There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell'd in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
Appropriately enough, a talk in a rainstorm! Sahajatara offers a beautiful discourse to close the Conscious Surrender to the Beautiful Arts event. She opens with this short extract from Wordsworth's 'Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood' and a long reading from Mary Webb in her novel 'Precious Bane'.
Sahajatara's themes are Nature, the Arts and Love - specifically a vision of Love as the Bodhichitta and something not of this world... We are given a strong look at the new urgency around climate change in what is a challenging and unashamedly political talk in the best sense of that word; where politics is equated with ethics, and the idea emerges of a new ethics for the 21st Century. A lovely talk of celestial light and green things.
Sahajatara ends with a reading of 'The Flower' from 'The Thread of Gold' by Arthur Benson.
N.B. This recording had very poor sound quality due to a background of torrential rain on the marquee! We have made it more audible but there are a few parts (especially at the start and end) where it is less clear than is ideal.