[Buddha-l] the 4 ages: age of alone

[JKirkpatrick]

As long as one has a yearning for a homeland, even one the size
of an atom, one is destined to be miserable. (I submit the
entirety of human history as my evidence for that claim.) Like
you, Timothy, I think there is a tremendous value in nostalgia,
as there is in melancholy (as opposed to clinical depression),
because it makes one aware of one's not yet being ready to be a
bodhisattva. Aspiration begins in awareness if inadequacy. In
this I find myself influenced by James Hollis, especially his
book "Swamplands of the Soul."

Richard
sent from my home

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Looks like Hollis could be a productive way to investigate
further. A look at reader comments on the book on amazon suggests
that this book (he apparently has written quite a lot of them) is
helpful on dealing with the various glamors of nostalgia. 

Joanna