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  1. I enjoyed reading this conversation very much – will sign up for the weekly.
    Ani Drolma from Arkansas house-sitting in Lanikai for a while.

    1. I am 5 years ahead of you, so I know all the songs you mentioned quite well. I was in 8th grade when the Beatles came to the US and was in college 68-72 at the University of North Carolina, so I participated in sit-ins, Vietnam War protests marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in DC., and all that went with these events.
      Nostalgia is a very interesting topic. I very rarely ever experience it; albeit, I am very aware of the mixed emotions it can bring. That is why I “work” at trying to stay in the present moment; it is all we truly have. Nostalgia may bring up “warm and fuzzy” feelings, but longing and clinging definitely also arise, and with that the knowledge that you can “never go home again” (eg. Tom Wolfe).

      1. Hi Terry. Totally “grok” your point of view. I have lived from this perspective nearly all of my life, as frankly, much of the past for me has been forgettable from the perspective of the Buddhist view. But that night was like something moved me inside. Hard to describe. I agree totally when you say “but longing and clinging definitely also arise, and with that the knowledge that you can “never go home again” (eg. Tom Wolfe).” Great reference there by the way to Tom Wolfe. I get that, as that is how I have been “conditioned” to view life from my Buddhist background. But what I was trying to get at in the post was that I saw clearly, as you mentioned, that nostalgia led me to “longing and clinging” and having seen that I found a sweet spot in which in meditation I found a middle space where nostalgia brought a sweet contentment free of clinging. Not to aggrandize my experience, but several schools of Buddhist meditation consider taking up the “meditative object” of contentment as a “dharma” or mental state to be, yes, advanced, but if done with the acumen of skill acquired through concentration, to be extremely worthwhile. I say this from experience, as my Buddhist monastic training in Sri Lanka was not in the Mahasi Sayadaw approach, but rather in jhana practice, where, after accessing “piti” or rapture, rapture then becomes the object of concentration, but without clinging. You can email me if you want some excellent references for this meditative approach within Theravada Buddhism.

  2. Tom,

    Good object for practice I think.

    That was a really good time full of the joy of dancing, so rare at social events these days (concession to age?).

    I am usually aware of the “algia” part of nostalgia and not just for dancing good times.
    It can be for running faster, being mentally quicker etc.etc.
    In short what was, and what I was.

    Ram Das’ book “Still Here” addresses the issue and recommends (surprise) Be Here Now and not focusing on what was or will be.

    And when joyful listening or dancing momements arise, just be with them as part of this now.

    Aloha and thanks,

    Harry

    1. Hi Harry. Yes, that was a blast. I also associated nostalgia with an emphasis on the “algia” – but meditation the next day was very rich in a new kind of way. Like you wrote, this can be a very good object for practice, and for me this showed me again how slippery meditation on pleasant phenomena is, and why at least in some traditions is considered advanced stuff. Great recommendation about “Still Here”, always wanted to read it, thanks for the reminder. Take are my friend.

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