The Secret Garden: Chapters 22, 23 and 24

Thomas Hood · Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:33 am


	Penelope wrote: We plant the seeds and make it possible for them to grow. But something else makes them grow. Something else makes our hearts beat and 'breathes' us. The wonderful thing about gardening is that we are co-operating with this something else.

Penelope, you are a natural mystic with a friendly attitude toward The Great Unknown. But how are we going to have pacemakers and breathing aids if we stop with a mystical "something else"? Colin, remember, wanted science too.

Raving Lunatic · Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:37 am

But Colin's science was based off of magical logic. Don't mean to offend anyone but his logic sounds alot like Scientology.

Thomas Hood · Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:48 am


	Raving Lunatic wrote: But Colin's science was based off of magical logic. Don't mean to offend anyone but his logic sounds alot like Scientology.

Colin believed he was doing positive thinking experiments, I think, but how are his ideas like Scientology, please?

Penelope · Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:15 am

Tom Hood said:-


	Quote: But how are we going to have pacemakers and breathing aids if we stop with a mystical "something else"? Colin, remember, wanted science too.

I wouldn't ever suggest that we sit about with our swords wrought into ploughshares......boring!!!

Like Colin, I want Science too. I appreciate scientific discovery, but it doesn't exclude the 'something else'. In fact, the 'something else' provides the inspiration for the scientific discovery.....don't you think,Tom?

Thomas Hood · Thu Jan 29, 2009 11:26 am


	Penelope wrote: Like Colin, I want Science too. I appreciate scientific discovery, but it doesn't exclude the 'something else'. In fact, the 'something else' provides the inspiration for the scientific discovery.....don't you think,Tom?

Well, yes, especially in cases like Newton who spent more time on religion than he did on science and mathematics.

giselle · Thu Jan 29, 2009 12:48 pm

Very interesting thread. As I was reading Secret Garden, I thought about the nexus between this "something else" and science. I think this is all about inspiration, the source of inspiration, the life force that moves people. If you know a person well I think you can detect this inspirational force, not by what they do so much, but by the light in their eyes and by their energy. In Colin's case, the gradual awakening of his "something else" inspired him to connect with the people and the natural world around him, manifesting itself in the material world as a blend of Magic and Science and his desire to be a scientist. Colin is a child with an unfortunate past who is coming into his own with the help of his "something else".

Penelope · Thu Jan 29, 2009 1:58 pm

giselle said:-


	Quote: I think this is all about inspiration, the source of inspiration, the life force that moves people.

I don't believe in a 'life force' that moves people. I don't think we are just bodies with spirits attached.....but spirits (life force) inhabiting bodies. In other words, I don't believe the life force is separate from us, but that we are the life force.

Blimey!!! I don't believe I just typed that. :oops:

Thomas Hood · Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:04 pm


	Penelope wrote: I don't believe the life force is separate from us, but that we are the life force.

But we do receive inspiration from the environment, don't we?

giselle · Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:16 pm

penelope


	Quote: Blimey!!! I don't believe I just typed that

I can't believe that you just said "Blimey". I haven't heard that expression since I was kid and my Dad used to say it. Thanks .. a great memory.

Penelope · Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:50 pm

Blimey!!!!!

giselle: It's nearly 8.00pm here, and I'm just trying to persuade my Grandson to get out of the bath, after having persuaded him to get into it in the first place!!!

Blimey!!!! Just call me Supergran!!! :laugh:

Penelope · Thu Jan 29, 2009 2:59 pm

Quoting Tom:


	Quote: But we do receive inspiration from the environment, don't we?

We received inspiration from the environment, from one another, from great 'inspired' books. From people we meet. The light comes from all directions!!! Because it permeates everything and all of us.

It is just that I think we have to stop and be quiet, and tune in...pray?

The environment- (our garden)......is a good place to do that.

Well, that's what I believe anyway........and 'The Secret Garden' is an excellent allegory of that.

Robert Tulip · Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:16 pm

I see the life force you are describing as love. Real love involves a natural connection to underlying realities, of people, the environment and the cosmos. Love enables us to be who we really are instead of the fake mask persona constructed by social artifice. The Secret Garden observes that people have been taught not to love and explains how this delusory culture is a source of grief.

realiz · Thu Jan 29, 2009 5:49 pm

If the positive life force is love, then the negative life force is perhaps hate, anger and hate. Just as you can feel that inspiration and light that fills your soul from another person, you can also feel hate. Hate or anger can radiate from a person causing those around them to shrink away and it also causes damage to the person with the negative emotions. The more a person hates, the less likely they will receive anything positive from around them or from within.
Mary seemed to more of a person filled with unhappiness rather than hate and anger, but it still had the effect of pushing people away. Sometimes it just takes one loving person to help someone along the road to love and less hate.

Penelope · Sat Jan 31, 2009 2:33 pm

I have been reading a book which says that love is a constant, always there around us.

The book says that 'hate' is an illusion, not real, just a feeling, an emotion and does not really exist. Animals kill and eat one another but don't feel hatred. Only humans feel the 'illusion' of hatred.

It is a very interesting theory and I am giving a lot of thought to it.

It involves thinking about 'fear'. Which animals obviously do feel. And it is suggesting to me that what we call 'hatred' is just humanity trying to rationalise our 'fear'.

I know that in the Christian/Jewish tradition we are told (over 400 times in the Bible), to 'fear not'. I am wondering if in Hindu/Buddhism they are instructed to fear not.......

This post has a very tenuous link to 'The Secret Garden' and I apologise, but wonder if you, more erudite people, might be able to enlighten me.

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