the unrightable wrong ...
To love pure and chaste from afar ...
To try when your arms are too weary ...
To reach the unreachable star ...
(Joe Darion)
There are hundreds of reasons why a thing can't be done. There is one good one for why it can, and that's the doing of it. Someone once said "Imagination is intelligence having fun." No matter how difficult and sorrowing it is, no matter how hostile the territory, no matter how long it takes, don't fold your dream up and tuck it into the bureau drawer. Leave it lying around, underfoot, in your way. And sooner or later your imagination will grab onto the right foundations to make it be. The impossible dream is yours, so is the unreachable star.
Dana Bate - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
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This invitation is still open for anyone and everyone to post an entry of their own on my journal, Vagabond Journeys http://vagabondjourneys.blogspot.com/.
A new year is upon us and since it is a time for celebrations, remembrances, resolutions and plans for the future I think people have things to say.
Not to take away from the postings on your own journals, but to add to the joy of my own is why I invite you to write for me.
I want to read what your thoughts are about this magical time of the year. This invitation is open to everyone: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, Agnostics, Atheists and the Uncertain or the Confused. Tell me your thoughts on any subject you wish.
There are no limits in regard to length. The only limitation is that, for reasons so far unexplained to me, my blog does not take photographs, animations, videos or pictures of any kind. I deal in words.
Please accept my invitation. Send your entry to my email address dbdacoba@aol.com I will copy and paste it into my journal and it will be displayed promptly. You may sign your name or not as you wish, and you may leave a link to your blog or your email or not, as you wish. I will do NO editing or censoring. Eloquence is not necessary, mind or heart or both is all.
I have 13 Guest Authors so far. Check them out.
All are welcome. Admission is free.
DB - The Vagabond
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Showing posts with label the dream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the dream. Show all posts
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday, August 2, 2010
The Waking Up
I know the joy of fishes in the river through my own joy, as I go walking along the same river.
Zhuangzi
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How often do I take advantage of the opportunity to sit down next to a rose bush or a tulip bed and share the flower's sunlight? I can stand out on my balcony and breathe the same air that squirrel is breathing as it scurries along on it's day's adventures. Even though I don't know the languages I can hear the birds singing to the world at large from their branches or the dogs talking to each other from there various back yards. And listening carefully I can begin to understand, if not the specifics, the spirit of joy and life that is the subject of their dialogues.
The tulip doesn't care that I'm also in the sunlight and doesn't reject me for being there. Sitting in peace and respect I am one with the tulip, and being a tulip I can begin to understand what it's life is like. Does that sound crazy to you? Well, it isn't. Tree huggers know something that their scornful critics don't.
We are dreamers. Our dreams take many forms. I have had dreams in which I knew I was dreaming. In one case I dreamed that I threw the covers off the bed and just as I dreamed it I actually did it. Another time I dreamed that someone woke me up from a dream. And a third time I was dreaming about something terrifying and someone in my dream said to me you know this is only a dream, so relax.
Many great thinkers, over the years, have told us that life is really a dream. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on": wrote Shakespeare. Can I close my eyes and dream of being a tulip? Why not? Can the squirrel dream of being a human? Can my proximity cause the tulip to dream of being a man?
Zhuangzi (4th Century BCE Chinese philosopher) once wrote that he dreamt of being a butterfly joyfully flitting about. But when he awoke he said "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."
I read a lot of philosophy, psychology, science and religion, and on the highest levels of that literature are men and women who have reached the understanding of life's great spiritual journey and that the unattained result of that journey is a discovery, a Great Awakening, a realization of the truth of existence and of the vanity of human systems to explain it.
One day I went to visit a wise man because I was confused about my career and what I should be doing. Should I stick to broadcasting, or pursue theatre, music or some other activity. What he said to me was "The answer is none of the above. What you should be doing is waking up."
Zhuangzi also wrote "Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense!"
How dense am I? That's the question. To understand my being is a daily activity and will see me sitting quietly, staring at the wall, while the butterfly dances through my mind.
I long for the day, as the tulip, squirrel, bird, dog and all of us do, when I will wake up.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
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SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 6 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
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Zhuangzi
*****************
How often do I take advantage of the opportunity to sit down next to a rose bush or a tulip bed and share the flower's sunlight? I can stand out on my balcony and breathe the same air that squirrel is breathing as it scurries along on it's day's adventures. Even though I don't know the languages I can hear the birds singing to the world at large from their branches or the dogs talking to each other from there various back yards. And listening carefully I can begin to understand, if not the specifics, the spirit of joy and life that is the subject of their dialogues.
The tulip doesn't care that I'm also in the sunlight and doesn't reject me for being there. Sitting in peace and respect I am one with the tulip, and being a tulip I can begin to understand what it's life is like. Does that sound crazy to you? Well, it isn't. Tree huggers know something that their scornful critics don't.
We are dreamers. Our dreams take many forms. I have had dreams in which I knew I was dreaming. In one case I dreamed that I threw the covers off the bed and just as I dreamed it I actually did it. Another time I dreamed that someone woke me up from a dream. And a third time I was dreaming about something terrifying and someone in my dream said to me you know this is only a dream, so relax.
Many great thinkers, over the years, have told us that life is really a dream. "We are such stuff as dreams are made on": wrote Shakespeare. Can I close my eyes and dream of being a tulip? Why not? Can the squirrel dream of being a human? Can my proximity cause the tulip to dream of being a man?
Zhuangzi (4th Century BCE Chinese philosopher) once wrote that he dreamt of being a butterfly joyfully flitting about. But when he awoke he said "I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."
I read a lot of philosophy, psychology, science and religion, and on the highest levels of that literature are men and women who have reached the understanding of life's great spiritual journey and that the unattained result of that journey is a discovery, a Great Awakening, a realization of the truth of existence and of the vanity of human systems to explain it.
One day I went to visit a wise man because I was confused about my career and what I should be doing. Should I stick to broadcasting, or pursue theatre, music or some other activity. What he said to me was "The answer is none of the above. What you should be doing is waking up."
Zhuangzi also wrote "Only after the great awakening will we realize that this is the great dream. And yet fools think they are awake, presuming to know that they are rulers or herdsmen. How dense!"
How dense am I? That's the question. To understand my being is a daily activity and will see me sitting quietly, staring at the wall, while the butterfly dances through my mind.
I long for the day, as the tulip, squirrel, bird, dog and all of us do, when I will wake up.
Dana Bate
The Vagabond
********************
SUMMER QUESTION
(This is not a contest.)
Who are the 2 (two) most important people alive today? Why?
Only 6 responses so far.
dbdacoba@aol.com
Thank you.
DB
********************
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