TRUE FORGETFULNESS

 
In such moments of true forgetfulness there is a mental detachment from all material surroundings in which the poet allows his imagination to soar. An artist, when he gives form to an ideal in which he completely forgets himself and all irrelevant surroundings, creates a masterpiece.

The best of philosophy is uttered when a man surveys the problem of life without reference to the ups and downs of his purely personal circumstances; and some of the greatest scientific discoveries have been made in this same frame of mind.

Such manifestations of genuine spontaneity of forgetfulness are very rare indeed, and although it is said that poets, artists and philosophers are born and not made, these fleeting phases of real forgetfulness are the result of efforts made in past lives.

In an attempt to make life bearable some people develop a feeble kind of stoicism — a sort of "who cares, anyway" outlook — and others plunge recklessly into epicurism. The former is the apathetic acceptance of defeat, and the latter the effort to forget defeat in the arms of pleasure. Neither is true forgetfulness.

But when a man acquires the true forgetfulness, he enters the spiritual kingdom and passes through different degrees of forgetfulness until the Goal is reached.

"Forgetfulness of the world make one a pilgrim; forgetfulness of the next world makes one a saint; forgetfulness of self means Realisation; and forgetfulness of forgetfulness is Perfection."