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Letting Go~ By Catherine Evleshin

6/13/2013

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"It is therefore, a source of great virtue for the practiced mind to learn, bit by bit, first to change about in visible and transitory things, so that afterwards it may be able to leave them behind altogether.  The person who finds her homeland sweet is a tender beginner; she to whom every soil is as her native one is already strong; but she is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign place. The tender soul has fixed her love on one spot in the world; the strong person has extended her love to all places; the perfect woman has extinguished hers."

While this sentiment would appear to express the views of a modern day Buddhist, here is the original version and its author: 

"It is therefore, a source of great virtue for the practiced mind to learn, bit by bit, first to change about in visible and transitory things, so that afterwards it may be able to leave them behind altogether.  The person who finds his homeland sweet is a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign place. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong person has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his."

Hugo of St. Victor, twelfth-century monk from Germany

How much does the change of pronoun affect your impression of the seeker?


Author Bio:
Catherine Evleshin is a retired professor of dance and African Diasporan cultures. Her writing appears in Words Apart Magazine, BellaOnline Literary Review, Caribbean and African Diaspora Dance: Igniting Citizenship by Yvonne Daniel, Fiction Vortex, and Animal Magazine.
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